Set 42112 modifications

[Tom a.k.a. eastawat]

Not sure if set modifications go under MOCs or Your Collection or Lego Sets and Products tbh, but here goes...

I bought the Technic Concrete Mixer Truck 42112 a few weeks ago as I was bored out of my mind, stuck on a two week holiday during the last Kildare lockdown and having explored every open tourist attraction in the entire county after a couple of days.

It turns out that set 42112 has a few shortcomings. It has a terrible steering lock so the turning circle is absolutely huge, even by Lego Technic standards which are usually not great. The cab doesn't lift up to see the engine underneath, but you can see it clearly anyway because the engine is so high up that the pistons come up between the seats.

So I set about modding it, something I've never done with a Technic set before. The major changes I had to make meant taking it apart completely, so I rebuilt it from the instructions using stud.io first and then made the modifications there, before building the modified version in real life.

Here are some pics:






There's not much else to see in photos because they don't really capture the drastically improved steering lock, and other than the cab tilting up it looks almost exactly like the original set.

I've published free instructions on Rebrickable. For anyone interested, if you have the set you can build my modifications with the below additional pieces, plus you'll have a few nice parts left over from the original set.

[John]

If i had that set id mod it to tilt whole front end ,but good idea doing it virtually before pulling pieces off and losing yourself with frustration

[Tom a.k.a. eastawat]

I probably should have tilted more of it but it was very awkward to do without weakening the chassis!