Tamiya Mammoth Dump Truck

For Christmas, Sherree bought me a Tamiya Mammoth Dump Truck. The Mammoth Dump Truck uses the same chassis as the more popular Juggernaut 2, but with a (significant) extra gear reduction to slow it down to more scale speeds. As well, it also have a working dump bed and only two-wheel steering.

The Mammoth Dump Truck can be summed up in two words: "big" and "slow." Having a Bullhead, I expected this to cruise at a not-much-slower speed. Boy was I wrong. Even at the top speed, it just crawls. It's nice for "scale performance," but forces the fun factor down significantly. On the other hand, the 96:1 gear ratio means it can push or pull just about anything that gets in its way.

This gearbox assembly raises and lowers the dump bed. Raising and lowering the bed is managed through the steering control on the transmitter. Holding the steering at full-left causes the bed to raise (after an appropriate delay to be sure you're not actually steering the truck while in motion); full-right causes the bed to lower.

With the steering servo mounted in its original location (mid-chassis), turning the front wheels was near impossible. Using some styrene to fashion a front mount and needle-nose pliers to reshape the steering arm greatly improved steering. Photo below.