DLuders

Take a look at Sariel's "3-Studs-Wide Differential Bracings" webpage.

I don't understand -- I thought LDD was updated every year (usually in October), and that TLG was merely delaying until January 17, 2012 to eliminate the DbM option. What's holding up the release of LDD 5.0? LDD 4 has been in use for 13 months. Are they never going to incorporate your LDD Manager (which can create Parts Lists)?

I would like to have these Lego Technic parts available in the LDD 5.0 Parts Pallette -- they are unique to the 8110 Unimog U400 set: "Dark Bluish Gray Technic, Steering Hub For Portal Axle" (Lego #4610378, Bricklink 92909) "Light Bluish Gray Technic, Steering Portal Axle Housing" (Lego #4610377, Bricklink 92908) "Black Tire 94.3 x 38 R" (Lego #4610381, Bricklink 92912) "Light Bluish Gray Technic, Steering Ball Joint Large Open with C-Shape Pivot Frame" (Lego #4610379, Bricklink 92910) "Technic, Steering Ball Joint Large Receptacle" cup to fit on above pivot (Lego #4610380, Bricklink 92911)

When you open LDD and see the four existing modes, the "2 [remaining] LDD specific themes working in the same way" must be "Mindstorms" and "LDDextended". I hope that the LDD software engineers have been heeding the Eurobricks Wanted Bricks in LDD" topic, because we can add LOTS MORE desired items.... Only 5-1/2 weeks of waiting remain until LDD 5.0 is released!

[bUMP] Here is a way of creating a Lego Technic 9-cylinder engine, or making a 9-spoked wheel. Use a g9 "Technic, Gear Expert Builder 9 Tooth" with nine bb76 "Technic, Link Chain Large" pieces. One can mount the 2850 "Technic Engine Cylinder" pieces onto the studs of the Technic Links, or regular 1x2 Lego Bricks.

I was just at the Spokane Valley (Washington USA) Toys R Us store yesterday (December 9th), and I did not see any 1H2012 sets on the shelves for ANY Lego theme. So, I bought 5 ea. Series 5 minifigs instead for my Christmas stocking....

@ Crtlego: Philo's "Lego 9V Technic Motors Compared Characteristics" webpage says that the 5292 Lego RC Buggy Motor is "Very powerful, [but] it also consumes a lot of energy." The USD $50 Lego 8878 Power Functions Rechargeable Battery Box only produces 7.4V (not 9V like you would get from using 6 ea. Alkaline AA batteries in the "regular" Power Functions Battery Box) -- see this Eurobricks post for explanation. Philo's test results for the 5292 RC Buggy Motor indicated that it will run a lot slower at 7.4V than at 9V (~375 rpm vs. ~500 rpm). If you look at the purple "Current" graph below, you can see how many milliAmps one RC Buggy Motor will consume: I prefer using the USD $13 88000 Power Functions AAA Battery Box (the second battery box shown above); I can use my own rechargeable AAA batteries, and the overall COST of the box+batteries is cheaper than the 8878 option. I understand that the RUNNING TIME of the AAA Battery Box option will not be as long as the PF Rechargeable Battery Box, but I usually don't play with my sets more than 5 minutes at a time anyway. See the discussion about both PF battery boxes on this Eurobricks post (with its hyperlinks). Most batteries are rated for milliAmp-Hours (mAH), multiply the milliAmps that your batteries will produce time the hours you plan to use it. I use Energizer AA rechargeable batteries (producing 2450 mAH).

@ dikkie klijn/ Bardian: I opened up your LDD .lxf file to see the Power Functions chassis, and I can see these advantages: 1. The simple, SMALL chassis could easily handle the light weight of various RC body shells. 2. People could build the same chassis, and then race them (with different body shells) on a Lego Trial Truck course. That way, the drivers could tell them apart and it would be DRIVER SKILL that determines the champion. 3. RC body shells are EXTREMELY TOUGH and almost indestructible. If a Lego Trial Truck rolled, the flexible body shell would help protect it from impacts. 4. A small Lego PF vehicle (like the one you built) has few places to attach a 100%-Lego body, without making it significantly larger and heavier.

