Daughter's First Clod

[DEVASTATOR]

A few months ago my daughter, Erin, who is 12 asked me to build her a monster truck. According to her it had to be fast and be able to win lol. So I said sure and we then began the project. I had her pick out a chassis she liked and she chose my 2-link chassis because she "liked how it looked" with my Bigfoot Cyclone body on it. I took this time to not only build her a cool truck but to use it as a learning experience. I had her build the transmissions and why bearings are better than bushings and so on. She helped lay out all the aluminum parts to be made and where it was safe, I had her use the band saw, drill press, belt sander, mill and lathe. She got some good hands on experience with some machines and she enjoyed all of it. I did too because it was truly awesome to share these times with her.

It took some time to complete just because of the amount of parts involved in this chassis setup. One of the funniest moments of the whole thing was picking out what the paint would be. Well, it had to be Bigfoot. I said cool, there's lots to pick from so we went looking at all the Bigfoot pics of the different trucks. It went from that ones awesome, let's do that one to well........... that one's pretty cool too and so is that one and that one and that one lol. We eventually settled on the first one she liked. We found a painter/artist who would take the job and got that ball rolling.

I don't have any pics during the build but I have these which I just took the other day upon its completion. Had to be indoors because there's too much snow right now and WAY too cold. So, here's some pics of the best build I have ever been a part of my

 

[th67ss]

Mike, that's got to be one of the coolest build story to date! Thanks
for sharing.

btw the truck looks great too!!

 

[william g]

Agree, awesome story Mike. Nice looking truck, but the story, the time spent together is what matters.

 

[Orange Pedeanaut]

Awesome Mike, glad Erin is taking an interest in r/c and you are there to help support her in every way. Great parenting dad Good looking truck too!

 

[DEVASTATOR]

Thanks guys. She has been interested in racing for quite some time now and she has had her own Grave Digger Pede and 4x4 Slash. I always have her and my son Ethan run at least one solid axle truck each but they have always been one from my fleet. That was ok until she said, when do I get my own monster truck? So that's how it came to be. As soon as we started hers, My son then followed suit and said "when can we build mine?" LOL!! My reply was..... as soon as your sisters is done, we will start yours. So, there will be another one coming soon

The time spent working on this was priceless in every way and she is so excited to race it. Well, she gets her chance this coming weekend because the Super Pull is then so the time is near!

 

[Orange Pedeanaut]

So, how did she do with it?

 

[DEVASTATOR]

She did really well with it at the Super Pull. As with any new vehicle, some more wheel time is needed but for her first time out she drove really well. When I asked her how it drove, she said it runs great. She's driven other clods at the races we go to so she had something to compare it to and she's really happy with it.

 

[Supreme Reign]

That's awesome. Building the truck together and competing with you are great memories that she will always cherish. Sometimes I wish I had a youngin' to play with my r/c's with. You're living the good life, Mike.

 

[George_Costanza]

Do you have any more pictures of one of your "2 link chassis'"?

Never seen a 2 link Clod chassis before....

 

[DEVASTATOR]

Yep, here's some:

 

[George_Costanza]

Neat-O! Have always wondered why I have never seen a 2 link'd Clod before as 2 link type suspensions are relatively common on full size, solid axle off road stuff.

I remember that you used to sell parts (links, cross braces, etc) and chassis'.....are you still producing these parts on the side? Specifically looking for a Clod chassis like I have seen on some of your trucks in the past. I'm 30 now and can remember taking printed out pictures of one of these chassis' with me on a vacatioN (when I was 14'ish) and drooled over it half the time. Truck had a 90s Andy's Silverado with an American flag theme.

 

[DEVASTATOR]

I am humbled by that. Thanks for the compliments on those trucks. I still have those two trucks, Dauntless and Vindicator. They have been updated a little with new bodies but they are still the same chassis and carry the same names. I will post a new topic on them soon.

Oh and yes, I still make all those parts on the side just like I used to. Link bars, cross members, a chassis here or there and other odds and ends lol

 

[George_Costanza]

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