DLuders

Your Lego 8041 Hot Rod alternate looks great! Are you planning on making Building Instructions for it?

@ Smyrf98: In LDD at the top-left corner, you can do a "Search" for the 58121 Lego Power Functions XL Motor. If you enlarge your LDD to full size, click on the part placed on your baseplate, and look at the bottom margin, the selected part number is listed. Note that the LDD part number (58121) is slightly different from the Bricklink number (58121c01). You can find MOST of the other Power Functions elements using the same procedure, but the new PF L-Motor is not in the LDD 4.3.5 parts pallette.

Welcome to Eurobricks! As hoeij noted on this Eurobricks post, there is a problem with some of the 8043's pins: "This long friction pin is the gray pin that is inserted on page 12, step 44, of book 2. You see a gray pin being inserted on top of the axle connected to a motor. Then in step 46, this gray pin will go into 2 holes, and so it'll have a huge amount of friction. Function-switching will require lots of force this way, so I left it out, and it works fine. (PS. There is of course also the blue friction pin on page 79, step 35, of book 1. This one will likely have less friction than the gray pin in book 2 because the gray pin has friction in two holes. Still, there seems to be no good reason to have friction there, so I used something without friction instead)." If your 8043 set is relatively new, the four Linear Actuators that come with the set should be the "improved" versions. To make sure, look at the stamped number on the ends of the LAs -- if they have a number greater than 36X0 (like 42X1, 45X0, etc.), they are the improved ones.

@ efferman: I'm thinking that you may be right. As you may know, P4trickvH already made the 9398's A-Model LDD .lxf and B-Model .lxf files available for download. The newly-released LDD 4.3.5 contains almost all of the "missing" parts from his virtual models:

Get the 9395 Lego Technic Pick-Up Tow Truck (see the "Reviews" on Brickset.com and these 5 previous Eurobricks topics on the set).

@ Smyrf98: There are many Lego Technic 6x6 Trial Trucks posted on BrickTruckTrial.com -- recommend looking at them for ideas about your suspension.

Looks great! You could use some of your 150-kB allotment by ATTACHING your Lego Digital Designer (LDD) .lxf file here, on your Eurobricks Reply. Or, you can use Microsoft SkyDrive (like I do) for larger files (like PDF Building Instructions).

@ rm8: Since this webpage says that the Tamiya Hilux 1.9 Tires (pictured below) are 38mm wide, recommend getting them since they will fit the Lego 44772 wheel. Throughout this topic, the recommended width range of 1.9 RC Tires is 37mm-48mm.

The Lego Technic Challenge poster says "Starting in October" -- there's no indication whether it will start on Monday, October 1st or not. Monitor the Technic.Lego.com website every day in October to get an early jump!

@ Kieran: Welcome to Eurobricks! I like your Epicyclic Gear design, and looked up the "Planetary Gears" article on Wikipedia to learn more about it. I like your Lego Technic motorcycle too!

Recommend that this topic be closed and "locked" -- people are getting too upset and not following the Eurobricks credo:

Very realistic!

Nice render -- can Povray "explode" the bricks of the Death Star like LDD can?

@ Raskalito des ouabes: Welcome to Eurobricks! I'm not sure what country you're from, but you can download the entire contents of the Lego Mindstorms 3804 RIS 2.0 (in French or Dutch) from this Brickfactory.info webpage.

@ Alasdair Ryan: Recommend posting your question on the SR 3D Builder Support Forum so that the software designer (xSergio74) can see it, and respond to it.

I like the tank -- it is a realistic MODEL of the real thing (that TLG will never offer as a set anyway). Perhaps this whole topic is a matter of perspective. I'm a Civil Engineer, trained to use all available materials and options for the best, economical solution. To an engineer, it doesn't make sense to buy a rare Lego part when one can SUBSTITUTE another part or alter it in some way. There are no "purist" engineers in my business -- PRACTICALITY and common sense rule.

xSergio74's SR 3D Builder uses LDRAW files, and is very powerful:

It looks like it will take advantage of the rounded tire profile of the Lego Balloon Tires:

Who cares if a cheap Lego Technic part is "stressed" or not? If it breaks or is permanently deformed upon disassembly, then buy another cheap replacement off of Bricklink.

@ MarkusOSX: I looked at your Flickr photoset, and can see it's a good-looking truck!

@ firky: Do you have all of the necessary parts to build it in real life?

If The Lego Group is following this topic, would they conclude that SOME use of non-Lego parts is acceptable to SOME? Brickarms minifigs at Lego AFOL conventions, Bricksonwheels' use of chromed parts, etc. are generally accepted by most AFOLs, so PERHAPS The Lego Group should consider offering those kinds of parts too. If all of the AFOLs drove their 9398 4x4 Crawlers with the stock Balloon Tires that came with the set (and never experimented with 3rd-party tires), TLG may conclude that there is NO DEMAND for better tire designs. When Efferman and others proved that 1.9" RC tires perform better on a Lego "crawler", TLG may have taken notice. What's to say that the 2013 set won't have new tires? Using non-Lego parts now MAY alter the trajectory of new Lego parts in future sets....

@ 07jkearney: On this TechnicBRICKS article, Fernando Correia (Conchas) noted that the Power Functions AAA Battery Box has an "...auto turn OFF feature, after approx. 2 hours of continuous operation. Only with the 88000 PF AAA Battery Box, the user can override this function - If you press and hold down the green button for more than 3 seconds the green light will blink to indicate that auto turn OFF is disabled. This means that a motor will run until the batteries are empty. To enable again turn the AAA Battery Box OFF and ON again." According to http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?...cn=587&d=70 , the 8878 Power Functions (PF) Rechargable Battery Box only has an output voltage of 7.4V (instead of 9V). So, running a PF Medium or XL Motor with it would not be as good as using 6 ea. AAA batteries in the new PF Battery Box. According to Philo's "Lego 9V Technic Motors Compared Characteristics" webpage http://philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm , the PF Medium Motor's performance at 7.4V is rather weak compared to 9V: 8878 costs USD $50, and it needs the USD $25 8887 10VDC Tranformer to charge it up. The 88000 PF AAA Battery Box costs USD $14. One can buy a LOT of AAA batteries to equal the USD $61 difference in cost between the two setups. Philo measured the actual (not theoretical) output of the PF Medium and PF XL motors in bench tests. See the bottom of his webpage http://philohome.com/pf/pf.htm : "PF motors power curves when connected to IR remote receiver -- Since motor driver inside remote receiver has some dropout and current limitation, charts above don’t tell the whole story. The two curves below show the mechanical power of PF motors driven by the remote receiver. These characteristics were measured at 9V (alkaline batteries voltage) and 7.2V (NiMH rechargeable batteries voltage)." Here's a comparison for the typical output of NiMH rechargable batteries. I own lots of AA Eveready Energizer batteries, and they produce 2450 milliamp-Hours (mAH). 9V Energizer Rechargable batteries only produce 150 mAH, and AAA Energizer Rechargables produce 850 mAH. So, the moral of the story is that if you HAVE ROOM for the large PF Battery Box in your MOC, you're better off using AA batteries (because they produce more power). If you have limited space (or want to keep weight down), you can use a small PF battery box but your electrical output will be a lot less.