[WIP] Rough terrain crane

[suffocation]

This is the carrier of a very basic rough terrain crane. Just the usual stuff going on:

- 2 XL motors for driving
- 2 independent servos for steering --> four steering modes: front, back, front & back, crab
- 1 M motor for gear shifting --> high gear 1:7, low gear 1:21

These five motors are powered by a BuWizz unit.

Both axles are pendular, hence this carrier can handle a LOT of weight.

This kind of crane should have planetary hubs rather than portal hubs but all the solutions I came up with had too much friction, so back to the good old Unimog hub it was.

The outriggers will be driven from the superstructure - kind of like on 42009 but single-stage - with its own battery box. Yes, the model is going to be part remote, part with switches. That's how I like it :)

Having solved the technical part, now I've hit the proverbial snag - the bloody aesthetics. So here's where I need your guys' help - how can I dress this chassis up so that it doesn't look like yet another bubble truck from yours truly? I rather fancy the idea of a mostly orange, black and white livery (in which case I'd ditch the red hubs, of course); oh, and I have very few System bricks and can't afford any major Bricklink orders at the mo, so the livery should be mostly if not entirely Technic.

Here are some rubbish pictures (thanks, lousy Samsung J3).

(same pics in hi-res here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/hateofallhatreds/rough-terrain-crane)

 

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by suffocation

[Maaboo the Witch]

Quite the beast! For the colour, I'd go with red, but... ya know.  Try orange and black without the white. Or blue. How many Dark Azure panels do you have?

Edited April 29, 2018 by Maaboo35
Grammar

[suffocation]

Ha, I'm a sucker for red and black, too But I already used that combo on my tow truck so I wanted to try something different. White and classic blue wouldn't be bad, either, but classic blue is scarce As for orange, I have a ton of panels from multiple copies of 8110, 42038 and 42056.

Which is dark azure? I do have a variety of blues from 42066 and 42070 (one copy each).

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Where are the gear quadrants 

[Erik Leppen]

It's hard to give tips on bodywork if you have not started on that part of the build yet, but personally I'd start with the wheel arches. That's tjhe part that will need to "fit" around the wheels without touching them, so if you do them first you know how you will be able to fill the rest.

As for color: personally I find that lots of colors go really nicely with dark gray, so you could opt for dark gray as a "filler" color. Maybe do the wheel arches with dark gray beams (coated with some tiles maybe) and then use your orange/black/white combo idea for all the rest. But we can't look in your parts collection to say anything more I'm afraid.

Anyhow, that chassis looks very interesting with a lot of cool stuff going on. I like the symmetry it has. I see it has crab steering. Cool (even though it's just motors that do it, which is technically a bit simple). Also, good to see suspension, but the travel seems a bit limited. Have you considered using the long springs to get more travel?

Those outrigers with 8 LAs look pretty beefy. Isn't the motor struggling to drive all that? Also, do you have the ring gears from the BWE (42055) set? You might need that with such a large model, just to keep the superstructure in balance. Anyhow, it's going to be an interesting model for sure. What's gonna be interesting in your case is how it will compare to the upcoming 42082 set, which is the same type of crane in the same scale (even though yours looks huge. I wonder whether the set will be as big as this). 

[Bartybum]

I assume you have 42054 given the red wheels and Claas tyres. Why didn’t you use the Claas hubs?

[sirslayer]

Dark gray is the heaviest  of all  technic colors!! what a big project you got going..  very interesting 

Edited April 29, 2018 by sirslayer

[Leonardo da Bricki]

Dang! that's a beast! I agree with at @Erik Leppen about starting with the wheel arches, those are always a bit hard to do. And just keep the body simple, you don't need any curves, and angles are not really needed, except around the wheels.

@Bartybum Probably to increase the ground clearance because of how the pendular suspension is using the large turntables.

