The BIG Jump (Video is up!)

[Racer 1966]

Well it's that time of year here,time for VBS at our church. That's Vacation Bible School for kids for those who don't know. My wife and I always try to help out as much as possible. After last years VBS I was talking with my friend and leader of VBS about ideas for motivating the kids. I jokingly said I'd do a monster truck show with r/c trucks and jump a car in the parking lot to help motivate them. She quickly followed that comment with "sounds cool,what's an r/c truck?" Well after talking about it followed by a demonstration run of the truck, she was convinced it would be a great idea.

Now it's time to get ready and I've got some work to be done. Here's the plan:

For truck(of course it'll be my Savage)I don't have a lot planned. I'm goping to put it back to mostly stock 25 form. I know it'll take some big air like that. I am hoping to get a body, throw a quick paint job on it and use some VBS theme decals.

Then I'll need a nice ramp,my son's skate ramp isn't gonna cut it for jumping a 1:1 car. I picked up some materials today. It'll be a fairly simple to build ramp and inexspensive. I'm going to use a sheet of OSB for the main frame,2x4s for bracing and hardboard for the ramp surface. I got a lucky deal on the hardboard. Theyusually only sell it in 4x8 ft sheets but some bought a sheet and had them cut off a lkarge section. They sold me that section for $1, so material cost for the ramp is under $10 without paint. I"ll be sure to post up how I build it(basically like one I saw in a thread here) and of course there will be pictures.

My son will also be running his T-Maxx some and we will use his smaller ramp for warm ups. Then the BIG Jump! There will definately be video of the jump,proabaly some pre jump practice on the big ramp beforehand too. I also bought some small orange cones to use for the approach to the ramp. So this ought to be a nice looking display and it'll be fun having a couple hundred people watching. That surely means something will go wrong!

Sorry no pics tonight, but I'll keep you updated. The jump is set for friday July 24th.

 

[destrucktomaxx]

Jesus is watching you.....hit parked cars. :

 

[Lessen]

Cool Randy! Can't wait to see it. :thumbup:

 

[Oliemoetor]

Something will go wrong and it will be a part of the show. Let us hope it will hold up until the big one.
I think it's cool to go that extra mile for the kids. :bow:

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Can't wait to hear more about it Randy! Sounds like a great plan.

 

[Racer 1966]

Here's your first update guys. With time being short I've been busy the last few evenings.

Sunday: Time to start the ramp build. Being that I'm a precision machinist I figured I would do this in a well thought out and planned manner. I started with a sketch of the car, some measurements and some calculations. This gave a basic size, angle of launch and other info to work from.

It didn't take long in the garage and whoosh! Out the window with the planning and sketch design. The simple truth is, transferring that data to a large piece of wood is very difficult. So I layed out a height,length and angle I thought looked good. Then came the problem of blending a nice arc(kicker as you skaters say I believe) to transition from flat ground to angled launch. After a few minutes of thought it hit me. I used my son's BMX launch ramp and traced the arc to blend with my layout.
After getting a final layout I was happy with,I used a skilsaw and rough cut it off. Then I flipped it over and lined up the edge with the other straight edge on the board. I used some screws and secured them together so I could cut both pieces at once. It looked like this:

Then using a jigsaw I carefully cut the profile I had sketched on the wood.

Using the jigsaw and then a large drumsander, I smoothed them up to make a nice flowing profile. The hard part is done!

Now,time to decide on the width. I settled on 36", hopefully that will be easy to hit at full throttle! I cut my 2x4 braces and nailed them in next. I used 24" spacing on the bottom and 12" up the profile being very careful to mount them flush with the side board pattern. It turned out bigger than I had expected , so I ran out of materials. It was getting dark too so I called it day here.

Monday: Time for a trip to the LHS to pick up a body. The first shop didn't have a lot. I like the Gravedigger but not for $42. Off to shop #2. They had several to choose from but still not exactly what I wanted so I bought the best of what was available. They also had just got in some new 2 stage metallic laquer paint from Pactra. The colors looked awesome so I bought some of it to try out. Last but not least, I got a some great sounding tips on how to make some custom decals that go inside the body and then get painted over. If it works as I was told, I will give you guys the info on how to do it in a later update when I finish the body.

