Build Project: Midnight Panic

[Skipped_Link]

What are the other trucks with quick rear steer running for an electric pump?

Similar pump at 24 volts, I’ve also heard of a 6 volt motor run on 12 volts. or single acting cylinders, (how I had it plumbed before)

How long before a new or modified chassis and fiberglass body come along? I would hate to ruin such a nice chassis/body doing monster truck things with it. I would also assume once the tricks and jumps get bigger you are going to want more cage around you like the MJ truck chassis have.

If/When you roll this truck I think 99% of us here on IBB are going to cry.

I’ll never be at the monster jam level, I currently have no desire to do anything like backflips or similar circus tricks,

I would imaging this truck will get fiberglass bedsides & front fenders before to long.

If I were to plan on just being destructive, I’d probably have to just buy a chassis, preferably something proven & not that nice,

 

[WaterH]

I’ll never be at the monster jam level,

Also Skipped Link-

 

[Skipped_Link]

Anyone with a monster truck should be able to accomplish this /\,

In my opinion anyway.

 

[SMI17]

Anyone with a monster truck should be able to accomplish this /\,

In my opinion anyway.

This is true

 

[gt1guy]

Anyone with a monster truck should be able to accomplish this /\,

In my opinion anyway.

They just don't look nearly a cool doing it.

 

[Skipped_Link]

It’s been a busy couple weeks,
After the Salem show, & having the truck not go into reverse properly a couple times, I decided to take a look at the valve body,
After pulling the transmission pan, I decided I better just remove & go through the whole unit!

There was quite a bit of material in the oil, both metal, & clutch,
After fully disassembling the transmission I found that most everything came from the 2nd gear band, & where that band applies to the outside of the direct drum, most likely due to the mid adjustment I found in Santa Rosa, had I cleaned out the valve body & flushed the system, the transmission probably would have been fine,
All the rest of the clutches looked new,
Since I had it apart I installed all new apply piston seals, a new second gear band, & thoroughly cleaned the VB before reinstalling it in the truck,

The next project on the list was the series parallel relay that I posted the schematic to in a previous post.

This turned into about a 2 day project, that I could go into much more detail on, but it’s kind of pointless since it was on the truck less time than it took to install it,

Long story longer,,, right as I was almost finished wiring the new system, I got a call asking if I could bring the truck to a show in a neighboring town (about 120 east of where I live) I had about a day to wrap up what I was working on & get everything loaded, This group (Monster Truck Insanity Tour) was one I’ve been eager to get a show with, so I told them I’d be there, I wrapped up the wiring, did a little testing & took care of a couple tech/safety items I knew they would look at, then Allison & I got the trailer loaded & hit the road,
We got to the venue Thursday night with enough time to tire the truck up, visit with a few folks & take a nap,
Friday morning we got up, fueled the truck & waited for the wife to come over (she worked on swag & then stayed the night at home)
We also waited for the tech official to come look the truck over, aside from a couple minor things he would like to see for next time, they were real happy with the truck, & the best part 100% cool with Allison riding in the show,

As Friday evening rolled around we took the trucks out for pit party, hung out with the fans & just enjoying the last bit of calm.

After clearing the area all trucks were to fire up, test RII, then restart & pull out to the hot pits,
Well mine didn’t start, it started to, sputtered & died, likely just not quite enough fuel after leaning it out & shutting it down after parking the truck,
Not a big deal, except when I hit the button again there was nothing,
After scrambling for a couple minutes in front of a pretty good crowd, I found the fuse for the crank circuit had popped, (odd since testing only showed the series parallel switch to add about .1 amps) & everything worked a dozen times prior to failure.
I had them tow me back to my trailer, where I replaced every fuse with a 30 amper,
We made it out for intros no problem, followed by 2 trick, but when the time came for race qualifying, I ended up slightly flooding the engine, the extended cranking on 24 volt smoked the starter in pretty short order,

I had two spare starters in the trailer, but both had questionable bendix/pinions in them, so I took my 300° freshly smoked Motorcraft unit apart, stole the bendix & installed it in one of the spares, needless to say I missed qualifying, & was uncharacteristically grumpy, but we made it to racing, only to be foiled by my own actions again,,,,, the new 24 volt system has 2 diodes on the signal wires coming from each system that activates that switch, well while troubleshooting the burnt up starter, I had used the rear steer diode to test the start circuit, then never installed it back in the rear steer after fixing the starter, so guess who went out racing with no rear steer????

