Force

Here is a picture explaining this. The Wheelbase on a 3 axle dual drive truck is the distance between the center of the front axle (or the center point of the two if it's two steer axles) to the center point between the rear axles. If it's a 2 axle truck it's the center of the front axle to the center of the drive axle. And if it's a tri-axle bogie it's the center of the front axle to the center of the middle axle. And another picture explaining how we specify a truck over here in Sweden. We have different load regulations than the US so the way we do it is slightly different. The wheelbase (A) is the distance from the center of the front axle to the center of the first axle in the bogie (in this case measured in millimeters), and the next measure is the axle spacing between the rear axles and depending on those measures and what type of suspension the truck has they calculate the "theoretical wheelbase" wich is sligtly closer than how the wheelbase is measured in the US if you only have single drive with a tag axle, if the rear bogie is a dual drive the "theoretical wheelbase" and the way you measure the wheelbase in the US are the same. Over here the center of the weight of the load when the truck is fully loaded must be where you get the maximum load evenly spread on each axle and bogie and not go over on any of them, if the load is placed wrong you'll go over somewhere or can't take advantage of the trucks maximum load capacity. Where this point are depends on how the truck is built, where the axles are and how much weight is on the front axle when the truck is unloaded. Over here they allow a maximum gross weight of 60 metric tonnes if the truck-trailer combination has at least 18 meters between the first and last axle (maximum overall length here are 24 or 25.25 meters depending on combination) and has enough axles to spread the load on. Well this was very technical but it's hard to explain in any other way.

Well that's not entirely correct either, these tall deck engines aren't larger in every direction, just higher and wider...not longer as the bore spacing often are the same as the engine they are based on. But of course if the bore spacing is wider the engine gets longer, and with a wider bore spacing you can bore out the cylinders more, some have the cam shaft moved upwards also to allow for even longer stroke.

Very nice. The only thing you missed are the gold background color with silver letters on the KW "bug" on the grille, 1973 was Kenworth's 50th anniversary and the trucks had gold KW "bug" emblems that year instead of the regular red/silver. I have seen the Smokey And The Bandit movie about a gazillion times since it first came 1977...well at least once a year...and on most of the exterior shots of the truck it has the gold "bug" emblem...even the yellow and white KW in the first scene when "Tod Engels" gets busted by the cops for bootlegging has a gold "bug" emblem.

That's how they measure the wheelbase in the US, Canada and some other countrys, and here in Sweden and several coutrys in Europe measures the wheelbase from the center of the front axle to the center of the first rear axle. So both are correct depending on where you are.

Well it's not exactly true...yes the large cu in engines are based on the old 396-454 design but if an engine has a taller deck it means that the engine gets both higher and wider as the cylinder heads are mounted higher up and furhter appart, so the physical size are not exactly the same. But it's not that hard to do yourself, add some material to the deck surfaces on the block of a regular 396-454 and widen the intake manifold to fit between the heads and you have your tall deck "mountain motor".

Yes the doorhandles are different and the later cab has narrower vent windows...but that can be fixed if you want to do an older cab from the Revell Germany kit. After what I have found out the W900A came around 1968-69...like the AMT kit...and the latch type low mount doorhandles came around 1972 together with the smaller vent windows, 1973 all Kenworths had hood emblems with gold bottom color instead of red to celebrate Kenworth's 50th anniversary, 1974 came the V.I.T. 60 inch sleeper on the W900 (108 inch V.I.T cab for the K100) and the Gullwing Bumpers...like the Revell Germany kit has... 1976 came the Aerodyne high rise sleepers and the Bicentennial V.I.T. 200 edition trucks...same as the Revell/Monogram W900 snap kits..., and the W900B with the more square hood, square headlights and square air horns came 1983...to my knowledge not done by any model manufacturer so far.

I would say the AMT cab from 1968 to 1971 and the Revell Germany cab from 1972 to 1982. The hood is different but I don't know how much difference there are between the W900A and W900B cabs and the B model came 1983. Oh, you did beat me there James...I'm no Kenworth expert but I wasn't that far off.

I'm also looking for good pictures of the sides and ends of an old Coors brown card board case with red lettering, I have seen someone who has done a simulated load with pictures of these Coors cases stacked on top of each other on pallets.

