Comet buggy

[Lixander]

After the new year, I wanted to start a new off road project, but this time with a more aggressive behavior.

I tried to make a new front frame, that would house the suspension arms as tight as possible, as the real Baja/ Trophy trucks have (that means only 1 stud between the arms), but also to enable a positive caster angle and to be as light-weight as possible.

I managed to figure it out somehow, but overall, the chassis looked like garbage. After that, I found a cool Alpine buggy design (or a trophy truck, I don`t know exactly where to put it) and I wanted to recreate; the shapes of that thing where too much for me and for Lego, so I abandoned this one too.

But, I needed a chassis for the Alpine thing, so I modified my first Lego off-roader - the Frankenstein  buggy, that was based on the 42124 set.

Anyway, after all those failed attempts, I still managed to obtain a chassis. Being a pretty small update for a new MOC, plus I didn`t wanted to do a mark 2 (the last projects had too many versions), I decided to take it further. In this way, I modified the motors structure and the length of the model, but also improved the servo situation (the servo sticked out too much at the bottom).

Now, it has fully independent suspension on all 4 arms plus a good suspension travel on the front (made by 2x hard 6.5L shock absorbers for the front and 2x soft 6.5L + 2x soft 9.5L shock absorbers for the back), it is smaller and lighter - about 730g or about 25.75oz without the actual battery.

The other specs are the same as the Frankenstein: 1x servo-motor for the steering, 2x buggy motors for the rear wheel traction and room for just a battery (BuWizz 2 or 3 and the AliExpress battery hub).

Still W.I.P., because the rear arms are somehow twisting when the suspension is under load; I made it less obvious by testing many solutions, but the problem is still there, just smaller.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Lixander

[Lixander]

I managed to finish it; you can find the free digital files on my Rebrickable

[Lixander]

Made a 2nd version, with bigger tires and new motor-frame layout, that keeps the full independent suspension, but ads more stability and durability.

It switches back to the 6.5L shock absorbers but they are in a new layout, that allow for a rigid and durable rear motor-frame, but that keeps the independent function of the suspension.

The front and mid are the same, including the battery frames and the over-all sizes.

Also, I think that this fits better the first name that I wanted to give to the project; so here it is, the ”Frog buggy”.

[Lixander]

Test builded it. Everything is fine, just the rear axle can twist too much without putting any shock absorber into action.

You can find it here: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-151843/Lixander A./frog-buggy-comet-buggy-v2/#details

Edited July 2, 2023 by Lixander

[Lixander]

Made some upgrades to the front suspension arms, consolidated a little the rear motor frame and added a skid-plate for the servo-motor.

I will probably add more colors, as the V2 had, later. Until then, you can see the V2B in its main color here

(new renders will be made in a few weeks, so the tire pattern ”problem” will be solved)