CO2 Pickup Truck by jarejay

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a fully 3D-Printable "body-on-frame" pickup truck that rolls like any other toy car. There are no bearings, screws, nuts, washers, or any other metal "helpers" involved. It prints entirely without supports (if you have your print settings dialed in), and it assembles by friction fit. You can glue it together if you like, but it is not required.
It is intended to be a CO2 powered rocket car, but I have not yet figured out how to open a 12-gram CO2 canister while it sits in the bed of the truck. I use electrical tape to hold the tailgate on and ensure that the cartridge does not "go rogue" during tests; this is what you can see in the pictures. If anyone prints this and figures out a better solution to launching this than free-handing it with a Dremel cut-off wheel, let me know.
Nonetheless, it is a pretty nice toy car, even if I can't blast it down the street with compressed air just yet. It rolls down inclines fairly straight when assembled properly, and it crashes nicely with pieces flying everywhere, provided it hasn't been glued together.
This is going to take you anywhere from 12 to 32 hours to print, depending on print speed, layer height, and how many body panels fail unexpectedly on you. I don't imagine this will be easy to print for a lot of printers, so be patient and take it one piece at a time.
Speaking of which, here is the bill of materials with part summaries:
1 x Pickup Frame
This can be one of the four permutations. There are varieties with and without supports, and UNTESTED hollow versions as well. I have not printed and tested the fit of the hollow frame to the matching roof, so should you try this, it may require sanding or packing of some sort.
1 x Roof OR Press Fit Roof
The normal roof has holes for the pins that mount it to the frame. The press fit roof has a rectangular piece that is meant to press-fit in the hollow frame; again, I have not tested it.
1 x Hood and Grille
This piece has my signature headlight and grille pattern that I doubt you've seen before. Seriously, tell me where you've seen it before. Nowhere. That's right.
1 x Doors
The doors wrap around the back of the cab and are pinned on either side.
1 x Pickup Bed
The bed has a round holder for the closed end of a 12g CO2 cartridge. With the tailgate piece and some tape, this should hold it fairly safely and securely.
1 x Tailgate
This has a hole for the open end of a 12g CO2 cartridge. Don't trust the taper pins; use tape.
1 x Right Fender
1 x Left Fender
1 x Right Quarterpanel
1 x Left Quarterpanel
These pieces go over the wheels to protect the undercarriage, but really they just help to make the truck look like a truck.
18 OR 20 x Diamond Taper Pin
These pins hold the whole truck together. They don't hold very well. That's entirely on purpose. If you squeeze them in nice and tight, they friction fit just well enough that you can handle the truck normally, but pop out when you want to change a body panel. This friction fit also means that when the truck crashes, the pieces come off in a spectacular show. They also make excellent locator pins for gluing, if rigidity is your thing. (20 for full, 18 for hollow)
2 x Axle Support
These pieces snap into the bottom of the frame to connect the axles. They should just pop in and out of their sockets satisfyingly, but they will wear out with repeated use.
2 x Pickup Axle
These axles are octagonal to allow them to print on our machines. Most of the things that get press fit onto them will still be circles. Be sure to sand or cut off the build plate burr.
2 x Inner Bushing
This bushing is press-fit onto the axle to act as a "bearing" that allows the wheels to spin. Its inner diameter may or may not need to be drilled/sanded to fit nicely on the axle.
2 x Outer Bushing
This bushing is press-fit into the axle support to allow the wheels to spin. Make sure it doesn't deform when pressed in or your axle will not spin true.
4 OR 8 x Bushing Nut.
These are used to keep the axle centered on the axle support. If you plan on gluing, you only need 4 (or 0, perhaps). If you want the friction fit to work, I recommend printing 8.
4 x Pickup Wheel
These are my custom 6-spoke wheels. They are lipped on either end to retain tires.
4 x Pickup Tire
THESE MUST BE PRINTED IN TPU. I used SainSmart TPU. Comment if you need the settings for this filament. If you don't have TPU or a printer that can print with it, I would suggest importing the wheel and tire into your slicer directly on top of each other and printing as one piece. I can't be sure how this will affect the truck's performance, however.
I believe that's it. Good luck with the project, now you have an excuse to try out TPU. Leave a comment with any questions or requests. This is a work in progress, so I have all the files ready for modification and re-posting. Thanks for checking out my Magnum Opus to date!