Kumbbl

One remark why in my humble opinion for such a mobile crane a pneumatic-based solution for boom lifting is better then using LAs: The main weak spot of lego pneumatic is, that no smooth motion and positioning is possible (or is difficult to achieve) but just more or less a fast move to one of the final positions. Well, therefore for a lego excavator LAs are probably a better solution than pneumatics because typical use-cases of an excavator needs exactly very smooth motions (e.g. of the boom). i consciously emphazise here "for a lego excatavor" because here realism is not the main purpose but playablity and usability (at least IMHO)... But for a mobile crane the requirements are completey different: typically the boom of a mobile crane will be lifted as high as possible (so to the final position) before beginning of work and then the work will be done by using the hook and maybe the boom extension for a finer adjustment of the needed height. A mobile crane needs no smooth and very precise positioning of the boom-liftup. And therefore pneumatics is a better solution than LA because it is more realistic and it is faster and therefore also a compressor is completely overdosed because i do not need pressure over all the time but only once for lifiting the boom (a mobile crane will never perform perpetual lifting and lowering of its boom) and later once for lowering the boom - and this can be done very good by the manual pump. To make a long story short: for a mobile crane IMHO lego pneumatic is not onyl more realistic but also improves usability - provided that the boom stays on top position for a senseful duration - with my 8421 this works very well with the modded 4-cylinder with connected retration circuit... Any other thoughts?

How can you know that in lever position "boom extension" the winch is not connected, i.e. synchronized?? This would be an internal of the gearbox and because the gearbox is hidden on the pictures nobody can currently judge if the 42009 has this sync-feature or not... or have i missed something?

fully agree... a moving pivot point is very implausible... yes, i'm wondering this too.... of course the huge part count of the modern sets comes mostly from myriads of pins but just one more axle more, some gears, some panels and some more other body covering could not sum up to 800 parts more... Despite the fact that i WILL buy this new crane and the fact that the new crane will be a very good set i have the strong suspicion, the the old uncle 8421 will not be kicked out of the game by the new one... especially when moded with 2 additional cylinders and a connected retracting circuit the old one can compete very well: - one more axle is nothing more than exactly this: one more axle - two pistons more are nothing more than exactly this: 2 pistons more - slewing will be done manually in both versions (and this is good so) - boom-extension is probably done very similar and is already very clever and well designed in the 8421 - synchronized winch and boom-extension is currently not proofed for the new one (i not than this is a big advantage of the old one) - both cranes have a very good look, the new one a more modern look with more panels but the old one has better proportions (IMHO) and the in addition the charme of a geat "lego look"... - the old one has this more realistic pneumatic stuff - but i admit, that the LA-based solution is a good choice too - but my slightly preference is for the pneumatic but only when modded For me the only real advantage of the new one are the motorized outtriggers - well, to be honest, this is a real advantage... But anyway: the new one must come in my household ;-)

no, disagree - it's not a shame - in contrary: it's senseful.. it would be a shame, if the crane could be fully RC but it is not RC but you have to switch on/off functions on the upperstructure so you have to lay hands on it... and therefore manually slewing is in my humble opinion a good choice als for playablitly by kids (as mentioned above)

with respect to this picture: It does not seem so, it IS so... IMHO also the only sensuful solution... Gear- and motor-driven slewing is too dangerous when kids are playing because kids tend to manually slew a crane and this would then danakge the geartrain... do not forget, that the main target audience of lego sets are still kids ... at least domestic homes where also kids live.. this is also valid for technic sets..

yes, allanp is right - changing only the gears like CP5670 would only speedup third and third gear... and yes, allanps suggestion is also right, then the 4 gears are lined up again... but with my mod and its removed chain-link (s.a.) speeding up the pistons overall is much simpler: just change the gear-set at this place - there are several possibilities ... it is always a good design principle (not only with lego but also with software e.g. ;-) to build up stuff so, that changes can be done at one single place if the behavior of a cerzain feature should be updated...

Not want to be bossy, but the Lego 8110 is a U400 and nothing else and for sure not a U5000 6x6 - the U5000 has a complete different look and not only one more axle... but anyway: Was and is not my intend to badmouth eigenbroetlers MOD... just my opinion about something

Hmm, maybe a well done mod - but IMHO this mod completely ruins the biggest advantage and pro of the unimog: authenticity and impressive look... sorry, but a 6 wheel unimog U400 is quite nonsense... but do not misunderstand me: i do not want to offend you - i'm sure working on yor mod was a lot of fun for you - and this is most important...

