2GodBDGlory

Very nice! That thing looks like it means business now!

Very cool to see a full-on Trial Truck with free building instructions! I think the 8:56 portal axles always make for pretty intense-looking trucks! Unfortunately I only have 2 of them, which will prevent me from trying this model out myself. :( I also like the use of those old Bionicle frames in the front hubs!

Very cool! What's with the hex profile around the axle hole? Oh was it? My memory was 48 as well

I'm pretty sure there was an old part that was something like a 1.5x1.5 clear tile, but I can't quite remember what theme it was from. Clikits, Scala, or Belville, or something like that, I think

Looks like some impressive work! I'll have to download it to my phone for some quality reading in those spare moments in life!

Well, I'd agree that it can be an expensive hobby to keep up with, but I don't think it has to be. Personally, I haven't bought a Technic set with my own money in years (4?), and I generally budget around $30 a year to pick up any useful new parts, either from Lego directly, sometimes Bricklink, or (increasingly), clone parts from China. In addition, I'll often 3D print new parts where precision is less important, or modify existing parts into newly released ones. Between all that, I spend very little to stay "up to date" on Technic parts. Now, if they didn't release new parts, I wouldn't have to do any of this, but I'm glad they do release new parts. For one thing, it inspires building different models, because sometimes a new part allows for doing something in a way that wasn't possible before. Beyond that, it gives longtime builders encouragement to keep building, because it means that anything you build now is likely to be an improvement on anything you built 4 years ago, even just through new parts. I see it kind of like a board/card game that continually releases new expansions. On one hand, it does make them more money, but on the other hand, hobbyists want to spend that money, because it keeps the hobby they love fresh and interesting. I do often question the utility of specific new parts (panels!), but other ones (gearboxes!) make me very excited. Anyways, just my opinion!

Thanks! I guess I never mentioned it, but the "competition" had actually taken place before I posted this. In the end, the only people who showed up were @lmdesigner42 and I, so it was more of just a hangout/test drive than an actual competition, but it was lots of fun, and I was impressed with the performance! I do love the DBG on this truck Hehe! This stretched my DBG collection pretty far as it was, so I doubt you'll see it too often in the future, but I did really like the look. I really do think this suspension performed well, and splitting front and rear seemed to work nicely. If you take a look at this old model here: https://www.sheepo.es/2011/04/truck-trial-lizard-8x8.html, you'll see what I think is probably a fairly ideal design for an 8x8 suspension. Mine was very similar, but somewhat more complicated, in that the entire front assembly could tilt side-to-side while the entire rear assembly tilted the other way, but I think that extra complication was probably unnecessary. The suspension was sure complicated to figure out! As mentioned above, the meet had already happened when I posted the topic (though I didn't mention it for whatever reason), but I think performance was above expectations! It didn't really end up being a competition, but it was fun to get together. So, this RC system is a bit different than the hobby RC things other people on here are doing. It started with this mid-range, ~$80 RC car my brother got, which had a brushed motor capable of about 50 km/h. Anyways, I found that I could buy replacement parts for it cheaply, so I bought a complete electronic system from it, and used it in Lego models for a while. I've now phased out most of those components, so all I'm left with is the original car's all-in-one circuit board and controller. Because the original car was only using a brushed motor, it's pretty trivial to run PF motors off of it. The big downside is that the steering system is some weird 5-wire system, because the "servo" module in the original car just had a DC motor and a rotation sensor in one housing to act as a servo, so it's impossible to use a GeekServo with it (Well, probably not strictly impossible, but certainly inconvenient!) Plus, the original car only ran 9.6V, and after I applied 12V, the steering circuit fried. Luckily the drive still works fine! Thanks!

I just wanted to say that even though I never really understand what you're talking about in these posts, I always enjoy reading/skimming through them, mostly just because of your enthusiasm and good attitude! The topics definitely feel like an outlier on the forum, but I'm glad to have them, so thanks for sharing!

Welcome to Eurobricks! Looks like quite an in-depth modification you did! I like the idea of spinning the ball joints in a drill until they get loose! You can always argue that it's just worn out, not modified! :) (In seriousness, though, this forum is pretty accepting of modified parts. People might respect something unmodified more, but lots of people use custom/modified parts when necessary). One tip for next time, though: We'd like to see more embedded pictures! I had a look through your flickr album you linked, but it's easier for folks if you link images for what you're talking about directly. Anyways, I hope to see more work from you in the future! Looks like you had fun with this project!