5150Lego made it -- 24 pictures are on his Brickshelf gallery where he wrote that it was his "heavily modded 4404 creator truck. Extended cab, rear bed rack, lift kit, and soil axle conversion with steering. Any question email brandon@ccv-inc.com ."

@ bmollema: On your MOCpages post, I like the dumping bed which can be used when the crane arm is out of the way:

@ Crtlego: When I ordered some Unimog-unique parts from Lego Direct in July 2011, the 95292c01 "Technic, Shock Absorber 9.5L, Complete Assembly (Extra Hard Spring)" cost $1.91 each. The Lego Part Number is 4619319. That's a lot less than the typical cost of the same part on Bricklink (ranging from USD $2.66 to $10 on Bricklink's Price Guide). I went to my basement to compare the 95292c01 Extra-Hard shock with the 2909c02 "Technic, Shock Absorber 9.5L, Complete Assembly (Hard Spring)" (shown in the second picture below). The Extra-Hard shock feels about ~20% stiffer than the Hard shock, and has slightly-thicker wire. I recommend buying the 8 Extra-Hard shocks you need for your heavy Lego Technic vehicle from Lego Direct. You could give up eating lunch to gather the money needed....

[bUMP] IF TLG produces a 180€ flagship Lego Technic Rock Crawler set in 2H2012 (as rumored in this TechnicBRICKS article), it SURE WOULD BE NICE if it came with the 8110 Unimog U400 set's portal axle and the HUGE Power Puller wheels. From Barman/ Barman76's Flickr photoset, the combination will work:

No, don't give up! I like the look of your Lego Tiger Tank. What problems are you trying to overcome?

On his Brickshelf gallery, Bardian posted this picture of a Lego Technic Trial Truck chassis sporting a non-Lego body shell. The Lego Lego Digital Designer (LDD) .lxf building instruction file shows how one could make a simple Lego Power Functions chassis (using 1 ea. PF XL motor for propulsion, 1 ea. PF Medium motor for steering, 1 ea. PF Receiver, and 1 ea. PF Battery Box). How do you feel about using a plastic body shell on a Lego truck (not necessarily THIS ONE)? Do you like it? Why or why not?

[bUMP] peterski published 39 pictures of his motorized Lego Technic 8421 Mobile Crane on his Brickshelf gallery. It uses 3 ea. Power Functions (PF) XL motors and 3 ea. PF Medium motors. The photos show enough detail so that one could replicate his build:

LUGpol AFOL trawson89 made this of his Lego Technic LIEBHERR 1060 CRANE. There are 13 pictures of it on his Brickshelf gallery. Using this English translation of his LUGpol post, he wrote,"I would like to introduce you to the next MOC, this is the 1060 crane LIEBHERR Brand [crane].... SPECIFICATIONS: Dimensions: Length 85 studs / Width 33s / 23s Height / Long edge of the arm 145s Weight: 6kg Suspension: none PF elements: - 4 x [Power Functions] PF Medium motors - 2x PF XL motors - 3x PF Infrared Receivers - 1x PF Battery Box "Powered by an XL motor, power is transmitted to all wheels; each axle has its own differential. Two front and two rear axles are connected by a central differential....The XL turns and drives the motor, the steering angle is not got by means of reduction, but by the radius vector crossover. "As a working tool, there are 2 Medium motors and 1 small pneumatic actuator. The motors are responsible for three functions: - The first motor winds the rope and changes the angle of inclination of the cab, while the actuator switches between these two functions. - The second motor is mounted directly on the shoulder. I see this as a good solution because it escaped unnecessary resistance, the three sectional boom of max. Increasing angle of approximately 75 degrees of a Medium is a little low, and if he came to the reluctance motor have to be very tired. - Arm raise four pneumatic actuators and frankly barely handle myself with this question, of course. "BODY -- In the rear there are 2 Medium PF motors and a small pneumatic cylinder through it, which can operate with four functions in two modes: - The first mode is sliding supports left and right, not necessarily at the same time. Props spread apart the linear actuators. I used the model to improve pneumatic actuators as shown, though the model does not rise to the wheel detached from the substrate, but the fault of the vehicle weight cylinders just do not give support. - The second mode is drive the compressor and drive motor. By starting the building process, I thought that the construction crane will be simple, but caused me a lot of trouble - among other things, lead shafts throughout the vehicle. Finalizing the model I think is successful, because I managed to do what I planned."

