REVIEW: 8273, Off Road Truck

[Front]

After building and reviewing some of the smaller sets, it's finally time to move on to something bigger. I built this set yesterday, after buying it last week.

The Offroad Truck viewed up close.

Set Name: 8273, Off Road Truck

Theme: Technic

Released: 2007

Pieces: 805

Price: I'm not sure, but I think this was a 70 Euro set

Bricklink entry

Brickset entry

Here is the box (back side shown), the instructions and the complete main model.

I will not include the alternate model, but chosed to show it's main functions, featured on the back of the box.

The trucks ability to rotate (roll) between the cabin and the bucket, kind of put me off building this. To me it seems like an unrealistic mechanism on a vehicle.

The pieces are placed in numbered bags, and here is the model after emptying the first bag (next three pictures show the model after using the bags 2,3 and 4).

The front of the vehicle with rack and pinion steering, is seen to the left.

In the middle of the picture three axles are seen. The middle will control the lifting of the bucket. The left one will control the main lifting of the crane, while the right one controls the yaw of the crane.

The turntable for the crane, and the bucket is added. The bucket is here linked to the mechanism lifting it. At the end of the bucket a lid rotates freely, though gravitation will open it when the bucket is lifted.

Now the crane is completely built, and a gas tank is applied on both sides of the chassis. The sides of the bucket can be rotated as shown in this picture.

The two rear wheel axles are added too, and they are connected to the chassis on a simple buggy.

Bag no. 4 completes the model. This is mainly the addition of the drivers cabin as well as the "spindle" (or whatever such a thing is called) in front of the cabin. The steering wheel in the cabin is only for looking good, it has no function. To steer the vehicle, you have to turn the gear wheel on top of the cabin.

The cabin makes extensive use of Pin Connector Perpendicular 3 x 3 Bent with 4 Pins (4x) and Pin Connector Perpendicular 3L with 4 Pins (5x), which makes it quite sturdy.

These two elements were introduced in 2006, and I think they were developed for the NXT Mindstorms robot.

Here the cabin is rotated foreward, the bucket is lifted, and the crane is picking up the pallet from the ground. The two mechanism of the crane (left hand gear wheel on side of chassis and the gear wheel on top of the crane) both uses worm gears.

The crane in action, seen up close. A nice thing about the crane is that it can be lowered down into the bucket, so that the height of the crane do not exceed the height of the cabin. Nobody wants to drive 50 MPH under a bridge, coming to a violent halt, just because some stupid crane can't be lowered sufficiently.

Final notes:

Ok, this vehicle does not have any engine and suspension (other than the rather simply rear wheel buggy). At the same time the alternate model looks oddly, so much that I will not give it a try and build it. Never the less I think this set is awesome, because the crane and the bucket works so well. All the mechanisms are geared fine, although I would have liked a slower geared yaw of the crane. It tend to rotate to quick when you turn the gearwheel on the side of the chassis.

Value for money ? Well compared to the smaller sets, this mid-sized set have a lot lower prize pr. pieces, probably not that far from what is found in the largest Technic sets. Is it worth the prize ? Well I can't really say, I picked it up at a quarter of the original Danish retail prize.

It's blue, and I like that

Let me hear your thoughts on this set.

Cheers

Front

Edited March 16, 2009 by Front

[prateek]

I like the alternate model better but the crane on this is cool. I dont understand why there isnt an engine though

[Asuka]

Thanks for that very good review of a pretty nice set, Front.

[Meatman]

Great Review! I was thinking about getting this set.

[CP5670]

This set seems quite nice and has a lot of functionality for its size. I might pick it up from ebay, where it still sells for around the $50 MSRP.

The one place where it could be improved is the second part of the crane arm. It would be better to have the crank for that on the base of the turntable (or even better, on the truck chassis by using a differential inside the turntable). It looks like it should be possible to mod that in though.