Scania R500 Recovery truck

[Ralph_S]

Having started a new job two months ago I currently live far away from my LEGO (in temporary accommodation). I've been feeding my LEGO-habit by dabbling with ML-CAD. However, compared to building with actual LEGO is like comparing non-alcoholic beer with the real stuff. Two months without building something. Agony! Fortunately I've got two weeks of vacation time and I've used the first of those for some frantic LEGO-building. I chose to build something I've been thinking about for a while now. After building my Power Functions fire engine and Neo-classic space LURCH I felt it was time for a bit more Power Functions goodness, this time with a Scania truck wrapped around it

It is a Scania R500 (built in Sweden) operated by the company Johan van der Zand (aka. Joh v/d Zand) based in The Netherlands. The company recovers stranded vehicles all over Europe and far into the former Soviet Union.

The drive and the steering are remote-controlled. Raising the arm, unfortunately, is done manually (by turning a little wheel built into the side of the truck). I couldn't find the space to include one more IR receiver and a third motor. I've used a hockey spring for the self-centring steering and it works like a charm, as you can see in my short video of it in action.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited August 1, 2010 by Ralph_S

[Ak-47]

How do you do it? I didn't know humans could do this, you must have monkey's in your brain.

[Jurgen Krooshoop]

That's one nice truck you built there. I like the colours.

[Marckeyh]

That's great, really looks like a scania.

[DLuders]

I like this a lot, and I also like your two World War II U.S. Navy aircraft instructions (the F4U Corsair and the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver with the folding wings).

[Fistach]

Upload bigger photos cause it looks very good but the pics are to small to see all the details!

[Ralph_S]

How do you do it? I didn't know humans could do this, you must have monkey's in your brain.

Well, I start with one brick and then another and I keep doing that until it's finished.

I'm not sure monkeys can do it, but we're all just big apes anyway...

That's one nice truck you built there. I like the colours.

Thank you. I bought a book on recovery trucks sometime last year and it had several pages of trucks used by this company and they all look great. Their colour scheme is both distinctive and attractive. I've had a Dutch theme going on with some of my MOCs lately, so this fit into that nicely.

That's great, really looks like a scania.

Thank you. The company uses MANs, Volvos, DAFs and Scania's. Of those the Scania was probably the most difficult one to model, but that made it all the more interesting. I owe some credit to Lasse Deleuran and kamilm for some of the ideas I've used on my Scania cab.

I like this a lot, and I also like your two World War II U.S. Navy aircraft instructions (the F4U Corsair and the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver with the folding wings).

Thank you. I am glad to know those instructions are appreciated. It actually enjoyed making the instructions, but it doesn't come close to building with real parts.

Upload bigger photos cause it looks very good but the pics are to small to see all the details!

Thanks. I've fixed that. By default non-flickr users can't see the larger images. Clicking the images here ought to take you to flickr. If you then click the 'all sizes' link above the picture, you should be able to see the larger ones.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Flare]

Wow amazing job!

[Rick]

I don't venture in here (Technic forum) much, but I'm always pleasantly surprised when someone manages to combine functionality and looks so well. The self-centering steering idea sounds clever (not sure how common that is in Technic building) and the looks are absolutely great. I really like how you achieved some of the curves at the back of the cab (the combination of hinges and slope and inverted slope bricks).

[lightningtiger]

Likewise I don't visit here that often neither, but 'Ralph_S' your creation is BEYOND AWESOME - congrats on being front paged too !

I'm a conformist! 'Ralph_S' you are MOC-building genius !

[Zortker]

Good job! Very nice truck, i like this.

Cheers, Zortker

[Poldo]

Nice work, Ralph! One quick question: why did you choose the 1/22 (and not 1/20 or 1/24) scale?

Cheers,

Gianluca

[Ralph_S]

Wow amazing job!

Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

I don't venture in here (Technic forum) much, but I'm always pleasantly surprised when someone manages to combine functionality and looks so well. The self-centering steering idea sounds clever (not sure how common that is in Technic building) and the looks are absolutely great. I really like how you achieved some of the curves at the back of the cab (the combination of hinges and slope and inverted slope bricks).

