2GodBDGlory

Could a Speed Champions body fit over it?

Thanks, that means a lot to me!

Do those of you involved with CADA have any idea if there's any chance of them putting out differently sized clutch gears? Given how often Technic fans demand them, it could be a major selling point for them!

Wow, sounds cool! I do think the tumbler tires look cool, though they may not be the most realistic. It seems like you're going to be closer to a MOC than a mod in the end!

Yeah, thanks for putting this contest together! Good job to all the participants; it was a lot of fun!

Thanks guys! I was really shocked by how many people voted for my entry once the votes started coming in!

Yeah, I really like how those headlights turn on when you open them up! The rear view looks really nice too.

Ok, sounds good!

That looks like fun! Will you be testing it in snow soon?

That is cool! It's got quite a similar track/drivetrain design, but is much more polished overall.

Thanks! I'm not sure what the weight is, though, and I already took it apart, so I can't measure.

Yeah, the steering was definitely flawed. Because of the way the motors were attached, I ended up going with a suboptimal attachment of the steering links, allowing for major bump steer. The way the suspension worked in practice, this resulted in some pretty major toe in. It shouldn't be too hard to come up with a better design, though. The ridge could be an interesting idea, and I actually did have a wheel in each ski; I just didn't mention it in the post! Yeah, it probably was front-heavy. It seems like the way the weight is distributed is important for tuning the way the front and rear suspension, and because I didn't build a seat over the rear track, it did end up being heavier up there. I think my custom battery is likely a similar weight to an AA battery box, but I've already taken apart the model, so I can't get you a weight for it. Thanks, I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with! Both of those ideas would be a good thing to try to change to improve performance, as pointed out above.

So, this model was thrown together in about two days after inspiration struck! I had been driving my non-Lego RC excavator (A ~$100 USD Top Race one I snagged at a thrift store for $7! All I had to do was throw in my old lithium camera battery to replace the old Ni-Cd one.) out in the snow, and having an awful lot of fun. Anyways, its having tracks and being fun in the snow inspired me to try to build something out of Lego that would be just as fun, and I set on a snowmobile. I don't think these are particularly common to build with Technic, and they're even less common to make RC. I made one a few years back, but it was rather small and weak, and thus no good in the snow. Anyways, I decided to go big and powerful for this one, and am quite pleased with the result! Now, it is a rather quick, crude mock-up, which is why I have the Proof-Of-Concept tag in the title. I really only wanted to build something for fun, which precluded building a body, so normally I wouldn't be posting this, except that it seems to be a rather unique concept. To make it large, I doubled up large tracks and added 9L beams onto them for traction, setting the scale more or less. I drove it using two Buggy motors, directly driving planetary hubs using old female CV joints, which directly drove large sprockets. I originally used medium sprockets, but the large ones got me better speed, as well as more contact with the track. Steering was done with two hard-coupled PF servo motors, since I expected to need a fair bit of torque to steer the skis. The front suspension was a simple double-wishbone setup using two 9.5L hard shocks, but the rear was more complicated, and I had to do some research on the real systems to figure out how it works. Basically, the track support is only attached to the frame by two longitudinal links (11L DBG beams here), a shock absorber, and the track itself. There is a second beam connected to this support, which uses three long shock absorbers to tension the track. It's kind of hard to describe the system, but it basically has normal up/down suspension, plus allows for tilting of the track forwards and backwards as it travels over obstacles. My system could probably have used some work, because the track would often skip over the drive sprockets when the going got tough, but overall it didn't perform too badly! All the electronics were controlled by my new custom 3D-printed 3S lithium battery box. It uses three 18650 lithium cells wired in series and charged while outside of the battery box, to deliver the same theoretical voltage as a Buwizz 3.0, but for way, way, less money. Because of this, I have jokingly inscribed it with the letters PMBW, for Poor Man's BuWizz. Of course, the poor often need to make sacrifices, and in this situation, that mostly means that I have to use external receivers without proportional control. I used two 2.4 GHz Chinese receivers, which ensured a good connection and plenty of current for each buggy motor. Overall, I really enjoyed the project! It was fast and interesting to drive, and also quite interesting to engineer. I'd love to see some other folks take this basic idea further, with higher power, perhaps, a bodywork, and a better tuned suspension! Maybe this is something the Buwizz team would be interested in trying? More images at: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/big-snowmobile

Yep, it'll probably join the last few years in being a two-pager!

Good point; I'll edit that in!

Yep! Let's count: 1. Friction stud-pin 2. 5x2 panel extension 3. Porsche panel R 4. Porsche panel L 5. 1x1.5 panel extension (Transformation vehicle) 6. Small new gear (Transformation vehicle) 7. Large new gear (Transformation vehicle) 8. McLaren panel R 9. McLaren panel L 10. McLaren frame 11. BMW front shocks 12. BMW rear shocks 13. BMW windshield 14. BMW rims 15. BMW front tire 16. BMW rear tire 17. BMW brake disc 18. BMW front hubs Will we add any more parts to this list in the summer? I hope so!

Over in this thread, towards the bottom, someone has suggested a simple fix for the shift order. I haven't looked into it, but maybe it's something you could try:

Yeah, this was on my mind a lot last week--whether or not I would vote. In the end I did, because it felt sportsmanlike and I didn't think it would hurt my position, but I at least think that in future contests we should either ban participants from voting, or force then to vote, just to avoid the whole dilemma.

I'm glad to see the standard LBG engine blocks here. I was wondering if the trans-clear ones would be the new standard, which would disappoint me. I'm happy to have them available, but there's definitely places where the LBG ones look better.

5: 10 7: 6 1: 4 4: 3 8: 2 2: 1 We got some very well-done and interesting entries!

It sounds like a very good piece for bracing larger gearboxes!

Very nice! It's a bit unfortunate that the tires have to be different sizes, but it works quite well overall!

I think if you want your Technic MOC made into a set, CADA is a much better bet than Lego Ideas! That does look like an epic MOC, and would be very cool as a set. How many pieces is it?

There sure are a lot of useful parts--those pin-beams would really change building styles, I think! I'd use stuff like that, except that I think there's value in building my serious MOCs with the same palette that other people are willing to use. I've been 3D-printing some interesting custom parts lately (32T gear, different sizes of clutch gears, etc.) and would love to use them in MOCs, but it kind of falls under the same principle. If lots of other people were willing to use non-Lego parts it could gain legitimacy, but it seems like a chicken-egg scenario to me! Also, if that response of mine on the first page would be useful as an index, I'm fine with editing it, if someone provides the material for it!

I think there's some of each. Certain sets use the official logos and everything, so I'd assume they're licensed, while others go by a non-descript name and don't use logos.