DarkShadow73

@skylinedan- yeah I've got 2 8043's MISB, 2 8421's MISB and 1 8455 MISB, and 6 of the new 9397 Logging Trucks that are high in demand sitting in my garage, just a few of many I'm sitting on right now. Going to make me some money. My fiancee thinks I'm nuts, but after telling her that the 8455 is going for $600-$800 MISB and the 8421 even higher, she kind of got a bit silent, probably saw dollar signs in her eyes for our future. I've got tons and tons of sets, older and newer that I will list on either Amazon or Bricklink sometime this summer. Have to get it all listed.

I did pay $350 for the 8439 Pneumatic Front-End Loader 3 years ago, but even though it had been re-released twice, it was worth the money, it is an excellent set in all aspects, especially having the airtank to keep those pneumatics pumping, that is 1 thing the 8455 needed desperately but lacked, mostly due to space constraints, I can't honestly see where you could put one, but all that pumping just to do a couple of functions before the air runs out kind of detracts a bit from the model's play, but with all the valves it is an intricate, fun build and very realistic looking in all aspects. Thanks dr_spock, I don't believe I ever had the cross-truss that high, excellent, I might start to rebuild it soon... @skylinedan - wouldn't mind seeing it sometime in the future. Eric @Matt - it was a limited release? Usually the box says limited release as in the 8041 Race Truck and some other sets, the 2 I have don't say that on the box, or maybe they didn't put that graphic on the set boxes back in '06, it was available at TRU until later in 2007, at least in my neck of the woods, then they clearanced them for $34.99, great buy, but I already had 3 of them so I passed, kind of wish I hadn't now considering the going rate...I wish too they would quit releasing crane trucks and release a large crawler crane with today's PF and RC capabilities...

@All in this thread- It really is better with the wider dk grey tracks instead of the chinsy black ones, the boat weights hold it down well, but the small tracks just don't appear like quite scale compared to the size of the crane itself. I changed mine to dk grey tracks from a parted 8294 Excavator set and two 16-tooth Lt Grey gears to handle the wider and taller tracks, it just lightly touches the larger tracks when you turn it, but if you do it right it doesn't catch and hold on the tracks, had to experiment a bit with the number of tracks and gearing before I got it just right.

The 8288 Crawler Crane was released in 2006 and its MSRP was $49.99, it has become outrageously expensive since, don't know why really, its not really much of a special set, the tracks are too small, I modded mine with the newer style wider tracks and larger 16-tooth gears on the frame to support the tracks. Surprising the shuttle is less than the crane, it is chock full of cool features, wish I had one, but the asking price is too high with my budget, but that crane is climbing exponentially in price for some reason. @dr_spock - is the crane modded (booms, not the cab as you noted)? I see it is the tower crane 'b' version which I always like better than main model anyway. Mine's apart right now, but would like to know if I can make mine do that if rebuilt or you modded it somehow. @DLuders - I built mine first as main model, then using the 'b' model modifications changed it to the tower crane, agreed it is the better of the two and hey back then you actually got both main and alternate model instructions in the box rather than nowadays... @Sam42 - I bought 3 of them when they first came out. One is apart right now, ran out of room, but its all there, 1 is still MISB, hate to part with it, but if price was right I would, I'm in a bit of financial straits now. The 3rd one I gave to my fiancee but her cats and her youngest trashed that one, if only I had known back in 2009 when I gave it to her how much it would appreciate in price I might have kept it and sold it as Like New on Amazon or through BL.

I modded it with a new back bumper to haul a trailer but no RC or PF, it looks kind of like a small semi, I didn't put the racing stickers on it to make it look like a real semi tractor. I don't have pics of it, but I can always take some pics with my cell phone and zoom in on the back, just a simple mod so a kingpin from a trailer will drop into the hitch I put on it. @Tomik - like the blue telehandler, kind of futuristic looking, but quite cool looking. Ever done instructions for it? @Lost_In_Noise - what is that yellow component with the screws in page 21 of the instructions?

