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Dear friends!

Finally, I started to clean out my MOC closet, which has been gradually filling up the last two years and somehow, I couldn't get myself to empty it. The first of more-to-come skeletons :pir-skel: to fall out of it is this TATRA T813 KOLOS in truck trial version, that I have built almost a year ago for our LUG’s annual 14th truck trial race “KockeTerenci”.

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I got inspired by this little canary on steroids:

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This is my biggest truck so far, that is actually capable of tackling some terrain. The dimensions are as follows: l / w / h = 65 cm / 19 cm / 25 cm or 81 / 24 / 31 studs. It is a bit to narrow for my liking, but one of our TT race rules states, that gates on track are 30 studs wide, so I went for a fitter width. Truck weighs slim 3,3 kg with 2 AAA battery boxes, with Buwizz a little less. It is a bit front heavy as the cabin weighs more than 0,35 kg+ the steering mechanism protrudes a bit into the cabin.

Some photos of exterior before further babbling…

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I tried both PF and Buwizz for power, which one did better is obvious… I hereby thank @imurvai for BrickController application – it was a pure joy using it.

Truck features 8x8 drive with typical TATRA suspension and single drive shaft where left and right half axles are misaligned for half a stud, similar as IRL. Fatso is driven by two PF XL motors that are hard-coupled on a two-speed gearbox, which is a modification Sariel’s linear heavy-duty transmission and is placed between the 2nd and 3rd axle. It is remotely controlled with a small linear actuator driven by a PF M motor between 3rd and 4th axle.

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Total gearing in 1st gear is 23.2:1 and in 2nd gear 8.3:1. 1st gear is pretty sluggish but does the job well and the 2nd gear is good only for rather flat terrain with minor bumps. Unfortunately, I ran out of place for hiding the motors inside the chassis so not to good looking from above but the body covers them well from the side. I had to rebuilt and modify the gearbox a couple of times, bracing each pair of gears as close to them as possible. Previous versions of gearbox resulted in some ABS abuse :look: as you can see on photos below :blush:.

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Front two axles are steered by an L motor which also turns the steering wheel in the cabin. Steering mechanism is a modified 2 axle steering system from Madoca’s Tatra T813 which is some studs wider than my version. Below the cabin there is a working mini fake V12 engine with fan (original design by @jorgeopesi). The cabin has two seats, some gauges around the steering wheel, and fake shift stick.

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As you can see, I had to make front axle suspension pretty stiff due to heavy front of the truck. There are three pairs of hard spring shock absorbers on 1st axle, two on 2nd  and 4th axle, and one pair on 3rd. When there were only two pairs of shocks on front axle, the truck was sagging pretty bad.

And now (IMO the highlight of this MOC) to stickers. The truck is full of them, as is the real truck. I searched the web for some that I found cool and funny. Stickers were printed on plain white sticker sheet and some on a transparent sticker sheet for laser printers. The latter took some colours very well and some not – especially red colour pealed off rather quick, which made the rad claw marks look old and worn out which turned out even better. I find it quite hard to tear it apart as I am very pleased with how it turned out. In addition, teardown is being postponed continuously because the transparent sticker sheet leaves some glue spots on bricks and I haven’t found the right mood to clean them. I hope you don't mind, if I point them out...

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A funny thing with those septic tank cleaners - on Facebook,a guy from Republic South Africa comes out and says he sees trucks of this company all the time as they have HQ in town next to him - small world isn't it? I hope they don't mind some extra commercial :grin:.

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To end, here are some more photos from the beast’s natural habitat and a video of course. In order for you not to fall asleep, I sped up some of the footage. I also apologise for some part of the video being a bit on the lower side of quality - it comes so that my cellphone is practically all my shooting gear.

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Thank you for your time reading this and I hope you like it. I am looking forward to your thoughts and comments. Fire away.:ugh:

Higher resolution photos can be found in my BrickSafe folder.

Best regards,

Miha

P.S.: In case someone wonders, how I did on the race – see photo of competition below. Mine is that small yellow fella in the middle. As you can imagine, I was no match for those small and fast woodpeckers :hmpf_bad::wink:

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FREE BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE!

 

Edited by MajklSpajkl
wrong data on schock absorbers

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Now this is a true beauty! The stickers really make the truck come alive. The design looks incredibly solid and highly effective, as one tends to expect from you. Thank you for sharing the beast with us, it’s a pleasure to view. And it certainly would be difficult to tear it apart. 

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I feel sad that this beauty is coming apart... I'd hate to do it...

Excellent build and design, there are some neat bits, like how the motors are mounted. And those stickers... :wub:

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Makes me want to try build a tatra. Tis awesome :thumbup:

just a good enviro tip for anyone with sticker residue (on anything not just LEGO) is peanut butter, smear on and leave overnight then just lick off... I mean wash off.

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As I had written below the video: Really cool MOC with great use of stickers. Love the artwork. As I learned you collected them all over the web - so really cool composition. Your truck is looking very natural (so to say).

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On 1/11/2019 at 9:04 PM, jorgeopesi said:

Long ago without see a Tatra, it seems a little bit narrow but it is a monster beauty anyway.

Yes narrow it is. As I explained , I decided to make it so narrow in order to be able to squezze it through our gates on TruckTrial race where we decided that gates are maximum 30 studs wide. It should be shorter for this width but hard to make it shorter with those massive tires, which I absolutely wanted to use.

On 1/12/2019 at 12:21 AM, Horace T said:

Clever to move the motors the way you do. Not seen that before.

H

On 1/12/2019 at 8:07 AM, Leonardo da Bricki said:

I feel sad that this beauty is coming apart... I'd hate to do it...

