A Series filming the creation of a four wheel vehicle from the ground up.

Crawl Magazine - July/August Issue

By: Lisa Osterkamp & Zach Gunter

The Rocky Top Trail Riders have been hard at work on the buggy. "So far the project is going pretty good" says Brent Mann. "We're starting to pick up speed as we go along. We're getting more and more donations involved in it, which is helping us out a lot" Club member Bill Morris adds "We've received our suspension links from Rock Crawler. We've also received our coilovers from Rancho". Fastenal has provided a variety of much-needed hardware for the project, and BFG has also stepped in to help. "They sent us a nice set of 37" crawlers and that's gonna be a big plus on our rig" says Morris.

The axels, a Dana 20 and a Dana 60, have been given a complete overhaul. With an idea of where the axels were going, the guys did a mock up to determine the final wheel base measurements. The engine, donated by James Carver (father of RTTR member Kellie Carver), is also getting a makeover. "We're going to take it completely down and see what kind of parts we're going to need to refresh it" says Walt Gunter.

The interior will include such features as racing seats, five point harness seatbelts and an expanded metal floor. The seats were donated by Bill Morris. "I went on ebay. We got just black seats because the vehicle is going to be black and silver. It'll look good" says Morris. The RCI seatbelt harness, donated by Jim's Off Road, are a great safety feature. The latch and link system with 3 inch belts is SFI 16.1 approved and similar to those used by NASCAR racers. The expanded metal floor will increase driver visibility. Club member Rick Pickering says, "One of the worst parts about driving one of these vehicles, is you can't see anything. And this one, you'll be able to see everything.

As propane will be used to power the buggy, a mount had to be fabricated to hold the tanks. "We just started out with a flat piece of metal, cut it out with a plasma cutter, ground the edges down smooth, and had to make where we could get two tanks on it" says Mann. The tanks will be mounted vertically behind the seats, allowing the driver to easily change tanks. With each tank holding six to eight gallons, an all day trail ride should be no problem.

In addition to fabricating fuel tank mounts, the guys have been working on a multitude of other mounts as well. The process has been very labor intensive as each of the mounts is being made from scratch. Although it is a time consuming project, having the mounts ready will help keep things on track as the project continues.

Every project presents its own challenges and this one is no exception. According to Pickering, "The measure of a craftsman is not what goes wrong, it's how well you take care of the problem". So far, the guys from RTTR have met their challenges with resourcefulness, creativity and good, old-fashioned know how.