42053 - Volvo EW160 - Mods and Improvements

[Kmuffin]

On 22 April, 2017 at 2:13 PM, vale said:

Hi,

as you can see I´m new here so I hope I´m doing right with the guidelines. ;)

Now back to topic some weeks ago I started to mod the 42053.

I´m pretty happy how it turned out and hope you like it.

Here a list what I modded:

- pressure tank between the wheels

- pneumatic front shield (controlled by switch above power switch)

- aditionall pneumatic connection for the trailer (controlled by switch in the undercariage)

- a 3 side tipper to transport the other atatchments ( tipping mechanism by efferman)

- 3 intercangeable boom atatchments

- L motor + 2nd small pneumatic pump

- completely new boom design:

  - 3 pice boom

  - double cylinder in the first stage 

  - new single cylinder 

  - new normal cylinder to controll the bucket (normal cylinder because I ran out of big ones ;) )

  - new lengths for the single abstracts to come closer to the original

  - new and in my eyes way better tubing ;)

 

Because I can´t upload more than one usable picture here I uploaded the others on flickr.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskTuTJPM

Those are the best mods ive seen done to this set. At first I thought the original model had it's pneumatics going thorugh everywhere after seeing im surprised how you managed to fit all of that in such a tiny area without any flaws. A thing is what is the manual pump connected to?

[vale]

Thank you for the great feedback.

Next time I will try to insert the pictures correct. The manual pump is conected to the whole system. I haven´t removed it to have extra capacity besides the 2 small pumps. For example when the battery is dead.

P.S. It took me lets say some time till I had installed the whole tubing ;)

[ColletArrow]

This is actually an impressive MOD, and makes the set a whole lot more interesting to me with the increased functionality whilst retaining the original looks (if not improving them with the tube routing!). I especially like the 3-way tipping trailer! Very well executed overall. Good job!

[Marno]

On 2/9/2017 at 9:46 PM, JohnnyDNGRSLY said:

I've begun to redesign the front dozer blade, whose arm rotates over-center to lock into place. Like @Sariel, I've found it can collapse under weight (for me, even under the pressure of cycling the hand pump!).

I'll share my design here if it works out. Has anyone else tried to mod this? I'd like to stay as close to the real-life EW160E as I can…

I noticed the same issue and while looking for a fix it occured to me that it's just a slight 'angle issue'. I replaced the 'angled connector #5' with a #6 (step 100 of the instructions) and it now locks securely :). Really odd that Lego didn't figure this out and ships like this.

Loving the mods here, especially the cleanly routed pneumatic hoses, nice job!

[gvo25]

Hello all

Recently 2 new long pneumatic cylinders arrived, so I could finally fit the main boom with 2 cylinders and also the bucket has a long cylinder. Also my EC160 has a new stick.

With the 2 boom cylinders installed, I should also install a second pump and an L-motor, that will be my next project.

[TandT]

Quote

On 9-2-2017 at 9:46 PM, JohnnyDNGRSLY said:

I've begun to redesign the front dozer blade, whose arm rotates over-center to lock into place. Like @Sariel, I've found it can collapse under weight (for me, even under the pressure of cycling the hand pump!).

I'll share my design here if it works out. Has anyone else tried to mod this? I'd like to stay as close to the real-life EW160E as I can…

 

 

First of all: this is my first post so excuse me and point me out if I'm doing something wrong.

To fix the front blade problem you can move the blue pin of the locking mechanism one hole up and add a bluish grey 1x1 ring to it, which was amongst my spares. I presume every 42053 has the same spares.

TandT

 

Edited September 29, 2017 by TandT

[MangaNOID]

On 5/2/2017 at 3:09 AM, gvo25 said:

Hello all

Recently 2 new long pneumatic cylinders arrived, so I could finally fit the main boom with 2 cylinders

how much of a difference does/did two main boom cylinders make to try and stop the fast dropping of the boom? it looks like you linked up the hoses close to the cylinders which should also limit cylinder air escape velocity time blah blah 

also is that the 8851 bucket? looks great on this set, so I may do that sometime as I have that bucket being unused for 30 years, I want to use it 

sorry i know this is relatively old post but I'm almost finished this build (yes a bit behind everyone) what a great set! especially for the price. 

