UGears Fire Truck Build by Mark
Phase I of my UGears Fire Truck build. Just the basic truck, without the fire ladder assembly on the back.
Just this truck part is built with over 400 parts, from laser-cut plywood. Though the stated build time is 10-12 hours for the truck alone, I probably spent about 20 hours building it. Most of the time was spent on sanding and cleaning up the gears and moving parts, and waxing them for smooth operation. Though this is "optional," I think the time spent on this fine-tuning has really helped make this a smooth-operating model. The ladder part will be approximately an additional 120 parts, and quite a few more hours, I believe.
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Here is the entire audio transcript from this video:
This is the start of my UGears Fire Truck, not yet completed. This base truck is essentially the UGM-11 truck, but with a fire ladder platform instead of a bed - I haven't started the ladder part on the back.
However, the basic truck has some amazing details, for a model that is made of only thin plywood, toothpicks, and rubber bands.
The rubber band motor is wound by ratcheting a lever on the top of the cab. There's also a fast-winder tool to make this easier.
Releasing the lock while in neutral, you can see the full-speed motion of the gears and even the piston heads through the open hood of the truck.
Manually moving the gears shows the full motion of the engine components, including the piston heads being driven by a realistic crank shaft under the engine. The drive shaft even has a working u-joint connecting the wheels to the engine.
The driver's door opens for access to the functional steering wheel, gas pedal, and tilting seat back. Turning the steering wheel turns the front wheels. In neutral, pressing the gas pedal speeds up the engine & pistons.
The front axles include suspension for that rough terrain.
This truck is assembled entirely by precision fitting of the wood pieces and toothpicks for connecting joints - no glue, no screws, in fact no metal parts at all. Yet the detail is amazing, with movement controlled entirely by wooden gears, levers, and clever joints!
There is even a forward, neutral, and reverse setting. Selecting a direction changes the rear gear positions to drive the truck in the selected direction.