Void_S

Heyy! I still think we need something like "42078-scale" tag because I see even other set not related anyhow now come in "compatible form"

Heah, that wonderful trailer! I still can't stop thinning about it as a starship, it looks very sci-fi stylish with it's gray sides full of grills, handles, beams... Pure Star Wars on wheels

While the big "hauler" isn't finished, let me put here a small but rigid enough teaser of a smaller brother: removable gooseneck lowboy made of my step-deck semitrailer. It's a digital render, yes, but this time I have built it physically first to test all possible combinations and identify the strongest possible result. So now it bends under the motorized 42053 excavator (about 1.2kg including the big battery box with 6 AA elements) less than at 0.5 studs. Not bad for the construction made of stud-less beams (no technic stud beams/bricks were used) 1-to-2 stud thickness (the deck thickness is 1 stud + 2-stud middle frame). I'm going to finish it as it still has some questionable things and then publish here.

About new 42108's Differential part. Sariel's review with the new diff "stress test" when it opens (disengage the diff<->red gear combination) under heavy load when not secured enough inside the frame, makes the idea of using axles with stops ("stops" inside the diff - I remember these was an idea) very hard to be implemented. It's clear that it can't be done when the diff is inside the frame, so it must be super-embraced if the axles with stops are planed for use... Don't really like the idea to have the "heavy-duty-ready" thing made of two parts but it still fits the TLG idea (I still believe that's some plan here on that) to make the constriction self-disengageble rather than parts-damaging when something goes wrong.

This scheme is very similar to 9398's Crawler one. I believe you can borrow some embracing solutions for the gears and driveshafts.

Anyway, it looks and performs great! There are some comments about the diffs locking under your video but your model performs very well even whiteout them. So it really nice and consistent vehicle.

Nice attention to the details, it's very recognizable and looks very modern in black! Unfortunately I just can't see if it has fours small wheels at the bottom (the most famous feature). Does it? For English-speaking guys, "BRDM" is an acronym (transliterated from Russian) of the machine's main purpose: Combat Reconnaissance Patrol Machine. The most remarkable thing of theses vehicles are retractable smaller wheels between the main ones (so it is "8x4") that work identically to lifting "pusher" axles allowing to beat the huge obstacles without touching the ground by the chassis bottom (resulting in caterpillar-like gear), so it can't stuck.

I just found another great model made of 42078 "Mack Anthem" set by @MrTekneex, a well-known C-models maker: The features are: Tilting cabin Openable doors HOG steering with working steering wheel (ahh, another cabover truck with tilting cabin and working steering wheel ) Working 6L engine Rear "doubles" at the driven 2nd axle Front and 3rd axles steering The 3rd axle is also liftable (has no steering in the raised position) Roll-off and landing / loading the container in three steps, each is driven by its own LA (or rack+housing) Dump the container Locable door of the container So far it's only on this website, so hopefully, it might appear at the Rebribale as well...

Exactly! This new 3L driving ring has a bigger "hole" inside that can fit all new and old compatible pars. Informally, all parts could be dived into two groups: An "Old" V1 group that contains this old 2L driving ring and all parts issued before the new 3L Driving ring: 6539 ("red old" Driving Ring 2L) 6542/6542b (DBG 16T "single-side clutch" Gear) 6573 (Old 4L Diff) 32187 (Old Driving Ring Extention) A "new" V2 group that generally contains all existing parts except the old 2L Driving Ring: 18947 ("DBG new" Driving Ring 3L) 6542/6542b (DBG 16T "one side clutch" Gear) 6573 (Old 4L Diff) 32187 (Old Driving Ring Extention) 18946 (New Red 16T "double-side clutch" Gear) 35185 (New Blue "double-side clutch Gear) 35186 (New "yellow" Driving Ring Extention)

Well, it's complicate... I prefer the digital building in Studio as there i'm ulimited in the number of attempts and constant search of the perfect enought solutions. Next, I build the necessary assemblies physically to ensure that it works as supposed and see if I have missed someting and over or under complicated some ideas. The second step is digital again, the building steps, that immideatelly followed by the physical test to see if the parts sequence is correct and has no deadlocks. And... The looong rendering! The reason I still have never posted the real photos - I have no appropriate place for taking good photos (space, light, camera, etc...) and some parts I have, they aren't proper colored, so I wouldn't publish these "parrots" with red/yellow/gray livery

Now it's time to change something else: as you remember the Anthem belongs to "set-back" trucks configuration that have front axle moved backward (has a significant space between the wheels and front bumper surface, like in EU trucks), whereas the Granite model comes in "set-back" and "set-forward" (more popular configuration for US trucks, even cabovers). The existing MODs and C-models by @grohl, @M_longer and @grego18f are perfectly shaped and have great functions but they all are still "set-back". So now it's time to move the the "set-forward" configuration: Surprisingly, it's was an easier that I expected to move the front axle 3 studs forward, so I'm finishing some moments and will share the "Set-forward Granite" modification fully compatible with Anthem and related modifications, including the RC mods . Hope I will have enough time to finish the full classification of existing MODs here and mark the compatible groups of these modifications.

Just a small off-top: 42078's frame surprisingly easily can be converted from set-back to set-forward type and the result looks nice. I'm not sure that it could be used here, as EU trucks are all "set-back" types (really, can't recall any "set-forward" of them) but set-forward F700 and Granite will definitely come once...

Nice, so it has a very precise steering now . By the way, I would put the rear tandem axles closer by 1 stud. It was great for the US truck (where wide non-steering spreads are normal) but for EU they could be closer as such type should steer better. Just my own opinion.

