[MOC] Pneumatic Tow Truck/Recovery Vehicle

[D3K]

Again, thanks all

Nice town ;)

When it's not raining The weather gods have been pretty nice to us lately!

Amazing pneumatic model. You must have miles of tubing in this thing, and it is all very well hidden. I wish LEGO would make a fully pneumatic model again.

It does have quite a bit, yes. I've tried to keep it to a minimum (all things concidered), by, where more than one cylinder controls a single function, not splitting it up before as close to the cylinders as possible. Also, by placing the switches all over the place, closer to the functions they control. Somewhere this was ofcourse not possible.

I will take a photo of all the pneumatic parts laid out next to the chassis when I dismantle it!

That's a big awesome model!!! But can it tow a 42009? Or itself?

I haven't tried, but it should be able to lift quite some weight. The structure of the towing fork is pretty rigid, and the force from the pneumatics is substantial, so I don't see why not

I forgot to ask, what was preventing you from making the boom extension pneumatic? Maybe you'll use more of the old cylinders for something else.

I was wondering about this as well, I think D3K mentioned in another thread that he wanted to make a pneumatically extended boom.

Several reasons:

-The boom would have to have a larger cross section to accomodate cylinders and tubing, or in the case I made a prototype of, the scissoring mechanism.

-Although the scissor mechanism worked great in theory, it really wasn't very good in practice

-The reach of the boom would be severely shorter

-It had a lot of play/wasn't at all rigid when weight was applied

I don't think it's possible to make an effective system, while keeping all the desired features (reach, stability, rigidity)

The current system works great, but as you'll see from the video (uploading now), it is slooooooow

That's I say too, absolutely fantastic!

@D3K: Do you plan to make instructions in further time?

Greetings

Alex

Thanks, and no. Instructions for this would take way too long to make due to all the pneumatic parts.. sorry

Not another tow truck.....But I do like this one.

You have managed to put a lot of functions in a a small model which I like.

Thanks, at least it's not an American truck

That's great. I saw it yesterday but did not have time to reply. A great truck and I love the pnuematics, in particular I like those outriggers when extended. Pnuematics, in my opinion, are the best solution for lifting and handling weight. I am building something myself with pneumatics.

H

The force from the pneumatics is indeed very good! And I am very glad Lego decided to introduce a pneumatic system in to the Technic line, as it opens up so many great possibilities!

That being said, I still advocate the use of LA's as well! :classic:

I am actually concidering trying to make two more versions of this truck, one with motorized functions/LAs, and one fully Remote controlled! Will have to play around in LDD to check different possibilities!

Anyway, video should be up in about an hour, I'll post it then!

[D3K]

Sorry about the music, after Spotify, I don't have any mp3s on my computer.. The song came with Windows I think

I made some modifications before shooting the film

-The main winch is now controlled by turning the new yellow "flashing" lights.

-Added the larger metallic hook (which I remember wanting when I was a kid, but didn't get my hands on until yesterday!!)

Edited October 18, 2013 by D3K

[skriblez]

Sounds like an old porn song :P Nice video and functions :)

[D3K]

It is now dismantled, so I finally could get an overview:

I measured the tubing, and it totals at 827 cm.. That is more than 8 meters! I never would have imagined!

Also, 24 T-pieces and two of the PPTO parts from 8110.

[Junpei]

That's a lot of pneumatics! 8 meters of tubing?

[Lakop]

Good video. What you could do with larger pneumatic cylinders.

H

[skriblez]

Man that is a lot of tubing! The moc looks so naked now

[TinkerBrick]

Great video. I'm amazed. I'm starting to dislike LAs more and more over the realistic approach of pneumatics.

[legomuppet9]

Great model! I love all the functions and overall look.

I can't believe that you fitted all that in there!

You have inspired me to make stuff non PF! haha

I agree with everything here, and I too have been inspired to make non PF stuff too

[legotechnicblue]

That's amazing that you didn't involve PF at all

[D3K]

That's amazing that you didn't involve PF at all

It was very nice not having to worry about axles and gears that much, still, the tubing is tricky at times, especially when redoing things after most of the MOC is built, as I thought out new and better solutions! Also, if the MOC was to be fully RC, the weight of the motors would be quite spectacular, not to mention finding room to place them all! I think I would have needed 12 motors if all the functions were to be motorized (including driving and steering).

On a different not, I am making instructions for a slightly improved version of the chassis, with the thought that people who wants to build a truck, but don't quite know how to do a chassis, can have a little help to get started.

In the mean time, I uploaded High Resolution images to my new BrickSafe account, check them out here, if you want to have a closer look.

[Samanen]

That's a stunning build man! Keep them coming