timslegos

Hi, I present to you, my R/C Rotator Tow truck. This model is by far the most complex model of mine to date, and it includes 8 remote functions and 2 manual functions. This model took a month or so to make, and i think it is my favorite MOC so far. The remote functions are: drive, steering, car carrier lift, car carrier tilt, crane slew, crane lift, crane extend, and finally crane winch. Coincidentally, i took the same cab that i used for my dump truck and . This cab was built when i was probably 12, and i have been using it for all of my trucks since i first made it. For the car carrier lift, i copied Sariel's version almost exactly. The only thing i changed was the height, so i didn't have to use U joints. Also, instead of using mLAs to lift the car lift, i used a 8t gear on a gear rack powered by a pf medium motor (geared down a lot). With this change, the lift is much more powerful and can lift a lego scale car. The outriggers, are one of the manual functions, operated by a switch hidden in the cab. The outriggers themselves are moved my a mLA. Finally, the crane has 4 remote functions. The lift of the crane is powered by a pf XL motor located underneath the turntable. The crane is slewed by an old 43362 motor underneath the turntable. The winch and boom extension are also powered by 43362 motors, located inside the crane body. With all of these remote functions, the crane is very fun to operate! Surprisingly, the crane can lift up the lego car with no problem! More can be seen of the functions in this video. and more pictures at : http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=476793 thanks for reading! tim

Thanks for the compliments . And no i am not on MOCpages. I dont think i have the time to start an account and write descriptions and post pictures at tthe moment, maybe in the future though. I mostly stick to brickshelf(username: timbob). tim

Is this the set that the "power pulled wheels" first appeared in? Tim

Yes that would make a lot of sense. When was the first studless set introduced? tim

Ohh also i definitely would love instructions!! tim

Yes Sariel's epic tow truck inspired me a lot. tim

Oh ya that does make sense. Would the lower amount of plastic really make such a difference on the price? tim

wow nice job testing Nazgarot! Does anyone have enough pieces to build say 4 of these and link them together?

thanks for all the compliments!! tim

wow that looks wicked cool!

wow what a masterpiece! Now you have inspired me to build one as well! tim

Is that part of why TLG uses studless liftarms and beams for sets, because they have more "give" to them?

haha ya the turning radius on this truck was huge!

I agree! This model is definitely very epic. Not only does it look wicked awesome, but it functions like the real thing! You are definitely one of the most talented builders on the forum! tim

At the moment, I am in the middle of building a truck trial truck, which is completely stud-less. I am having problems with the beams bending, were if they were studded beams they would not have bent as much. tim

Yes i have had the same problem on my tow truck and dump truck. The way i fixed it was to build horizontally and also use a 1 by 3 stud-less lift-arm between the gears and the beams so the beams could not separate. tim

That is a really good way to utilize the plates, i will have to try that on my models. tim

Wow i can tell this will be a pretty epic MOC when it is done! I forse a slight problem though with the tilting of the uppercarraige, would the weight of the machine cause the turntable to bend? Is the pneumatic cylinder strong enough to handle the weight of the whole machine tilting on just one cylinder? tim

ya thats true it is getting a little heated, sorry i didn't mean to start a flame war! tim

Can you explain? tim

i vote for the one on the far right tim

Another idea might be to use multiple gear trains together to gain maximum torque and also so the truck has a fairly low speed. One tip for truck trial trucks is to not use U joints unless there is further gear reduction after the U joint. Otherwise there is a high likelihood of the u joints breaking. tim

Please make a video of this masterpiece!! Its amazing how you managed to make the truck look so accurate but still have power functions. tim

Yes I will defining agree with you on that point, models without visible studs sometimes do look better. Tim

There is however one down side to these motors; they eat up power like crazy! In the early stages of my truck trial construction, I used two of these motors together to drive my truck, which ended badly because of my use of worm gears, which i later learned are extremely inefficient. So if you as going to build a truck trial truck, make sure you don't use worm gears!! Tim