Void_S

[MOC] Trailers and semitrailers compatible with Mack Anthem (42078)

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Hello everyone! Looking at the presented modes over the Internet have found that this set fantastically fits into the golden scale for the small-medium models like 8109, 42008, 42024 and may other trucks including the MOCs.

As there is a big topic for Mack Anthem modifications (42078 Mack Anthem Mods and improvements), here my point is to present the compatible cargo attachments like trailers, semitrailers, and other possible variations. (@moderators - please feel free to merge with the main topic if you still think that this way doesn't deserve the dedicated topic).

Short index:

  1. Converter Dolly (1 axle)
    - EB post: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/171695-moc-trailers-and-semitrailers-compatible-with-mack-anthem-42078/&tab=comments#comment-3113116
    - Rebrickable: TBD
  2. Converter Dolly (2-axles) with a self-aligning front axle
    - EB post: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/171695-moc-trailers-and-semitrailers-compatible-with-mack-anthem-42078/&tab=comments#comment-3113249
    - Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-25519/VoidSerpent/42078-converter-dolly-2-axles-self-aligning-mode/
  3. American-style semitrailer with sliding tandem (flatbed)
    - EB post: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/171695-moc-trailers-and-semitrailers-compatible-with-mack-anthem-42078/&tab=comments#comment-3114803
    - Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-25587/VoidSerpent/42078-flatbed-american-style-semitrailer/
  4.  American-style semitrailer with sliding tandem (box)
    Is coming...
  5.  American-style semitrailer with sliding tandem (dry van)
    Is coming...
  6. Drawbar trailer (2-axles) with turnable front axle (dry van, double-sided gates)
    Is coming...

_______________________________________________

Converter Dolly (1 axle)

First things first, even the smallest ones. While I'm still working on the biggest ones I'm glad to present some kindly unusual thing: A-dolly or converter dolly trailer that is usually used to turn semitrailers to normal trailers making them being able to be towed by normal trucks (not semi-trucks). This thing is made of Mack's rear end with the rear axle (not driven now) and fifth wheel and is equipped with a pair of wheel chock, a static A-shape drawbar (I very proud of it, really!) and removable stand support:

800x300.jpg

LDD file is available: https://bricksafe.com/files/Void_s/42078/dolly/MOC - A-Trailer Dolly 1-axle.lxf

(I know, it's not a fair coupling - just demonstration of how it could be done)

  • one degree of freedom - fifth wheel
  • fixed axle (no suspension)
  • fixed A-shape drawbar
  • removable stand support
  • wheel chocks

The source of inspiration was GreatDane's real-life converter dolly:

Converter%20dolly1.jpg

Off course, it's not a full-size and large trailer so far but I found it highly required for the further road trains like for some Australian or newly appeared eurocombi coupling: normal cargo truck + semitrailer attached as a trailer using tow hitch. Moreover, this simplest thing should be capable to work with only up to 24T semitrailers (one axle, yeah) so I'm about to finish the elder brother: 2-axle A-dolly with some tasty function :blush:

Edited by Void_S
Updated the MOCs index

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My I ask why you have attached a fifth wheel trailer to a truck which has its own fifth wheel?
It could work with my C model though:

 

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Just now, M_longer said:

My I ask why you have attached a fifth wheel trailer to a truck which has its own fifth wheel?

Yeah... For sure it must be attached to the truck with no fifth wheel. I just took the truck that I had.

OK, I have to make something or take yours or Grohl's trucks (they both are amazing!) and attach it to them to avoid the misunderstanding. Will do :sweet:

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4 hours ago, M_longer said:

My I ask why you have attached a fifth wheel trailer to a truck which has its own fifth wheel?

When you are building up a multi combination road train in the yard using an (A-DOLLY)  I use the Ring Feeder on the back of the semi not the turntable.

On the odd occasions I have hauled a dolly trailer behind the semi ( I then run a weight box on the fifth wheel ) It's certainly not a common practice

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On 5/25/2019 at 5:49 AM, brickless_kiwi said:

When you are building up a multi combination road train in the yard using an (A-DOLLY)  I use the Ring Feeder on the back of the semi not the turntable.