Excellent build and design, there are some neat bits, like how the motors are mounted. And those stickers... :wub:

Motors moving along with driving gears was, as I wrote, Sariel's idea. I expanded his gearbox on two motors and added extra connections between the axles so that pairs of gears are braced as much as possible. Also Sariel's version has motors placed longitudinally which is way better, because corner gear pairs are more likely to skip - unfortunately, I didn't have enough space to make it so.

On 1/12/2019 at 6:12 AM, John Daniels said:

Now this is a true beauty! The stickers really make the truck come alive. The design looks incredibly solid and highly effective, as one tends to expect from you. Thank you for sharing the beast with us, it’s a pleasure to view. And it certainly would be difficult to tear it apart. 

Thank you for your kind words. The chassis is indeed very sturdy, the weakest point is, I guess, behind the second axle, but still stiff enough not to bend under selfweight. Good stiffness is a result of  lower "flange" bellow the driveshaft and the upper "flange" of the chassis beam being 9 studs appart. I am especially satisfied with being able to make te lower longitudinal bracing below the driveshaft. 

On 1/12/2019 at 10:42 AM, Attika said:

:wub: I love it. 

For cleaning sticker residue: WD40

 

On 1/12/2019 at 11:50 AM, MangaNOID said:

Makes me want to try build a tatra. Tis awesome :thumbup:

just a good enviro tip for anyone with sticker residue (on anything not just LEGO) is peanut butter, smear on and leave overnight then just lick off... I mean wash off.

Thanks for the tips guys, I was thinking of the WD40, as peanut butter is rather rarelly on our shopping list :-) It is actually quite rare thing overall here in Slovenia.

On 1/12/2019 at 2:22 PM, HorcikDesigns said:

One question comes to my mind - What are the max. slopes it manages to climb on rough and smooth surface?

Hmmm...I haven't really got to much into diagnostics really. As you can see on the video, it manages a 100% slope on a garden chair pillow quite good. As I remember it might do a bit more, but could not approach such a steep angle. Haven't tried more smooth surfaces than that. I believe it would struggle with such slope on a solid rock... at least the tires would slip due to heavyweight I think.

On 1/11/2019 at 9:33 PM, HorcikDesigns said:

Wow, just wow. 
BTW, really nice stickers!

On 1/12/2019 at 3:21 PM, ArsMan064 said:

Fantastic! Stickers made this truck alive.... Great offroad qualities!

 

49 minutes ago, jrx said:

As I had written below the video: Really cool MOC with great use of stickers. Love the artwork. As I learned you collected them all over the web - so really cool composition. Your truck is looking very natural (so to say).

 

38 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

Excellent job! Dunno how I've missed this, should've seen it a mile off with those colours. The 'Septic Tank' stickers are my favourite detail. :laugh:

Thanky you all for your kind words. I agree - stickers make this truck come to life and I was really intrigued to take some time to pick them up and make them the right size. Withouht them, the truck was nothing but a big stiff banana :grin: 

I thank you all again to take tme and look at the video and the photos and of course for all the kind words - I almost forgot how good it feels to receive feedback for a MOC. I hope to make more "frequent" releases in the future.

Nevertheless, there are still many things that could be improved, but when the model was finished and the race was over, I really didn't feel like mixing bread any further so it is what it is now. 

Best regards,

Miha

Edited by MajklSpajkl

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On 1/13/2019 at 5:26 PM, steph77 said:

great build, great design, great abilities

what else?

A beer would be nice :tongue:

But seriously, thanks, I really appreciate it :thumbup:

Edited by MajklSpajkl

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Vvery impressive Tatra! Looks terrific! How many stickers have you used?

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23 minutes ago, LeEasy said:

instructions! We need instructions!!! Terrific work!

With a sticker sheet!

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19 hours ago, Aleh said:

Vvery impressive Tatra! Looks terrific! How many stickers have you used?

 

8 hours ago, LeEasy said:

instructions! We need instructions!!! Terrific work!

 

8 hours ago, Aleh said:

With a sticker sheet!

Stickers,...on a quick count there might be about 50 of them. Some of them are duplicated.

Instructions,... ah those instructions. It seems nowadays a creation is worth nothing, if it doesn't come with instructions. And everybody is selling them. And they gotta be sold right, otherwise they are indeed worth nothing. We've got premium badges all over the Rebrickable. Ah, those instructions... For now, it's a no, time is so short and making instructions may be the most boring thing one can do around the hobby. Maybe when I actually get around to tear it appart, I'll make some photos (like 756 of them or more :grin:). Maybe, .... And if I do, will it be worth the time? Should I sell them? To sell, not to sell? That is the question.  Ahhh, those instructions...:hmpf_bad: Forgive me for my rant (something is in the air this evening), I am very thankful and honored by your praise and requests, but I am a bit annoyed with all that instructions business nowadays in general. I never felt to comfortable to sell instructions but again, since everybody is doing it, I feel really dumb not to. I agree - stuff from masterbuilders with professional instructions made for supercars and big cranes and such deserves pay, but for each two bricks that fell together? I guess this is the time of our life it seems - if there's someone who'd buy - just sell it, shake your money maker. 

Best regards.

Miha

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Well, we would also be fine with a free instructions. You don't have to sell them. Terrific looking thing! How bad is it with the unimog tyres?

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2 hours ago, goggel said:

Well, we would also be fine with a free instructions. You don't have to sell them. Terrific looking thing! How bad is it with the unimog tyres?

And I thought you would be offended by free instructions :look: - silly me :head_back:

Haven't tried it with any other tires, but unimog wheels? I think not - they have absolutely no off-road character and the truck would look silly. Maybe it would work with 4x4 Crawler tires but they might look to small as they are more rounded.

 

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hi, congratulations on the beautiful work, I would like to build it for my collection, you would have the instructions to sell

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