[MOC] Automated side-loading garbage truck

[Alexander Hamsterton]

Hi all,

My son and I have been working on a minifig/city scale automated side-loading garbage truck build for the last year or so.  

We've finally gotten it to the point where we'd like to share it and get feedback.  The bin arm is operated by a knob and reaches out and grabs and dumps standard LEGO dust bins with a plate on the bottom. 

There is also a ram in the hopper that is operated by a second knob.  It pushes the trash into the dumper:

The inside of the dumper is smooth to allow the trash to dump out:

We also made a video that shows the truck and functions in action.  The video may show the functions of the truck more clearly than the pictures can:

We're interested to get feedback on the build.  Getting the bin arm to smoothly and reliably dump trash and integrating that and the ram into a compact build was definitely one of the big challenges.  The truck with some "waste" bricks is about 450 pieces.  This design was created and refined with bricks on hand over the course of more than a year and at least a dozen different design iterations.  We then created a model in LEGO Digital Designer and used digital renders to visualize different colors.  The custom printed tiles were created digitally using LDPatternCreator, using Bricklink's Studio tool and Blender with some custom lighting for the final digital renders and some animations.  The video is partly digital rendering and partly live filming.  For creating actual custom printed bricks, we made color laser prints of the designs, covered them with scotch tape and then gently washed the paper off using water, leaving enough stickiness on the tape to stick to the bricks.  This was quick and easy and the tiles were durable enough to play/build with, so that worked very well for our purposes.

The cab holds a minifig comfortably, and there is a a hand rail and ladder for another minfig to ride along.  There are clips to hold tools for cleaning up as well.

There are more photos on our Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmu32GeG 

We have also submitted the truck as a LEGO Ideas project.  If you like the model we'd be grateful for your support.  You can see our Ideas page at https://bit.ly/LegoGarbageTruck.

Thanks!

[AllanSmith]

Awesome garbage truck. Supported. I love animation and lighting in LEGO and try to use it in my builds.

[Alexander Hamsterton]

Thanks, we used the Blender LDraw importer at https://github.com/TobyLobster/ImportLDraw, and then used some three-point lighting techniques to give me more flexibility to get the lighting the way we wanted it. 

[bamsham363]

very nice and good presentation, very professional, get my vote

[bamsham363]

and must admit the operation is super smooth too

 

[Alexander Hamsterton]

13 minutes ago, bamsham363 said:

and must admit the operation is super smooth too

 

Thanks!

[peedeejay]

Very clever design!

[Alexander Hamsterton]

1 hour ago, peedeejay said:

Very clever design!

Thanks!

[NewTown]

This needs to be a real set. Amazingly creative!

 

[adwind]

Wow, so cool! This would be a great little set with really fun function in it!

Great job! 

[imvanya]

I liked this just from looking at the pictures - a great combination of City scale and some more advanced Technic functions. But I did not realize just how simple yet effective the mechanism is, so I was completely blown away once I saw the video. Amazing job, would love to have one myself!

[Alexander Hamsterton]

6 hours ago, imvanya said:

I liked this just from looking at the pictures - a great combination of City scale and some more advanced Technic functions. But I did not realize just how simple yet effective the mechanism is, so I was completely blown away once I saw the video. Amazing job, would love to have one myself!

Thanks, yeah.  We were really wondering how to show the functions of the vehicle and decided we really needed a video to do it justice.

[Daan0827]

i love the fact that this garbage truck is also functional, love the little pickup hook.

[bricksboy]

It is very cool mechanism. You may be a young kid base on the voice in the video. Are you designed the mechanism by yourself? It is very awesome :D

I also become your #4 subscriber of your Youtube channel. 

[Alexander Hamsterton]

10 hours ago, bricksboy said:

It is very cool mechanism. You may be a young kid base on the voice in the video. Are you designed the mechanism by yourself? It is very awesome :D

I also become your #4 subscriber of your Youtube channel. 

Thanks bricksboy, my son and I worked together on the design and the video both.  We worked together on the mechanism and refined it from a very big one to something that will fit in a small truck over about a year.

Just now, Alexander Hamsterton said:

Thanks bricksboy, my son and I worked together on the design and the video both.  We worked together on the mechanism and refined it from a very big one to something that will fit in a small truck over about a year.

You've got a great youtube channel as well!  My son is into stop motion, and we've subscribed.

[-zenn]

Now that action is what makes it awesome! Superb build!

Some design thoughts on it;
- could it be possible to relocate the action knobs to the top, so that you can get a smoother looking truck, they could even have a dual function as exhaust pipes...
- the placing of the back wheels look a bit off, like they need to be moved a bit more forward imho.This can't be done 'cause of the action, so maybe an extend to the backsection could make this happen.

[rriggs]

4 hours ago, -zenn said:

Now that action is what makes it awesome! Superb build!

Some design thoughts on it;
- could it be possible to relocate the action knobs to the top, so that you can get a smoother looking truck, they could even have a dual function as exhaust pipes...
- the placing of the back wheels look a bit off, like they need to be moved a bit more forward imho.This can't be done 'cause of the action, so maybe an extend to the backsection could make this happen.

I thought the back wheels were close to the back too but the side loading and look of the truck makes me assume it is North American in style in which case wheels right at the back is appropriate.  If it is meant to be European in appearance then I agree the wheels need to move forwards.

i also have some reservations about the cab design which looks a bit too simple and has a bit of a Juniors look to it which is at odds with the technical and detailed design of the back of the truck.  I think it just the grille and lights so would be a simple adjustment.

With regard to the mechanism itself I think it is brilliant and the video really shows it off well.  

[SollX]

A couple of months ago i build a side loading garbage truck, but that one was not Automatic at all. (you had to click the handles in brackets and then manually raise the arm) 

Your solution is brilliant and i would have never come up with that! so sorry for "stealing" the idea
Today i automated mine using your mechanism. i had to change it a lot to make it fit my truck but it works great.

[Cylo]

This looks great! Nice work!

[Alexander Hamsterton]

On 1/22/2019 at 8:23 AM, SollX said:

A couple of months ago i build a side loading garbage truck, but that one was not Automatic at all. (you had to click the handles in brackets and then manually raise the arm) 

Your solution is brilliant and i would have never come up with that! so sorry for "stealing" the idea
Today i automated mine using your mechanism. i had to change it a lot to make it fit my truck but it works great.

Great to hear the mechanism is working great, we are very happy with the smoothness and reliability of it as well.  Any pictures you can share?

Thanks!

[SollX]

1 hour ago, Alexander Hamsterton said:

Great to hear the mechanism is working great, we are very happy with the smoothness and reliability of it as well.  Any pictures you can share?

Thanks!

I didnt just want to post pictures because it is your topic. but i am happy to share

 

[Roadmonkeytj]

Simple and effective well designed for play.   I would echo the cab could use some redesign however I love the changeable placards 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Very well done!

[Ex cinno]

Very creative work and your step motion is nice too. Supported.

 

[Alexander Hamsterton]

23 hours ago, SollX said:

I didnt just want to post pictures because it is your topic. but i am happy to share

 

I'm glad you did share!  We played around with all of the elements you used for the arm and ended up using the handlebars.  The rubber bricks are promising, but we liked how the cans tipped at the top with no rubber.  We're hoping a LEGO designer gets a shot at the idea to see what they would come up with!