Nice DLuders- Looks like a replica of a Crown Vic police interceptor, did you do it yourself? They mainly run souped up Dodge Chargers around Grand Rapids nowadays, both state troopers and city patrol cars. County sheriff (outside of the city of GR) still runs some Crown Vics, but they are slowly converting to Chargers as does most GR suburb cities. Some run Ford Escapes. State boys run Mustangs a lot during the summer for fast pursuit then a Charger will come and pick up any 'no pass go, straight to jail', DUI's and stuff. We had a heck of a chase through the main east-west freeway through the city a couple months ago, somebody robbed something on the north end of the city and led them on a chase almost 25 miles before finally they flipped their car as most freeways through the city are divided by concrete barriers. Last fall they widened the east-west freeway and had put up real expensive bright lighting all along the dividers throughout the freeway system on top of the divider and the suspect's car hit the wall at a rate of speed, then it went up on 2 wheels like the Dukes of Hazzard and slammed into the light pole and knocked it down, car flipped, chase over. I've got a souped up (yes I can do mods! maybe not so much on Legos, I depend on you talented guys in this group to give me ideas and I take them all, but on car I can do real mods easily) 9-year old Mazda. Even the normally aspirated Turbo engine produced about 160hp, I added a few choice items and it brought it up to almost 200hp, with that light a car, it can produce 160 mph easily, speedo only says 140. Only did the race thing through the curves a couple times and no cop can hide on the 8-lane curve, its all cement dividers on both sides, they don't want their butts out near the driving lanes in case of DUI's or sleepy drivers, they'd be like sitting ducks. Only real plus to the elevated curve is its heated, so hardly any snow or ice builds up on it, kind of nice, too bad all roads around here don't have that kind of system...

Thanks camaro365 - if and when you get around to it, let me know some details of how I would go about adding the engine and diff, I see the only axle in it underneath is for HOG steering. Bear with me I'm not great with mods with a bit of detail, you can PM me or I can also give you my e-mail too. One thing I would definitely do is exchange the red spoiler with a lime green one, it is more in keeping with street racers, all body color the same. I am a big fan of street racing with modded out real import cars. I did have this set when it came out in '05, but gave it to a neighbor kid for free, one of my better mistakes I guess, but he got a kick out of it, so it made me happy. His dad mods cars for a living here in Grand Rapids, wouldn't mind getting my own tricked out and NOS equipped... ...we have a wicked wide freeway running 3 or 4 lanes wide for about 20 miles and it has a wicked fun elevated 2 mile long S-curve in it through part of the downtown area that is slightly elevated on the far right lane and angles a bit downwards towards the inside 4th most lane. Probably grab a heavy-duty ticket or jail if I took that one at 100mph or more. It says curve speed 50 mph, but I've modded my car a bit, cold air intake, bigger radiator w/ tranny cooler line, sticky low-profile tires and got a better set of sway bars and some bigger brakes on it, took it at 70-75mph and it stuck like glue, come up into the inside lane from the south and angle down towards the inside lane barrier wall at the bottom, then throttle it coming out of the curve at better than 85mph. Only have done this a few times, but it was a thrill ride, of course only late at night with little traffic, took my friend's tricked Ford Fusion by at the next exit...

@camaro365- I see you added a rear mounted engine, that was kind of my thought too, I assume it is a connected to a diff for the rear wheels, if so is it the newer or older style diff? @DLuders- never thought about making it RC with PF elements, that is something I might consider, its almost like this car is screaming for full RC control, thanks...

Agreed, it is a long time in between. Last 2 years they have released a large set in March (which a lot of us got in late January from Argo's or TRU) which has never been the case, some years we have gotten a small-medium size set in the March timeframe before the last two years, I recall the 8283 Telehandler set in March 2006, can't think of others right off hand besides that one, but I'm sure there have been early Spring releases, but nothing like the Supercar in 2011 and the Logging Truck in 2012, which really could have been a summer release along with the Supercar. I guess Lego does it to offset Technic fans since plenty of other themes release sets regularly all year long. I know here in the US, there is not as much demand or interest in Technic as there is in Europe or Australia, but I can tell you this, the Supercar and the Logging Truck flew off shelves at local TRU's from late Jan until now, as well as being available online. At least here in Michigan, the local independents used to have larger Technic sets available, but most, if not all, have gotten out of the Lego market, carry only child-related sets like City or younger geared sets, or have just plain closed shop. We used to have 3 independents here in Grand Rapids, MI, that have gone under because of TRU, but when you go to a TRU sometimes there is tons of Technic, or hardly any at all, its kind of crapshoot depending on the week, or even the day. I see they have a price cut on Technic right now, the Logging Truck for one is going for $134.99 USD, less than S@H's price right now. Probably only will last a week, but its nice for once to see their prices lower than MSRP, rather than somewhat higher. Getting back to topic though, I do agree there is a LONG time between winter and summer releases, too bad they don't release a couple each month, its a long time until August...