[suffocation]

  On 4/29/2018 at 9:09 PM, Ngoc Nguyen said:

Where are the gear quadrants 

Expand  

I'd love to use them but they're probably too big for this model. And their yellow glint would be an eyesore amidst the colour combos I have in mind So I guess I'll have to figure out another way to keep the superstructure in balance.

  On 4/29/2018 at 9:11 PM, Erik Leppen said:

It's hard to give tips on bodywork if you have not started on that part of the build yet, but personally I'd start with the wheel arches. That's tjhe part that will need to "fit" around the wheels without touching them, so if you do them first you know how you will be able to fill the rest.

As for color: personally I find that lots of colors go really nicely with dark gray, so you could opt for dark gray as a "filler" color. Maybe do the wheel arches with dark gray beams (coated with some tiles maybe) and then use your orange/black/white combo idea for all the rest. But we can't look in your parts collection to say anything more I'm afraid.

Anyhow, that chassis looks very interesting with a lot of cool stuff going on. I like the symmetry it has. I see it has crab steering. Cool (even though it's just motors that do it, which is technically a bit simple). Also, good to see suspension, but the travel seems a bit limited. Have you considered using the long springs to get more travel?

Those outrigers with 8 LAs look pretty beefy. Isn't the motor struggling to drive all that? Also, do you have the ring gears from the BWE (42055) set? You might need that with such a large model, just to keep the superstructure in balance. Anyhow, it's going to be an interesting model for sure. What's gonna be interesting in your case is how it will compare to the upcoming 42082 set, which is the same type of crane in the same scale (even though yours looks huge. I wonder whether the set will be as big as this). 

Expand  

Thanks, Erik! I was hoping you'd pitch in because I love your models and I think you're among the very best designers here

You're right - I should start with the wheel arches and work from there. I actually had a go with a white and blue combo (one of my favourite) but couldn't pull off anything remotely acceptable.

I do love DBG and have plenty of it (thanks, Mack), so that may be a good place to start since it does seem to mesh well with pretty much any other colour.

In terms of orange, do you reckon the Porsche wheel arches would look out of place on a model like this?

As for the suspension, that's where I bless the day I came across a random picture that gave me the idea to do something like this:

 

So the suspension travel (or rotation, rather, since it's pendular) is around three studs, or something like this:

 

  On 4/29/2018 at 9:30 PM, Bartybum said:

I assume you have 42054 given the red wheels and Claas tyres. Why didn’t you use the Claas hubs?

Expand  

I do but they work only with CV joints, which are fragile and limit steering angle too much. Also, I wanted at least some sort of hub reduction. This thing is going to be heavy.

Edited April 29, 2018 by suffocation

[Ngoc Nguyen]

Get the 42082, build the B model, then you'd have the black quadrants as spare parts    (assuming a drilling vehicle doesn't have a large turntable)

[doug72]

Nice MOC - I like large cranes.
Also like the use of two servos to get four steering modes - I should used have that on a MOC I built that failed but only had one spare servo.

You mention yellow gear quadrants being too large and glaring - have you considered using the Efferman turntable componants ? They come in three sizes now and are very stable.

Outriggers look very strong & powerful as well.

Looking forward to the completed build.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Doug72

[suffocation]

Hi Doug,

thanks, I'd forgotten about Efferman's 3D-printed parts. I'll check them out if I can't find an all-Lego solution. I wish they'd introduce mid-size quadrants or turntables - standard turntables are 7 studs wide, current quadrants make for a 23-stud circle so something in the 11-15 range would be nice.

WIll post an update tomorrow.

Edited April 30, 2018 by suffocation
midnight butchering of the English language

[doug72]

I have used the 13L version several times for MOCs and found them to be very stable.
My lastest MOC would not have worked without using one.
The 3D parts are white so I use a grey paint pen to colour them.

Available in 11 / 13 / 17 L now.

[suffocation]

Thanks, Doug!