Great! I especially like the CV-joint frictionless connection that disengages the HOG driveshaft easily when tilting the cabin and additional 1:3 reduction in the "sleeper" roof. What's the HOG total ratio now? I suppose that it's 12:20 & 1:3 but may miss something.

Well, it came a bit less than a year ago... May you mean those "batmobile" tires? They really should appear soon...

Wow! Looks really awesome Interesting to see the familiar solutions I have tried to make for my COE version but made in a different manner (and I would say more compact, like it should be for EU trucks, where the dimensions are so critical limitations). Would you mind if I share with you Anthem-compatible rear part for 4x2 trucks? I have prepared it for the further use in 42T 4x2 "light" modification of Anthem and for Granite "MHD Baby-8" mod (it's very draft to be published yet, so you may google for it so far): Truck Modular MOD - RF - 180'' 4x2 Short Frame Tractor.io. It also fully compatible with Anthem's side skirts that after some minor modifications may greatly fit here to have a finished aero appearance.

It is not all! I especially like it's "open" design with visible gears inside, it looks very "technic-old-school" and makes the perfect combination of the inner pure-techinc design "functions over shape" and beautiful outer scale-model-like shaping. @grego18f, if possible, please keep it

I highly upvote for the modular design! Working on the Anthem's modifications (I haven't published all of them) I keep following the main rule to have all of them compatible with each other. So now each 4x2, 6x4, 6x2, 8x6 combination is possible without any limitations.

Bravo, it looks really great and easy to catch the main EU trucks shapes and proportions. Another great use of the "linked steering wheel" And another great 15-wide (Mack-scale) truck is coming, looks amazing!

Yeah it was a kind of revelation too for me when I found out that it could be done in the simplest way. So, can't wait to see your MOC when you finish it. @ian74, agree at all, it's a godlike C-model (bravo, M_longer, again and again)! Personally, I'd recommend you one more thread that is full of other tasty things

Yep, the numbers and names nowadays may have no meaning. Do you remember "42067" that seems was turned into "42070", even keeping the original stickers?

Let me add here one more thing that I made some time ago: a step deck (drop deck) semitrailer with the lowest possible cargo surface. I have planned making something with smaller wheels, like some real-life truck have, and as I started the US semitrailers series here, the next one come as a very low cargo platform, also known as a step deck: Initially, it has started as a nothing special than a deep modification of the flatbed, but new challenges caused by the decreased height forced me to rebuild it completely. Meanwhile I was looking some new best solutions, so now it got: more rigid structure, as it was even more critical for the lower frame; better modularity, I redesigned the sections connections and now it can be easily shortened or extended by adding few more sections - just pull a couple of 3L pins with bush (they are visible on the bottom edge of the frame) to disassemble the trailer and add few more sections; cheaper, as now it uses only the cheapest possible solutions - has no LA's no extra gears, no other expensive parts. I even decided not to use the narrow "London bus/Corvette" wheels, but you can put them to get more authentic "doubles". Despite these constrains and challenges, it still has the same features: Slide axles. The same idea but looks and works in a more interesting manner: the fist axle slides from the "wide spread" position that makes any 90 or 180 turn a hard trouble, to a tight and manurable short tandem (2 studs shorter than Anthem's tandem). It utilizes the rack and worm gear, so the axle can be stopped in any desired position. Opposite to the flatbed MOC, it uses the usual 13L "steering rack" that is way compact and cheaper that "crane" rack+housing. (the front axle moves with the mudguards, so the space between them is a constant) Another and the last feature is the stands (landing gears) that are controlled by the lever and can be folder or activated immediately and nicely secured in the both final positions. It was possible due to a little trick with some curved linkage between the lever and stands (it took 20 minutes to make an idea and 3.5 hours to realize it ): It surprisingly simple but works like a charm, and needs no slow LA's or someting expensie else. Some more photos can me found at BrickSafe: https://bricksafe.com/pages/Void_s/42078/semitrailer-stepdeck-us, as the MOC itself at Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-29877. And now, once the concept of "lower deck with smaller wheels" is well-tested, it's time to go forward with more complex (and even more difficult) model: B-trail with "V8 supercars hauler" It's hard to say how long it could take right now, but hopefully I will manage to make it once...

99% that this new diff has the clutch-ready rings with jumpers. It was already presented in the 4L old diff, so I see no reasons why not to keep following this scheme. Especially if this new assembly comes as a new "parallel" (not the ex-new one that worked with only angle connections). As TLG now makes only bevel/double bevel gears (remember, when they released the last "straight" gear?), this "double-bevel" replacement follows all current trends a lot. Plus to that, imagine, if with a few parts, this diff in this model can be locked/opened in one touch... As for the clutches, do you remember the cutch "extension" rings that come frequent enough in the gearboxes? This "clutched" diff can be used as a part of some nice gearboxes with them... Imagine a well-working, compact planetary gearbox? The old diffs were bulky and weak enough, but this one.. Ughhh. A CVT gearbox that fits into 9*5*3 space

I suppose that they are the stands. Well, the keels can be moved up and down, so you can put the boat with some angle.

I agree with JonathanM there are no traces of any linkage between the front and rear outriggers: Notice that the rear ones are "powered" using only black 3L axle-pin (2L axle + 1L pin) and nothing goes to the front ones - I added the red line to the place where the longitudinal axle must be placed to connect them but as you can see there no any axles places here. Plus to that, the front outrigger has noting incoming as well. So: Rear outriggers are operated with HOGs at the rear Front outriggers are operated with red Ball Joint with pins. Plus, there is really not so much space for something else, as the wheels (all the axles steers) need a lot of free space around...