Just received this from Amazon 3rd party marketplace. Was a bit disappointed, should have checked BL's inventory sheet, might still have bought it, but not sure. I realize this is a nearly 7 year old item, but I see there is no working engine or diff on it. Has anybody ever done a mod to add an engine, driveshaft to connect to a diff to power the rear axle? It is a nice looking Racer car, paid a bit more than I wanted, but the lime green color scheme which we don't see much in Technic or Racers series really adds to the front fascia, sides, and fairings.

Take a look at the box, it is a very good main model in my estimation. 'b' model, ho-hum...kind of odd-looking, never seen anything like it on the road. @Hedgie- Somebody did a mod to make the tow lift swivel left or right, can't recall exactly its been a while, but I think it was JunkstyleGio, but it was posted here probably in Dec or Jan, might check down the posts a ways...I have it in pdf format in my Lego File, but cannot figure out how to upload it, though JSG might have copyright protected it too, holler out to him and see if he has it in his files and can repost it...

@DLuders- I took an LA out of my stock and 60483 in black and you are right. Colder than crap in the garage tonight, but I realized that after doing the test myself, but I guess then my big Q is how does the 5L axle stay in its proper place? Wouldn't it just in time rotate itself right or left out of the LA and the 1x2" liftarms and frame piece? Or if you tipped it wouldn't it just fall right out? He says he has a black friction pin in the frontmost part of 1x2" liftarm, but only the axle rotating freely in the rear position where it runs through the LA? I'm back inside, but since LA's have 2 holes, one for a pin and one for an axle, I am guessing the frontmost position on an LA's connecting point (I don't have one inside) must be an axlehole which would keep the 5L axle in place. Just please keep in mind, I'm a child of Technic, I build 'em, but I'm not good at mods except for ones that are fairly clear on every point. I rarely comment on much except bigger topics pertaining to releases, new models, etc, but I rarely get into discussions about MOC's or MOD's cause I really don't have much input, except if something really interests me as this model has. Eric

@sama - I have both sets 'b' models built, the 8258's 'b' is rather ho-hum, just a large pickup with a winch on the front, pales in comparison to the main model crane truck, the 8285 Tow Truck's 'b' model is quite impressive and I'm guessing the longest of any Technic model ever with the tractor and trailer. I can send them both on, they are on my fiancee's camera (she's not real happy with all the time I've been on the 'puter last couple days regarding the 'b' model 9397, but hey that's a huge hobby of mine, what can I say...). If she will be nice, I can get them off her camera or computer and send them to mine or straight off hers and then to you. @Rodeown - I'm sorry to keep bugging you, again vid was very helpful, but the 2L pieces on either side of the LA, are they just plain 2L beams? Or are they the newer style 2L pinhole/axlehole part, I can't tell because the LA is already installed, just want to be sure before I get into the build too much on that section then have to tear it apart to replace with one or the other. I did look at your vid and made quite a few screenshots and sent them to Word so I can just print out some of your details about what was added or removed and add to the original instructions. One other question on the front end of the trailer frame itself, you moved the long pin with axlehole assembly back one stud on the 7L lt. grey beam and it appears you added two perpendicular axlehole/pinhole w/ I'm sure a blue pin/axle to secure the the two pieces on either side of the very frontmost hole on that 7L lt. grey beam to the front with black friction pins sticking straight up. Is this another set of anchors to the bottom of the flat panels to hold the box to the frame? I printed it out but the prints are so dark I can't make much of the box bottom at all from the screenshots I took. Thanks again, Eric

@Rodeown- I saved the youtube video you posted and opened, closed the Eurobricks site and it played your voice as one very clearly, very good vid. Very nice mod and clear explanation, only thing that sucks is when I get to that point in the build I'll have to bring it in and set up a card table or something so I can follow your instruction slowly, most of it seems very clear cut. Actually I don't think youtube would let me take a screenshot of anything on Pause, but I was considering just putting together the dumper first if I could get a good all around pic like you had in the vid and go out to my bench and put that together, then work on the existing frame and LA next with your instructions on how to move/add pieces. Probably a dumb question, but are the black 2L pieces on either side of the LA the ones with a pinhole and axlehole? I'm assuming so since you said to slide a 5L axle through the frame piece with another axle to push it through it is. I was trying to go through your instruction vid while having another window open with DLuders part 2 instruction so I could compare. From what I can tell you don't use the 3L tan frictionless pins at the back of the bed like it instructs in the pdf? I can see you're gaining a lot of hits on the vid, so others are interested too in your mod. The roof for the cab is fairly self explanatory just looking at it.

