Simulated wooden Car for a range?

Oak City Tactics

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Has anyone got plans or photos of good simulated cars made from 2x4 and plywood for a range? I need something for a car/suv simulator on the flat range. Please don’t suggest a real car or a stripped real car etc. I have obtained multiple training cars before. Everything from junk yard cars to fully operational patrol vehicles and suspect vehicles minus glass. I know how to do that and I know the advantages. Those are not an option for logistical reasons this time.

I need a wooden prop that can still be moved by 4 guys. They need to be able to sit inside of it. One of the indoor ranges at Ft Carson I believe has something similar. Who’s got or seen something like this?
 

shoobe01

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Have used a couple, never been happy with them. Either super lame and not at all car like, or very heavy, clunky, or both.

Tagging in to see if anything good comes up otherwise though.

Also: "be able" to sit inside, or is that the primary need? Does it also need to be full sized outside so people can hide behind it? Does it need to be up on wheels so you can shoot under it?
 

shoobe01

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Waiting for another online meeting to start, puttered and thought about wooden props, had other thoughts/questions:

– Does it need to be A Car, like a box you get IN, or could it be a left-side-of-car wall that you sit behind and shoot through the window? Make it a foot wide and now you have a "hood" or "trunk" to shoot over, hide behind?

– Why wood? Not as a challenge to say "get a car!" but what is it meant to solve? If zero spall, etc. then wood won't do it super well. Especially things like chipboard can spall enough to injure people, to embed fragments into items downrange a foot or two. . Do you need all wood, so no fasteners also?

– I'd look into things like building a spaceframe, using coroplast for "body panels." Light, sturdy, easy to repair, not sharp when shot or otherwise damaged. If not sturdy enough to rest on the hood: have you sat on a modern hood? Get folks used to that!

– Too many times throwing away seats and chasing possums out of things: I'd make the interior a flat floor, and put chairs inside it. Remove chairs when done shooting for the day.
- Don't forget you can get specific chairs not just whatever is laying around; folding beach chairs are very low, so can be good to simulate sitting in a car (more than an SUV) then fold and hang on the wall of the conex where your targets are stored. You can even make brackets, so the chair fits and doesn't slide, or even thumbscrews or bungees down, so isn't just loose on the floor.
– Similar, make center consoles a cooler that you put next to the seat. The glovebox similar. Shelves and brackets, not actual compartments that will become full of mice, or bees.

– Make it weatherproof, not by lots of paint and marine plywood, but by making the floor something like decking so it vents, and/or making sure it can be flipped and stored on the side so nothing accumulates in it.

– Move around? By picking up, or are wheels okay? If wheels are okay, my goal would be one person to move it around.

– If wheels: back to one of my first questions: do they need to shoot under it?
– Consider wheels that come off. It sits on the ground on wheel-shaped wood, but you lift, stick bicycle wheels on the sides to roll it around.
– If real wheels like car tires, chock it instead of trying to build brakes.

– How repairable? Is it expected to be shot? If so, that takes a lot of design, to avoid damage being catastrophic. See the coroplast thing above, and otherwise make sure no screws are under another board, but all bits can be removed individually, and everything is just dimensioned lumber so (aside from weird stuff like wheels) just cut to length, screw down. No ripping, machining, etc.

- Shape wise: think hard, and look at cars. Cars are not dead flat and square. I'd taper the hood a lot, for example, if trying to get people used to modern shapes, using cover/concealment even a little realistically.


NO need to answer these. Just feedback, thoughts.

I have disappointingly few photos of the props I am referring to, even those I have helped build, so only words to share :(
 

pointblank4445

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100% with @shoobe01 on the above questions and considerations.

Not knowing what the training is (other than 4 guys sitting in the vehicle), it's unclear what aspects of the car are most important.
While its playground equipment it demonstrates the concept well, it would seem that something like this would be a better start than wood in terms of longevity, cost, weight:

1614997129392.png
 

Oak City Tactics

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Lol I’d love to have that playground car as an option as well. Guys would be using it as they would a normal car shooting under over around and through the windows etc. my considerations so far have been to build a frame work and sheet it with plywood. Make it 4ft Wide and have an open bottom. I was already thinking folding chairs. The body would sit off the ground about 12”, being supported on the 4 corners of the frame that extended to the ground. I’d considered putting two bike wheels or similar at one end to allow you to wheelbarrow it around the range. I think I have two choices for construction. The frame could be more substantial and much of the body work could be other than plywood to save weight. Or the bodywork of plywood could be part of the structural support.
 

Oak City Tactics

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I think these are the ones at Carson as an example.
 

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Oak City Tactics

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Alternately SFARTAETC/ Range 37 had these big L shaped 3 dimensional blocks that sort of could be arranged short axis up long axis down and back to back to form among other shapes, a sedan-ish shape. I could alter those to have open windows. They used more material however and you could not sit inside and they were always a pita to move.
 
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