Fyredog

For us in the States who HAVE to wait! this is absurd! Why not make it available to all countries at the same time? But I am happy that I built my own!

Some additional pictures.

I made some revisions. I made a new boom. This boom is longer than the Lego boom, and articulates better. although it is a bit heavier This boom can reach further down into the earth. This required twin slip gears, and a small revision in the body. The revision was well worth it. The two red pins pull out to separate the cab from the tracks. The hole for the battery power button is seen here as well. A paper clip works well to switch power on or off. The rotation is on the bottom and is better supported now. Here is a view of the tracks

Video Posted here:

Availability for Mac Users??????

I am building it now - I loved it so much I moved it to 1st on my list - Fun build, had almost all parts, just waiting for a few odds and ends. I even loved the color! Great job on this Moc!

All suggestions above are very accurate. I started by building factory Lego sets, then adding the power functions in. That is a fun challenge, but building my 1st MOC was a super challenge. I built the soon to be released 8043 excavator on my own with no cad or instructions. I am very pleased and happy with it, but it was no easy task. Build bulid build, modify modify modify, MOC MOC MOC. You really have to have a good surplus of parts, and bricklink is the place to go! I have built 2 excavators, the 8294 and 8043. My 8294 has been torn down and returned to stock, because I wish to improve my modification to be cleaner and more compact. Check them out here My MOC's. Be sure to start a thread as everyone here will pitch a helping hand, there are a lot of smart people here! Good Luck!

I have to say, I really love what you did! I own this kit and must say that the steering on this kit has something to be desired, I am currently trying to figure out an alternative to the factory steering. It seems the alignment is wacked. I have made mine 4 wheel steering, and to say the least now the alignment is even worse. any of you experience the same? I owned this kit from Legoland, I have built it once, my son built it and now I went for a huge modification which I will share after I get the steering situation dealt with. Not sure I will motorize this one though.

This is what I did, although I wish I had put in the newest LG battery in, but this works great as a counter weight as well. This set has a lot of parts, be ready to spend a grip on Bricklink. I am currently building the alternate attachment for the crane, I am waiting on parts from bricklink, my crane attachments are interchangeable.

Bad to the Bone! well done!

Awesome MOC, a lot of work looks like it went into it! Lots of bricks as well. Great job, how much does it weigh?

These kits are Done being produced, They are sold out, no more will be made, I asked Lego while ordering parts a while back. Your better off grabbing one now, because they will only increase in value. I got mine for 200.00 shipped from ebay just after they were sold out at Lego.

I love what you did, the green even works well! I have this kit un-built waiting to be fully motorized. Nice to see the real thing as those aren't here in the USA. Great Job!

Thank you all! I will try shooting a video in the next couple of days and get that all worked out so you can see this baby in motion.

Hey Thank you!!!!!!!!

I tried making them really small, that didn't work either

Hi there, I originally started to rebuild my 8294 boom, as I wanted to eliminate the gears on the boom, and streamline the body a bit to give it a more finished look. As I looked at the pix of the 8043 available on the internet, I decided to build the 8043 as I saw it. This is the first time I have constructed a technic from scratch. I have a couple of other construction vehicles that are not available from lego that I want to create. I thought this would be a perfect start as I really cant wait another 5 months for this kit to come out. I will buy this kit for sure, I want to see how they handled issues that I had. Using 6 M-Motors, 3 IR Receivers 2 LI Battery Packs and 3 IR remotes I started with the drive portion of the excavator separately from the body so I could work on it easily and charge batteries with ease which required 2 batteries. I believe the 8043 will come equipt with the drive linkage going through the center like on the 8258 crane truck. That is just enough to make both tracks work independently for directional control. So I believe that the red lever on the 8043 pix switches between rotation and drive. It make the most sense to me. 3 levers to operate the boom with 3 M-Motors are what operates my 8043R - R=red I believe this will be true of the 8043. 1 Lever operates rotation on my 8043R, and the last 2 levers operate movement. I will take a picture of the remote for the 8043R. This Moc took me a while as I had to hunt available parts down through Lego and Bricklink, my new found Gold Mine. My 8043R does not look exactly like the lego, as the fairings on the rear of the Excavator taper on Lego's, mine I kept to a more realistic look. Although, I will try them out to see how they look, and post pix. Also, I started out with the boom first, and had to alter that to really fit the body of the excavator. My boom operates through all movement. I could not get a clutch gear on the twin actuators though, there is too much weight for the clutch gear to handle. I built Lego's version of the boom just to see how it was. It is lighter than mine, and does not allow the bucket to be level when fully retracted. The lego boom does have a farther reach than mine though, but My plan is to lengthen the overall boom just a bit. I found that the boom on the 8294 excavator is close to the same size. The drive section is completely of my own design, as I started to build one like lego's 8043, and trashed it after I thought they were introducing a new part plus I really wanted to get rid of all the gears and look closer like the real thing.. I finally figured out what the part was while helping my son with one of his tecnics. Needless to say, I am anxious to try and mimic lego's bottom half now. Overall this excavator is a very nice model, I can't wait to build lego's version - But in reality I already have it. I hope you enjoy this Moc as much as I do. I have other altered technic kits if anyone is interested in seeing those. If there are any other views you would like to see let me know I will take a couple more pix and post them. http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/fyredog/8043-Excavator/dscn2139.jpg Thanks,

Yes, Later today I will post Pics and a separate topic.

This is my 8043.

I bought myself, the 8295 Telehandler, 8265 frontloader, and the Crane truck 8258. I plan to modify all with power functions so they are controlled completely by remote control