Tamiya Mammoth Dump Truck Project

Page 1:  Building the Axles


   

As you might expect, the Mammoth dump truck comes in a box of truly legendary size.  The majority of it is filled with the single piece bed with another substantial portion being occupied by the huge (and unique to this kit) tires.  The hardware box, though not all that big, weighs a whole lot because of how much steel and aluminum is inside.


   

Although the body might be quite simple and only composed of a handful of parts, not so for the chassis.  Here are the huge number of parts trees which make up the parts for the chassis assembly.  Note the 8 colored hardware bags.  These are not sorted sequentially so you need to open all of them at once and pick through them to find the parts for each step.  Also note the huge pile of metal bushings.  I replaced all of them with ball bearings.


   

Here are some close-up images of the parts.  I was really surprised (and pleased) by how complex this model turned out to be.  Makes me feel a little less terrible about the small fortune it cost.


   

These images show the main gears.  Note the very large pitch of the gear teeth.  They are actually not all the same pitch.  The tooth size gets bigger as you get further from the motor, since the reduction makes the torque much higher at those stages.  By the time we get down to the axles the teeth are truly huge.  Within the main gearbox shown here there are 2 stages of reduction.




This is a good time to take a diversion into the history of the Juggernaut chassis.  The original Juggernaut was a disaster due to a weakness in the gearbox that caused it to destroy itself almost immediately.  This was corrected with repair kits and then later in the Juggernaut 2 on which the Mammoth is based.  The above picture shows the main difference between the original Juggernaut and the Juggernaut 2.  On the left you can see the small hex on the axle which drives the main transmission output gear.  The hex slot in the nylon gear would strip allowing the gear to spin freely on the axle.  On the right from the Juggernaut 2, Tamiya has instead splined the shaft and slid a metal collar over that with a much larger hex to spread out the load.  It is odd that Tamiya made this error considering that the original Juggernaut came out in 1999, but years earlier the configuration on the right (the one that works) was already used in the King Hauler transmission.  Perhaps tractor trucks are developed by a different team who was then called in to consult on this problem.


   

Back to the build.  On the left you can see what looks like a human heart but is actually the reverse side of the gearbox that we built earlier.  On the right you can see another housing which supports the motor.  Note that the Juggernaut uses dual motors but the Mammoth uses only one, instead adding another stage of gear reduction to provide more torque and less speed.




Time for another diversion to explore the extra gear stage that the Mammoth adds compared to the Juggernaut.  On the left you can see the dual motor installation of the Juggernaut.  The two motors share a common spur gear which then plugs into the existing gearbox.  On the right you can see the Mammoth.  The spur gear from the Juggernaut is retained (hidden) but is now driven by another gear between it and the single motor.  This extra stage contributes an additional 2.7:1 reduction so the Mammoth is a lot slower than the Juggernaut.  This change also moves the motor position to the center.


   

Here you can see a better view of that additional gear stage.  The gear on the far left would be the spur for the Juggernaut.  The gear shown to the right of that is now the main spur.  The metal plate shown on the far right would have supported the motors on the Juggernaut, but instead has a hole for the additional gear.




Here's the completed gearbox.  The motor is hidden in the back but you can see the wires.  Barely visible on the bottom is one of the transfer case output shafts with a flat on it for the drive shaft set screw.  There's another on the other side connected directly to it.  The front and back shafts spin together; there is no center differential.  Let's do some simple math to find the overall reduction of this model.
So assuming about 12,000 rpm at the motor under reasonable load, that's 131 rpm at the wheels which is about 2 revolutions per second.  That's not very fast.  However, considering what this model can weigh with a load of rocks and the fact that it needs to be able to haul that load over rough terrain, we're going to need that torque.  It's easy to disparage cheap silver can motors, but it is also amazing how much work you can get out of them when they are used correctly.


   

Time to start work on the axles and suspension.  The build begins with 8 identical suspension links.  You'll want good callouses on your fingers before you start these.  On the right you can see the upper and lower housings of one of the axles, each with two links attached.


   

This is a serious axle which contains its own set of bevel gear reduction in addition to the differential.  You can see the sizable metal bevel gears on the left which are sadly supported by some tiny bearings.  You can see how these fit into the top of the axle housing on the right.  Front and rear axles are identical, so one is shown with the cover removed and the other all buttoned up.  This identical axle was later carried forward into the TXT-1 and is still in production in the TXT-2.




For one last diversion, let's look at the other change between the Juggernaut and the Juggernaut 2 which impacts the axles.  Looking at the above image, you can see that the original model used small bevel gears on the axle which had bearings on only one side.  This is a really bad design for high torque.  The newer axle greatly enlarged the size of the gears as well as adding a small bearing to the opposite side of each gear.


   

The differentials aren't messing around.  They are all metal and they are large.  The diff shown on the far left is completed while the one just right of it is opened up so you can see the spider gears inside.  Note that the ring gear uses spur teeth rather than bevel teeth.  I was more concerned with wear than with efficiency on this model, so I ended up packing these diffs heavily with grease.  On the right you can see how the axle shafts plug into the differential housing and connect with splines at the end.
  

   

Now we can see a completed axle next to one with the cover removed revealing the differential assembly.  On the right you can see one completely closed up with the steel telescoping drive shaft attached.  This axle is huge.  Other than the size, one unusual feature is that the "pumpkin" faces down rather than back.  On a side note, I found it interesting that the gear cover on the right is prominently stamped with the year "2000".  The Juggernaut came out in 1999.  This is presumably to indicate that this is the upgraded axle housing with extra bearing supports for the bevel gears.


   

It's pretty strange for a truck to have both a 4-link suspension and leaf springs, but that's what we've got here.  Each leaf stack has 4 leaves of steel and is seriously stiff.  They attach to the axles with the crazy long U-bolts shown on the right.


   

Turning tires of this size is going to take a pretty stiff crank.  There is a servo saver with adjustable spring inside this crank, but it has almost no give in it.  Just enough to ease an impact a bit.  On the right you can see the enormous steering knuckles.  Note that these parts are copied directly from the original Clod Buster.  In fact, they still have the words "Clod Buster" molded right into them.


   

The Juggernaut uses 4 wheel steering so both front and rear axles are totally identical.  However, the Mammoth only has steering in the front so the rear axle (shown on the right) has no steering crank or tie rods.  Instead it uses plastic part K1 to lock the knuckles perpendicular to the axle.  This part was never used in another model so I hope I never break it.




Here are the completed front and rear axles with metal bumpers attached.  This model uses a chassis mounted steering servo so we haven't gotten to any electronics yet.


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