After six months of hard use on the workbench (and a fair bit of “field” testing on the living‑room floor), the ORUT MK2 has earned a autumn makeover. These tweaks aren’t flashy—no wild colour swaps or mega‑suspension mods—but they make the truck sturdier, easier to accessorise, and generally nicer to build on top of. Here’s what changed and why.
1. Rear hand‑driven PTO — gone for good
The idea was sound: a rotating axle that threads through the middle of the tray and pokes out the back, ready to power anything you bolt on. In practice, every attachment needed its own gearing, alignment was fiddly, and the axle robbed cargo space. After a few trials with mowers and my rubbish bin loader, I realised each tool works better with its own compact crank. Removing the PTO freed up interior volume, simplified the driveline, and as a bonus, allowed me to solve the issue below.
Take‑away: decentralised power wins for small‑scale Technic implements.
2. Tray dropped ½ stud—finally level
That pesky half‑stud offset was a necessary evil while the PTO gear lurked under the bed; without it, the tray perched a touch too low, making attachments sit oddly and flex under load. Now that the rear hand driven PTO is history, I flipped the 5×11 frames, swapped the outer panels, and settled the tray down flush with the chassis rails. Stability shot up—and lining up add‑ons is a breeze.
Builder’s tip: when a half‑stud lift solves one problem, it usually creates two more. Eliminate the root cause instead.
3. Bye‑bye tilting cab—hello rock‑solid front end
The tilt‑forward cab looked cool and made engine gawking easy, but the hinge towers siphoned stiffness from both the cab and tray. Worse, the tilt introduced just enough slop to amplify steering wobble up through the HOG gear. I locked the cab to the chassis with two pin‑in‑axle connectors, braced the back wall, and added some more beams. The steering wheel now tracks straight even on big‑knob tyres, and the whole truck feels like one piece instead of a cab riding a skateboard.
Unexpected win: This allowed me to add the below front attachment point easier.
4. Front attachment mount—preparing for snowploughs & more
The last change is forward‑looking (literally). I’d sketched concepts for a snow blower, a dozer blade, even a mini crane arm, but the original bumper sat too low and too close to the steering rack. The new solution:
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Re‑profiled bumper: I added some brackets for mounting attachments and also improved the look of the front end.
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Twin Technic pin holes on the upper frame rails—spaced to accept the common 5L → 3L → 5L bracket pattern.
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Reinforced front cross‑beam tying the steering tops together, so pushing a plough won’t tweak the steering.
Now the ORUT can accept clip‑on modules without dismantling half the nose—just pull two 3L with stoper pins, slide the tool in, pin, go.
Where next?
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Front‑mounted PTO: The hand‑driven rear PTO wasn’t ideal, but a short, engine‑driven PTO at the front (think Unimog style) could still be useful.
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Quick‑swap tray decking: Swappable flatbed, tipper, and box‑body panels using the new level tray.
Attachments: I have a lot of ideas for future attachments.
As ever, the ORUT MK2 remains the mule for every half‑baked attachment idea I dream up.
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