Thanks. There are several other people on eurobricks who have built Power Functions remote controlled vehicles with or without self-centring steering. It's certainly not my idea or particularly new. There are a few threads about it. These two, for instance:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39827

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36045

Opinions differ a bit on whether self-centring steering is preferable. In most alternative systems I've seen an M-motor and some gears (sometimes including a worm gear) are used to move the steering shaft. I've tried both. My older fire truck started with the alternative system. It was reasonably good in corners, but a bastard to drive in a straight line. I rebuilt it with a self-centring system and found that much nicer to drive. It was the obvious solution for this truck as well. There was a bit of discussion on flickr about whether it would work with a lot of weight on the front wheels. What made the steering complicated on this is that the middle axle also steers. Working out how to get that to work was one of the biggest challenges of this project.

I'm very happy with your remark about the curves at the back of the cab. In pictures of Scanias I looked at when I started researching this project their shape stood out to me. The curvature is much more pronounced than on most other modern European trucks I looked at and I felt it was important to come up with a nice solution for them on my model.

Likewise I don't visit here that often neither, but 'Ralph_S' your creation is BEYOND AWESOME - congrats on being front paged too !

I'm a conformist! 'Ralph_S' you are MOC-building genius !

I'm really not much of a Technic builder myself, but this is the Technic, Mindstorms and Model Team sub-forum, with the inclusion of Model Team, this is probably the place for my truck. Even before the Model Team sets came out (way back in 1986), I liked adding some Technic elements to my own 'system' models in order to have some added functionality. Very nice to see it on the front-page.

Good job! Very nice truck, i like this.

Cheers, Zortker

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Nice work, Ralph! One quick question: why did you choose the 1/22 (and not 1/20 or 1/24) scale?

Cheers,

Gianluca

A quick question, but one with a long answer. Many years ago I started building regular cars at 10 studs wide, dictated by the size of the wheels I had at the time. In order to have trucks that were in proportion to those, they ended up 14 studs wide. Later, when I started thinking more about scale, I found that this corresponds quite well to 1/22 and I stuck to that ever since, even if it does mean that large parts of models may end up being an odd number of studs wide. I have noticed I am not alone in using this scale.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Lasse D]

Wow. It looks absolutely amazing. Great coloring, detailing and everything. You even found a nice solution to the windscreen!

Self-centering steering is the way to go. When I see kids playing with my non-self centering truck, they have a hard time controlling them. Using the hockey piece looks like a much better, smaller and lighter solution than the counter weight based solution of mine. I will try to incorporate that into future trucks.

1:22 is nice, especially if you are going to compete in hard truck challenges. I prefer 1:25 because it's the classic model team scale that makes the trucks 12 studs wide / but that's just me being old fashioned :D

OK. Let's find out which scale fits the Model Team wheels the best. A typical Scania tire is:

315/80R22,5: 811mm diameter.

Compared to the LEGO tire:

13x24: 43mm diameter.

This gives us scale: 1:18.9

So. Your scale (1:22) fits the tires better than mine (1:25), but 1:19 would be preferable!

[Ralph_S]

Wow. It looks absolutely amazing. Great coloring, detailing and everything. You even found a nice solution to the windscreen!

Self-centering steering is the way to go. When I see kids playing with my non-self centering truck, they have a hard time controlling them. Using the hockey piece looks like a much better, smaller and lighter solution than the counter weight based solution of mine. I will try to incorporate that into future trucks.

1:22 is nice, especially if you are going to compete in hard truck challenges. I prefer 1:25 because it's the classic model team scale that makes the trucks 12 studs wide / but that's just me being old fashioned :D

OK. Let's find out which scale fits the Model Team wheels the best. A typical Scania tire is:

315/80R22,5: 811mm diameter.

Compared to the LEGO tire:

13x24: 43mm diameter.

This gives us scale: 1:18.9

So. Your scale (1:22) fits the tires better than mine (1:25), but 1:19 would be preferable!

Scale is always a bit of a contentious issue. For me, many years ago, whether or not the tyres I used on my ten-wide cars looked good was what defined the cars' width and therefore their scale. The widths of my other vehicles are derived from that. I am a bit surprised to find that according to your calculation, the tyres I used for this 1/22 truck are actually slightly on the large side! On my American trucks I always they looked a bit small. Oddly enough, trucks in the LEGOLand parks, scaled 1/20 (16-18 studs wide), tend to have considerably larger tyres. It's obviously a compromise.

I know your Scania has all kinds of clever stuff hidden inside 12 studs, but I really struggled to fit everything I wanted into 14 studs.

I have a suspicion that the scale used by doublebricks for their hard truck challenges isn't a complete coincidence. I know that one of the people who is involved in starting it (brickshelf user ZED) has been a bit of a fan of my trucks for a while. If true, it would be rather flattering, because they do great stuff.

Cheers,

Ralph

[dr_spock]

Excellent MOC, Ralph_S.

