ig248

Good points @I_Igor, doesn't look like it's within mortal members' powers to delete the topic again :)

[removed duplicate]

Thank you for the kind words @I_Igor. Should I move the post to that topic?

Having missed out on some amazing sets and developments through the "dark ages", I was blown away by the likes of the 8110 and the 42043 - something I could only dream of as a kid! With a fresh coat of snow on my doorstep, I finally run out of excuses and took some photos of one of my MOCs/MODs to share with the AFOL community that largely inspired me to pick up the bricks (eh, liftarms) again. If anything, I found the snowplow of the 8110 B-model way more interesting and unique than the crane of the A-model. But the rear of the vehicle was clearly missing something, so I built this functional grit (eh, 1x1 brick) spreader: A lot of time went into figuring out the angled geometry, and making sure there are no gaps whatsoever, especially around the container belt. The setup works well with pins, small bushes or small bricks - the chute is just over a stud wide. The belt driving sprocket is at the front - while this meant a longer path for the drive shaft, it allowed a much tighter belt radius at the rear, with better looks and function overall. In the spirit of the original modular model, the gritter attaches via the same mounting points as the bed and crane, and uses the rear power take-off (PTO) to power the conveyor belt and the rotating spreader: Pneumatics power the raising and lowering of the spreader chute (which disengages from the driving gear when raised), and the opening/closing of the cargo doors: I am particularly pleased with how the virtual-pivot kinematics of the doors turned out - the doors open and close pneumatically via linkage for filling without increasing the width of the vehicle. Linkage right-hand-side view (also shows the belt drive via universal joints and a worm gear): Front view of the virtual pivot movement: More photos and videos can be found here - I hope some in the community will find this MOC interesting/useful from a mechanisms standpoint. I am looking forward to being part of the Eurobricks community (at the risk of running out of shelf space very soon)!