TATRA

Its that time of year again, to make something big to crawl over stuff. This time I decided to make a massive truck with 8 PP wheels.

After trying different designs in LDD I decided to use turntables in order to use planetary gear ratios inside each wheel like this:

This way the end torque is high and the total half axle gear ratio is 1:5 allowing the truck to generate lots of torque with no problems of gear slippage or axle bending. To power the truck I used a combination of RC and PF’s. The two independent RC motors use two indpendent gearboxes in order to power indpendent left/right side wheel drives. This way the trucks steers better.

The PF M motors steer and switch gears, they are controlled by the RC unit.

Suspension is a tatra styled design, which allows high ground clearance, robust design and is simple and reliable.

The real life test came when it was time to shoot a video for the truck. I managed to find a nice muddy terrain with lots of bumps to try the suspension.

Checking sideways stability. The truck never flipped:

Going through sticky mud. The truck was able to go through mud with no issues.

One of the toughest challenges is when going uphill. I managed to go up an uneven slope with no slippage.

Another important test is the test of chassis. For best performance it should bend as little as possible.
Notice the rear spoiler falled off, the bend is not as high as it looks:

All in all I am very happy with this truck. Its one of my most capable and relaible big sized 8x8 so far.

Specifications:
Power: 2 RC motors
Gearbox: dual synchronized gearbox
Final gear rations: Low 1:50, high 1:16,67
Length: 60 cm
Width 23 cm
Height (-antenna) 22 cm
Weight 3,2 kg

Please check the video:

Thanks!