motomatt

I found that a sewing string worked very well. The longer the better. Something like this: Coats & Clark Dual Duty All-Purpose Thread, 400 Yards/1 Spool of Yarn, Black

Phenomenal model, Simple and clean! I wouldn't change much, it's awesome. What scale is it in?

My 2 cents... I would agree with M_longer and Edwin Korstanje. At first look many details in both body and frame mimic exactly those found in Ingmar's truck. I think it's ok to build your own concept based on seeing images of an existing lego MOC but would be appropriate to cite such inspiration as well.

I wanted to combine the display of the LMP ferrari and my trucks in a realistic way, so I made this U.S. style sports car hauler for the LMP race car. Just need to figure out what car to put into the second bay!

Nice job with the very small scale and the intriguing front steering design. I can't make out how the front axles are powered and where the axis of steering rotation is. More pics of the underside would be nice :-)

Not quite yet there but I changed it to something like this.

Well I had too much time on my hands past weekend With the current setup of the rear diff, the tops of the inside rear wheels only clear the frame by about 1-2 mm. I attempted to make more narrow the rear-most part of the frame from 5 studs inner separation to 3, but couldn't find a way to attach the rear tail lights assembly to it without detracting from the aesthetics of the rear. Then I tested the very narrow clearance to see if the tires would rub the frame and to my surprise it doesn't appear to rub under the load of the trailer. If you were to load several KG of load onto the rear, the flex of the lego parts would probably make the tops of the tires rub the frame and you would have to resort to using the old wider differential design. Ay the never-ending balance of form over function / function over form. No, I uploaded a new PDF instructions and parts list to rebrickable which includes the new changes. You could in theory just swap out either the new front gear rack, rear diff, with the old ones or vice versa as the attachment points and geometry is the same.

So I redid the front steering rack to reduce the front wheel width from 18 studs down to 17. Redid the rear differential to reduce the rear wheel width ~2 studs to match. I made the cab one stud higher to match the height of the trailer, and widened the front hood panel from 16 studs to 17 studs. Overall width of the cab is still 17 studs. Still drives pretty well.

Wow, simply stunning! Thanks for sharing

Thank you for the honest criticism and time to review blueprints! I too think the biggest downside with the model is that the width of both the front wheels and the rear wheels is too wide for the given scale of the cab & chassis. I'm using the same proven steering rack design and rear differential that I use in my 1:17 U.S. style trucks, which is well tested and is pretty reliable when pulling heavy loads (no slipped axles, no loose connections, no excessive camber, etc...) The best way to correct this would be to simply increase the dimensions of the cab to get the right proportions, but this would result in something like a 1:15 scale model, and I want this model to be proportional to the other 1:17/1:18 scale trucks that I have in my collection. Originally, I had built this model 18 studs wide. But when I viewed the front of the truck, it seemed too wide and not tall enough, so I decreased the cabin width to 17 studs, and the front end width down to 16 to give the eye the illusion of it being thinner and taller, thus exacerbating the wheel width issue. Reducing the width of the rear wheels by one or two studs would make the rear axles prone to slipping out under heavy trailer loads (that's why I use Technic, Axle 5.5 with Stop in the rear making it wider). Reducing the width of the front is a little more challenging without introducing excessive camber under the heavy front cabin, but I will probably try some new ideas with smaller gear racks! Here is a a pic of the front hood 17 studs wide (not 16), and the cabin still the same 17 studs wide, perhaps it is (a little) more inline with the schematics. The thing is, when I look at the model with just an eyeball, I really don't notice the excessive width of the tires as much as you do when you look at the schematics / renders of it, so I'm fine with the way it is. If this were a shelf only display model, I would decrease the width of both the rear and front wheels to make it proportional to the schematics, but thing is, I really like the way it drives and performs as it is. Also, if II didn't have other 1:17 scale trucks, I would simply make the cabin wider and taller.

I did the video just before I (re)built a trailer for the truck. It pulls the trailer very well and reliably. It's actually much faster than shown in the video, as I wasn't pushing the sbrick slider to 100% throttle. Thanks! I wonder what was the first time? Hard to say. Almost a year ago I built the chassis, tested the driving, and built the rough layout of the cabin. Then it just sat untouched gathering dust for close to a year. Finally in September I got myself to resurrect this project, built it 18 studs wide, then tore it all apart and rebuilt it 17 studs wide, modeled it in Ldraw and bricklinked the missing pieces. As I don't live in Europe I'm not that familiar with the Actros, so I modeled it after the one in the game Euro Truck Simulator. I believe it's the same one. The aspect ratio of the 3D renders is a little off in the pic below.

Having made some U.S. style semi trucks in 1:17 scale I wanted to add a European style truck to the mix. Here is my version of an Actros 4x2 powered by one XL motor, steering with servo, with 3 sets of PF lights, and controlled by sbrick. I modeled it after an Actros 4x2 you find in the game Euro Truck Simulator. A shot of the driver's side cabin. I took apart my U.S. spec of a 53' 1:17 scale box trailer to shorten it to European dimensions and add an extra axle. Next to an extended frame Peterbilt, the Actros looks quite short. And here it is with its cousins This is what it looked like gathering dust for the better part of a year until I finally got myself to finish it. Some more pics are on bricksafe http://bricksafe.com/pages/motomatt/actros4x2 Instructions and parts list are on rebrickable http://rebrickable.com/mocs/motomatt/mercedes-actros-4-x-2-semi-truck

Make sure you upgrade the firmware version on the sbrick (from the app). Mine had a lag of about 1 sec before, and <100ms after.

I just couldn't help building it. It's still missing a few pieces but the level of detail in the build is absolutely amazing! Please keep making more cars in the same scale

You should have 3 short 20cm extension wires, and 3 long 50cm extension wires. For me, running the pf wiring cleanly was the most difficult part of the build.