8263 Snow Groomer Modification

[Oerieth]

Hi,

I made some cool modifications to the 8263 Snow Groomer. My version is powered by 4 M-motors, has a simple suspension and on top of that, I made it modular.

The smoothing plate at the back side can be replaced with other attachments like an excavator that is shown in the video below.

The front blade is also modular although I currently have no other attachment at the moment.

In the original mode, the model has 4 independent functions powered by the 4 M-motors:

Motor 1 and 2: Left and right track

Motor 3: Front blade raising/lowering and tilting

Motor 4: Smoothing plate lowering/raising

When the smoothing plate is replaced with the excavator attachment, the fourth motor will be connected to the outriggers and a switch-box (similar to the one in

the 8043 Excavator) that switches the power of the motors to the rotation and

the two independent sections of the excavator arm.

Video

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Oerieth#p/a/u/0/M7f0h-QbLN8

Pictures

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=466651

[DLuders]

I like how your excavator attachment is displayed at the 2:45 point of your

. One could imagine that it is excavating some avalanche to rescue some skiers buried in the snow:

[Countdown]

Very cool MOD

I really like the implementation and modularity of the backhoe system. It will surely be something I will study in details (meaning I'll try to replicate for sure for an another application).

Good job, and thanks for sharing!

[Oerieth]

Thank you for the comments.

I just realized that the Brickshelf Gallery is not public yet. Does it go on public after some time or do I have to do something to make it public?

I just registered at this site today so I'm a complete noob at this.

Here are some pictures showing the more details of the model

[DLuders]

@ Oerieth: It could be several days before your Brickshelf folder is "moderated" and made public. It doesn't matter whether you are "new" to Brickshelf or not -- new images are not moderated for days. As a result, a lot of folks use Flickr.com to be able to make their images available instantly. Anyway, you figured out a way of direct-linking your new photos. Do you have any snow in which to test your Snow Groomer?

Edited March 20, 2011 by DLuders

[Oerieth]

@ Oerieth: It could be several days before your Brickshelf folder is "moderated" and made public. It doesn't matter whether you are "new" to Brickshelf or not -- new images are not moderated for days. As a result, a lot of folks use Flickr.com to be able to make their images available instantly. Anyway, you figured out a way of direct-linking your new photos. Do you have any snow in which to test your Snow Groomer?

Thanks for your answer. There is currently no snow here in Germany so I currently can't test it in real life situations :p

Here are some more pictures :)

[Fuzzylegobricks]

Nice MOD! Now you need lights

[freakwave]

Hi Oerieth,

That is really a great achievment to put all the functions into the small chassis and keep it good looking!

Thanks for your answer. There is currently no snow here in Germany so I currently can't test it in real life situations :p

Yes, unfortunately all the snow is gone now! No more real-life tests till much later this year. Alternatively try the Stubai Glacier.

Regarding your chassis, in my opinion you will have difficulties in snow. Why? First the ground clearance is very low with the small wheels. With the four motors and the battery-pack it is quite heavy, distributing the weight to two single treads will still make it sink into softer snow. Second to increase grip you need to add something to the treads. They will slip too easily without any additional blades (or sort of them).

On my chassis I am using double treads (2 on each side) with half liftarms (7L) spaced two treads apart. This gives it a better grip. However it is still sinking into soft snow and you need "perfect" conditions, some 2 cm of fresh snow on top of a more compact layer of old snow, to be able to drive properly

I am over the third winter now and finally my chassis is sturdy enough that I can turn without difficulties and pull the tiller properly.

I noticed however that keeping the bricks for about 15 minutes in the cold (-5°C) and especially the treads, is increasing the difficulties to properly run them, i.e. they start to become somehow "brittle".

[davidmull]

I'm not into mocs but I have to say this is the best iv seen to date I really like it well done.

[Oerieth]

@Fuzzylegobricks

Yes, light would give it the final touch, but its quite hard to fit them in without screwing the design...

@freakwave

Yes, your right with the point that the model will not perform well in snow, but I didn't build it for that purpose. I really like the Idea to squeeze many functions into small space and use some sort of mechanism to have more RC functions than motors.

I originally planned to make the model bigger and with XL-motors without being related to an official lego model, but as I started building the gearbox, I realized that it would fit into the 8263 if I use M-motors

@davidmull

Thank you for your comment. I am currently planning some other attachments. I'm thinking about some sort of claw arm and a bridge launcher

Edited March 21, 2011 by Oerieth