Thanks Rodeown - I'll give it a look later so I can try and figure out your method. You talked about modding the roof you made for the cab, anything on that? I thought the one you built looked real good, can't imagine it would look better.

@Rodeown- Man, you really get a guy thinking. That's a nice model of a garbage truck too, Technic needs to branch a bit on their lineup. I like the construction equipment they always seem to produce and from what I can tell 2H2012 has none, just the chopper, rock crawler and a tractor, but they are notorious for producing cranes, excavators, etc, but don't seem to branch to items that I have been looking for like a good large road grader, a medium size telehandler(not as large as the 8295, more in scale with some medium size sets), a re-release of possibly the legendary 8455 Backhoe Loader, heck they released the pneumatic front end loader 3 times over the period of 7 years. Another one that would be nice is a decent size building frame of some sort, much like the City lineup does, but out of Technic beams, studded or not. Put a bit of sand or landscape ballast in there, you got a hit for all the construction equipment. Another crawler crane of the size of the 8288 would be nice as well as a cement mixer. I tried to integrate some City trucks of this sort into my Technic diorama but they just look odd.

Figures- makes you wonder how they sent you the whole pdf, but then post it on their site and neglect last 8 pages...

@Rodeown- sorry to beat this thread to death, but I'm very interested in building the bed just like you did, but I'm still kind of confused, comparing DLuders download pages of the bed and frame/LA assembly and then looking at the couple of pics you posted. I haven't built the model yet, but before I go through all the trouble of assembling the dump bed, I want to be sure of what you had to add and how, please bear with me I'm not great into mod's like most of you are. With the brown wheels in it and even raising the screen res and the angle of the pic I still can't really tell how you modified it so the panels would fit above the framing, it looks to me like you raised the sidepanels of the bed up one stud on the 3x5 liftarms, did you have to do any other modifying? I know about the LA you said had to be moved one stud back but did you have to move the 4 pin thing forward with maybe a 3L liftarm added in between the frame piece and the 4 pin thing to achieve the one stud backwards or did you move the LA where the gearing attaches? Seems that would be an impossibility (to me anyway) since the gearing would have to all be changed somehow where the gear turns the LA cylinder in and out. Maybe a pic looking straight down angle at the bed panels? Or if possible a look at the bed off and what you had to do? I know this would take time and possibly a video of it or many pics and/or alternate instructions, but I think, among many others, not only your bed panels but the roof attachment complete the look of the truck. The roof for the cab looks fairly straightforward, a bit confusing too with what attachments or altering you might have had to do, but not nearly as buggy as trying to see your plan for the bed, both were brilliant additions. TLG might have done that same thing if the main model had those parts on it, but then again, maybe not. I have a lot of main and 'b' models from 2004-up with roofs on all the cabs, maybe not tightly enclosed, but I always thought that something would have to be added to make the model not seem as hollow, esp the bed. This setup is somewhat familiar with the trailer on the 8063 Tractor set, they used all those green panels for the bed. I believe I posted here a while ago how I modified the trailer, took out the ugly green panels, took off the sides, added red panels, kept the dk grey center frame and just changed the length of the beams on the sides and added a bunch of 15L ones locked together with black 2L friction pins at the head to cover the connection point and make it look more authentic, moved the LA back to increase the tipping angle, added ramps on the back end to move wheeled/tracked equipment off and modified the back bumper of 1 of my 8436 Trucks to accept the kingpin from the trailer and used it as a flatbed with either the 16L dk grey chains or longer zipties to hold down construction equipment or pallets of supplies. Luckily both the back bumper of the 8436 and the kingpin met exactly, amazed even me as I am just a build out of the box type of guy just adding on a few things here and there, but it took a lot of planning and finding pieces out of my parts collection to do it, but was impressed with it enough to send a friend of mine a pic, he is another AFOL that belongs to a TexLUG group out of Texas. I gave him this URL, but he told me he just lurks, but never comments. But, he himself was awaiting the 9397 too. Thanks in advance, Eric Good enough buddy, I've been banging this one to death the past few hours, trying to recreate your idea with pencil and paper, but no luck. The cab seems straightforward enough, but if you have a better idea, I'll check tomorrow (or shall I say today, its 2:50am EST here), best I get to bed, spent 3 hours last night printing the instructions from DLuders, kind of dragging myself. I'll check back, probably be about time you in the UK are all settling down. Think you and DLuders kind of created a fest on Eurobricks, in a very good way, got my instructions finally, just need clarity on your mods. Thanks a bunch.

Just a quick question, is the new roof you created just held down by the airhorns that were original?