Talk about taking photography to a whole new level of execrable, but at least it gives a vague idea of what the model would look like with the Porsche arches and some other orange beams thrown in:

And a back shot:

 

[Bartybum]

Oh lordy, I’m not sure this is a good idea hahah

[suffocation]

Thanks for the feedback Care to elaborate or offer alternative ideas?

[aminnich]

Sorry, I have not read through everyone else's comments, but are you modeling this after a specific crane? Or just a free build? 

If you are, you could try googling it and finding a color scheme of a crane company you like and model it after that. Even if it isn't the exact crane, this would still work. 

[Erik Leppen]

I'm not so sure about the Porsche wheel arches, and the closed body, to be honest. I think the whole thing looks too boxy. It looks a bit like a bus even. I don't say that to make fun of it, but that thought crossed my mind, sorry. I think the problem is that you built everything closed, while in reality these cranes are more bare-bones (at least that's how I remember them). My advie would be to avoid build a body around your frame, and instead using the showing parts of the frame itself to be the body, by simply doing the outermost beams of the frame in orange instead of black.

Gears can show, that's no problem. You don't hav eto cover everything up - that cover over the whole back and rear makes it too bulky IMO. Gears and other technical parts are less of an eyesore on a colored model. On a black model, they stand out more. So my suggestion would be to spend less parts on a separate body, but instead replace some structural parts to orange so that it becomes the body. Your crane would become "slimmer" in a way.

That all said, I think I'm just personally not fond of orange-black. Orange is a very intense color and I think it creates too much contrast with black. I'd prefer mostly orange, with black as an accent color, or adding something like gray or dark-gray as a third color. (It also blends well with the LAs, which you have 8 of). But of course, this is easy to say for me - I don't know your collection, and color advice to people with smaller collections is always hard.

(And yes, I think the photo quiality is also to blame... but I can't help you on this - maybe someone with actual knowledge on photography can give you some tips?)

Personally I think I would go with wheel arches made with 4x6 bent beams in dark-gray with a the outermost edge orange, and between the wheels I'd add only as little bodywork as needed to give it a bit of color. For example, using red axles (if you want to add red as a color besides orange, that is). That's one thing I'd try if it were my own model. It may be a very bad idea though...

[suffocation]

  On 5/1/2018 at 3:50 PM, aminnich said:

Sorry, I have not read through everyone else's comments, but are you modeling this after a specific crane? Or just a free build? 

If you are, you could try googling it and finding a color scheme of a crane company you like and model it after that. Even if it isn't the exact crane, this would still work. 

Expand  

Thanks

I haven't got any specific model in mind; in fact, all the models I've seen are kind of boring - very square and flat-looking, if you ask me:

https://www.liebherr.com/en/ita/products/mobile-and-crawler-cranes/mobile-cranes/lrt-rough-terrain-cranes/onepager_lrt_krane.html

so I was just trying to come up with something cool-looking (and seem to have failed miserably so far, but hey, that's part of learning, right? )

 

  On 5/1/2018 at 10:04 PM, Erik Leppen said:

I'm not so sure about the Porsche wheel arches, and the closed body, to be honest. I think the whole thing looks too boxy. It looks a bit like a bus even. I don't say that to make fun of it, but that thought crossed my mind, sorry. I think the problem is that you built everything closed, while in reality these cranes are more bare-bones (at least that's how I remember them). My advie would be to avoid build a body around your frame, and instead using the showing parts of the frame itself to be the body, by simply doing the outermost beams of the frame in orange instead of black.

Gears can show, that's no problem. You don't hav eto cover everything up - that cover over the whole back and rear makes it too bulky IMO. Gears and other technical parts are less of an eyesore on a colored model. On a black model, they stand out more. So my suggestion would be to spend less parts on a separate body, but instead replace some structural parts to orange so that it becomes the body. Your crane would become "slimmer" in a way.

That all said, I think I'm just personally not fond of orange-black. Orange is a very intense color and I think it creates too much contrast with black. I'd prefer mostly orange, with black as an accent color, or adding something like gray or dark-gray as a third color. (It also blends well with the LAs, which you have 8 of). But of course, this is easy to say for me - I don't know your collection, and color advice to people with smaller collections is always hard.

(And yes, I think the photo quiality is also to blame... but I can't help you on this - maybe someone with actual knowledge on photography can give you some tips?)

Personally I think I would go with wheel arches made with 4x6 bent beams in dark-gray with a the outermost edge orange, and between the wheels I'd add only as little bodywork as needed to give it a bit of color. For example, using red axles (if you want to add red as a color besides orange, that is). That's one thing I'd try if it were my own model. It may be a very bad idea though...

Expand  

Thanks for the constructive feedback, Erik! Yeah, the more I look at the carrier as it is, the less I like it - and "boxy" is definitely the right word, so it's back to the drawing board here. Following your and amminich's advice, I looked around a bit more and found this:

https://rtlequipment.com/equipment/2015-grove-rt890e-rough-terrain-crane-2/

which, while I would never be able (nor want) to replicate it, does give me a few ideas on how to round off the bodywork a bit and play around with the colour schemes you suggested.

I'm working on the superstructure now (and trying to Lego-solve the turntable issue) while the carrier ideas set in, so more updates to come soon, hopefully.

Edited May 4, 2018 by suffocation

[doug72]

I brought one of these a while  ago to try and use as a turntable race for a  large crane.

LEGO Round Brick 13.667 x 13.667 Fabuland Hollowed (4750) in the end didn’t,t use it & got the Efferman T/T.

Edited May 4, 2018 by Doug72

[suffocation]

Ransacking my collection of #3 black connectors has led to this:

Just a very, very rough sketch to get a basic idea of the measurements and what I need to factor into the superstructure.

[Maaboo the Witch]

Ah, the tyres on the rotation mechanism just like the BWE. That's a really good idea. Wonder if 42082 will have the same.

[allanp]

Ide love to illustrate this but I'm on my phone at work so hopefully my text will make sense. Doing a Google image search for rough terrain cranes shows many of them have a flat deck that covers the whole top of what you have so far that would be one beam thick on your model. So for your colour scheme ide probably build a deck from 5x11 plates in dark bley, leaving a hole for the turntable of course, and cover the edge holes using beams or tiles in dark bley. For detail add access hatches for engine maintenance and possibly antislip walkways. Then use some long thin triangular wedge plates or whatever hanging down from this outer edge to create the wheel arches, also in dark bley. You could add detail by extending them down further using the Mack Anthem black mud flaps, or something similar. Then use orange beams and plates to build a completely square egded box that fills the gap between the wheel arches and incorporate some ladders into their design to allow the driver to climb up to the cab and to break up the boxeyness. Add more detail by incorporating some hatches to look like storage compartments into the orange boxes. You can also leave a small gap between the wheel arches and the orange boxes, as if the orange boxes are one stud too short to completely fill the gap. This is another small detail that will make a big difference as you will see separate surfaces, not one big surface. I have found that different colours don't work very well to break up a large surface, but texture such as narrow gaps and recesses really do help to break up any boxeyness. Real cranes have access ladders and panel gaps and vents and so on which adds texture which is why they don't look too boxey despite not having a single flowing curve. Everything is right angles and sharp corners. Once you think if enough little details to add there won't be much left to fill out.

[suffocation]

Thank you, Allanp

That's a lot of valuable input! Not sure I'll be able to work in all those details with my limited skills but I'll do my best.

The superstructure is coming along nicely. I've decided to go for a 8043 approach - sure, there's room for a motor for each function, but one of the reasons why I like to mix RC and manual switches is to have a nice gearbox in the set. A three-motor solution for the six functions I need will make it more interesting and full RC at the same time.

[suffocation]

Quite the unexciting update. With very little time to build and most of it wasted screwing up majorly, I more or less finished the superstructure - only to discover that the linear clutch I cooked up absorbed too much torque. So back to the drawing board (and the good ol' clutch gear) it was. Got this for now: