A 1:20 scale motorized offroad truck, equipped with 6×6 transmission with working fake engine, steering, full suspensions, manual gearbox, and openable elements. Its 80’s look, with its colorful side stripes, and the efficiency of the drivetrain makes it a vehicle as capable as it is beautiful !
About the model
I wanted to build for a while a successor of my Western Star 6900 with AWD this time for more offroady session. So I chose a 6×6 truck with the same 56mm tire and started in 2024 ,first with the chassis and drivetrain. I incorporated some good ideas from other people that I must credit : Gyenesvi for the floating U shape connector on the front axle, enabling to remove one CV Join and gain space. The use of the larger Split connector to fits the heavy CV join, from Apachaihapachai, enabling to build a compact and sturdy front axle. Finally the vertical mounting of the towball arm, from Legov94, to lower the oscillating point and improve the suspensions movements.
All these solution enable to build in a more compact way, and so offer more space to place carefully the motors and the battery box for weight distribution, as well as having more function like the manually operated gearbox with a slow and fast speed.
Layout of drivetrain, steering, and suspensions :
I also use a bevel gearing for the steering axle as an oscillating axle, to avoid using a CV join and gain space to place the servo motor in the cab, and keep the hood empty to fit the V8 working fake engine. As usual, the engine is removable easily, as well as the sideboard bed, which are functions that I like for playability.
In addition to that, I chose to make the truck in one color with colorful stripping, at first white, but then in black with red / orange / yellow stripe, which remember the Toyota or Kenworth color scheme of 80’s truck.
It result in a nice, sturdy and efficient truck, while keeping the adaptability features for upgrade, like swapping primary gears and battery to fit what people have. Of course the performance are limited to the tires size and the lack of portal hub, so while the approach angle is good, the breakover one is not (as shown in the video). It remains a not-so-heavy truck with nice look which performs safely on rough terrain.
If you are interested of how it is made, the design secrets video is available (13min spoken English video on Youtube)
Video Presentation
Building Instructions
See it on shop :
6×6 Offroad Truck
