While we are waiting for the 2020 August Technic sets to arrive, Andrej joined us today to share a review with you about a classic set. Hope you’ll enjoy this article, if you would like to read similar reviews then make sure to check out his blog!
This is an article about the classic 8443 LEGO set of a forest tractor released originally back in 1996 towards the end of the studded Technic era. We can see a very nice design with a lot of red parts, 6 wheels and a grappling arm.
The most interesting feature here is the pneumatic system powering the arm. But not only that, I really like the steering system too.
Building of this set starts with the front part and its suspension, so during the first steps you prepare it to be ready for the 4 wheels from the front part. 2 of them are steerable and will be connected with the rear side to complete the steering system.
In the following steps you will build the base for the pneumatic system including 2 switches and a lot of pipes that will be later connected to the grappling arm in the front and with the pump in the rear side.
After that you will start to build the rear part, which is my favorite of this set. You will use most of the red parts here and it is very satisfying to see how well they fit together to create the final shape.
There are 2 more wheels here and they don’t steer. The reason is that the whole rear part is connected to the front by a large turntable. Thanks to that the steering is secured by rotating the whole rear part and it makes this set even more interesting.
Once the rear part is finished, you will connect it with the front and complete the steering system which will perfectly fit together.
The pneumatic pump will be also connected via a pipe prepared previously. The remaining steps will finish the cabin and the grappling arm, where you will use the rest of the pneumatic system and at the end, you will mount the wheels.
Here you can see the simple suspension in action
And this is how the pneumatic grabber works
