Review: Semi Truck (MT brand?)

[frizzen]

I was out on a road trip this weekend, stopped in at some truck stop. Wandering through their shop, I noticed a rack of Micro-rc bullet clones... Had to go check them out.

I found the standard fare of clone bodies, the had the clones with painted graphics instead of the normal stickers. Not much in the way of new bodies though. But, on the next shelf...

The next shelf had semi-tractors! Now I know a bunch of people had been wanting these, and have made their own. But, these are complete and set up box-stock with decent performance.

The good:
Stock dual cell (yellow, 60 mah?). Oval shaped clone controler with 3AA battery remote control. Streched chassis. 3 axles. Magnet steering. Light weight plastic body. Trailer hitch. $12.99 at a truck stop. Equivilent to ZZ Green gears. Two body styles. Really cool looking rims & tires that look scale and proper for a semi, but chrome is a little uneven.

The bad:
Silly looking painted graphics instead of stickers. Odd sized tires & rims, so not interchangeable tires. Top-heavy. Almost no ground clearance. Soldered lead motor, with green end-bell (1.6?). Only front set of rear axles powered.

The plan:
I started adding gears so I could get both rear axles spinning, but the extra rotational mass and friction surfaces slowed it down a lot, so I removed the gears, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do; I already wasted a ZZ rear-axle on it. Repaint the body so it looks better. Build a Car Carrier trailer!

[Spanky]

cool can you post some pics?
i would love to see what they look like.

Is the motor interchangeable. IF so just put Micro B 2.6 and a lower ZZ ratio in and get it trucking.

[frizzen]

I'm not sure where my dad stuck my digital camera, so here's a place that has them. They probably won't have good pictures, and none of the important tech detail shots.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=2565

http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/s...tc=allcategory

--
I got the black one with the rear fenders. It's even a US-legal frequency! (49 mhz)

The motor and gearing are set up on the opposite side from all the others I've played with. The motor has soldered leads going from the can to the PCB, instead of the normal contact points; so I'm gonna wait until I can get another before I start hacking on one to make an interchangeable motor.

It appears to have the normal clone "epoxy dot" PCB. Body mounting is a little different: Normal tab & slot in the front, but the back has a post & hole which comes with a phillips screw installed. But it stays on the chassis well without the screw.

Chassis is based on a streched Bit Char-G. Wheel-base between drive and steering wheels is just a bit longer than a ZZ. It doesn't have all the same crisp lines, they're a little softer looking. Like it wasn't the best job making a mold.

[Lord_Nick_D]

add in another motor
and switch the other one to match

[bizzybody]

These trucks were made by Golden Technology Electronic Toys Ltd. which is apparently now defunct. (As of February 2006, last entry for www.gt-toys.com at www.archive.org )

They're pretty fast, with 2 cells on top of the PCB and have a surprisingly short turning radius.