Jurgen Krooshoop

After giving this question some thought (there are so many great sets) I decided that the 8043 Motorized excavator is my favorite set of all cause it's the set I played with most by far. It was a lot of fun to build and made it easy to make an upgraded version, giving it full simultanious controll of all functions. Other sets that scored high were: 8285 Tow Truck, 8258 Crane-Truck, 8421 Crane. Of course it's difficult to compare the sets you have with the ones you don't have and have never built. Of the sets I don't have the 8868 and the 8480 get highest score.

I saw the video earlier allready and this one is cute & cool

Yes, it looks a bit like the 8857, but I don't have that set and it wasn't an inspiration source, so it's pure coincidence.

And your help is much appreciated, that's why I tried it. In different setups it might work better eg when I use the new gear-boxes from the new 8043 excavator. It drives quite smooth, no gears are skipping even when I drive it forewards-back-forewards quickly. As Blakbird mentioned, making a Bricklink-parts-list is a lot of work. And making good-looking instructions already takes a lot of time to make (more time than designing the model in this case) which delays future MOC-projects. The parts-list image from the instructions were made smaller to fit on the page. I could provide you with a much larger and clearer image from the parts list if you want. You can mail me at Jurgenstechniccorner -a- hotmail.com (replace -a- with @ ). The original MLCad/LDraw-file can be downloaded from my corresponding MOC-page.

Ok, I replaced the knob-gears with normal bevel gears, but the performanche didn't improve. Now I even switched back to knob-gears, because the bevel gears had the tendency to skip sometimes, which deccreases performance a bit. And I really don't like skipping gears. And the knob-gears did't have that problem in this model.

Thanks, I'll try bevel gears instead of knob gears. It drives very nicely now with the knob gear, but all improvementa are welcome.

For the next Allround Car Competition, the theme is "All But Four", meaning all contestants have to make an RC-vehicule with any number of wheels exept 4. Since building light is a good technique to make a fast car, I chose the minimum number of wheels with which is was possible to make an RC-car: 3. To give it good driving capabilities, I wanted to include the following: * Make it as light as possible * Differential for smooth cornering * Good steering-lock for good manouvrability * Return-to-centre steering for comfortable controll And to give it just a bit extra than just an RC-vehicule, I included a working V4-engine. It also has front & rear-lights. For the return-to-centre steering, this part was used. It has an internal spring, which returns an axle to neutral position. An M-motor was used. Different gear-setup were tested to find the one with the best steering-lock/Return-to-neutral performance. Te result is a very manouvrable trike. For propulsion, I chose an XL-motor. It's speed was increased by a factor 2 in a drivetrain comparable to my E.R.T.W.D.. It is quite fast, while still having some power to drive over some obstacles. Again, I made full building instructions so all you Trike-lovers can build your own. The instructions can be downloaded on my website www.jurgenstechniccorner.com. I made some nice renders from the ML-Cad model:

Weird ... I checked the numbers of 6 of my LA's and they all have different number. And I guess I was lucky with the LA's in my 8043-set, cause they all work as expected.

He certainly did a good job replicating the looks of the original machine.

Ok, then it's not the internal LA-clutch. When they make that sound while extending, then it can be usefull to try another LA. It is weird that they're only making that sound while extending and not while retracting.

If you mean the Main-boom LA's give a rattling sound when they reach their end, that means you hit the built-in cluth of the LA. This sounds horrible, but it's safe. This is the safety-system that's built into the LA and all LA's will have it. And this is nothing to worry about. Have fun with your excavator

I don't understand this... Has the 8258 been unavailable for some time ? It has been availably continuesly in The Netherlands as far as I know of. It's a wonderful set, and Designer Han's modifications are very reccomendable, but it's an older set...

So most people have multiple answers, and so do I. Of course i've built the "Ultimate 8043 Motirized excavator" (duh, these are my mods ...). I'm waiting for the "service pack", hoping it will function even better. In the meantime, my (Ultimate) 8043 has already been disassembled and several parts are being used in my new MOC's. I'm a builder, not a collector. In my mail to TLG I even suggested a very simple & effective mod for improving the right track, and I'm curious if it'll be included in the service pack. The TLG-lady said to me "This could be useful for other custumors as well".

Praise for TLG: After sending them an email last week (about the 8043 problems and one of my 8878's which doesn't recharge right), I got a phonecall from a very friendly lady from TLG today. She told me about the replacement parts (known story by now). They estimate to know more within a month. I even mentioned my solution for fixing a slow-running right-track and she answered it was helpfull information, wich could be usefull for other people. Who knows, they just might include it in a fix-pack. And my 8878 is also being replaced within a week. I've read about the good service by TLG many times, but it is really true. Their custumor=service is just awesome, lots n lots of other company's can learn a big deal from TLG. So when they're saying "Only the best is good enough" they really really mean it !

Don't forget about Designer Han. His models and instructions are really high quality.

So you're not a fan of knob-gears ? I've made some vehicules with knob-gears in the drivetrain which drove pretty smooth. OK, these were not Trial-truck and were designed to run faster. I generally omit bevel-gears in 90-degree orientation, because they have a small contact-surface, which makes them skip easily. And the 12-tooth half-bevel gears isn't very strong (like the 8-tooth). By the way, there were some really good tips in the video, which are not only usefull for trail-trucks, but Lego-Rc-cars in general.

The instructions I made for some of my technic MOC's can be found here..

I know he's a member of the dutch Lego forum LOWLUG but I haven't seen him here.

Sariel has made an excellent tutorial on LEGO gears. A definite "must-read" for everyone starting to use Lego-gears. You can find this tutorial here or download it as PDF here.

No, it refers to the right track running slower than the left track. My solution to slow arm movement was using an XL-motor, but I don't think TLG will do this. But then again I can't develop a new LA ...

Yes, I noticed this after building my 8043 the second time and was easily corrected as I did in my instructions. I just didn't mention this before. It's weird that TLG didn't notice this. See instruction book 1, page 45.

IMO opinion it's the combination of LA's lifting a "heavy" boom and the underpowered M-motor. If TLG would produce new & better LA's, this MOD would undoubtably function even better with those.

The advantage of Bricklink is that you can buy from thousands of people who have Lego for sale, so the choice of parts is bigger than any store I know. Ok the site might not be so advanced & flashy, but Bricklink uses a feedback-system, so you can see if the previous transactions of a specific seller went OK.

Some time ago, I also came across the FSB002 on SeTechnic, and started looking for 5-star bricks on the Internet, but wasn't able to find who he/she really is. So I just as interested in the answer to Blakbird's question.

@ dolittle: This is a difficult one. 2 important parts of this MOC are the (1) 8878 rechargeable battery. I don't know if there is a set that has one, but it can be ordered at S@H. The thing is: it's very expensive (over € 55 in my country) and you need an expensive transformer (€ 25 in my country). (2) RC-race buggy motor. This is an older part and there is no present set that has one, you'll have to get it from bricklink. It's connected to the PF-receiver with an extension wire. For the rest of the parts: if you have a 8258 you have all the panels you need (assuming you'll build the red version) and most of the standrd parts like axles, gears & connectors, liftarms etc. I get most of my parts from bricklink nowadays, so I can order specifically what I need without buying a complete set which allways has a lot of parts I already have. I hope this was helpfull.