tomacwhite

It looks like 8043 Motorized Excavator has been pulled from sale on the Lego site in all countries.

Do what I did. Contact Lego and get a refund.

I got a call from a very kind and friendly lady at Lego UK today, and this is what I was told. - The Lego designers in Denmark are aware of the problems with the Excavator - They have pulled 50 (fifty) models from storage and built them. ALL 50 had problems - At first the models work OK, then the performance drops over time (as with mine and others) - They think it might be transmission related but are not 100% sure - Problems were not noticed during design phase - Not a high population of users have complained about problems (I guess that doesn't mean they don't have issues, just not reported them) - They think it could be a bad batch of models - They hope to have full results in 7 days - There will be a redesigned model with fixes, hopefully within a few months (3~ months) I have been given a full refund on mine now which is great news. I am taking mine apart tonight and sending it off. I have to say Lego have been very good about this situation and they are working very hard to trying to solve the problems. For now though, I'd rather have the money back until it is fixed. Hope this helps.

I've not heard anything back from Lego yet regarding my comments to them, perhaps they are holding off replies whilst they look into the problems with the model. Some acknowledgment from Lego would be nice though.

This is amazing, and it must be a more wide spread issue than most of us think. A company wouldn't typically do anything about a handful of users on a forum having a problem, it must be lots of people contacting Lego about the issues. VERY good news.

Yep out of the packet AA Everyready Energizers.

OK video is now online. It's available here:

Just uploading the video to You Tube now. Wont be long :)

It's great to have lots of feedback here, thank you guys. I will take a short video of my model tonight and post it onto Youtube (and the link here of course). It will be probably be done on my iPhone 3GS so wont be amazing quality, but will at least show what problems my model has. I'll do it for later tonight (UK time). Also, if you had a defected motor, perhaps I have problems with mine too. However the "Main Arm" motor spins freely when there is no linear actuator attached to it.

Arm movement on that is far smoother and efficient than mine. His right track seems to be equal to the left track too, so I guess my build has some serious issues.

I've put yet another brand-new set of Energizer batteries into the Excavator and it has improved slightly. - Raising the main arm (dual actuators) is quicker, but the motors still sound like they are straining. Is this normal to other peoples? - The Right track (right stick) is noticeably slower than the left, and after a short distance of driving forward the model starts to veer to the right quite sharply (much, much more aggressively than the 8275 Bulldozer did where one motor was also driving the V6). - The middle boom still strains and slows right down when lifting (when actuator is contracting in length) EDIT: I have noticed a couple of things 1 - When raising or lowering the main arm, you can see the two linear actuators flexing independently. 2 - My left actuator (looking from the front) 'rocks' in my hand if I hold it, whereas the right is stiffer. This probably doesn't help!

Mine definitely worked better after the first time I made adjustments. But then it seemed to go out of sync a little so I readjusted. After that, I can't get it working efficiently at all, fresh batteries (alkalines) or not. I guess there is a very thin line of where it works and where it doesn't. Still, mine is having problems throughout other parts now which is really odd.

I think I am going to give the B-Model a go, it looks like it might actually work.

That's a good idea, but I too did that. Like I said, everything spins perfectly when there is no load on the motors. :(

I am really annoyed with this model, it has many problems. I am seriously considering contacting Lego about it and asking for a full refund on the model. Why? Because put simply it doesn't work. Tested with fresh AA Energizer batteries. Everywhere you look online many people are complaining that the motors struggle to do anything, and pretty much the only functions they are efficient at is the motor that switches between the modes (Drive and Arm) and the bucket. For me my problems are: Slewing Incredibly slow and a loud draining sound from the motor as it struggles to rotate. Movement is slow Left track Works OK Right track Incredibly slow and laggy, with a draining sound from the motor Main arm (dual actuators) Raising: So slow it virtually doesn't move. You have to help it with your hand, then it works perfectly. Lowering: Works OK Central arm Raising: Again, incredibly slow with a loud draining noise coming from the motor as it struggles to lift the arm Lowering: OK Bucket Fine in both directions Notes: - If I remove the connecting axles from the linear actuators they spin very quickly with no problems whatsoever. No draining noises - If I hold the Excavator from the ground or upside down and operate the tracks, they work perfectly with no lag or drain from the motors. For me put simply, the model cannot cope with the weight of the arm and the superstructure to operate at an acceptable level. The M motors don't have enough torque to operate it properly. At £140 I expect it to work a lot better than this. Playing with my 8275 Bulldozer is infinitely more enjoyable because it works (and has 2x XL motors which cope much better).