I ended up loosing both rounds of racing, but once back to the pits all was corrected & we got to run a decent freestyle,

Saturday morning I woke about about 6:30am thinking about how I spent 2 days in the shop creating the worst showing I’ve ever made.
I got up, jumped in the wife’s car & got on the freeway about 7:00 headed home, after stealing the starter off the buggy, & everything at the shop that I took off the truck, I was back in Elko by 10:30, & spent the rest of the day removing all of the 12/24 parts & putting the starting & rear steer systems back to 12 volt, & replumbed the rear cylinders back to using only the barrel ends, (keeping the pilot operated check valves)
Saturday night went flawless as far as the truck was concerned, (actually it was the only one that didn’t break by the end of the show)

Not much tech, but I’ll throw up a couple videos from the shows this weekend.

This was one round of racing,

 

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Race qualifying was strait line drags in front of the stands, super cool, but unfortunately the guy I was supposed to race was broke at that time, so I was running alone,
First pass was starting in 1st gear,

The next pass I started in 2nd gear

 

[Skipped_Link]

And a stoppie from 2 trick Saturday night

 

[WaterH]

I’m bitting my nails on that last video. Good show!

 

[bdkw1]

Needs more power....... It needs to do wheelies like an RC car.

 

[WiscoF100]

I feel for ya how it felt during that no-start in front of the crowd! My mind immediately jumps to most people don’t understand what it takes to engineer a vehicle or the tenacity required to diagnose/repair/recovery from a failure. Or they just think Bigfoot! F yeah!

C6 questions for ya, which is the most common apply lever you find in the truck cases you tear down?

R code/E lever- how would describe the shifts in a heavy vehicle/large tires?

 

[Bebop]

Dumb question, but why switch the start to 24v too?
Couldn't you just switch the rear steer only to 24V and leave the starter at 12V?

I appreciate the tenacity you're displaying, it's quite crazy.

 

[Skipped_Link]

C6 questions for ya, which is the most common apply lever you find in the truck cases you tear down?

R code/E lever- how would describe the shifts in a heavy vehicle/large tires?

I’d have to check my box of parts, but I’d say with A, or D is the most common I’ve found,
R code with an E lever seems to always by fairly crisp & firm for me, sometimes with a very slight 2-3 flair, the full manual VB & servo spring could play a roll in that as well,

Dumb question, but why switch the start to 24v too?
Couldn't you just switch the rear steer only to 24V and leave the starter at 12V?

I appreciate the tenacity you're displaying, it's quite crazy.

The series parallel switch/relay is really only designed to work on equipment with one heavy draw, (starter) & it has a charging circuit that I’ve read is limited to about 40 amps, so if I had the switch in use for rear steer only, there is a real good possibly of burning up the charging circuit contacts by drawing a large load from the second battery when cranking,
I could always add a relay that opens that circuit while cranking, but that’s starting to get out side of the simplicity that I like with my equipment.

 

[Bebop]

What about adding 2 batteries and making an independent 24V system for rear steer?
Would require making them quickly swappable or adding a 24V alternator. Not really simple per say but not many extra moving parts and def not failure prone.

 

[ridered3]

Still behind on reading thread updates but wanted to mention a "small world" instance I had recently.

Beginning of September we took our 4 yo son to a "Legends of Monster Trucks" show at the Nashville, TN Fairgrounds/race track. After the show was over, got to talking with two drivers about trucks and how they got started in Monster Trucks.

I mentioned the "Midnight Panic" truck and one driver (was driving Muddy Girl both nights) immediately knew what truck I was talking about and went on to talk at length with the other driver about why he needed to check out your truck build thread. So you are making their rounds as well.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Needs more power....... It needs to do wheelies like an RC car.

It needs a transbrake...

 

[bdkw1]

I’d have to check my box of parts, but I’d say with A, or D is the most common I’ve found,
R code with an E lever seems to always by fairly crisp & firm for me, sometimes with a very slight 2-3 flair, the full manual VB & servo spring could play a roll in that as well,


The series parallel switch/relay is really only designed to work on equipment with one heavy draw, (starter) & it has a charging circuit that I’ve read is limited to about 40 amps, so if I had the switch in use for rear steer only, there is a real good possibly of burning up the charging circuit contacts by drawing a large load from the second battery when cranking,
I could always add a relay that opens that circuit while cranking, but that’s starting to get out side of the simplicity that I like with my equipment.

Are you running a reverse valve body?

 

[Skipped_Link]

What about adding 2 batteries and making an independent 24V system for rear steer?

This was brought up Saturday, & is definitely a viable option, even if I simply charge the batteries between shows,
There is a fairly large area where the winch was that might make a home for a second set,
I’m not entirely disappointed in the rear steer at 12 volts with the rear steer replumbed, but,,,it could be even faster!
Some teams are surprised I’m getting away with only 2 batteries.