On the odd occasions I have hauled a dolly trailer behind the semi ( I then run a weight box on the fifth wheel ) It's certainly not a common practice 

Yeah, it's a kind of dangerous to pull a heavy trailer when your rear wheels are not loaded enough.

Here is the more convenient and proper pair. M_Longer, I haven't used your truck as it's a model with a paid instruction I was afraid to reveal something you'd prefer to keep hidden.

640x285.jpg

Converter Dolly (2-axles) with a self-aligning front axle

It's a big brother - a converter dolly with 2 axles for full-weight semitrailers, also inspired by GreatDane's dolly:

Converter%20dolly.jpg

The main difference (exclude the axles number, for sure) is the A-shape drawbar that is now mounted with a single degree of freedom (vertical) that allows following the road surface.

640x291.jpg

640x326.jpg

Have you noticed the blue cone here? Guess what is that while I'm preparing the detailed overview ;)

Edited by Void_S

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Just now, fosamax said:

Does it mean you have built grohl's model C mack granite in LDD ?

Exactly. Let me get his approval and then I'll publish it.

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Hope so. It may help a lot of people with the build. Following a reverse video that last 2 hours is quite a bit of challenge.

Really slick work with the dolly so far BTW.

Thanks for sharing.

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And now here are some details on the blue cone: it's a steering modes switch. Not so complicated as in Claas because of the different purpose and limited size, but still interesting, I believe.

Mode 1. When the lever is moved up, it disengages the steering rack(?) lock and the front axle becomes self-aligned. It allows the dolly to follow the truck with better maneuverability at corners and less stress on the tires. Notice that the kingpins are in front of the wheel centers.

 

640x377.jpg

Mode 2: Axle is fixed. When the lever is pushed down, it locks the front axle steering making all the wheels always parallel. It allows to move back easily (otherwise the uncentered kingpins will prevent the proper movement).

640x360.jpg

Initially, I wanted to make a kind of "Krone" dolly with a rotatable drawbar that rotates the wheels (like in lowboy trailers heavily presented here) but actually, it didn't provide any benefits for such scale. I will keep working on that anyways and who knows, maybe it could be "overcomplicated" even more? :sweet:

  • one degree of freedom - fifth wheel
  • one degree of freedom - A-shape drawbar
  • fixed rear axle (no suspension)
  • steerable (follows the truck movements) front axle
  • steering lock that allows making the front axle fixes

LDD is ready: https://bricksafe.com/files/Void_s/42078/dolly/MOC - A-Trailer Dolly 2-axle.lxf

Edit: Now it's at Rebricalble as well: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-25519/VoidSerpent/a-dolly-2-axles-with-self-aligning-front-axle-mack-anthem-compatible

Edited by Void_S

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On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 12:59 PM, fosamax said:

Does it mean you have built grohl's model C mack granite in LDD ?

Here is the LDD: 

 

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American-style semitrailer with sliding tandem (flatbed)

Now, it's time for a semi-trailer. I know that there are a lot of them over the world so I believe you wouldn't mind seeing one more. It is not finished yet now but very close to the final stage so let me present it.

As you may see it looks very similar to CustomBricks/efferman's flatbed, so it's true: I have spent a lot of time thinking on which kind of attachment I want to build and comparing the already existing ones. The main idea was to make an American one (as the prime mover is Mack :laugh:) - double tires, axles are very close to the rear end, etc. And that one was so close to my idea:

However, it had some significant disadvantages for me so I had to really work hard on my own variant - even the 9th attempt wasn't perfect enough. So here it is:

640x360.jpg

  • Fully, at all 100% compatible with all 42078-like rigs. That's a "must" rule for me.
  • Flat cargo area with a possibility to mount the walls or a whole van easily.
  • Modular construction to have a possibility make it longer or shorter at 11L-sections.
  • Make the floor as low as possible keeping the overall rigidity. I'm proud to say that it's lower at 1L than most of the other semitrailer MOCs. It really took time to plan the structure and how to align all the parts properly.
  • Americal style: double-tired wheels. I borrowed the efferman's idea but reinforced it just a bit by adding the central mounting points for the half-axles. Now the wheels even spin better and longer due to less friction and bending stress.
  • Towing Hitch. For sure, it must be here as I'm still planning to make it a big road train-ready (that's a planned purpose of the whole topic).
  • And one more surprise function. I couldn't resist adding something very interesting but still existing in a real-life. Wonder what? See the picture below:

640x396.jpg

It's a feature that I saw only at the Americans semitrailers - ability to move the axles closer to the center or rear end. Real-life machines have a sliding axles cart that may be fixed in various positions by pins. Here is an explanation of what is that and how it works: 

As for me, it doesn't have great playability so I used the worm+rack constriction that easily fixes the axles at any position...

