suffocation

Really hope so - I know I sound so old I already had false teeth when the Dead Sea was alive and kicking but I like the good ol' single motor connected to a distribution gearbox.

Thanks for the tips, lads I tried the same twistaroo with my off-road tow truck and noticed much less flex. Upon closer inspection, I realised I had indeed used more horizontally placed 5x7 and 7x11 frames, so I guess I was more or less (un)consciously all paranoid in trying to keep it as flexless as possible given also the considerable amount of axles running back to (almost) front. Some old WIP pics: The one thing that's missing, as you all pointed out, is a decent amount of triangulation to get that bricklike, Nineties IBM ThinkPad feel. Interestingly, the rear axle attachments do indeed have this, shall we call it "4D" reinforcement, and show no flex whatsoever in any direction.

Drat - was hoping for a couple more extended

I'm pretty sure someone's already figured it out and posted it but even after wading through 44 pages of comments I still can't find it (CTE doesn't help) - how long are the new actuators, both retracted and extended?

Love this thread! Longitudinal rigidity is pretty easy to achieve; I seem to struggle, however, with torsional rigidity. Case in point, this carrier can be held at either end with a 2.5 kg crane on top, total weight 4.5 kg, and won't bend a fraction of a millimeter. If, however, I try to twist it, it has quite some give. Obviously this doesn't affect peformance as under normal operation the model is never going to be subject to that kind of twisting, but I'd still like to figure out how to make it rock solid in all three dimensions.

Superb model with flawless functions

You can use Brick Controller 2 or, as Sariel just discovered, the latest version of the BuWizz app.

Looks good so far. How do you find integrating the new motors into your builds compared to PF motors?

The average weight per piece sounds reasonable. Granted, the motors probably clock in at 50-60 gpp but then we have hundreds of pins and chain links which are probably well below a gram. The set also has quite a few small system parts (I think there's a replica of the engines inside - can't remember, getting senile).

This is awesome! Thank you

Sure, if you have Parkinson's disease. But that doesn't fit the demo. Leaving the bonnet open doesn't sound like too much of an effort. Anyway, pretty sick of all the shit-shovelling.

Pronouns, pal.

I'm pretty sure 99.9% of users - read kids, teenagers and a handful of adults still in touch with their inner child - get quite a kick out of pushing the model around, seeing the pistons move at different speeds depending on the selected gear and figuring out how the transmission works.

Spot on

20-tooth clutch gear came out last year. 28-tooth, I think @Zerobricks figured out a way to use the small turntable.

Anything where you have to figure out how to solve something with limited options (parts, in this case) is a good learning tool, regardless of whether or not it's realistic. If you want to learn about real gearboxes then sign up for a degree in mechanical engineering.

Uh... that's exactly what 853, 8860, 8865, 8880, 42056 (although they forgot to make the engine visible here) and 42083 do. That's exactly what ANY gearbox on a manual model is gonna do. Or did you expect extra gearbox functions like a gaggle of Carabinieri waddling after the car when you hit fifth gear? Maybe you should've visited Brickset. 42043 came out four years ago at a list price of €200; considering inflation, the more-or-less 10% price difference and the respective part lists, I'd say 42110 is priced fairly.

Spot on. And it costs some 35% less than the former and 50% less than the latter. So I really don't get what's drawing all the vitriol.

I reckon that's what most "advanced" users are going to do. Most plebeian users - which make up the significant marketshare targeted by TLG - aren't accustomed to lateral thinking and therefore expect the pistons to move faster the higher you shift up. So rather than taking a massive dump on Milan's work like some people have in the last few posts here, I'm guessing TLG decided to shift away from their approach with all the previous cars from 853 to 42083 and just make their average knucklehead customer happy.

This is 15 studs but it can be adjusted to 13. Includes pneumatic diff lock.

Your "wannabe" models are light-years ahead of my "serious" attempts at anything Great no-frills truck. Got a couple of questions about the 60° slope test: - What was the gearing? - I know it's hard to tell but did it sound like the hubs were under any unreasonable strain? It'd be nice to compare max torque / max effort / max speed / max whatever experiences with these hubs. For what it's worth, I spent an hour driving a 4.5 kg model around today (flat surface only) and the hubs and joints still look pristine. The gearing going into the hubs (4x4) was 1.68:1 from four L motors.

I really hope so. My only concern is that these hubs are specialised parts that only die-hard Technic moccers are ever going to use in any significant numbers, so if there isn't enough demand to warrant a redesign then I guess TLG will leave things as they are.

I guess a year of proper abuse isn't too bad :D

Damn! How long did it last and how much did you use it in that timeframe? I'm not looking forward to the day my servos go the way of the dinosaurs.

Ah, that's what it was! Even cooler than I remembered