After I got home and ate dinner, I rough trimmed the body. Another day is done. In case you can't tell in the pic, it is the 50's Chevy truck from Pro-Line. I like how thick this body is too.

Today: I picked up the extra supplies I need to finish the ramp. I cut and nailed in the final braces but that's all I got done tonight.

Until the next update - Bash On!!!

 

[RC Addict]

I am hoping this will be captured on video!!!

 

[Racer 1966]

I am hoping this will be captured on video!!!

There will definately be video of the jump

Oh yeah baby! The church is going to video it too. If it goes well, they may have me do it again next year.

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Wow. I'm impressed! Can't wait to see more. Looks like it's going to turn out great.

 

[AxialLST]

With a ramp at that angle you should be able to clear a SUV lol, you planning on hitting it at full speed? and is there gonna be a downside or into the grass? Another cool idea I think the kids would like is to take some thick aluminum foil, form it over a couple car/rc bodies, remove foil form, then spraypaint to look like a car and go crushing

-AxialLST

 

[weezracen]

Yes we are going to need a vid for sure!!!!!!!

 

[Tmaxx96]

sounds sweet ill have to talk to my vbs director if i can do something like that

 

[Oliemoetor]

When you have the time - try to make a short high ramp - It looks dramatic but it's not that difficult to land the truck. High speed and low long ramp is much harder...

 

[Rolex]

Not only the ramp changed from the original design, but the body also started out as a 4 door sedan. 50 or 51 Ford, I believe.

I spent many 2 week stints in VBS during the summer. The most exciting time I remember was when someone brought in a barrel hoop and rolled it around with a stick.
A year later, we had advanced to hitting a rock with a club.

 

[Scrogg]

24" tall? That is going to be a little on the short side. A 36" tall ramp would be the ticket for around 10-12 feet of air.

 

[Racer 1966]

With a ramp at that angle you should be able to clear a SUV lol, you planning on hitting it at full speed? and is there gonna be a downside or into the grass? Another cool idea I think the kids would like is to take some thick aluminum foil, form it over a couple car/rc bodies, remove foil form, then spraypaint to look like a car and go crushing

-AxialLST

Speed: still unknown, I'll take some test jumps and see how the truck flys.
Landing: Just the grass
I like the foil idea, may have to try at that - thanks for the suggestion! :thumbup:

try to make a short high ramp

So which is it I need to try???

24" tall? That is going to be a little on the short side. A 36" tall ramp would be the ticket for around 10-12 feet of air.

10-12ft? I only need 4-1/2 to clear the car! As stated, the original plan changed, as seen it is 35in tall. :thumbup:

 

[Oliemoetor]

So which is it I need to try???

try to make a short high ramp

 

[beason]

we used this ramp

and jumped a small station wagon with a buggy. the "kicker" part is the key. we got a distance of 68 feet and about 10-12 ft high on that one. but that was one sick fast buggy.

for reference, the guy in the pic is 6'4 and the buggy is on the down side of the arc.

 

[Racer 1966]

try to make a short high ramp

No,I have no desire for ramp like that. If anything I'd go to a full 1/4 pipe style.

we used this ramp


and jumped a small station wagon with a buggy. the "kicker" part is the key. we got a distance of 68 feet and about 10-12 ft high on that one. but that was one sick fast buggy.

for reference, the guy in the pic is 6'4 and the buggy is on the down side of the arc.

Yep, I know what you mean about the "kicker". I could almost do it off my son's BMX jump, I've measured well over 25 ft and at least 4 ft of air, didn't really have a way to measure height though.

I'm really thinking I got way more ramp than I need. I'm still thinking of cutting it down some but will probably make a practice jump first.

 

[beason]

i would loan you this one, but i left it at my old house when i moved.. and shipping would be killer..

yea i think you got plenty of ramp. just dont miss!