Is there a Volvo truck model with the newer D11, D12, D13 or D16?? If so I have for sure missed out on that, the only Volvo truck kits I know of with engines are the old Italeri Volvo F12-F16 and FH12-FH16 kits, the old Revell Germany Volvo F12 kits, the old AMT/Matchbox Volvo F10/12 and the old Ertl N1023, the engines in those are outdated and not available in the VN670/780. The engines in the Italeri, AMT and Revell Germany Volvo kits are the 12 litre TD120 (the Italeri F16 should have had a 16 litre TD162-TD163 to be correct and the FH16 should have had a the same TD163 up until 2002 and the D16 after that), and the engine in the Ertl N10 is a 10 litre TD100. The newer D11, D13 and D16 engines are a new generation and looks a lot different to the older engines, the easiest way to tell if it's a new or old generation Volvo engine is to look at the top of the engine, the newer D11, D12, D13 and D16 has one long valve cover and the older TD100, TD120 and TD 160 series engines had one valve cover for each cylinder. But if there's a Volvo D16 available in a kit or on the aftermarket I'm interested to get one.

I know it's a bit late Alan but the instructions for all the Tyrone Malone Trucks are here. The Super Boss http://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truckkit_instructions/amt/5003_the_super_boss/ The Papa Truck http://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truckkit_instructions/amt/5004_kenworth_aerod/ The Bandag Bandit http://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truckkit_instructions/amt/5007_bandag_bandit/ The Hideout Truck http://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/truckkit_instructions/amt/5008_kenworth_aerod/ The http://public.fotki.com/modeltrucks25thscale/ website is a gold mine for model truck builders with lots and lots of instructions for almost all manufacturers, box art, catalogs, broschures, magazines and lots of other useful things...in short, a useful reference site.

Very nice Alan, both combos looks good together. I noticed one thing tho'...the end plates for the rear wing on the Bandag Bandit are upside down, they should be the other way around so the straight edge are on top and the curved at the bottom.

Nice work Alan. This one is also on my build list.

One important thing for the brake system in these kind of cars is the line lock. They pump up the brake pressure to a cetain value on a brake pressure gauge and push in the line lock button, usually on the steering wheel, this thing is an electric controlled valve mounted somewhere on the front brake line cirquit wich locks the line to the front brakes and keeps the pressure there even if the brake pedal is released to hold the car on the start line, and on green light you let go of the line lock button and the front brakes releases. The line lock can also be used for the burnout to brake with only the front brakes to get the rear wheels to come up to speed easier and then let go.

Absolutely!!

It's not that hard to do if you have the right equipment. http://books.google.se/books?id=ao2nzB5Qs5QC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=painting+whiteline+model+tires&source=bl&ots=rPEQf-IZ9K&sig=wzVuDdENmqKFEcv6TkmXsZJRPNQ&hl=sv&sa=X&ei=c-NKU9nkCqXV4AStu4GoDQ&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=painting%20whiteline%20model%20tires&f=false

The Transtar II Eagle had two different rear suspensions but both had the same 8017 kit number, first it had an Air Ride and later it got a Walking Beam...I don't know why they changed tho'.

Yes, it was cancelled because AMT/Ertl altered the tooling to do the T600/Canepa 1989-90...someone must have thought the W925 tooling was still usable.

Here is a thing I found on the US Volvo Trucks and the differences between the models. http://www.dmbruss.com/zRedRover/RR_WhyVolvo770.htm http://www.hhrvresource.com/VolvoModelLine.htm

