Rebel Droids.net

Greetings;
I want to build a treadwell (apx 3/4 or 2/3 scale) with a base of apx 24"x 20-24".
Besides building everything from scratch, anyone have ideas on something I could use as a base.
I found the Agent 390 Tracked Robot Kit (w/ Motors) on Roborshop for a really good price (+/-500 can$) but it's only 18x16. I asked Robotshop if it was available or if I was able to build it bigger and they said; No it would put to much strain on the componants...
I also found the Dr. Robot Jaguar Lite Tracked Mobile Platform that is the right size, but at 10k can$ it's WAY over my means...
There is the WT-500 Tracked Robot Platform, but only 12" or so wide, and at close to 2000$ it's stretching my budget....

Any help / ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Unless you wanted the robotics stuff I'd say even the smaller one seems pricy. Lots of people have scratch built the wood bottom, which isn't gonna cost much. A scooter motor or two could drive it. The belts/tracks would be the tricky bit of that, but it seems like you could get a moving base for only a little bit.

Savage may have a lot of ideas, he makes schoolkids build robots for competition