Marlin Crawler Formula Toyota Buildup

[dirtbag]

Hey Marlin Crawler, if I ever make it out to California, can I get a ride in the Buggy?   

ummmmmm................  

they ARE in California     

Don't worry, ct, it's all good 

[crawlingturtle]

I said If "I" ever make it out to California.  Reread the post. Also, FYI I live in Colorado.      

[Marketing]

I noticed that most of the other formula's move the engine and driver back more, I know that you all at Marlin have a little bit of a plan scheming I am wondering what it is. Why didn't you move every thing back as far as every one else. Not judging just wondering?Love the short throw, I am pretty sure that you guy's like the L52 for the extra bell housing strength with more than a dual ultimate, any other reason?

Today I got to sit in the truck with all the control and shifters in place. It's really coming together. The tcase is really high up inside. Even with short shifters on the tranny and tcase the shifters are up higher. It's a bit of a maze to get to the dash. We may look at moving the switches back to between the seats.

As for the driver position.  It's been long held as fact that you want more weight on the front for climbing. When your climbing much of the weight shifts to the rear so it can be hard to get traction on the front when it's up hill. When "Tiny" the Nelson built buggy was being built there was a real concern that it was not going to climb well due to more weight being in the rear due to it's rear engine design.

Tiny has just about a 50/50 weight split front to rear. Tiny's outstanding performance in competition has some thinking that it's better to have more weight in the rear than previously thought. Personally I think there are other advantages to the design of Tiny that allowed it to do so well. I think the weight distribution of this design is a disadvantage but having the driver forward was a high advantage.

Communication between driver and spotter is hard. Even with the best driver and spotter in the world it's hard to communicate, even if you can hear each other with headsets. Driver and spotter often see much different views of thing from their perspective. Placing the driver literally on the front axle puts the driver where he can see a lot more of what is in front of him. I spotted for Tiny each of three events that lead up to it's first series win at CRCA. Spotting for Tiny is different than other trucks in that your looking for different things. On a normal truck, the driver can see the outside of left tire but can't see the right side tires much at all. In Tiny the driver can see the inside of both tires but can't see anything on the outside of the tires because your sitting between the tires. View to the rear is ok, but the view to the front is like watching a widescreen TV. In building Tiny everything possible was done to keep weight as far forward as possible, including running huge amounts of water in the front tires.

If we were building the this truck from scratch we will be leaving the motor in the stock position and not moving it back at all. We would change the shape cage to put the driver even further forward. We ended up splitting the difference and only moving the motor back 1/2 the way it was designed for. Also if we were only building for competition we would have made it much smaller, but then it would not be as practical for trail use. We really like the dual purpose this class offers.

Just to sum it up. I prefer weight and driver to be as forward as practical.

[Marketing]

Most of the frame for the floor was installed today using 1 X 1 square tubing. The floor aluminum will be laid over the frame.

[Marketing]

Seat mounts are added to the frame for the slide rails to bolt to...

[dirtbag]

I said If "I" ever make it out to California.  Reread the post. Also, FYI I live in Colorado.      

sorry, my FUBAR 

[gmrwizard]

Your posts are way cool. They give us food for thought along with good tech. The pics are great keep them coming. I was in the shop yesterday and got to see it first hand,

IT IS AWESOME

[MiniSimp]

You should use a push button start and put the button behind the twin stick.

[Marketing]

The EFI system came in from LC engineering today. Just over $1000 delivered with the optional idle up system.

[freds40]

That is a ton of cash to get the motor going but from what I hear, that system is the hot ticket for wiring an RE in a buggy.

[FATB0Y]

The EFI system came in from LC engineering today. Just over $1000 delivered with the optional idle up system.

That looks cool what all can ya do w/ it? Besides run the Fuel Injection

[donkeykong]

What is the product number on that fuel cell from summit.  I am looking for a a bigger tank, and want to explore all my options. Is that a off-road application only or will it work on a street drive truck

[Marketing]

That looks cool what all can ya do w/ it? Besides run the Fuel Injection

It is a much simpler EFI system. It allows adjustment and programming via an included remote control. It also allows the diver to and just the mixture on the fly.  It uses a map sensor so there is no need for the stock air flow meter.

[Marketing]

The battery tray is going to be on top of the transmission and behind the dash.

[Marketing]

Passenger side seat mounts.

[KYOTA]

Sheesh you guys arent done with that thing yet? whats taking so long kidding of course looking awesome as usual !! 

[Marketing]

Rocky is making progress on the installing the EFI system. Last night after work he hooked up most of the system and created a mount for the computer under the dash.



Instead of an air flow meter this system uses a MAP sensor. This sensor installs in the intake plenum.



Photo of the indash mixture control.

[scheid6996]

NICE!!  thats an awsome build up

[TrackVino]

Really cool! 

[FATB0Y]

 

[MUDJUNKY]

lookin good

[MiniSimp]

Does the engine have to be smog legal?

[stone4x4]

do you need a driver???

[MiniSimp]

Are you swiss cheesing for weight reduction? Or was the battery tray made from scrap?

[Marketing]

Does the engine have to be smog legal?

No smog controls required but, it is required to have a muffler.

[reklund5]

What, no cold start injector?    I assume you can richen up the mixture when cold to compensate?  Does that EFI system have any Datalogging capability?  Can you custom setup the mapping?    Looking great, keep up the good work

Ryan

[Northern Runner]

So does this mean that Marlin will possibly start producing complete "turn key buggies"?    

[Marketing]

 We are putting a lot of after hours time into this because we want to see it built. A truck like this would retail for about $35,000. I don't think poeple are willing to pay that much.  We are only a 3000 sq ft shop and can't building there. Hell we are having problems delivering just the parts people are ordering. As we grow, we would could consider building finished rigs in the future, but not right now.

[mudaddict]

That is a awsome build guys keep up the awsome work!

[FATB0Y]