My second detachable gooseneck lowboy trailer in scale 1:17,5 with PF and lights now with a remotely deployed lift axle and many improvements. It features solid axle suspension, parkingbrake, detachable gooseneck to load and unload trailer easily and a so called flip axle.
About this creation
Building my first lowboy I noticed that a lot of the US style lowboy trailers are equipped with a so called flip axle. Only a few of them are operated hydraulically and that was very appealing to me. With the ones that are not operated hydraulically an excavator, forklift or front loader can for example be used to flip the axle. This is also great fun of course but since I love it to make things operated remotely I found my self a new challenge. For example Globe Trailers runs a lowboy with a hydraulically operated flip axle.
Some may think that I just copied my first lowboy and just repainted it, but that's far from true. That it is repainted that is for sure and that all has to do with fitting my Bell B30D with tracks. I'm not that easy I know, but I don't like to be on an event with a yellow load on a yellow lowboy, that doesn't feel right! So repainting it was pretty obvious and since I have loads of blue from the Elphinstone Easyloader, this would be the right color.
Let I start with pointing out the what is differently to this new lowboy. If you like to read more on the initial design please check my first lowboy.
To start with, I was unable to equip my first lowboy trailer with a flip axle simply because I had to hide the battery box somewhere. At that time the Power Functions Electric 9V Battery Box (Non-Rechargeable) was not available yet. Now that it is it can easily be hidden inside the trailers frame, which gives me loads of opportunities for many more trailers to come. With the use of this much smaller battery box I was able to give this new trailer its flip axle.
The flipping itself is done by using a Technic Linear Actuator which is geared down strongly. Without the gear down the actuator is simply not strong enough and it gives a more realistic feel to it when things go slow. The big challenge in this all was how to transfer a linear movement into pivoting the flip axle. I used the same principle as used on an excavator to give the bucket its movement. What I'm proud of is that it flips with an almost 180 degree angle and that wasn't that easy with the weight of the four wheels.
Because of the flip axle and the less space left in the rear part of the frame the location of all the Power Functions is completely rearranged. With my first lowboy it was all hidden in the rear part of the frame on top of the wheels. Now that a part of it flips and the use of a space consuming actuator no room was left. So all the stuff is moved to the frame in between both parts of the deck.
Because of this and to make it more suitable for longer models to carry I added eight studs length to its deck. Since it has a flip axle I can still store the model in the display case in my house and can it be transported using the wooden box I build for the first lowboy.
What is also completely different with this new boy is its deck. With the first lowboy I used Plate 8 x 8, Modified with Grille and Hole in Center for its deck. These parts are light in weight and it was very effective since they have the exact width as the deck does. The down site of this specific part is that it is not that strong and the looks are not that realistic. Since most lowboy trailers do have wooden decks I wanted to give this new lowboy that same look. In real live these type of lowboys do have a steel frame but wood is used for the actual deck. So I came with the idea of using Dark Tan plates 6 x 8 to simulated the wood structure. Obviously they are smaller then the Plate 8 x 8 with Grille so this leaves me space to add a tile to simulate the steel frame.
Well I admit the gooseneck is exactly the same as with the first lowboy, but why change a winning team. The design and build was so compact, strong and effective that there is absolutely no way to improve this. Installing two M motors, one LA and a IR Receiver in such a small creation was a challenging job that I realy enjoyed.
For the gooseneck its folding mechanism I used a M motor, one LA and a lever to cut the movement of the LA in half. This gives the mechanism enough power to raise the deck, even with the Bell B30D weighing 2,4 kg / 5.3 lbs it holds just fine.
Again it has this support for the gooseneck to rest on the trucks frame when removed from the trailer to load and unload. A worm gear to drive a 24 tooth gear works best which is powered by a M motor via a 1:3 ratio rubber belt “gear” down. With this is it slow enough to be operated smoothly and to adjust the gooseneck to fit the trailer again while backing up the truck.
With this type of lowboy trailer the gooseneck is removed to load and unload the deck. Because the front part of the trailer rests on the surface the truck with the gooseneck still attached to it can drive off. I came up with a simple but effective parking brake. With the front end of the trailer sitting on the surface the brake is activated. As soon as the deck is lifted the parking brake releases it self with the use of rubber belts.
After loading the trailer the truck simply backs up again and attaches the gooseneck to the trailer. With a support that rests on the trucks frame the gooseneck can be lowered of lifted to make sure it comes in place. Finally the deck is raised again and the support to rest on the trucks frame is lifted and of you go.
Very Awesome how you create your trailers, you are nothing more than a genious, i have a hard one for you though... since you have done a road train trailer, can you do an australian tip over axle trailer... that should be a challenge for you...
Quoting Max The Owl
I am officially speechless! :O) And here I was... thinking that my truck was big... I'd hate to receive the bill for all these Lego pieces though.
Thank you very much and welcome to MOCpages. To be honest I prefer free Lego pieces, but I don't get any... :-)
Very neat Ingmar!!! I've never seen or heard of one of these lowboy trailers bofore. The trailer even bends under a load. It's like uuuuurrrrr this is heavy. Oh, and here's a link to my latest cration. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/313807
Quoting George Staples
A full 180 from a LA very impressive.
Great that you noticed! It wasn't that easy, but with a couple of tries and a lot of thinking I managed. The M motor is geared down to make things happen and it also looks much more like the real thing...
greatful really in the same way of your over moc's
I like it
Chris Melby
April 5, 2012
It looks to be a good build, a little to much Power Functions showing to be a shelf queen, but then judging by the beast that is pulling it, it's not suppose to be on the shelf. Very nice!
yet again you have made a excellent moc love the details. i have seen the real trailer on the internet and this moc looks just like it .look forward to your next creation .again well done
Thanks for the kind words. Like I wrote it is not completely new, but improved quite a lot. The color scheme is much better to suite for example the dumper. I realy was fun building and yes there'll be much and much more to come!!!
Quoting Chris Melby
It looks to be a good build, a little to much Power Functions showing to be a shelf queen, but then judging by the beast that is pulling it, it's not suppose to be on the shelf. Very nice!
:-) You're right, this is not a shelf thing... It realy is hard to hide PF in such open models. I think I managed well and I'm very proud of it. Functionallity is very important to me, it all has to work... Thanks so much!!!
