MiikaH

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAn7nV Hope these help to clarify. The crack goes three ways from the center. Resembles the shape of letter Y. For me it doesn't appear as something from the moulding process I've seen prevously, but I am not an expert. Just curious if this is normal on Lego bricks. (Just replaced tens of old Technic half bushes, part 4265a, with new ones on the 8480 Space Shuttle as they had all cracked. Otherwise Lego parts seem to have very little problems?)

Just built the 76917 R34 GT-R. Interesting build. Looks nice also. Looking forward to other this years releases. One thing caught my eye. All the "Slope, Curved 2 x 1 x 2/3" pieces had a three way crack in the middle of the smooth surface. Don't know if that's normal, only a cosmetic thing, can best be seen in a lights reflection. Please tell if any of you others have the same phenomenon?

First of all sorry for reviving an old topic, hopefully someone still has it for this 7+ years old Truck. This autumn I came out of my grey ages with this Arocs set, as my son started getting to play with the Technic sets while turning three. I myself had a childhood filled with Legos starting from the earliest Technic sets such as my borthers' 8860 Car Chassis (thanks btw for @Blakbird for the superb Technicopedia site), and ending with 8460 Pneumatic Crane Truck and 8480 Space Shuttle just at the dawn of the studless era. Lately I bought the Arocs used and disassembled. It took me about eight hours of building and many times more tweaking it here and there. First thing I noticed was that there was problem with the crane rotation (own topic for that here at Eurobricks also, helped me own the way). During the building process I was very careful routing the pneumatic hoses and tried to route them if possible even more smoothly than in the instructions and cut a little excess off some hoses. Next thing was to change the gearing a little so that the crane moves a little more slowly and gets more torque. And I also modded the backside of the cab a little so that the hoses wouldn’t get stuck anywhere. Since these didn’t really solve the problem, I had to come up with something else. I first added some vegetable oil between the hoses inside the turntable to minimize their friction while the crane turns. After all of this the crane operation was a lot better, but only after I added the same oil carefully to the holes on top of the turntable with cotton swabs the operation became satisfyingly smooth! The front wheel hubs were modded to resemble more the original, later found out that some of you had come to the same solution earlier. Then I added some sideways stoppers under the front of the tipper bed which I felt had too much sideways motion when lowered. Next was time for some esthetic mods and improvements. I changed the steering wheel for smaller which imho fits the scale better. The seats I gave a DBG/LBG appearance as it has never been clear to me why Lego is so keen on blue seats. The spoiler above the windshield was modded after finding pictures of similar mods. And as I live in Finland where every truck has extra hi-beam lights on the rooftop I gave the Arocs some too. The front fenders being so high and higher than the rear caught my eye, although after googling some images of the real thing I found out that this truly is the case. But in real life, the first axle fenders are even higher so I decided to lower the second axle fenders to the level of the rear, to me it looks better this way. The fenders were built with single colors each and the gap between the doors and the fenders was filled a bit. And as some have mentioned, the Arocs looks a little too hollow under the chassis between the first two axles, so I added some elements there. Also gave the tipper body one stud more height, but not sure still if I like it. A higher front end might be the most realistic. Then some more mods to functionality. I executed the “sturdier outriggers mod” (presented here at Eurobricks if I remember correctly). The steering radius was annoyingly different to one side than the other, and I spent quite a lot of time fixing that. Then I found some mods to the pneumatics of the crane, with which the beam straightens almost completely from the second joint and the last extension uses the whole range of the slider. That last one is no beauty but I tried to make it as efficient as possible and with the smallest amount of friction. Also played around a bit with the hoses connecting to the grabber so it wouldn’t lean to one side or another. I too experimented with softer springs on the front with both axles having the softer springs at the same time and separately. I think they did this already at Lego’s, as I eventually got to the same conclusion as they did. And while working on the front, I added a chain driving the motor. Now the gearing results in a speed of the fake motor that to my eye looks fast enough to resemble a working diesel engine but slow enough for my son to see the actual movement. Some final steps were adding two fake air tanks to the co-drivers side between the front fenders. And two more wheel chocks on the rear fenders. The last thing for now is changing the blue 2L and 3L pins to black and grey ones, as I’m not a fan of those blue dots everywhere on my build. And the pins weren’t blue as I grew up with Lego 😉 Lastly I added the electric pole reverser for my son, because the switch on the battery box (at least in this individual) moves too easily from one extreme to the other and is very hard to stop to center. Coming up is pneumatics to open and close the tailgate. Other than that, not sure yet. Of course RC would be nice. And a little less play on the steering. And an air tank. And a trailer. And… Had a hard time with the photos, below is a link to to flickr to find them. Tried my best but couldn't share them correctly by the rules. Photos - Miika And thanks for a superb forum with great reviews and astonishing MOCs!