Tkun

I'm not new to driving R/Ccars, but I am ready to dive deeper than just the surface of normal toys that can be purchased at the local store. I've been wanting to make my own Ford F-350 dually style truck with enough power, and room for expansion, to later use it for recreational activities such as but not limited to scale 5th wheel, and normal hitch trailer towing. Iwas wondering what should a beginner such as myself start out with as a base for such a long term project and what resource material available to learn and build a sturdy foundation surrounding such ideas cause it obviously is something way out of my current skill level. The closest base I could come up with is the electric Tamiya ford f350 4x4 high lift kit which is higher than I wish my project to be. This isn't a major issue but, my plan was to construct a sort of ground effects kit for a clean semi show like appearance. (a way to reduce that height would be great though unless someone knows of a better founding base) Some suspension (to reduce shock and stiff handling) and 4WD would be nice but due to wanting a realistic appearing ride, I understand that sacrifices must be made. I realize that with added lights and accessories this would be a heavy weight, high energy consuming truck and sufficient and effective power source would be an issue. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Adding on to issues I've come across in my planning, how many or what kind of remotes would such a project require?

(Also whilst ford is what I like it doesn't have to be, I'm open to any suggestions.)

SyCo_VeNoM

depending on how many things you want controllable
if you want forward reverse steering, and a toggle for all the lights a sinle cheap $40 2.4ghz 3 channel will suffice.
if you want to be able to control the lights,and something else separately you would need more channels. Now if you want turn signals, and the whole spiel you will need a tamiya light controller (or similar there is a cheaper one but I dunno how well it works) which can get pretty pricy.

as for the vehicle itself decide on a scale, and go from there.

and side note LED's which I'm assuming are the lights you want to use don't consume very much power I run 8 on my one scale truck, and with the battery technology available to hobby grade RC's (trust me its light years ahead of the old tyco, and walmart RC tech) the drain wouldn't be noticeable, where it would probably be VERY noticeable on toy grades batteries.

cumquat

the best scale rigs are built from scratch. and when i say scratch, i dont mean "scratch" as in assemble a box of parts from the manufacturer, i mean go to the hardware store and buy a pile of assorted steel and make it yourself.

as far as production kits, you'd be best off with the axial scx10. you can put just about any body on it (some have even put the tamiya f350 body on it), there are more upgrades for it than a chevy small block and it's inexpensive to get started with. there is a light kit made by axial that has the full shebang, headlights, functional tail lights, functional turn signals and auxiliary lights. if you want even more lights, there is a company called RAM that makes all kinds of lights. many people have made adapters to make dually wheels. alternatively, you could just clue 2 sets together.

narwalrus

My Feedback: (4)

As you seem to want a scale, realistic, street, technical show looking truck, I think the Tamiya would be a perfect choice. The 3Speed makes technical driving such as towing more fun, and it comes much more scale than an SCX10 (Even custom) with leaf springs and such. It is also fairly easy to make it a dually. Sounds like a cool project