Every hacker has dreamt of building their own tank at some point. Or maybe that’s just us. [Peter Sripol] and [Sam Foskuhl] have built one at a scale which is big enough to be rideable, but small enough that neighbors don’t get concerned.
An electric wheelchair is at the heart of the build. After ripping out its internals, the two motors with gearboxes are directly connected to the two tracks, allowing differential steering. Holding everything together is a solid welded steel frame – essential for years of reliable sieging.
The tracks themselves are simple strips of wood, cut and assembled by hand onto a nylon belt. Meanwhile the track wheels and drive assembly are designed in CAD and cut with a CNC router from some plywood, a great choice for adding some precision to the most mechanically challenging part of the build. As always in [Peter]’s videos, a large portion is dedicated to testing – in this case with a rather large array of fireworks. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in his bad books considering his other souped-up weapons.
A small, hacked, novelty electric vehicle? Sounds like it would find some good friends at EMF Camp, especially at the Hacky Racers event.
“Every hacker has dreamt of building their own tank at some point.”
Building is half the fun.
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/tank-stolen-from-military-facility-in-richmond-virginia-and-taken-for-a-100km-joy-ride/news-story/e6e2d4679ff9d6222035df823fcb5965
That’s an APC, not a tank
Here’s a stolen tank:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Nelson_(San_Diego_Tank_Rampage)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnUoUKEIGoo
The social semantics crowd will have a field day with this.
Isn’t it supposed to be guns to ploughs or something like that?
Maybe it can be repurposed as a mini bulldozer
Sweet! Love this.
I think you have it in reverse, “swords into ploughshares”, or “tanks into wheelchairs”.
When we were walking to New York City in 1982, Willow from Maine had to rude for a while, her artificial leg was cracking at the “knee” joint, so much walking. I thought of getting her some glue, but wasn’t sure what kind, and I worried that it might get in the joint and then it wouldn’t work either.
She’d lost her leg to cancer, and apparently no money for artificial leg upkeep. But money for nuclear weapons.
Michael
Swords into plo[w,ough]shares comes the Old Testament, but there is another verse there that also mentions the opposite.
She spent her money on nuclear weapons?
I built one this year too, though mine has a pan/tilt MLRS turret with custom rockets ;)
Wonky connector means only three of the four fired reliably. Working on upgrades :P
https://youtu.be/GUR7Pf0GNWg
Some images with a bit more detail. In hindsight, getting some B-roll of the thing would’ve been a good idea for the video….
https://imgur.com/a/SV3sQqK