I have built some Italeri kits in my day and one thing comes to mind, they are relatively easy to build but not that particulary accurate as Italeri likes to take shortcuts here and there and use the same basic chassis and driveline for several trucks of different makes...and I definately don't like their generic wheels with the large reduction style hubs in most of their kits, The thing you have to take your time with is the frame and make sure it's straight and square, otherwise you will have lots of trouble later in the build as nothing will fit properly. I don't have this tanker kit but I did a little research just now and found some pictures of the frame and suspension for the trailer so I got a better view on how I would do a modification for a dual axle setup as it most likely can be done with the kit parts and a bit of ingenuity . The suspension setup for this tanker is the same as on a couple of other Italeri tanker kits but this particular tanker is a unibody with a subframe for the suspension so some parts included in this kit are not to be used. Here is what I would do...leave out the axle and suspension parts for the rearmost axle, cut off the frame a little bit behind where the leaf spring for the middle axle ends and would have its mounting point, cut the rearmost spring mounting point off and save for later, mount the modified frame further back on the body so the last of the two remaining axles line up with where the discarded third axle would have been. You have to make new rear mounting points for the springs for the former middle axle so they have anywhere to sit as the ends now hangs in the air, that mounting point are on the suspension parts discarded for this modification and this new mounting points can be done if you cut off and modify the forward mounting points on the discarded leaf springs from the left over last axle and glue the modified parts in where the springs ends. You can extend the subframe forward if you want to so the length will be the same as before the modification and you can use parts of the included front frame not used for this kit for this...you will also have to modify the fenders and side skirts too as the cutout is smaller for a dual axle setup than a triple. If you do this you will have a convincing dual axle setup for your tank trailer

I have one of these unbuilt and it's a big task to bring mine up to this level when I build it...very nice work Sean.

Reverse engineering has been done in this industry, Revell did that for the Tijuana Taxi and Rommel's Rod, released in 2009 if I remember correctly, the original tooling was missing or destoyed beyond use...so that's for sure a possibillity if one want's to do it. The question is if Round 2 are willing to spend the money to do it...the later original kits (with walking beam) are not that rare yet as the Movin' On W925 version was reissued many many times up until the T600 came, in fact all my W925 kits are different Movin' On issues. I guess you can call it bad management and short sighted because AMT/Ertl didn't do a good job when they decided to take a shortcut and use the very outdated W925 kit as a base for the T600, it's not much in that kit that's accurate for a more modern T600 and they would probably have been better off doing a complete new more correct kit, yes it's more expensive to do but I think it would have sold better than this T600 did...and they would still have had the for W925 tooling intact wich allready earned it's keep to make more money of with more reissues as that kit is quite correct for the period it was made. If Round 2 did a straight reissue of the T600 I think many with me would pass on it, so that kit as it is is most likely "dead". A more accurate T600 would have a more modern engine and transmission as the ones you mentioned earlier in this thread, there aren't many on the road trucks with the old Hendrickson Walking Beam rear suspension anymore so an 8-bag Air Glide 100, 200 or 400 would be more correct, the front suspension isn't correct for a T600-T800 either, the wheels should be one piece 10-hole for tubeless tires and not the old out dated lock ring wheels that's in the kit. As you said Brad, the model kit manufacturers are "biting themselves in the rear end" if they don't do accurate scale model kits, the model builders of today aren't that many 6-7 year old kids who doesn't care if things are correct or not, no todays model builders are mostly middleage guys and gals and we are very demanding and fastidious when it comes to model kits as we have developed an eye for details and what looks right or not, and most of us likes to build correct scale replicas. So if a kit is porly done and inaccurate we woun't buy it, but if they do a nicely done accurate well detailed kit it's another thing and it will have a bigger chance to score a good sale.

I don't know how much the tooling for the W-925 were changed when AMT/Ertl did the T-600 kits but the say is that it's not possible to do the W-925 again without some re-tooling...one can wonder why AMT/Ertl did that in modern time, I thought they had stopped modifying tooling irreversable to do another kit as late as in the 90's. I don't have a clue what a sealed original kit is worth...I suppose it's worth as much as someone is prepaired to pay for it, and we can still get W-900 kits as Revell Germany has one and Revell US has the snap kit, it's only the AMT kits that's no go anymore. For the Tandem Torsion Bar Suspension it's available on the after market, both from P & P Resin Works and Melbourne Model Truck Accessories, and I have seen some on ebay together with a conversion kit with a resin W-925 cab, hood and interrior.

The 10.00 X 20 were used in most of AMT's truck kits and trailers and the 11.00 X 20 tires were used in most Ertl truck and trailer kits, but most of the recent AMT reissues has the larger Ertl 11.00 X 20 tires. One other tire used is the AMT Uniroyal 11.00 X 22 tires from the White-Freightliner and Diamond Reo kits, they have larger rims so the other tires doesn't fit.

There are Frontenac head and speed parts in the AMT 1927 Model T kits.

That I can believe as both are heavily modified, so it was probably easier to start with a Glider Kit than to modify a regular truck.