Quick Projects

Homemade Auto Crawler From Spare Parts

Last Edited: 2021-05-09 00:54:16

Homemade auto crawler

Taking a quick moment to talk about this crawler that I made. In the middle of the last Phoenix summer in 2020, the power steering gear needed to be replaced in the beast. (The beast is my blazer project truck) I almost died in the Phoenix heat working on that gear. I had to repeatedly go under the truck by grabbing the front bumper and scooting myself back on the ground. That was not fun.

Fast-forward to today, spring in 2021. Luckily we've moved to a much better environment in Northern Arizona, but unluckily, the fuel pump went out. This time I decided that I wanted to use a crawler instead of needing to shimmy in and out from under the truck.

I went to the store (computer) and looked at some prices. But $50 for a padded skateboard is a little too high a price. So I present this:

I started with a piece of particle board from the rabit habitat project. I cut a couple 2x4s down to run along the sides. I took a handful of self-tapping screws and clamped and screwed it together. I took a 3/8" drill bit and a 1 inch drill bit that looks like a tornado and drilled out some holes in the corners for the caster wheels, and dug out the 1" space on the top so the caster's bolt doesn't puncture the back of the neck.

Attached the casters to the bottom. I had an extra handle sitting around too so I screwed that to the bottom so I can carry it around. Easy. Even though I had the parts sitting around, you could probably get away with making this whole thing for about $20 instead of $50.

In the future I may add some cheap foam to the top of it, but at this point, it works pretty well as it is.