640x216.jpg

The rear end of the driveshaft is a "socket" for the external lever (like PTO outputs of Claas). The first idea was to have a HOG gear here but it took so much place and the feature is not supposed to be a very frequently used (less than steering at least :) )

Now on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-25587/VoidSerpent/42078-flatbed-american-style-semitrailer/

Edited by Void_S
Updated the pictures

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Hi, Void_S I've seen on rebrickable you've already added N°4 and 5.

Great work on the overall design.

Will you consider offering the full pack at a discounted price, given the large similarities shared between the models ?

BTW, It could be a good idea to have a differential part list to know the missing parts when using only parts from the original mack's trailer.

Edited by fosamax

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@fosamax, thank you! I was trying to do my best to fit all the necessary functions here but nothing is perfect, so I'm going to keep these things updated once I found some possibility to add anything new. Regarding the "big pack", you're reading my thoughts, I haven't finished all the things yet, so will publish it in a few days. And additional thanks for the "extra parts" list idea - it's not a C-Model but really heavily overlap the trailer and container assemblies, so someone really might be looking for just extra parts needed.

Edit

Just some few more MOC, heavily based on the original Flatbed:

American-style semitrailer with sliding tandem (box)

Semitrailer%20-%20MOC%20Flatbed%20Sidewa

The full gallery: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Void_s/42078/flatbed-sidewalls-us

It has the same features, plus openable rear side (rotates at 90 degrees to support some extra long payload and the second possible position for kingpin - for coupling with a deeper installed the fifth wheel, like tri-drive trucks (with 3 rear driven axles). The parts list is on Rebricakble.

As it also has the towing hitch, it could be assembled with a kind of road train together with the previously mentioned dolly:

640x427.jpg

 

American-style semitrailer with sliding tandem (dry van)

It's the third variation, now a merge of the previous one and the original container from the A-model with slightly rearranged doors and locks.

640x360.jpg

Like the previous ones, it's built using the modular technique (the LBG liftarms between the panels are the borders of these modules), so it could be done in 5*11, 6*11 and 7*11 units. I haven't deal with the scale ratio yet so can't say the size in meters/ft. Also, thanks to the roomy enough space around the kingpin, it is compatible even with such tri-drive truck (the axles cart is very compact here so the kingpin is on the normal position).

640x179.jpg

The part list is on Rebrickable and the full gallery is on Bricksafe.

  

Edited by Void_S

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Let me add here one more thing that I made some time ago: a step deck (drop deck) semitrailer with the lowest possible cargo surface.

I have planned making something with smaller wheels, like some real-life truck have, and as I started the US semitrailers series here, the next one come as a very low cargo platform, also known as a step deck: 

800x450.jpg

Initially, it has started as a nothing special than a deep modification of the flatbed, but new challenges caused by the decreased height forced me to rebuild it completely. Meanwhile I was looking some new best solutions, so now it got:

  • more rigid structure, as it was even more critical for the lower frame;
  • better modularity, I redesigned the sections connections and now it can be easily shortened or extended by adding few more sections - just pull a couple of 3L pins with bush (they are visible on the bottom edge of the frame) to disassemble the trailer and add few more sections;
  • cheaper, as now it uses only the cheapest possible solutions - has no LA's no extra gears, no other expensive parts. I even decided not to use the narrow "London bus/Corvette" wheels, but you can put them to get more authentic "doubles".

Despite these constrains and challenges, it still has the same features:

  1. Slide axles. The same idea but looks and works in a more interesting manner: the fist axle slides from the "wide spread" position that makes any 90 or 180 turn a hard trouble, to a tight and manurable short tandem (2 studs shorter than Anthem's tandem). It utilizes the rack and worm gear, so the axle can be stopped in any desired position.
    Opposite to the flatbed MOC, it uses the usual 13L "steering rack" that is way compact and cheaper that "crane" rack+housing.
    640x360.jpg
    (the front axle moves with the mudguards, so the space between them is a constant)
  2. Another and the last feature is the stands (landing gears) that are controlled by the lever and can be folder or activated immediately and nicely secured in the both final positions.
    It was possible due to a little trick with some curved linkage between the lever and stands (it took 20 minutes to make an idea and 3.5 hours to realize it :grin:):
    640x360.jpg
    It surprisingly simple but works like a charm, and needs no slow LA's or someting expensie else.

Some more photos can me found at BrickSafe: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Void_s/42078/semitrailer-stepdeck-us, as the MOC itself at Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-29877.

 

And now, once the concept of "lower deck with smaller wheels" is well-tested, it's time to go forward with more complex (and even more difficult) model: B-trail with "V8 supercars hauler"

800x450.jpg

It's hard to say how long it could take right now, but hopefully I will manage to make it once...

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Wow, that's a huge trailer :laugh:.

I really like your step deck trailer!

I copied your steering system from the wheel hub to the steering wheel. This highly simplifies the mechanics of the European truck I am building. The most crucial parts (front part of the chassis + bumper ) are done so I should show something soon :classic:  

 

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This thread alone has made me seriously consider picking up this set.  I wasn't even considering it!  @M_longer's snowplow though has pushed this over the top!!!!

Seriously nice work @Void_S!!!!

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2 hours ago, grego18f said:

I copied your steering system from the wheel hub to the steering wheel. This highly simplifies the mechanics of the European truck I am building. The most crucial parts (front part of the chassis + bumper ) are done so I should show something soon :classic:  

Yeah it was a kind of revelation too for me when I found out that it could be done in the simplest way. So, can't wait to see your MOC when you finish it. :thumbup: 

@ian74, agree at all, it's a godlike C-model (bravo, M_longer, again and again)! Personally, I'd recommend you one more thread that is full of other tasty things :tongue:

 

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While the big "hauler" isn't finished, let me put here a small but rigid enough teaser of a smaller brother: removable gooseneck lowboy made of my step-deck semitrailer.

800x450.jpg

It's a digital render, yes, but this time I have built it physically first to test all possible combinations and identify the strongest possible result. So now it bends under the motorized 42053 excavator (about 1.2kg including the big battery box with 6 AA elements) less than at 0.5 studs. Not bad for the construction made of stud-less beams (no technic stud beams/bricks were used) 1-to-2 stud thickness (the deck thickness is 1 stud + 2-stud middle frame). I'm going to finish it as it still has some questionable things and then publish here.

Edited by Void_S

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5 hours ago, Aleh said:

In 2016 I designed my own truck with trailer. It seems both are compatible with Mack truck or trailer.

Heah, that wonderful trailer! I still can't stop thinning about it as a starship, it looks very sci-fi stylish with it's gray sides full of grills, handles, beams... Pure Star Wars on wheels :sweet:

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On 1/17/2020 at 10:31 PM, Void_S said:

Heah, that wonderful trailer! I still can't stop thinning about it as a starship, it looks very sci-fi stylish with it's gray sides full of grills, handles, beams... Pure Star Wars on wheels :sweet:

Thanks :) I'm glad you like it!

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Now, while other trailers are still in progress, some new modifications to existing ones. I found some MOCs with adaptation of them to lead trailers for B-double trains and my idea was to make them even better, make Technic models more technical. So, please welcome slider-transformer lead trailers:

1000x800p.jpg?1583931371.0647192

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-37322/VoidSerpent/lead-semitrailers-3-in-1-pack-for-42078-slider-featured

The main feature that they still use the "sider" feature but now that moves the whole frame with axles and the third wheel, so it have two appearances:

  • Normal semitrailer with the frame moved under the cargo deck
  • Lead semitrailer, ready for the tag trailer coupling

800x450.jpg

Notice two HOG "knobs" - they controls the landing gears (supports) and the worm gear for sliding in-out control.

As usually, it comes as a Flatbed, Side wall and Box models for different cargo types:

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