[WIP][TTC2015] Mercedes 2045 challenge

[Zerobricks]

I decided to also try the Mercedes 2045 challenge, and here's what I made so far in LDD.

Its a very compact drive indepent suspension with pushrod suspension...the truck will be 4WD

More info and updates soon...

[efferman]

I like the axle, but in a real truck the engine is much to large to make it in this way.

[Thirdwigg]

Cool. I am interested to see how the body work turns out on this. It's been fun to see all the different designs posted so far.

[TheItalianBrick]

Cool. I am interested to see how the body work turns out on this. It's been fun to see all the different designs posted so far.

I think, although it's a technic competition, the main focus should be the bodywork rather than suspensions or engines. Specially considering the year 2045 we may not get pistons/normal suspension anymore.

So I look forward to the body! I've made some sketches and renders and hopefully I'll be able to complete it!

P.S. how can we see how many entires and pics of those? Would be nice to see what other people are doing but I don;t know where to look for!

[Thirdwigg]

See here. Rebrick.com->Categories->Building Challenge

[TheItalianBrick]

See here. Rebrick.com->Categories->Building Challenge

Thanks. It only displays 10 entries…..is it right?

[9 fingers]

Waiting for the design?????!!!!!

[Thirdwigg]

Thanks. It only displays 10 entries…..is it right?

That's about right. Some of them are duplicates. I think there is about a week left, so there should be more. Including mine...

[jono rocky]

Will be watching this build. its an interesting comp and I'm sure you will nail it. I thought more people would go down the flying truck route. Eager to see more progress and good luck Zblj.

[darsedz]

Zbj, are You thinking in 2045 nothing will change in case on engines? Maybe it's a time to think about something different - some chemical reactor, solar panels, electric drive...

[bonox]

I think, although it's a technic competition, the main focus should be the bodywork rather than suspensions or engines.

If any of the predictions about computer control materialise in the next couple of decades, there won't be any 'bodywork' to speak of. You'll have piles of unaerodynamic cubes following a streamlined leader. No cab, no windows, just a load bay and some wheels. If you think i've just described a train with self piloted 'carriages' that peel off when they need to, it's exactly where i'm going.

Then again, if the last decade is anything to go by, the world with money will probably be too scared to change to anything new and in 50 years we'll still be running diesel engines running on algae generated oil. Either way, I don't think you can cast aspersions upon anyones guess about what'll happen.

[Zerobricks]

50 years ago people thought we are gonna have flying cars...I dont tthink 30 years from now diesel or driver will be fully eliminated. Sure there will be hybrids (which this truck will be) and the driver will still be needed in some situations just like pilots even though they have autopilot.

[allanp]

Compare trucks of today with those 30 years ago and they are basically the same. They look different now, but it's still a big diesel engine between two massive chassis rails powering a manual transmission with lots of gears driving a leaf sprung rear live axle or two. I guess because it works. So I guess the differences will be from greater fuel economy or use of a different fuel (which we can't replicate with Lego) or cosmetics. However, what about a concept truck 30 years from now? I can imagine it having 8 individually steered and sprung wheel units, kinda like these...

....but with only one wheel in the middle of each unit instead of 4, so that it could go pretty much go anywhere, move in any direction and turn on the spot if it wanted to. The base could also be used in military and emergency service vehicles.

Edited September 25, 2015 by allanp

[Zerobricks]

Chassis is done, rear axle also uses pushrod suspension.

And here's an idea of the look in LDD:

To be honest I'm not so inspired by this look and chassis, I am thinking of maybe making a different type of a truck, maybe unimog...

What do you guys think?

[Milan]

It looks futuristic, but I would make it a bit more radical.

[Thirdwigg]

I like the headlights, and the green will work well on the final design.

I would be interested to see what a future unimog would look like.

[Brickthus]

I decided I could not build a decent truck in the timescale, so I posted my ideas here, which you are all welcome to try. Please post pictures if you do.

Although some simple LEGO parts exist for a gas turbine, notably in Batman sets, they would be too small to represent an engine of the power needed in a hybrid truck i.e. 300HP.

I was also considering driverless skytrucks, which might look like the frame of a reach stacker (adaptable to pick up 20ft or 40ft containers) with lift fans along the sides and a couple of gas turbines with generators at the rear. That might be a bit beyond this competition. A skytruck would be like the Amazon drone delivery concept but for containers! It would not need to land to pick up or drop off the container. It would have spare lift fan capacity to cope with unbalanced loads - no balancing procedure like loading current cargo planes. Probably no wheels!

I was a bit disappointed to think that the competition might focus more on aesthetics than on engineering with Technic functional building excellence. I hope the functionality of our entries will be good enough for each to be made into a Technic kit if the Mercedes-LEGO partnership wants to do that. The more pneumatics the better!

Mark