This model is my latest attempt at a performance-oriented Trial Truck, built in anticipation of another Ontario Truck-Trial get-together this summer. After my 4x4 Lada Niva was soundly beaten by @Teo LEGO Technic's very well-rounded Praga 6x6 last summer (And after I bought four more 107mm tires from @lmdesigner42), I figured I'd go for a full-bore 8x8! It ended up being huge, heavy, and fairly overengineered, but it seems to have been "good" overengineering, because it actually proved to be fairly trouble-free! The functionality includes: Eight-wheel drive, with four PF XL motors Eight-wheel steering, with two PF L motors Two independent two-speed transmissions, with two PF M motors Very complex and, I think, unique, unsprung interlinked pendular bogie suspension The drive motors were driven off my custom 3D-printed 3S Lithium battery, through a mid-range RC control board, while all the other motors (And LEDs) were controlled via a MouldKing 6.0 battery pack. So, for some more detail: Aesthetics: Nothing complicated here, to keep weight down and durability up. It is my first use of DBG on such a large model, and I really like how it worked out! It looks pretty tough in this colour, I'd say. There were LEDs for headlights and taillights. Drive: I knew such a large model would need lots of power, so we've got four PF XL motors on a ~12V, high output control system! However, with great power can come great part attrition (As last year's Lada proved), so I did a few things to try to prevent that this time. First, I split the drivetrain into front and rear sections, with two motors on a bogie for the front two axles, and the other two on a rear bogie. Next, I made sure that my gearbox between them increased speed in both gears, to minimize part-destroying torque. The gear rations here were 36:12 (3:1) and 28:20 (7:5). This was followed by two parallel 16:16 gearings to get drive where I needed it, followed by a 12:28 bevel gearing, and some HD CV joints to get drive down to planetary hubs. This gearing seemed to work well, with a significant enough difference in speed between the two gears. Plus, I didn't break a single gear, which was really encouraging! Gearbox: Given my split drivetrain, two gearboxes were required, one for the rear, and one for the front. Both were shifted by PF M motors through small linear actuators. This moved the whole assembly the XL motors were mounted on to slide it a stud between the two gears (36:12 and 28:20, as mentioned above). Shifting usually required wiggling the drive motors forward and backward, but that was acceptable, and having the extra speed available was really nice. Steering: Again, one steering motor wouldn't cut it here, so I used one PF L-motor for each block of axles. These were mounted transversely, and then used some bevel gears and universal/CV shafts to get drive to some medium linear actuators that were used for the actual steering. The front and rear steering was on different channels, so there were options for front-wheels steering, crab steering, and opposite-steering. The added maneuverability really helped with the long wheelbase, and being able to wiggle every wheel around a bit was really good when fighting for traction. Suspension: This is the one I'm afraid of trying to explain... So, let's think of it this way. The main modules with the XL motors on them were first set up like a typical interlinked pendular setup, so that tilting one to the right would tilt the other to the left, keeping the body at the midpoint between them. Additionally, these modules were linked end to end, so that if the one tipped forwards clockwise, the other would tip backwards counterclockwise, to keep the middle two axles always approximately next to each other in height. This way it could bend all four wheels to keep as many as possible in contact with the ground when going up a hill or over a log. Beyond this, we had a separate set of interlinked pendular axles mounted onto those XL motor modules, with the front and rear axles in each module linked so that tilting one would tilt the other the opposite way. This was very complicated, with lots of linkages and craziness going on, and there was definitely a lot of slack in it by the time everything was put together. Because of this, the body would always tilt to one side, which was annoying, but didn't seem to cause problems. I'm guessing a simpler system would offer comparable performance, without that level of slack, but this system did provide very good floatation! More pictures at: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/8x8 Anyways, I was pleasantly surprised with the performance! I see why all the big European truck trial meets are full of 8x8s, though they are pretty repetitive to build! We'll see if I try improving on it in the future, but honestly, there's probably not much I can see a way to improve, other than maybe simplifying the suspension

