arik

Well done! Any chance of getting a video of it? It'd be great if you could make a LDD file of the model, although it'll take some effort to do this big model in it. Building instructions generated by LDD are probably not that useful, as the steps are going to be in a strange order. But just the LDD model should be sufficient for replicating the build, with some effort of course. I like to document my own creations with LDD so that I remember how I solved different building problems and to be able to build the model again later. Maybe some day I'll take a look at LDraw and other tools... The other option is to just take good photos when disassembling the model. In reverse order they work as building instructions.

Looking good! It's amazing what you can do with just a single set. Are all stickers at the same pieces as in the model? LDD or some photos of internals would be nice.

I think it depends what you value. (Hasn't this been discussed quite recently already?) Basically, 42009 is a good building experience and provides a good set of parts (proven by the many great C-models of it here). 42030 provides a nice amount of PF and remote control parts, if you're short of those. 42009 gives you 10 medium sized wheels, 42030 gives 4 big ones. I just got 42009 and I'm quite happy with it, and not planning to get 42030 (as I have the PF stuff already).

Glad I could help. Mini-LA's also have the built-in clutch that works the same way, although the clutch implementation is different. For more info, see for example http://www.eurobrick...=25#entry932264 Oh, also, when having two steered axles, you want them to point to a point that lies on the same line as the rear axle(s). So if you have 2:1 steering angle, the rear axles should be as far from 2nd steered axle as the steered axles are from each other. Looking at your current setup, the steering angles ratio should be maybe something like 4:3 or so (you can count the exact ratio by comparing how far each of the steered axle is from the middle point of rear axles).

By 2M lever I mean that the length of the steering arm (lever) is 2 units, i.e. length of 3 studs. The first set of wheels have very short steering arm, and that's probably the reason for heavy steering. Make it longer (which means longer travel in the gear track, but that shouldn't be a problem). Compare to original 42009 steering setup. The Linear Actuators have internal clutch, which makes the noise (I'm fairly sure it isn't the gears grinding). It's safe to use as a clutch, although I don't want to keep them running against the clutch for long (just to be safe not to wear out the clutch). If you use the white clutch gear, you probably loose quite a bit of power that the LA's could use.

Nice model! I think the steering is heavy because you have only 1M lever for the first set of wheels. Maybe you should change it to traditional 2M and use even longer for the second set of wheels. Also try putting the white clutch gear only before the winch, the LA's don't need it.

Here's a modified version of the truck. I dedicated both pneumatic cylinders for the lift, and made a mechanical link for tilting the platform. It's not as neat as having both working pneumatically, but works better. As before, I only used parts from 42008 Tow Truck, but I have to say that I used two pneumatic T-pieces, while the original model uses only one. But as far as I know there's another T-piece as a spare in the set. The mechanical linkage works by turning the tan 20T bewel gear (located where the other pneumatic switch used to be), and it's geared down 5:3. There's a friction pin resisting movement so the tail door doesn't come down by itself. Here's a video (as you can see the lifting mechanism works decently) and also an updated LXF file (without pneumatic parts).

I also got 42009 and I'm enjoying the build, seems fairly entertaining. I'm doing it at a relaxed pace, still building the carrier. It's a bit bigger than I thought :-) The wife got me Sariel's new book :-)

An air tank is good for two things: - you have air pressure left immediately after a movement, so you do not need to wait for the pressure to build up (although it doesn't take all that long with the compressor) - you don't need to be running the compressor the whole time (vibrating and making noise) you operate the cylinders: the air tank lasts for a few movements (this is my main motivation using an air tank)

I've been getting the flagships since I came out from the dark ages. I now have 8110 and 9398, and 42009 is waiting to be wrapped and then opened as a Christmas present :-) I also have 42008 and a couple of smaller sets. So 42030 would definetely fit into that series. But parts wise, there's practically nothing I don't already have (42009 provides the necessary amount of yellow stuff, and PF stuff I got from 9398). I've understood the build is not that interesting (compared to 42009 or 8110 for example). So it's a bit meh for me now. Actually I plan to get 42025 next, that's something different. Of course, if 2015H2 flagship isn't something good, I might give 42030 a chance. It'd be nice to hear other opinions about this.

I've been trying to get a mLA version out for this, but it seems I can't find a way that's not an ugly hack. The mLAs really are too long for this, and consequently, they require too sharp or shallow angles, which in turn don't work well when we have only 1 stud lever for the actuators. There's always something blocking movement. With small pneumatic cylinders, it was much easier as they could be placed on the side where not obstructing anything. I'll probably revisit the topic of tail lifts one day and construct a larger scale tail lift with mLAs. Even then their width will probably cause problems... Now, about the pneumatic version, I've made an LXF file out of it. It doesn't contain pneumatic tubes, and all the pneumatic components (cylinders, pump, and switches) are replaced by yellow parts. (The longer tubes from 42008 go the left hand side cylinder and shorter to the right hand side cylinder.) Also you might need to add a connector or two for holding the tubes. The total part count is about 600. I've made groups for the cabin, cargo space and tail lift in the LXF and they can be built pretty much independently. There's still long way for actual building instructions, which I don't have the skills to do.

That's actually quite nice. Of course the string isn't original part from 42006. Have you considered motorizing it?

Yes, it was impossible to pick just 6 entries deserving a vote, quality of entries was very good. I felt bad for the entries I couldn't give points to. Maybe in the following contests there should be more voting possibilities, especially if there are this high number of entries.