[grohl]

Pretty nice. If it was released as a Model Team set, I would buy it.

[XimenaPaulina]

Oh my, what a wonderful creation, the details are just amazing. I ain't much of a Technic fan, but this looks like a masterpiece in the eyes of a regular lego fan. Absolutely fantastic job Sir Ralph!

[Deadraque]

Beautiful truck....

[Lasse D]

Cramming mechanics into a truck is always a compromise. I tend to expose more PF components (battery boxes visible from rear of cabs and so on) than you, while you tend to do an amazing job in completely hiding everything.

When Hard Truck Challenge started, I remember your name being mentioned when the scale was discussed.

[Ralph_S]

Pretty nice. If it was released as a Model Team set, I would buy it.

Thank you. I haven't counted the parts, but I reckon it uses about 1500. It would be an expensive set!

Oh my, what a wonderful creation, the details are just amazing. I ain't much of a Technic fan, but this looks like a masterpiece in the eyes of a regular lego fan. Absolutely fantastic job Sir Ralph!

Thanks. As I've mentioned before, Technic isn't really my thing either. People do some really clever stuff with it, but certainly the studless stuff takes some getting used to. Power Functions motors do produce a lot of torque and making everything sufficiently strong took some effort, but the underpinnings of this truck are all fairly basic stuff that most experienced Technic builders could probably do better.

Beautiful truck....

Thank you.

Cramming mechanics into a truck is always a compromise. I tend to expose more PF components (battery boxes visible from rear of cabs and so on) than you, while you tend to do an amazing job in completely hiding everything.

When Hard Truck Challenge started, I remember your name being mentioned when the scale was discussed.

That's neat.

I'm sure my slightly larger scale really helps with covering the Power Functions elements. It's also a matter of choosing the subject. Part of the reason why I've used Power Functions in a fire engine and in this truck, rather than in a tractor-trailer combo like your Scania, is because they have bodies with a decent-sized internal volume. That meant that in this case I didn't have to fit the battery box into the cab, but could fit it inside the aft body and I could fit both motors underneath the body.

Cheers,

Ralph

[CP5670]

This is very nice. I like the style of your models in general. They're packed with fine details everywhere, but make no attempt to be studless and still look like Lego.

[Bricksonwheels]

Great work Ralph, but I told you already I saw this truck for real last week at the Truckstar Festival and it is a very good match.

I hope that I can bring the dumper to one of the meetings later in the year, so that we can display together.

[Sam42]

i love the cab...... i like it's little brother made by ricecracker over on lugnuts too

[greumel]

Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

Thanks. There are several other people on eurobricks who have built Power Functions remote controlled vehicles with or without self-centring steering. It's certainly not my idea or particularly new. There are a few threads about it. These two, for instance:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39827

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=36045

Opinions differ a bit on whether self-centring steering is preferable. In most alternative systems I've seen an M-motor and some gears (sometimes including a worm gear) are used to move the steering shaft. I've tried both. My older fire truck started with the alternative system. It was reasonably good in corners, but a bastard to drive in a straight line. I rebuilt it with a self-centring system and found that much nicer to drive. It was the obvious solution for this truck as well. There was a bit of discussion on flickr about whether it would work with a lot of weight on the front wheels. What made the steering complicated on this is that the middle axle also steers. Working out how to get that to work was one of the biggest challenges of this project.

I'm very happy with your remark about the curves at the back of the cab. In pictures of Scanias I looked at when I started researching this project their shape stood out to me. The curvature is much more pronounced than on most other modern European trucks I looked at and I felt it was important to come up with a nice solution for them on my model.

I'm really not much of a Technic builder myself, but this is the Technic, Mindstorms and Model Team sub-forum, with the inclusion of Model Team, this is probably the place for my truck. Even before the Model Team sets came out (way back in 1986), I liked adding some Technic elements to my own 'system' models in order to have some added functionality. Very nice to see it on the front-page.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

A quick question, but one with a long answer. Many years ago I started building regular cars at 10 studs wide, dictated by the size of the wheels I had at the time. In order to have trucks that were in proportion to those, they ended up 14 studs wide. Later, when I started thinking more about scale, I found that this corresponds quite well to 1/22 and I stuck to that ever since, even if it does mean that large parts of models may end up being an odd number of studs wide. I have noticed I am not alone in using this scale.

Cheers,

Ralph

Great build of!! Hope that Lego will bring something like this on the market. will be a great hit. so we can all build something great and nice like this one.

Cheers,

Raoul