Project: Monster Herbie Crawler
 

I love the classic VW Bugs, and for years folks have tried to make do with modding other Bug bodies onto ZZs.

I also currently work for Radio Shack, so I get a discount. :D

Thanks to the Herbie Edition Zip Zap, we have not only a beautifully detailed classic Bug body, but Herbie himself! (awesome)

I bought no less than three of them, so I could experiment and keep at least one out of harm's way. ;)

I recently bought the Sampson MT for it's white wheels, as well as the performance upgrade kit.
The VW Bug body of course snaps right onto the ZZ MT chassis.
I also added the wheelie bar from the Bigfoot kit.
The only other mod I've done is to replace the antenna wire with a piece of cat5 wire, a very common mod.

It is really that simple, but let me tell you, it was a crazy, crazy dream back a couple/few years ago!

right on

Right on

right on

What?

Right on, right on.

Kind of a saying from the 60's-70's, and a play on your "right on".

What did YOU mean?

well i meant cool, its kinda the same thing...

Looks like the next mods for ol' Herbie will be the suspension travel drill-out mod and a set of Athearn springs!

I've also moved him onto a 49Mhz chassis as well as some other minor changes.

I will post updated pics when I finish the front end mods.

this is totally awesome!

Thank you!

After seeing some of the extreme mods, I have to admit that this isn't extreme in any way, but the performance is improving with every mod, and you can't argue with the results!

Latest specs:

49Mhz
Orange Motor
Red Gearset
Red Cat5 Antenna
'All Season' Tires and White Wheelset from the Wheel Kit.

(Quickie Photo of Monster Herbie with another creation.)

It looks neat though, and it's an easy bolt-on mod from another kit.

It flips the VW body, but a body with a flatter rear (like the Bigfoot it comes with ) will allow it to spin in place.

There is another wheelie bar that comes with Bigfoot too, but it holds the wheel in a different position. It is attached to a motor clip instead of replacing the rear cover, presumably for some other effect, but I haven't played with it.

EDIT

I've drilled out the suspension and PCB, and have ordered a bag of the softer Athearn springs for Herbie and my other MTs.

DUDE THAT IS BEAST!!!

Okay, at this point I just finished applying the small motor gear and four-gear gear-down mods to ol' Herbie to make him more rock-crawler-ish.

(I used a spare MT PCB screw for the additional gear as others have done, along with a spare wheel washer.)

The instructions were very easy to follow, and I was even able to make a set of gears entirely in matching green while retaining the blue ZZ gear ratio!!
(After a dive into the parts box!!)

Wow! It's really cool!
I'm still waiting on my springs order though.
(This week some time.)

I applied the steering motor upgrade to Monster Herbie this morning, as well as making a couple of other tweaks.

Steering is much more positive, and I even managed to get the hole on the PCB cover right! ;)

I replaced the green motor gear with a black ZZ one because the green one looked and ran a bit ratty.
I also upgraded to the red motor for a little more torque. The speed increase is eaten up a bit by the lower gearing so I'm still very pleased with the results.

Of course the stock tires are way better for crawling!

very nicely modded MT. I need to get around to doing some of these mods.

Thanks!

I hope seeing the development of a project like this encourages more people to do the same.

I must give another plug (and mad props) to chilli_mp138's site because that's where I was parked while doing this stuff!

I went digging through my parts box and unearthed a non-ratty green pinion gear. (I have no idea why that's important, I guess it just looks matched up.)


:mad: I'm still waiting for my Athearn springs, however... :mad: