Tag Archives: Mining Truck

My Other Car’s Also a Giant Piece of Earth Moving Equipment

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Not a particularly catchy title, but accurate, as this ace mining truck is indeed constructed only from the parts found within the LEGO Technic 42114 Volvo Hauler set.

Redeploying 42114’s ‘Powered-Up’ motors and Control+ bluetooth control, builder Eric Trax has built an excellent companion for the enormous LEGO Technic 42100 Liebherr R 9800 set, with remote control drive, steering, and tipping bucket, plus – ingenuously – a three-speed automatic gearbox.

Whilst the scale is much smaller than that of the donor vehicle – as evidenced by the ‘steps’ leading up the front which give a clue to how massive this would be in real life – Eric’s creation still requires a hefty 1,700 pieces (around 80% of 42114), and can tip an impressive 2kgs of load.

A complete gallery of images, including a few of the truck alongside the official Liebherr R 9800 excavator set, can be found on Flickr by clicking here, where you can also find a link to building instructions should you wish to turn your own 42114 Volvo Hauler set into this mining truck yourself.

Cleverly, Eric’s 42114 B-Model uses the same Control+ profile as the donor set, so if you do make the switch you can drive it straight away using your familiar Volvo controls. Take a look via the video below to see Eric’s alternative in action!

YouTube Video

Truckasaurus REXX

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Whiiiir, crunch. Whiiiir, crunch. That’s not a good noise thought this TLCB Writer. A weary and well-worn trudge out of the office revealed the source, and more Elven carnage than we’ve experienced for some time.

Stampeding down the corridor was a troop of Elves, being chased by the most enormous, and enormously fast, truck that this writer had ever seen. Behind it, squashed thoroughly into the carpet, were those that had failed to keep up the pace, or – more likely – those that had been tripped by one of their colleagues.

With the driver apprehended we can take a look at this astonishing 1 metre long machine, which turns out to be a fully working replica of the enormous 160-ton Australian REXX mining truck.

It comes from previous bloggee Kirill Mazurov (aka Desert Eagle/desert752), and it is a phenomenal bit of kit.

No less than fifteen motors and four third-party BuWizz bluetooth batteries power the REXX, with five Buggy Motors delivering power to all ten fully-suspended wheels. That explains the almost implausible speed.

Three Servo Motors drive the steering, the vast tipping bed is powered by both an XL and L Motor, whilst five Medium Motors operate the cab’s motorised ladders, doors, and even the windscreen wipers.

It’s a truly astounding build and one that is definitely worth a closer look via Kirill’s ‘REXX Truck’ Flickr album, the Eurobricks discussion forum, and via the excellent video showing the model in action below.

Click the links above to make the jump, and you can check out the BuWizz bluetooth bricks that provide Kirill’s REXX with all that power by clicking here.

YouTube Video

Virtually Vast

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This is not a car. And nor is it even built in real bricks. But it is awesome, and rendered – as you can see – superbly. If you’re wondering ‘Why don’t TLCB feature more digital builds?’, well mostly it’s because they don’t look like this.

Designed  by L E G O Z ; ) of Flickr, this enormous (if it were real) ‘Wegener Mining Dump Truck’ joins a range of models created for the ‘Hibernia’ theme that seems to have inspired many in the online Lego Community. We’re not too sure what said theme involves exactly, but we know it’s cold.

L E G O Z ; ) addition to the Hibernia landscape was ‘built’ in Bricklink Studio 2.0, uses only actual LEGO bricks (although some are in colours yet to be produced) and features some mega detailing throughout.

Head onto the digital ice via the link above for all the stunning imagery.

Massive Minecraft

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Built in 1973, massive to world record proportions, and able to service an entire mine at once, your Mom and the Terex 33-19 Titan have a lot in common.

Just one Terex Titan was constructed and – until 1998 – it was the largest mining truck in the world, at a staggering 350 tons. This incredible recreation of the mighty mining machine comes from Beat Felber of Flickr, who has rebuilt the Terex superbly in a huge 1:28.5 scale.

Beat’s model is so large in fact that LEGO don’t make tyres big enough, hence the non-LEGO 120mm tyres fitted – the only non-LEGO pieces used. There’s something authentic about this too, as the real Terex required six axles rather than the usual four as there were no tyres large enough available for a four-axle truck to take the Titan’s immense weight.

Beat’s astonishing replica of the 33-19 Titan not only looks spectacular, it functions too, with two very brave XL Motors driving the tandem rear axle and pair of Servo Motors powering the all-wheel steering. A further L Motor drives the two XL linear actuators that allow the enormous bucket to tip and two sets of LEDs illuminate the Terex’s head and tail lights, with all of that controlled by a third party SBrick programmable bluetooth battery.

Top quality custom decals and excellent presentation make Beat’s build a must-see, and you can do just that at his Terex 33-19 Mining Truck album on Flickr. Click the link and join us there, where it’s making our own Lego creations feel very small indeed.

Dumping Cat

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As has been documented here before, TLCB Team – as a rule – dislike cats. We appreciate that’s a controversial thing to say on the internet, which is very possibly ruled by cats, so prevalent is their content, but we’ve probably said worse.

We do like this cat though, Sariel’s huge Caterpillar 797F dump truck – which is currently filled with Elves riding it up and down the corridor here at TLCB Towers – and it’s packed with functions.

Firstly, that enormous bucket they’re piled into features a remotely operable dumping mechanism thanks to a Mindstorms EV3 IR sensor, which we’ll test out on our unsuspecting workers shortly. The choice of a Mindstorms control unit is an usual one, as they don’t often feature in models here at TLCB, but Sariel’s decision to use one is rather cunning…

The Mindstorms EV3 not only controls the tipping bucket, it also measures the suspension tilt and applies an automatic motorised correction to keep the Caterpillar level. Self-levelling suspension is a system relatively common on SUVs (as well as mining trucks), but it’s one that requires such ridiculous ingenuity in Lego form that we don’t even know how Sariel began. But then our cleverness peaked with the title on today’s other post, so it’s no surprise that this is way over our heads.

Sariel’s Caterpillar also features remote control drive and steering via LEGO’s Power Functions system, non-LEGO ‘Baja Claw’ RC tyres fitted to standard LEGO wheels, and a host of accurate details and decals to replicate the real 797F.

A complete gallery of imagery is available to view at Sariel’s Caterpillar 797F Flickr album by clicking here and you can join the discussion plus watch a video the the model in action (including a demonstration of the clever suspension) by visiting the Eurobricks forum here.

Elf Mining

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Whir… Crunch. Whir… Crunch. Unhappy – if familiar – noises floated down the corridor and into TLCB Office today. TLCB staff looked at one another. One writer was eating a packet of crisps, one was rocking gently backwards and forwards in the corner, lips moving furiously repeating the words ‘not again… not again…’ following a recent Elven event, and one was pretending to take an important phone call. Sigh. This writer got up and trudged out of the office, knowing full well what he’d find.

What he found – as expected – were several Elves limping around in circles, and a couple more squashed into the carpet, having been run over by one of their colleague’s finds. The find in question was the model pictured here, a rather excellent fully RC Technic recreation of the world’s largest articulated mining truck, the Atlas Copco MT85.

Built by Superkoala of Eurobricks, this replica of the MT85 is controlled via a third-party BuWizz bluetooth brick, which delivers power to all six-wheels, the articulated and rear axle steering, plus the tipping bucket. Said BuWizz brick also unlocks up to eight times the power of LEGO’s own Power Functions battery system, giving the model a surprising burst of speed and explaining the Elven casualties.

Superkoala’s creation had also been rather cunningly filled with a variety of office objects to make it heavier, thus maximising its smushing ability. Hiding behind a pot plant was the Elf responsible, from which the controls were swiftly taken a meal-token begrudgingly awarded.

Whilst this writer tidies up, and has a well deserved drive of the Atlas Copco himself, you can see all the images and full build details at the Eurobricks discussion forum by clicking here, plus you can also watch the creation in action via the video below.

YouTube Video