Edited November 1, 2017 by MangaNOID

[agrof]

I made my turn on this too, found cheap 56x30-er tires. The difference is not significant, but a bit more proportional than the original ones. Here are pictures to comparison, on the machine the lower ones are the originals.

I also changed some parts to make it work without decals, and covered the naked studs on the boom by this part. Still one of my favorite set, very playable and no worries about batteries! 

[ukbajadave]

A bit late to the party but I finally worked out how to add pics so here are my mods to what is a great set to start with.

(Purists look away now, I wasnt about to cut up my real Lego hoses so I replaced them with silicone tube)

PF servo and M motor in undercarriage, battery box in rear of house, IR receiver and lights in cab for RC

Turntable added to Bucket

M motor driving two small blue compressors. Hoses shortened to tidy them up and make room. hoses on boom also tidied up.

I too felt the handrail was out of scale so thinned it out a bit.

And finally an additional air supply for the trailer.

The trailer has pneumatic lifting and support legs.

[Carefree_Dude]

On 3/30/2018 at 9:21 AM, ukbajadave said:

A bit late to the party but I finally worked out how to add pics so here are my mods to what is a great set to start with.

(Purists look away now, I wasnt about to cut up my real Lego hoses so I replaced them with silicone tube)

PF servo and M motor in undercarriage, battery box in rear of house, IR receiver and lights in cab for RC

 

What silicone tubing did you use? 

[Johnny1360]

I like the dual pump setup, do they both pump air at the same time or are they 180 degrees apart?  Also wondering do you just use a reverse T, two pumps into one line or is there more to it than that?

I also like very much the trailer, good job, I may try and recreate some of your mods.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Johnny1360

[ukbajadave]

11 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

 ...are they 180 degrees apart?...

They were 180° opposed and connected to a T. It occurs to me now that they may have just filled each other with air so maybe simultaneous would have been better :)

17 hours ago, Goldenmasamune said:

What silicone tubing did you use? 

Ebay silicone tubing for cars tends to have thicker walls (2mm) so I got some medical tubing from China, I think AliExpress or wish. Try searching "2mm food grade silicone" as a starting point. You want 2mm internal diameter and 1mm wall thickness for a 4mm outside diameter. Lots of pretty colours, you can buy metres at a time and you don't have to cut your Lego hoses.

The rigid black pipes were RC car aerial tubes, just about the right size to fit Lego clips and fit through the middle of pins.

[Johnny1360]

33 minutes ago, ukbajadave said:

They were 180° opposed and connected to a T. It occurs to me now that they may have just filled each other with air so maybe simultaneous would have been better :)

That was my thinking as well, that is why I asked if it worked okay. Seems like you need some kind of check valve or something or maybe one pump going to one set of LAs and the other pump going to another system. Guess I should do some experiments. I do like the idea of multiple pumps though, it just seems like one is so slow. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

The orange really works as well. 

[ukbajadave]

6 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

...Seems like you need some kind of check valve... I should do some experiments...

It seems like there might be something built into the pumps already. Not too scientific but I took a small blue pump and put it on my tongue. Compression forced air out but extension didn't pull my tongue in. Same with the big blue pump. I suppose that if air could siphon back into the pump any connected cylinder wouldn't stay extended.

[Imanol BB]

37 minutes ago, ukbajadave said:

It seems like there might be something built into the pumps already. Not too scientific but I took a small blue pump and put it on my tongue. Compression forced air out but extension didn't pull my tongue in. Same with the big blue pump. I suppose that if air could siphon back into the pump any connected cylinder wouldn't stay extended.

Lego pumps have a check valve placed at their bottom part, since they compress a gas and not a liquid the check valve has to be as close as possible to the piston to avoid the air being compressed inside and not being pumped to the outlet.

7 hours ago, ukbajadave said:

They were 180° opposed and connected to a T. It occurs to me now that they may have just filled each other with air so maybe simultaneous would have been better :)

Maybe there was some kind of leakage in the hoses which caused the problem, and actually when you pump the pumps at different times is much more efficient and smoother than pumping them simultaneously, since you are dividing the power along side the cycle, it's much better to make 50% of the work first and then the other 50% right after that than doing 100% at once, you can use an smaller motor, a more compact arrangement and even run them faster.

