Mercedes Benz Arocs Tipper

I am finding myself building a lot of trucks these days, so let’s add another one to the collection.

Full gallery may be found on Flickr and Brickshelf.

Basically the whole point of this project was to make a mid scale truck that was orange. It seems like the only official LEGO sets I buy these days are the orange ones, so I have to use the parts for something. I found this nice little Arocs tipper truck, and I thought, that’s a great little idea. I started with the chassis which came together quickly. The two rear axles are connected via each differential, and drive a small 2 cylinder fake engine under the cab. The front two axles steer at different ratios, with a HOG gear going to the top of the cabin. A linear actuator is used to tip the bed, with controls on each side.

The tipper bed came together quickly, though I wished some additional parts were available in Orange. No problem, but in this age of LEGO Technic color proliferation, it would be nice to complete a color pallet before starting on another one. Anyway, the cab was little more tricky. Like many modern trucks, the grill is a rather unique. The Arocs uses four rows of little scoops with a large center star. Adding something similar on my truck required some creativity, and compromise. I fit only three rows, and recreated the scoops with cheese slopes. The top row was mounted level, and the two lower rows were mounted on hinge plates connected on the side of the cab.

The final model was sufficient, but not groundbreaking. It looks good enough; you can tell what it is, but it does not win any modeling contests. The steering worked great, as did the drivetrain. The tipper bed worked well, but required a little muscle at the early stage of tipping due to the leverage. The tilting cab worked well, but in its resting state was a little too loose. Maybe someday I will edit the grill to make it better, but for now, it works.

Happy Building