How long are peoples batteries lasting with this model? It seems to be really struggling now, yet the the set hasn't been used much at all. The 8275 Bulldozer is on its original set of batteries and is still moving perfectly. The Excavator is struggling with main arm and boom movement (VERY slow), and slewing which is crawling now.

Hi, thanks for the feedback. Space is quite tight around that area of the model but like you said I might try to power the axle which is going from the diff to the V8 engine, that way allowing horizontal placement of the PF 'XL' motor. Thanks :)

Does anyone know where to get the inventory for the B-Model? I think I might have nearly enough pieces to build it without taking apart the A-Model, but I am not sure. It's not at the back of the B-model manual.

I built mine (finally) this evening, its a cool model. What is the easter egg? The model name as the mileage? There is another number too, does that mean anything?

As you can see the structure isn't quite final now, but the truck is much, much faster to play with.

Small update: I have just increasted speed significantly by gearing up (using the handy guide provided by Jurgen). I have put in my XL motor which has a 24 tooth gear attached to it, then linked to an 8 tooth gear which links to the 20 tooth double-bevel gear like before. Speed is much better now. I need to tidy up the mounting of these gears and I will take a couple of shots and post them up later. I would like to try and get some more speed out of it, but it might be a challenge as I still have to get to the diff via 2x double-bevel 20 tooth gears.

Oh brilliant, thanks! :) I think I might run out of space to do too much with the Race Truck, but we'll see. I am going to try and build my own car soon, which I am sure will be very, very hard!

Yep, that's it. Its great, and feels really natural :)

Model: 8041 Race Truck Modification: - Steering from PF 'M' Motor - Drive from PF 'M' Motor - Lego Technic V8 engine kept intact Firstly, I'd like to give credit to two users because I borrowed a couple of ideas. I used the controller steering wheel design that Jurgen Krooshoop designed for his fantastic red and yellow race cars. Thank you very much for the design, it works brilliantly. Secondly, I used the hockey spring idea that I saw mahjqa put on his website. The idea works perfectly and I managed to aquire the said Hockey Spring from Bricklink for £2.50. OK, so for me my primary importance was to keep the V8 engine on the truck because I felt that it added a lot to the overall shape of the Race Truck, so to remove it would ruin the design. With this in mind, I had to think about a more clever way of mounting the motor. It might not be as efficient as other methods, but more on that (and gearing) later. As you can see the 'M' Power Function motor is mounted vertically, the IR sensor sits on top of the engine, and the battery box slides down the back of the body of the cab (with a couple of beams and Technic plates to make a perfect fit). I also changed the exhaust piece, the tubing now goes into one of the holes on the IR unit, and I dropped the 'tank' down as it blocked the pistons from view and didn't sit very well otherwise. As you can see the battery box fits perfectly in the back of the cab. I just added two parts per side, plus an axle for it to sit on. I then added a small 'L' beam with pin to lock it into place. I needed to add an extension cable for the drive motor so I tucked it down the left side of the truck with a pin/plate piece which seems to work nicely. Steering is achieved via a vertically placed 'M' Motor connected to the Hand of God steering axle, and you can see the white Hockey Spring piece which works perfectly. The rear motor mount close up: With this set up the Race Truck drives at an OK speed, but it can hardly be called quick. I am not sure how to gear it up really, could anyone advise? I also bought a 'XL' Motor but that is slower, so needs gearing up by quite a bit. Some advice on how to gear it up would be great! I am new to modding so advice on what gears to use etc would be very helpful! Do I need to have a larger gear on the motor, then a smaller one at the drive end? The problem there is that the differential is quite a big gear in itself. Overall I am very happy with what I've done, the truck is ace now its drivable, it just needs to be made quicker!

You have insider info?