[Johnny1360]

2 hours ago, Imanol BB said:

Lego pumps have a check valve placed at their bottom part, since they compress a gas and not a liquid the check valve has to be as close as possible to the piston to avoid the air being compressed inside and not being pumped to the outlet.

Good to know, thanks, of course it only makes sense to have one. I did not know that. 

 

2 hours ago, Imanol BB said:

 

Maybe there was some kind of leakage in the hoses which caused the problem, and actually when you pump the pumps at different times is much more efficient and smoother than pumping them simultaneously, since you are dividing the power along side the cycle, it's much better to make 50% of the work first and then the other 50% right after that than doing 100% at once, you can use an smaller motor, a more compact arrangement and even run them faster.

Absolutely would be the correct way of a dual pump setup. Glad to see I'm not the only one to do it like that, just wasn't sure about the check valve thing. Again thanks. 

Edited October 9, 2018 by Johnny1360

[Niedzwiedzmin]

As a person that is thinking about purchasing this model for start, is it possible to make this model running on new Powered Up motor instead of Power Functions? I would like to avoid buying motors/technology that is being discontinued by Lego. It doesn't have to be with light, just pump running on Powered Up without rebuilding whole model (similar to standard Power Functions improvement).

 

Thank you!

[ukbajadave]

11 minutes ago, Niedzwiedzmin said:

As a person that is thinking about purchasing this model for start, is it possible to make this model running on new Powered Up motor instead of Power Functions? I would like to avoid buying motors/technology that is being discontinued by Lego. It doesn't have to be with light, just pump running on Powered Up without rebuilding whole model (similar to standard Power Functions improvement).

 

Thank you!

Buy this set!! One of my all time favourite builds, great playability, good parts pack and great for mods too

I dont own any PU but I believe the motor and hub are both larger. The motor only by one or two studs  but the hub is sizeable. If you look at my pics you'll see I had to move the switches slightly to make room so it might be a squeeze. Maybe consider putting the motor and pump or hub in the chassis?

Once again, GREAT set! Don't miss out on it just because PU might not fit.

 

[allanp]

46 minutes ago, Niedzwiedzmin said:

As a person that is thinking about purchasing this model for start, is it possible to make this model running on new Powered Up motor instead of Power Functions? I would like to avoid buying motors/technology that is being discontinued by Lego. It doesn't have to be with light, just pump running on Powered Up without rebuilding whole model (similar to standard Power Functions improvement).

 

Thank you!

It might be possible with the motors that come with the RC batmobile as they are the same size as the PF M motor, but powering the motor is the tricky part. The Ofsprey helicopter which will be available soon comes with a new PU simple battery box, so if you can get it to fit then I assume that you'll be able to power it from that. But without the parts in hand I can't be sure of that.

Regardless, I agree with @ukbajadave . It's a great set not to be missed. Whilst adding a motor does make it better, the pneumatics make it still very good and very playable without a motor.

[Polarlicht]

I added a second 5.5l pump and an airtank. Cabin lift is now also pneumatic

Makes about 1bar pressure (used a blue airtank here, couldn't get the white one out)

 

[McMarky]

On 7/17/2021 at 12:38 PM, Coolusername said:

I added a second 5.5l pump and an airtank. Cabin lift is now also pneumatic

Looks quite interesting. Could you please show us any movie with performance of the excavator?

Why the pressure is so low?

[Polarlicht]

2 hours ago, McMarky said:

Looks quite interesting. Could you please show us any movie with performance of the excavator?

Why the pressure is so low?

I literally just took the whole thing apart and redbuild it in stock form. My new plan is now to run 2x 6l pumps (before i had 1x 5.5l and 1x 6l, ordered another 6l) but without the airtank since it only slows the system down when it has to build up all that pressure for it.

These airtanks aren't that great for instant constant use in a system, or use in general. They are a bit overhyped. Lego retired it for this reason i guess...

The one 6l pump the set came with seems a bit worn on my set, from years of use. I hooked both to the manometer and i don't even get 1 bar with the 6l pump, the 5.5l makes over 2 bar...

Edited July 18, 2021 by Coolusername

[allanp]

Was the addition of an airtank a feature request in @Jims review of this set......oh wait 

[skaah]

Do you have any more pictures of the pneumatic cabin lift mod?