Mercedes-Benz Actros Wrecker Truck

[2.2 Straight six]

The inspiration for this project came from two places, firstly i'm a big truck fan, and admitted diesel junkie, and secondly the truck pictured below.



the truck is a 10x8 (that's 10 wheels, 8 driven.) belonging to a company called Falck in Norway, i believe. i found it quite attention grabbing and decided i wanted something similar, but better. naturally...

the webpage for photo of this truck is below:
http://www.ditzj.de/html/en/trucks/m...falck4148.html

mine will differ in that it'll have 3 rear drive axles, whereas the two front axles will not be driven, they will solely operate to steer and carry the weight of the truck and the mounted recovery gear.

i took three italera Actros kits, because i need three drive axles for my model, and two steer axles. one was of a late model Actros, but since the majority of the parts, including the drive axle, were the same it didn't matter.

below is a picture of the box art for the truck.



for my project i needed to fabricate my own chassis, or at least most of the chassis. i would keep the front part of the rails as they'd include the forward engine mounts, suspension mounts and cab mounts. the exhaust, air filter/intake and fuel system will be either scratchbuild or relocated.

a lot of styrene was needed, so i bought a lot. below is most of it, i bought lots of sheet in various thicknesses, including two large 65x45xo.15cm sheets to make the body.



in one case the fuel tank has been extended using two tanks and a cut 'n' shut job, this will be attached to the chassis but located within the wrecked body.

after modifying some styrene I-beam to shallow channel i smoothed the details off part of the actros chassis rails to use as a template to drill my own suspension location holes. this saved time measuring each hole out and marking it to be drilled.



masking tape was used to hold it in place while i drilled the holes, two seperate drills were used as the holes are in two sizes.

in order to save time i took the other chassis rail and taped it to the one with the drilled holes, then drilled through, giving a perfect mirror image of the original.



after all this was done all 30 holes were finished, ready for the suspension to be mounted.



here the suspension parts are fitted, the carriers and anti-roll bars are in place. the alxe centrepoints are 5.5cm apart, perfectly in scale to the real distance between.



to allow drive to the second and third drive axles the first two differentials must have a torque output, i decided against buying another kit for a different mercedes as it has the required part, instead i drilled through the back of the first two diffs. not technically correct, but i'm not too worried.

the rod passed through is there for me to measure the distance between the axles, so i can scratchbuild the two extra driveshafts.



the wrecker gear is heavy, and a large one like i'm making needs a strong chassis to support it, and the trucks it would tow. so i built a second set of chassis rails that would sit on top of the trucks chassis. the entire wrecker gear would sit on this, not the truck's chassis.

i made it in two parts. partly because i didn't have a pair ofstyrene lengths long enough to make it in one part, and also because i'm going to scratchbuild a crane too, which would have it's own set of rails.

more cross-member will be added for rigidity and strength.



here you can see where the two upped rails join. the bar that sticks out is to support the body, there will be a number (probably 10 in total) of supports for the body to attach to the chassis.

in the below picture you can see the rail upper chassis rail (what a mouthfull..) being clamped in place while it's glued on, the front part for the crane has not been glued in, as the chassis rails are further apart at the front of the truck. it will be attached once the crane is built.



slots were cut into the L-beam styrene so it would fit "around" the suspension parts. (this photo was taken prior to gluing, hence the rail not being on completely)



with the majority of the chassis complete i moved on to making the wrecking gear's boom. after spend all my money on styrene and kits i didn't have anything to buy the right ABS rectangular tube with, so had to resort to scratchbuilding it.

this turned out well, it meant i could make the boom to my dimentions, and i wouldn't have to make-do with ABS tube which might not be the perfect dimentions.

the boom is made from 9 parts.

2 sides.
2 strips (top/bottom)
4 L-beams for rigidity.
1 seperator (this will be an extending boom, but not to double length)

below is a picture of a trial fitting (no glue was used) to obtain the correct measurement, to allow for any inaccuracy from my dimentions.



here you can see one side recieving the bottom strip.



the two completed sides, the top and bottom were both attached to the same side first, to help everything line up perfectly.



in the picture below are the two sides (complete with L-beams) for the extendable part of the boom, this is quite short as too much extension lowers the lifting capacity of the boom. this will be extended via the use of a hydraulic ram, mounted on top of the main boom.



next i moved on to building the hydraulic rams that would lift the boom, made entirely out of styrene tube and some shallow channel. the inner (entending) part of the rams will be covered in Bare Metal Foil to make them look like the polished steel they're made of.

instead of the usual pair of rams, i opted for 4 rams, in keeping with the heavy-duty theme of this truck.

this photo shows the parts for the other three rams, and one completely trial run for mock-ups and measurements.



some 1x1cm L-beam (3cm long) was used for this mock-up, with a hole drilled and some tube pressed through, it was taped onto the upper chassis rails and onto the boom to give me an idea of the ram's mounting points.

it's 50% likely that this is close to what the final version of the mounts will look like.



i also made a 5-minute mock-up pair of pivot mounts for the main boom to pivot on. although these particular mounts won't be used it's quite likely that the final versions will share strong resemblance to these.

again, they were mounted on L-beam styrene for the mock-up, and were taped in place.



below is a picture of the entire mock-up, with the main boom and its extension in place, with the ram and pivot points also in place.



that's all for now, but more work will be done tonight, possibly the finishing of the other rams and completion of the final pivot/mounting points.

expect updates tomorrow.

if you have any questions/comments/suggestions etc.. post them up, and let me know what you think of it so far.