Well, I'm definitely late to the party on this one, but I don't like to let Eurobricks contests go by without an entry, so I might as well throw my hat in now! I've had an extremely busy summer, mostly away from my Lego, so now that I'm getting into a time where I'm only very busy, we'll see if I can churn out an entry for this contest! As I mentioned in the discussion topic somewhere, I'm interested in building a truck-mounted forklift, similar to one of these: https://www.hiab.com/en-us/products/truck-mounted-forklifts Unfortunately for me, these typically use three wheels, which is too few for legality in this contest, but I think I can make it work with two rear ones mounted side-by-side. Maybe I'll build both compliant and non-compliant variants, too! Anyways, these forklifts have a couple interesting features in real life. For one, while they usually steer with a single rear tire, they can also steer the front two tires to a 90 degree angle, allowing the whole forklift to drive sideways, parallel to a truck it'd be unloading! Additionally, they have a sort of scissor-link in the fork mechanism that can extend the fork forward and backwards, to reach loads on the far side of the truck, I assume. So, the plan for functionality is: Steering, with both normal and parallel modes Fork tilt Fork lift Fork extension I'd like to include some sort of drive, but in real life, I think these things are driven by hydraulic motors in each wheel, because their layout is extremely inconvenient for mechanical connections. At small-scale, I think this would become prohibitive, so I probably won't be going that route. Motorization would also be nice, but I don't expect to have a lot of internal space, so I'll have to see what it looks like once I've made more progress. Anyways, I started with the fork mechanism, and made a two-stage lift system using framed racks (Arocs racks, in my mind), and a chain pulley system. I also figured out a scissor-type linkage that looks realistic, but figuring out a way to control it within the given space proved very challenging. Racks, linear actuators, and linkages all didn't seem like they'd work out well, so in the end I fell back on string. To me, string seems like a magical substance that can do virtually any function in virtually any space, but one that you usually ignore because it's so annoying to work with. Anyways, it did end up working quite nicely, so I've got a weird little winch reel with two outputs, one going up to pull a link down, and another going out to pull a link in (one for each direction of travel). It's a bit unorthodox, but it works and fits well. This is driven by a drivetrain from a worm gear, which can slide on a 32L axle, giving me hope of controlling this function from within the forklift's body. Forks down Forks up Scissor linkage (String can be cleaned up later. Just one fork installed as a mock-up) Scissor linkage extended I suppose my next job is to try building some sort of frame. I'm not familiar with the proper order of operations for forklift models, so we'll see what works out! I'm also still busy, so I'm not sure when the next update will be

Fun modification! I think Sariel has been working on a larger-scale radial engine using these parts at the core, but this is my first time seeing a little one like this! It's also a pretty great set you're working from!

Nice job! It's quite interesting to see a complete rebuild of an official set's premise-same scale, same color, but with MOC-level functionality. Very nice!

All I know is that I never can on mobile, but always can on PC!

Bizarre! If it was only one different color, I'd suspect a different length, but if there's three different ones, yeah, they're probably just doing it for color coding. But wait! Perhaps, after subjugating our gearboxes, the dreaded hordes of the "Colour Vomit" are advancing on our suspension systems too! Man the battlements! Deploy the portcullis! (Or some such...)

That's a fun little project! I can imagine it would be quite the puzzle to keep it all together Also, the Korean keyboard in the picture is a neat curiosity for me to see!

Oho, a teaser! Exciting!

Very impressive, thanks!

Ah, so they're just being thorough and banning it everywhere, just in case! Makes sense

Why not entirely gut its electronics, and install the internal hardware of a Buwizz and some PF/PU motors in there?

Yeah, I saw a Mitsubishi Pajero iO while traveling this summer, with that sort of transfer case (2H, 4H, 4H Lock, 2H Lock, if I remember correctly). Pretty wild to have that many options! I seem to remember hearing that at least new Ford F-150 Raptors also had that sort of T-case--at least I was once convinced enough it worked that way to build a model like that! My T-case certainly wasn't as compact as yours, though, @damian_kane_iv, so it'll be cool to see what you come up with! Yeah, the Limiteds do look pretty awful! If one wants something that looks like that, why are you buying a 4Runner? I'd imagine few people would swap the full-time T-case into other 4Runners. Even if it is in some ways the superior system, I feel like most of the advantage is for people who can't be bothered to shift into 4WD, on paved roads (in bad weather), and I imagine most people enthusiastic enough to do a big swap like that would be the kind of people who enjoy shifting into 4WD, and care more about off-road performance than bad-weather performance. I know for me, at least, locking hubs and shifting into 4WD is a sort of exciting ritual that I'd be sad to miss out on! (Especially with a proper mechanical lever for the transfer case!)

Ooh, that's a fun gearbox! That technique passing drive over another axle is pretty unusual for sure! I'm curious to see how you'll make a gearstick for it with the extra-large gap between 1/2 and 3/4

Indeed, I would love to see that! I'm very impressed that you were able to fit all that in there, so I'd be curious to see how you managed it!

Nor Canada

Nice work! That does look like a really robust gearbox, and it's fun to see a model like this with brushless power