Erector Set Crawler Chassis?

[greenday]

I've been considering this for a while as a cheap solution to the "custom chassis" aspect of rock crawling or scale 4x4. I know it's a bit elementary, but there are a lot of possibilities for different lengths and adjustment, etc. Here's something I put together for a simple demonstration. Forgive me if this has been brought up already, I didn't find it anywhere else.
http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee316/acerguy/100_2909-1.jpg
The whole idea behind this of course is to add axles which for some reason are hard to come by at an affordable price....SC4WD is manufacturing micro axles, LOSI has the micro crawler, and several others are probably available...but I can't really afford any of these...Any suggestions for cheap solid axles, even if they require lots of fabrication?

[TheB1GDude]

I'm pretty sure this has been suggested before, possibly someone has even built a crawler with it but don't let that put you off :) Go crazy and make something cool....

[greenday]

I'm pretty sure this has been suggested before, possibly someone has even built a crawler with it but don't let that put you off :) Go crazy and make something cool....

I certainly appreciate you're encouragement! Unfortunately I can't come by any 1:24 scale axles...

I have seen people use the 2nd gen SSMT axles, (trimmed down) to make some pretty neat scale stuff...But they are still selling for $25 which is somewhat steep for something that is going to be disassembled.

[TheB1GDude]

Yeah I hear that.... those axles go for crazy money!!

[lol]

Crawlers have solid axles right?

[greenday]

Yeah I hear that.... those axles go for crazy money!!

The original SSMT's do, the 2nd gen didn't go over so well...Personally, I don't see why someone can't come out with an affordable solution. If they know it will sell well, why not?

Oh, and yes, most crawlers and scalers, (although they sometimes have IFS, like Tamiya CC-01) have solid axles.

[texan_idiot25]

RS used to sell RC's with solid axels. They are drive-shaft driven, and pretty beefy. I may have a spare set some where if you're interested. You'll have to modify them to accept a link style setup, but you should be able to easily make the axles accept a typical driveshaft and it's easy to mount a servo the the front axel.

[greenday]

PM sent.

[texan_idiot25]

Got it.

I like the idea of an errector set chassis. Rigidity maybe an issue, but it's a crawler so who cares about extra flex?

I would replace all the hardware with new machine screws and lock nuts for the final build. I know my old one would loose screws all the time and that's with out the abuse of a functioning RC car.