Still behind on reading thread updates but wanted to mention a "small world" instance I had.

That’s actually very cool!
The internet has mad the world pretty small

Are you running a reverse valve body?

I am

 

[ridered3]

That’s actually very cool!
The internet has mad the world pretty small

That is an accurate summary! Was pretty cool to be talking with drivers from PA, while in TN, about a truck built out in NV.

 

[CarterKraft]

I'd be looking a Tesla module for the rear steer.

But it really seems like a vane/gear pump would be the ideal setup.

 

[WaterH]

Are you running a reverse valve body?

I am

On my truck with reverse valve body, the shifter will go from N to 1, 2 or 3 and back by a slight tug. There is a lock out to go to R or P. Is yours set up like that or will yours just go any gear? That seems scary, but maybe you need that to do the nose stand thing.

 

[bdkw1]

On my truck with reverse valve body, the shifter will go from N to 1, 2 or 3 and back by a slight tug. There is a lock out to go to R or P. Is yours set up like that or will yours just go any gear? That seems scary, but maybe you need that to do the nose stand thing.

We used winters gated shifters. No possibility of skipping a gear.

 

[WiscoF100]

Stumbled across a Pettibone handling attachment facility in Yooper land today. Lots of old dinosaurs spotted across town. Didn’t realize the brand was still alive.

 

[ridered3]

Skipped_Link time for an update por favor

 

[Skipped_Link]

Skipped_Link time for an update por favor

There really hasn’t been much that’s update worthy,

The truck got cleaned up pretty good after Elko, especially the engine since I pulled everything off the top end, (girdles & rockers) & re-torqued the head studs, then reassembled,,,only to pull it all back off again, to install new restricted pushrods, (looking for a little better oil control)

My wife did make a suggestion, she said in Elko it looked great with the back window lit up after dark,

Her suggestion was more lights to illuminate more of the truck for those darker shows,
So I started by wiring the LED strips that were fixed to the chassis, then encased in epoxy resin, they now come on whenever the truck is powered up, (main battery power is turned on,

Then Allison & I added about 12” of the same LED strips to each end of the chassis,
It’s pretty impressive how far such a minimal amount of light goes.

In the above pic you can see the bumper has been replaced,
Since we had everything out to install & wire the LED strips, we went ahead & installed a new-used grill shell, & bumper with a new “big tire cut”

Hopefully the tires have a little harder time reaching these parts now.

Also worth noting,
Allison & I were strolling through Walmart & she seen one of those Greenlight collectible monster truck toys, 1:64th scale I think, in a 79 body style, she suggested I buy it so she can re-paint it,
I’m always game for little shop projects for her,
She made pretty short work of it,

The impressive part (kind of took me by surprise) was the way she cut & modified the packaging so she could repackage the truck,

Also a couple weeks ago I got a message that my Adam Gates wheels were done,

They were received last week

Aaaaand I believe the axletechs out of the truck are sold & will be picked up this week,
If so I’ll be tire shopping & hopefully have a better tire/wheel package for next year.

 

[ridered3]

Thanks for the update!

 

[Skipped_Link]

I did get to do a little fabrication a couple sets of days off ago,
A safety requirement I needed on the truck was a fire suppression system,
Like most stuff on this truck a typical off the shelf kit would require as much work as starting from scratch,
So I put the cnc router to work on the brackets,

Then finished them on the Bridgeport

The base of the extinguisher rest in a tray, then this clamp holds it to one of the door bars, well within reach of the driver,
The outlet was then plumbed to a nozzle pointing to the area where 99% of fires take place,,,,,the bellhousing/transmission,

That pretty much brings the build to this last weekend where we had our local annual 4x4 event,
This year I didn’t even compete, just did recovery with the buggy,
I did have several people ask if we were bringing the truck out, so we did, tire’d it up & did the MX parade lap for fun,

I was schedule for a show in needles Californian the 7th & 8th of next month, but that got pushed back due to permitting,

So I think we’re going to do a display in Reno that weekend instead,

 

[ridered3]

Random question from my monster truck loving 4.5yo...

How long does it take to swap from the small tires to the big tires?

 

[Skipped_Link]

Random question from my monster truck loving 4.5yo...

How long does it take to swap from the small tires to the big tires?

If it’s just Allison & I doing it, maybe about 15-20 minutes,
Kind of depends on how lucky I get with the lug nuts lining up, & how many times I have to adjust the tires to get a lug nut started,

Lest weekend we got it done pretty quick at close to 15min, or maybe just under.

If I remember, we’ll time it next weekend.

 

[mobil1syn]

If I remember, we’ll time it next weekend.

make it a 90sec time lapse, easy sharable and mildly amusing