@interceptor: very well spoken.. apart from some subtle tonality i would undersign all of these votings - even the unimog when the most important criteria is authenticity

couldn't say it better - but 8421 comes close behind - the lack of panels gives "him" in my eyes one of the best mixture between realistic look and the typical "lego look&feel" - the look of the 8258 is almost too perfect ;-)

reactivating an old thread: Some votes in the categories: - Best design: 8258 Crane Truck - Most complex/best functions: 8868 Airtech Claw Rig for it's pneumatics & compressor, 8880 for best car-functions and introducing all revolutionary parts necessary for a real car-design, 8480 for the first occurrence of a gear-box for supporting several functions with just one motor, 8043 for the most complex gear-trains in a standard set (but probably the 8258 could compete here very well) - Best mid-sized set: 8455 for it's thousands of pneumatics and 8459 for it's clever and cute overall design, great playability, great functions and it's airtank - Most revolutionary: 8275 Motorized bulldozer for powerfunctions – but overall this is only a mid-ranged model - Most underrated: 8479 – The barcode system is outstanding and the truck itself is full with great gear-trains - Best small set: 851 – IMHO the best looking tractor (very realistic ferguson) with a really very clever because simple mechanism for raise, lower and driving the implements – 856 Bulldozer competes here very well – astonishing linkage-system with ingenious geometry – both are designed very realistic though consisting mainly of standard studded bricks - - Great, but forgotten: 8848: Great looking unimog; lever and linkage driven scoop and bed are fascinating, 851 and 856 could be mentioned here too well, not all sets fit well into this categories or win some category but are nevertheless one of the greatest ever, so here is my overall-list of greatest sets ever: 8880: s.a. The best car ever - has introduced all (and more) stuff used today by other supercar-designers - not to forget one of the best b-models 8421: One of the best really big sets cause of design&look, very clever boom-extending, very clever synchronizing between boom-extension and winch - the under-dimensioned pneumatic can easily be pimped with two cylinders more and connecting the retracing air-circle with the valve too 8258: s.a. superb design and overwhelming complexity 8868: s.a. 8480: s.a. 8455 and 8459: best mid-sized sets with astonishing design and functionality

quite the contrary - in my humble opinion your solution is very clever and solves one of the most annoying drawbacks of the unimog in an elegant manner...

thanks! you will see the most stuff you need are a lot of brick 1x1 with Hole in gray and some plates 1 x YYY i gray and white... unmounting and later remounting the boot, engine and some of the black beams of the upperstructure is very modular and can be done in 20 min... i would be interested in pictures... another feature i think off: adding a switch for activating/deactivating the front-drive - but this can be done very simple with a driving ring... would be a very realistic feature for 4WD cars but with the unmotorized 8880 the effect would be quite unvisible so i'm not sure if it's worth the effort... so probably most senseful work would be spend improving the car body (doors, front cowl).... but one the other side pure aesthetic isn't very intersting and buidling fun... so probably by 880 will remain exactly as it is now....

Hi, This is a MOD of the 8880 supercar and its 4WS: in real 4WS-implementations the behavior of the rear steering changes depending on the car-speed: with low speed the direction of the rear steering is contrary to the front-steering (behavior of the standard 8880) to achieve a small turning circle and a good manoeuvrability whereas with high speed the direction of the rear steering is the same (but with much smaller steering angle) as the front-steering to get high stability for lane-changing on the highways etc... as a side effect this MOD removes the chain-link to the V8 engine which always runs with vibration in the first gear... lego chain links are a suboptimal solution with drive trains with high rpm... I have only used parts which were available at the time of the 8880 at '94 and i have tried not to touch the overall structure of the car and also to preserve the look as good as possible... but some picture says more than 1000 words, so here we go: First the end-results: here you see the 8880 default steering behavior (new selector in back position) - this is 100% identical to the standard behavior of 8880 and is for good manoeuvrability at low speed: here you see the new steering mode (selector in front position): This is for high stability when lane switch at high speed (back steering has same direction as the front one but with smaller steering angle): Here you see the new indoor look with the new selector gate: Well, overall it looks more or less as before but has now more clever steering (means one feature more at the feature list) and better and direct driven engine: ----- Well, now its time for the internals: it's more or less a crash gearbox like these ones in 8860 and 8865... some days ago i asked in this forum for solutions for switching the rotation direction - i got some very smart and clever solutions (thanks to all suporters) but unfortunatelly all of them uses either newer studless parts or needs to much space - the availble space in the transmission tunnel of the 8880 is somehow limited if you want to preserve the look of the car and the position of the seats. So here you the the gears involved - on the right hand side you see that now the engine is driven just be gears which results in a much smoother engine operation: The solution fits exactly with the HOG train but needs very careful axle into playe fitting and trimming: (One remark to the image above: the final version has an undriven counter pinion on the left side of rack - symmetrically to the driven pinion on the right side - the picture was taken before this pinion has been built in) Here you see how this fits into the rear suspension and HOG structure (1) and with the selector gate (2): P.S. I do not want to conceal one small drawback of this new feature: switching between the 2 rear-steering modes is only allowed when the car drives straight ahead, means both steerings are centralized - otherwise the 2 steering would go out of sync.... but this is not prevented by a mechanism... maybe this would be possible too with a clever linkage from the HOG which prevents the sliding axle from sliding when not centralized... but for me this is an acceptable constraint...so i do not want to spend the effort