@Rodeown - Per my question, this must have been posted while I was away from the computer, so I see it wasn't as easy as it seemed then with the tipper bed. I'm not real good at modding without some pointed instructions, if you get the chance could you go into a bit more detail, maybe pics? I'm guessing since its done probably not, but man I would like to panelize mine like you have your truck, its like a much larger version of 2005's 8415 Dump Truck, that had an all open bed, but for the price didn't expect much, the 8264 was much better and mostly enclosed and I just used a bit of duct tape here and there to try and seal up the openings, still got a bit of ballast on the tables, but nowhere near like I did when I stupidly filled the bed and saw it draining out the bottom and front of the tipper bed, but there's really no way of enclosing this one with another material like tape, it would look cruddy. I too am more impressed with this version of the model than the main one, I like the nose just because I'm American and that's how most of our trucks look here, but a cabover isn't such a foregone thing, my dad used to drive one in the 70's. I like your top to the cab also, looks simple enough and eliminates those open spaces. One thing about road plows here in MI, they have lots of LED amber lighting on the top and tailgate, have to add some more 1x1 thin translucent lights at the back and on top of the cab like you did. Somehow missed the video, I've never been more excited about a Technic model than I have been with this 'b' model, but I'm guessing the vid is just for the cab top, I'll have a look in a second. You say you had to move the LA one stud back, is there a fitting there for the LA? If I had yours in my living room right now I could look at it and reproduce it quickly with sketching out some simple instructions. Duals are kind of almost mandatory on heavy bed loads, rather surprised Lego didn't include dualies on the main model on the 2 rear axles. Think TLG's designer of this truck might be a bit jealous of Rodeown's mods...they make it more lifelike even, but of course they had to use what parts came from the main model, just a good thing this group has many talented people that do mods...this one would be a must-have if somebody made it full RC, am sure somebody will make it happen...

@Rodeown - that was my question too, I would like to add some model railroad type light gray fine ballast at a local hobby shop to use as 'road salt or sand'. Kind of too messy to put real sand in, got a couple construction sites around here where building's are being built, but to grab a bucket of sand from the monster piles that dump trucks dump there is a mess this time of year in Michigan. I was planning on doing a whole diorama of an active construction site on my work tables in the garage using my models plus using this model as the plow/salt shaker like they have in the north country. How do you modify it to add the panels, I've got plenty of the black panels sitting around, did you maintain the original open-air frame at the bottom and add the panels above it, or did you have to do a complete rebuild of the dumper? Did you get this whole thing together in one night after DLuders posted the pdfs? Amazing if you did, must have spent all your time doing it.

@DLuders - Oops, having trouble with IE9 locking up, hit reply too fast. I do see the black 16t double-bevel gears, I suspected that might be the case, but on a lot of pics of this model it looks like the yellow structure supporting the blade might be swiveled slightly left, ah well, no biggie, just glad to have the instructions to build it. Sending you PM DLuders, got a question since you seem extremely computer literate.

@sama - so it is a manual (hand-turn via the gear wheel?) swivel, and not a motorized feature?

Just curious, haven't seen this one put together obviously and all sites only show the blade in a completely front position, but I am wondering if the blade swivels to the right or left like most plows do? I would imagine so because of the 2 mini-LA's, but I'm not sure as DLuders just posted the 'b' model pdf instructions...anybody know? That would be a definite plus feature.

@DLuders - I did not know that you yourself had created that link, I thought it was something TLG had put up temporarily, and the woman I talked to Sat afternoon said they had no such link, and it was a mistake sending those instructions to you directly, it wasn't their company policy (however I did NOT mention your name in our conversation), evidently though you were in touch with a nicer, more willing to help employee of TLG. She simply looked at the link and said they were surprised something like this would happen and did not condone it, apparently they did not want the instructions released before an intended date, similar to their products being sold at TRU and Argo's before their official launch date of March 1. Apparently, their were some delays in the pdf files that were being sorted out by their technical support group and hence they didn't post them right away, like they normally would with any model released. I wasn't trying to bash you at all, my friend, she found the link and said it was inappropriate (just quoting her) and I thought it was TLG's Drop box link and not yours. She did say it was disabled due to a huge amount of users trying to access it. No hard feelings I hope, you and I worked hard to get those 'b' model instructions, you had more luck, I had much less, and this woman wasn't very kind at all and though I thanked her for looking, she just hung up on me, I didn't get hot or anything with her, but she must have been having one of those 'days', and was extremely unprofessional at customer service. Just let it be known, I thank you sincerely for your efforts to bring the model alive.