35: 10 40: 6 28: 4 6: 3 38: 2 33: 1

Yes, I think that's what needed. Unfortunately I'm constrained by the length of the tubes, especially the shorter pair. Maybe moving the switches higher could help (so the tubes don't need to bend so much back down). Hmm.. Please do, there's way too few tail lifts in Technic mocs :-) I'd really like to see this in use. I'm going to make a Lego Digital Designer model out of this in the near future, but I don't have the skills to do actual instructions out of that. I think it's possible to modularize the model to a few segments so it can be built easier even without too long instructions. Meanwhile, I've been thinking about a variation with mini-LAs. Those are a bit too big for this model (3 x 1 x 7-10 versus 1 x 1 x 5-7 ), but I think I can squeeze them in. As the mLAs are longer, they need to be mounted deeper in the chassis, about where the rear wheels are located. Now that's a problem because there's only about 7M wide room for the two mLAs side by side. Also, because the mLAs must be mounted below the support beam (unlike in the pneumatic version), the beam cannot be immediately above them, but must be bent. Anyway, I came up with this: The mechanism will not use the whole range of mLAs, but that's probably not an issue. We'll see how this will work... Stay tuned!

Thanks for the nice comments. I only wished there were more green panels or liftarms in the set, would've done the truck a bit longer. But maybe this is a compact city truck... Ah yes... Here's a quick video of it: https://flic.kr/p/qfyznB (Sorry for the bad image quality, I don't really have the necessary gear and environment for decent videos at the moment.) As you can see, it struggles a bit to lift the platform. It's actually worse at the moment when going down. It's quite sensitive how the pneumatic hoses are positioned so that they don't put extra stress to the mechanism. Probably pressure in the other circuit affects this as well. Any ideas about how to get around that would be appreciated. One modification could of course be to use both cylinders for lifting and having the tilting (opening/closing) as a manual function.

Hi guys, I'd like to share my version of a C-model of the 42008 Service Truck. I was inspired by the great TC5 contest, even though this doesn't qualify to it due to the part count. Nonetheless, only parts from the set 42008 are needed to build this model. This is actually my first actual MOC, I've only done mods and small concepts before. Still, this is already the 3rd tail lift implementation I post here :-) This time I'm using the small pneumatic cylinders, now attached to a small green delivery truck. Here are some pictures: It has the following features: - HOG steering - tail lift with controls for elevation and tilting it - manual pump behind the seats - openable doors - openable container space roof - openable upper part of the rear door Now some words about the tail lift. Here's the LXF model of it, and a picture: The cylinders are replaced in LXF by yellow 5M beams. The right hand side cylinder provides the lifting mechanism, and the left hand side cylinder tilts the lift (basically only closes or opens the lift when in the elevated position). Now, it's probably no surprise that the lift is very weak. It is raised only by the right hand cylinder, and the mini pneumatic cylinder isn't that powerful. Also the travel of the lift is much greater than the 2M travel of the cylinder itself, so it has to overcome quite a bit of mechanical disadvantage. Tilting the mechanism works fairly well, as there's not much force needed for closing or opening the back door; when using the door as a lift all the weight is carried by the completely retracted cylinder and not air pressure. (Which, of course is not completely realistic, but must be like this at this scale.) Despite being weak, I'm quite happy with the lift mechanism. It follows real design of these lifts quite closely. In optimal circumstances it can lift small loads, but typically it's not that useful. The reason is a bit unexpected: I discovered that a major force resisting lift travel was actually the pneumatic hoses that must also bend and move when the lift rises or lowers. There's not only the air pressure resisting bending of the hose but also friction when they rub against each other and the walls of the truck. Therefore I added a couple of rollers for each hose and also encapsulated them in the pin joiners that have much less friction when touching other parts. I didn't include a compressor, as I felt that manual pump would give slightly more pressure to the cylinders, and would be more appropiate for a model of this size. Also I'm not too fond of the vibrations the compressor creates. To operate the pump, you need to open the right side door and use the lever behind the seat (up/down). I haven't yet created an LDD version of this, but will get to that soon. After doing that, I'm looking into possibilities of using mini-LAs for the tail lift, as the model also has a pair of those. They are longer and take more space, but I'm sure they would work better. I don't know whether that means motorizing it or not, but we'll see. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this!

Well done! Could you share details (images/model) of the gearbox? Btw good work with the mast.

That would be much appreciated. One can almost see the entire build from the photos you posted, but a few building step photos would certainly make it easier and more enjoyable for us to build.

Very, very nice! I'm big fan of pneumatics and really like what you achieved. Looks clean and simple, but obviously wasn't an easy task to get it there! I'm building something out of 42008 pneumatics at the moment, hope I can share it later on. After doing that I must get to building this :-)

I've often wondered the same. As I always forget the answer, I typically look it up from Google image search (if not from my actual bricks). So the answer 5 studs retracted and 7 studs extended.

Wow, well done! I have 42009 waiting to be opened, will definitely look into this once I've built the A (and maybe B) model.

Hi again. I finally completed this also in LDD, and made some improvements along the way. The functions and overall design remained the same, though. Here's the LXF file. I designed it so that you only need to build the main module and recycle/build from official instructions the cab, boom, outriggers, and side panels. (Although you need to flip one 3x5 beam in each of the side panels.) I used the 42008 LXF file I found in the EB LDD forum for those. And some pictures: Main module: Closer look at the transmission: Unfortunately I couldn't reproduce the tubing or wiring in LDD, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. Also, all pneumatic cylinders and pumps are replaced with yellow beams. :-)

Wow! That's clever! I tried to figure this out some time ago but ended up thinking it can't be done even with a differential. Didn't see it takes two :-)

2: 10 7: 6 3: 4 10: 3 1: 2 11: 1 Well done all, it was hard to decide.