Personally I quite like the Tamiya track + motors + base as a platform. It is a good size and costs about ~$30 in total.

Don’t know what has happened to it.

The Hummer is a different and apparently better model than the one I got from Shaghai. It’s more like the Ford, with a 3sp gearbox. The H2 I snaffled is 100% fwd, 100% back or 100% stop.

As I said, both things cost 60-70 usd, so you shouldn’t need to pay more. Again, check with ebay. You will probably see (e.g.) the Ford truck about a dozen times, at 2 prices, from the same store. I don’t get it, but that’s how it works on ebay these days…

Their embedding policy sometimes seems to make it seem as though it has been removed when you view the embedded version.

How much weight can you stack on top of these bases? ie. At what limit does the suspension become overloaded?

Thanks
Rod

But I won’t push my luck and I’ll only have around 15 kg of stuff, incl the battery bank.

Each truck is around ~ 1m long x 50 cm x 50 cm high and weighs around 6 kg as it comes, and from my preliminary unbolting it seems around 3 kg of that is the plastic top and the various speakers (2,3 and 4-inch in various cases).

Before I completely wreck things I think I’ll take some vid of what they do "out of the box".

If they spent as much time planning out how to make the toys  as flexible as possible instead of loading them down with laser pointers, sound systems, opening doors, and central-locking systems, I wouldn’t probably dare take a screwdriver to them.

But they certainly have the 60-70 usd worth of parts in them I paid for, incl the 8-channel 27 MHz radio (2-way comms in the case of the Ford, since you need to see the scale kph on your radio console as you push down the pedal , 4 12V DC motors, a few plastic gear chains, and a couple of servos each.

http://www.rchobbies.com.au/store/product_info.php?cPath=24_39&products_id=39&osCsid=d8f403bbccf4f8635bb952d372892a00

and although expensive (and brand new!) it seems on-par with the units you purchased and they probably have the same abilities and limitations.

But, I’m really thinking though that AUD$600 is *way too much* to spend and then hack… I should take a better look at the FORD:

http://www.wowzzers.com/product_info.php?products_id=304

or the HUMMER:

http://www.hobbytron.com/14ScaleRTRElectricRCMilitaryHummer.html

I wonder what the postage will cost?

Rod

I know how you feel about hacking. Sometimes I get something — e.g. I’ve been looking at sonar tape measures (range >30m), fish-finders with NMEA output, and laser range finders (range upto 1 km) — and it’s hard to take an axe to them or even snip a sensor off the wiring.

Doubly hard if you pay good money for it.