88high/ Mr88high made this of his newest Lego Technic trial truck -- "Ol' Grey" doing some "snowcrawling" in the mountains of Arizona USA! He posted photo-sequence Building Instructions on his Brickshelf gallery for the Front Axle and Rear Axle (100% original, designed by him). It uses the 8110 Unimog's portal axles for high ground clearance. You could make your own unique body shell to put on his chassis.For the Front Axle (41 photos), he advises that "You might want to add a T-shaped peice instead on top of the axle. You also migh want to make the steering mechanism a but taller by adding another 8t gear." The Rear Axle (7 photos) is "Very easy to build. It uses the same gearhousings and links. The tan pins are for shock absorbers."

@ Cypr-21: Did you buy the 9394 Jet Plane in a store, or did you "reverse-engineer" it from the box art? Where did you buy it, and are there any more left for other Frenchmen to buy? Were there other 1H2012 Technic sets there too?

I'm a Civil Engineer who has had only fair success at making MOCs, but engineers can "think spatially". Paul Boratko has a quote on his Crowkillers website that says Lego Technic "Studless building is like playing chess, you must always plan 5 moves ahead." Some people think that Technic is "too hard", but with practice it becomes easier to understand. Engineers can grasp the complexities of Technic construction, but so can graphic designers, artists, musicians, and many others. To model a snowmobile, you may consider finding a good picture of it and then reading Sariel's "Scaling Tutorial for Vehicles". LegoTechnicModel05 has a nice Snow Groomer with building instructions.

Nice find! His shows it well. On MOCpages, 2LegoOrNot2Lego (Ingmar Spijkhoven) wrote that it is a "US style day cab log truck with stinger steered log trailer in scale 1:17,5 with PF. It features solid axle suspension on all axles, driving, steering and Ackerman geometry on steering axle."At the very beginning of building truck models using LEGO I wanted to build this type of truck. It 's a log truck with a stinger steered log trailer. This is a common type of truck used in the US for the transportation of logs. When hauling without a load the trailer is stored on the trucks bunk using a log loader. Today many log trucks have even more axles but I wanted this model to have this specific axle configuration...basically because I just like the looks of it. "The Kenworth T800 is used as the main source of inspiration to build this model. Always looking for new color schemes I came up with this one. Since the Brick, Arch 1 x 6 x 3 1/3 Curved Top item 6060 is only available in a limited number of colors, not to mention the way out of line prices for some specific colors. With this in mind I started to combine colors and come up with the Dark Red/Orange/Tan color scheme. Together with all the chrome parts I think it's a beauty. "Since most of my models have much more functions you might think this one is less interesting. Never the less I build this one with the some love as with the others. Again I realy love this type of truck and with the loads of chrome and the distinguished color scheme I'm realy exited about the result. To be honest it was great fun to build this less complex model."

[bUMP] Thomas Eckert (ThomasLegoBrasil) just posted this of his interpretation of the Lego Technic Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 model made by Paul Boratko (Crowkillers). On MOCpages, Thomas Eckert posted 27 pictures and wrote:"This one I copied some parts from the "Crowkillers" model, [but] it is different. I changed the chassis, the rear (I don´t like the original rear), some parts of the front (my model opens the hood), the inside, the doors, the headlights, the lateral, the motor...ultimately, it´s another model, I just used the body work...It is 4WD, V10 engine, steering...."

caughtoncamera1423 made this YouTube video of some kid trashing his Lego Technic collection down the staircase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=focIFkhBLqk

@ KEvron: Nice MOC, but can you make a Lego clock that can do this?

Well, I learned something new today. After reading this Tiger I Tank article, I crossed out the incorrect information and photo above. Thanks for correcting me!

OK, it's a Lego Model Team Panzer IV Tiger Tank. The real tank has 8 4 idler wheels on the bottom of the tank treads: