42108 Tow Truck alternate build

[Timorzelorzworz]

Hello folks,

I wondered why there is no official alternate build for the 42108 Mobile Crane (sometimes lovely called Yellow Parts Pack), so I decided to create this cool American Tow Truck as an alternate model.

This alternate uses 1172 parts from the main model. Spare parts are not needed.

The dimensions of the truck are as follow:

52 cm (L) x 15 cm (W) x 18 cm (H) with extended wheel lift
(20.5 in x 5,9 in x 7 in)

The model reaches a total height of 40 cm (15,7 in) with fully extended arm. In scale, it fits the 42078 Mack Anthem or 42098 Car Transporter very well with those tires.

The functions are as follow:

• HOG-Steering
• workable 6-cylinder inline engine with nice clicking-sound under the hood
• openable hood with locking function
• both doors can be opened
• raising/lowering the boom - operable on both sides of the model
• extendable arm
• working winch with locking function
• extendible wheel lift

Because the lag of differential in the main model, the inline engine is just driven by one wheel and not by the entire axle. The playability of the American Tow Truck is just great. You can use either the wheel lift to hook and tow cars or other trucks, or you can use the giant boom to rescue some crashed vehicles with the strong winch.

The model is based on a real American Tow Truck. Here are some pictures of the model you easily can build on rebrickable:

With realease of 42107 and some rare panels in red, this model can be build to 100% in red instead of yellow. Blue, black and white are also possible with a few changes. Since 42115 and the release of lime panels and connectors, this truck can be fully build in lime instead yellow with some minor changes.

instruction

The instruction comes in high quality and clear images for builders with an age of atleast 10 years. With 5 parts per step, the instruction is very easy to follow and has 234 total pages with a total of 347 steps. The model is divided into several submodels and steps with different camera views as common for modern Technic sets.

Rendering the rope was a bit tricky because it counts not as a part, but the instruction steps are very clear and understandable to deal with it. And the best thing is: You do not need to make or release the nodes on the rope - you can use the rope with nodes on both ends from the main model as it is.

Here are some random example pages of the instruction:

You can find this MOC with building instruction on rebrickable: here

Finally a cool 360 degress view and review

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Timorzelorzworz
pictures added, color variations

[Parazels]

It looks like an impressive official set!

[mpj]

Liking more and more! Somehow the renders look better than the real model, anyway I this is an impressive job 

[Timorzelorzworz]

13 minutes ago, mpj said:

Liking more and more! Somehow the renders look better than the real model, anyway I this is an impressive job 

Maybe due the lightning. To be honest, I am not that expert in making photos :D

[Pauls Technic]

This is amazing, could easily be an official set.

 

[Ngoc Nguyen]

In the real vehicle is the fork attached to the crane arm, or is it lifted through a separate mechanism?

[Timorzelorzworz]

It is separated, but not possible due the limitation of parts. In this model it is more like 42008

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Timorzelorzworz

[JaBaCaDaBra]

Oh this is real great
Much better than the original..

Where do we find the instructions?

edit
allready found them

Edited June 8, 2020 by JaBaCaDaBra

[trekman]

That is a sweet ride for a non-official B model.  Well done

[Erik Leppen]

As I said in the 42108 thread, this is a great model. This should have been the A-model, with the mobile crane as a B.

 

I do notice one slight issue though. The center of the main boom isn't secured from the top, so can very easily separate between the two large yellow panels. If you have 4 pins and 2 beams (at least 5 long) remaining, you can fix that easily.

[Timorzelorzworz]

15 minutes ago, Erik Leppen said:

As I said in the 42108 thread, this is a great model. This should have been the A-model, with the mobile crane as a B.

 

I do notice one slight issue though. The center of the main boom isn't secured from the top, so can very easily separate between the two large yellow panels. If you have 4 pins and 2 beams (at least 5 long) remaining, you can fix that easily.

It is secured with 15L beam in the middle. The boom is 5 studs wide, not 4 studs like in the main model. You can see this by the 3L blue pins or on instruction screenshot. In reality, this model is really solid and nearly indestructable. The boom does not bent either, the center beam fixes all 4 panels. Stability was one major (beside fake engine) point in the design process.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Timorzelorzworz

[Jundis]

Great work, this really could have been an A-Model!

Do you have enough parts left to connect the steering also to the second axle?  Would be even cooler I think, but maybe difficult as there is not much room left... :-)

[Timorzelorzworz]

2 hours ago, Jundis said:

Great work, this really could have been an A-Model!

Do you have enough parts left to connect the steering also to the second axle?  Would be even cooler I think, but maybe difficult as there is not much room left... :-)

Unfortunately not, it was hard to do with the existing parts of the main model and there are no gears or racks over to do that. Furthermore the second (first fixed axle) drives the fake engine, so it seems with that parts not possible to steer this axle, but can be of course a cool mod. You can see the drive train in one pic here: https://tim-application.online/showroom/?model=ttl20

It is indeed possible to extend the steering axle to the back, but not with the existing parts.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Timorzelorzworz

[Timorzelorzworz]

Here is a quick speedbuild and demonstration video

 

 

[Timorzelorzworz]

Here ist the full review

https://rebrickable.com/blog/282/moc-review-moc-43434-american-tow-truck/

[Jasseji]

Oki Doki, i have to say, i built the original set, @M_longer's Upgraded Carrier, the Harbor Crane from @Nequmodiva and this one (even experimented a bit with my own changes)

So far i have to say all of those are a nice build for a Parent but this one is the highest Playabilty from my 4-year-old's point of view.

Maybe i'm a bit biased because we have 2 Pull-Back Lego cars as well and they are just perfect to be salvaged by this Tow Truck :P

He's spent a whole day yesterday crashing those 2 Pull-Back (with the help of our Cat) and then using the Tow Truck to salvage and repair them :D

 

Great MOC, thumbs up :P

[Timorzelorzworz]

On 8/3/2020 at 9:23 AM, Jasseji said:

Maybe i'm a bit biased because we have 2 Pull-Back Lego cars as well and they are just perfect to be salvaged by this Tow Truck :P

Thats very cool! Feel free to share some pictures ;)

[Jasseji]

24 minutes ago, Timorzelorzworz said:

Thats very cool! Feel free to share some pictures ;)

Haha, sorry, my son decided to disassemble it so i'm thinking of what to build next :D

[XTN]

On 6/8/2020 at 3:49 PM, Timorzelorzworz said:

I wondered why there is no official alternate build for the 42108 Mobile Crane (sometimes lovely called Yellow Parts Pack), so I decided to create this cool American Tow Truck as an alternate model.

I took your truck as base for a heavily modded own version. Still some parts are recognizable as taken from your truck, like front fenders, parts of the cabin and parts of the crane.
Are you okay if I show my truck in detail in an own thread if I add a link to your truck?

[Timorzelorzworz]

5 hours ago, XTN said:

I took your truck as base for a heavily modded own version. Still some parts are recognizable as taken from your truck, like front fenders, parts of the cabin and parts of the crane.
Are you okay if I show my truck in detail in an own thread if I add a link to your truck?

Sure. It is Lego