The seats in the 8865 have the same sliding mechanism as in the 8860... really no rocket science within these two models ;-) But for the 8880... hmm.. Tonight ;-) i had a very good idea (at least i thought so): a vertical mounted rack on the inner side of the side skirt beam, then an idler 8th gear and then a worm-gear - both mounted in the understructure of the seat - which in fact slides the seat - a first try shows that all fits well in the just 3-studs wide space and seems to work like a charm but a further more realistic model shows that worm gear, 8th gear and vertical mounted rack together are about 2 micrometers too broad to fit in --> therefore this approach failed :-( Now i'm thinking on a chain driven sliding mechanism where the chain is mounted via an old black technic link thread between two 3 hole beams... broad would be exactly 3 studs but probabaly the chain driving mechansim needs to much vertical space... i have few hope that this will succeed... so it seems applying sliding seats to the 8880 is a tricky challenge at least if one wants to preserve the overall structure and great standard look&feel of the 8880

Hi, anybody out there who has slideable seats built into the supercar 8880 (somethins like the mechanism of 8860 and 8865) or who knows about such a MOD of 8880? Currently i'm wondering if this is possible without changing the basic structure of 8880? there is not really much space for such a mechanism... Any hints are welcome - thanks a lot in advance! Best regards Klaus

a completely different approach for getting a Formula 1 racer: Go for getting a second set of 8880 (the first one is of course for the main-model, the black king himself ;-) and build the B-model. Well, for just showing the racer in a glass cabinet the 8458 rsp. 8461 looks better but when playablitly comes in focus both of them are lousy, steering by hand is quite impossible at least for men or older children.... Therefore my recommendation: build the B-model of 8880 and you get a really very well designed and cute looking racer, full featured with 4W suspension (good compromise between softness and stiffyness), V8 engine and even a gearbox (just 2 speeds but at least - 8458 and 8461 both lacks a gearbox)... well, maybe the suspension design of 8458/8461 is slighty more realistic for a modern F1 racer but IMHO the suspension of the 8880 B-Model is also well done for a race-car... IMHO the B-modell of 8880 is one of the prettiest studded model ever... Picture can be seen here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20778

yep - was 32 not 16 (for 8421)

hmm, good point - IMHO this feature of 8421 is a MUST for motorized cranes with extending boom - if not this reduces playability a lot... another drawback you can see in the vid: the upperstructure seems to be a little bit tottery (the man always tries to stabilize it with one hand) - whereas the upperstructure of the 8421 slews quite stable...

nothing what you can not see ;-) One exception: he explains that the winch can pull up to 200g at the hook... all other explanations are: - lifting boom - extending boom - outriggers - 4 axle steering with different steering angles - V8 engine all of them you know already by just viewing the video

@Allanp: Yes, concerning "unrivaled authenticity" i agree with you... so it depends of ones personal criterias if a model is very good or not... So let us agree that we disagree for the unimog but i see, understand and respect your points ... but the unimog is quite OT here so lets go back to topic ;-)

completey disagree - i never understood the hype of the unimog... besides the parts count it is only a good model but not a very good...reasons: - the unimof itself is good but this flimsy and tottery pneumatic crane is really a shame - 8868 has shown much better how to build a playable pneumatic crane - the unimog has a bad balance and always hangs down on one side because the suspension is too soft... - the steering lock is really a bad bad bad design - of course you can simply make it better but out of the box it is crap Overall IMHO the unimog is overhyped and therefore this new moble crane looks more promising in useabilty... Just my 2 cents

just shown this picture to my credit card so it knows, what is to do in august ;-) Well, for the supercars we had already an all-time-king with the 8880: a set which defines and caburizes the summit of a certain technic category. Now it seems same is going on for mobile cranes...

ah, cool - as simple and good as it gets... probbaly not applicable to the steering of the 8880 but i will check it... anyway its a great idea!

Hmm, maybe, maybe not - i can only give an answer after understanding this cute piece of technic - currently i worry that i do not: what is here input, what output, wich part causes the direction change... probably all of them are dumb questions, sorry for this.... haha, really funny - IMHO a really smart idea, simple and effective - congrats!