Thanks for looking,
Chris.

[Toksin]

Nice work Chris, looking mean so far

[bigfrit]

WOWOWOW !!! Superamazing!

Best of luck on the progress, I ll be watching!
And the construction of the chassis is just extremely impressive, I want to see more !


Oli

[Jay!]

Holy crap!

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by bigfrit

WOWOWOW !!! Superamazing!

Best of luck on the progress, I ll be watching!
And the construction of the chassis is just extremely impressive, I want to see more !


Oli

Thank you. and may your wish be granted...

the next thing to build is a hydraulic pump, for all the rams, winches and the crane that i'm going to build.

the picture below is the one i want, or one close to it. a Kawasaki twin-cylinder ( i think) unit. this will be run off the truck's engine, via a unit called a power take-off (because it takes the engine's power to drive something else) which will also be scratchbuilt.



while we're on the subject of engines...

i thought that a truck this big needs something special powering it. yes, the 16-litre V8 normally found nestling under the cab is quite capable. but i wanted more. so i took a pair of V8 engines from two of the kits, cut them up and stuck them together, i did the same for the cylinder heads, sump and intake manifold. they all need some putty work but they'll be fine after that. they're a little rough now. the aforementioned fuel tank is also in the picture.



i made a hydraulic fluid cooler by removing the intercoolers from a pair of Mercedes-Benz SK truck radiators, and glueing them together. once they had glued solidly i made a pair of right-angle triangular supports, they're one piece items, not made from three strips.



to detail the truck i bought various different parts, my local R/C shop sells plastruct styrene and i bought some R/C parts to go on the truck.

i bought hinges, for the storage compartments, ball/socket joints which were going to be used for the rams, but they looked insubstantial for this. some hex-fitting bolts and some steel cable. the cable will be used for the winches.

the other bags contain crimp tubes for the cable and some tiny resin-cast nuts/bolts which are in the second picture below, these were bought elsewhere.



these are the tiny resin-cast nuts and bolts, they will be used on the crane/boom/chassis/etc. i'm not sure who makes them, i'll find out when i get some more. they're very well detailed and add unrivaled realisn that photo-etched items can't match.




to show the detail that can be obtained by the use of the resin-cast bolts here's a picture or the bolts in place on the chassis, they are used to replicate the bolts that would be used to hold the two chassis rails together.

i'm also going to add "bolt plates" which will have 8 bolts (4 for each rail) to the chassis, for strength.



below is an example of the turned brass ball of the ball/socket joints, they're very well made and will be put to use somewhere on the model. hopefully.



whil at my local model shop/hobby store a set of tools and detailing items for a 1:35 tamiya tanks caught my eye, they're the perfect size for 1:24 scale too, and will be put inside the open storage compartments once the body is finished. all lockers/doors will be displayed open once the model is finished.

[blubaja]

Wow! Nice project to take on! Good luck!

[BVC500]

Really cool! Keep us posted

[Dean23]

This is fantastic.I am going to be watching this build closely. I love scratch building it always amazes me the different talents every one has. One day I will have to try some scratch building.

[Midtenn]

Very cool. I'm definately goign to keep and eye on this project. Esp since I work for a company in the US that builds the tool bodies for heavy instustry wreckers.

[MidMazar]

Is this a tutorial, it should be. I wanna see more.

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by MidMazar

Is this a tutorial, it should be. I wanna see more.

if you want a tutorial on anything jsut let me know, i'll be happy to make one.

[Rally Sport]

Thats pretty cool, man.

I know I would give up after about an hour into it.

[suicidehummer]

Wow! You're really going all-out on this, aren't you?
How much $$ have you spent so far? I'm sure it's alot,
as I understand these big rigs cost a good sum.

I'm lucky enough to know somebody who got a
Kenworth T600A for his B-day in '96, and he
gave it to me. Not only that, but i went on a
trip to the biggest hobby shop in New England,
and found a rare, vintage, car transporter trailer,
so look for that build soon!

[2.2 Straight six]

total cost? a lot.

3 kits cost roungly $130 all in. then i spent abour $115 on styrene/supplies last week. and about $30 for various other parts/supplies. (sacrificing some new earrings for the girlfriend. i know, i know..)

total cost ~$275.

[suicidehummer]

sacrificing some new earrings for the girlfriend. i know, i know..

I'd do the same...