I promised a while back that I would put together a tutorial showing the improvements I made to Long Haul, so that he better represented the Josh Nizzi concept art. This will give you guys a basic idea and starting point for making this good figure great.
We will start with his hands:
In order to give him wrist rotation, and eliminate the odd look that comes from his factory articulation.
Step 1: Cut the hands off directly behind the existing joint:

"When heavy machinery meets farm machinery!"
Step 2: Locate appropriate "posts" for a wrist swivel. In this case, Lego pins.

Step 3: Drill an appropriate sized post hole in the "hand" side of the wrist.

Step 4: Trim post to fit in wrist and glue into place.


Step 5: Remove excess plastic from around the arm side wrist hole (cutting off the hands creates a hole on the arm already!) until you can post the peg from the hand snugly into it. Voila! Wrist swivel!

You may choose to cut small sections from the edges of the dumper bed that are adjacent to the hands to allow for 360 degree rotation (shown in later pic.)
Next up: Neck ball joint!

 

Part 2: Neck mod

The next step is to add a ball joint to cure his no-neck-itis.
Step 1: Remove head and locate "channel" right below neck hole. This is a perfect tab to use as support for a balljoint.

Step 2: Locate an appropriate ball joint. In this case an arm post from a mini-con (the only thing they are good for IMO.) The post does need to be fairly long, in order to allow for good range of movement. Chop it off and file it down to fit!


Step 3: Glue post into place. ( You can also see the filler plastic that I used to cover the holes in his chest, as they are not needed after these mods.)


Step 4: Cut off head post (this does eliminate the Mech Alive gimmick.)

Step 5: Drill a post hole in Long Hauls melon. Start with a small post hole and slowly expand it until it "snaps" onto the ball. If you don't do this gradually you will end up with a bobblehead.


Done!
Coming soon: Wheel assembly fix!

 

Wheel assembly mod

The mod that has the biggest impact to the look of the figure is the wheel mod. It allows the assembly to swing backwards and position the wheels behind the shoulders.
Step 1: Pull the pins out of the middle assembly (the part that has the struts that mount into the shoulders.)

Step 2: Cut the struts down the middle, and reverse them to face backward. These will serve as a support for the swing arm. I think it is much more stable this way.

comp shot showing cut strut and uncut:

Step 3: Find 2 parts from your bits box that can serve as a swing arm. You can also make this part from a piece of styrene rod. It just needs to be the same length as the original struts, have rounded ends, and holes at each end for posts or screws. I used interior parts from Movie 1 Leader Megatron's forearm.

Step 4: Select some pins or screws that are of decent length. You could re-use the original pins from the assembly but since they do not have "caps" on them you risk having the arm pop off.

Step 5: Drill a small hole at the base of the struts. Screw one end of the swing arm to the struts. Cut the excess strut post off.

Step 6: Replace the struts back on Long Haul's shoulders.

Step 7: Attach the wheel assembly with your long pins.

This pic shows the ability to swing into position for alt mode

Comp shot with an unmodded Long Haul


Final paint up comparison:

For my version I also cut off the posts on the wheel assembly that pegged into the chest holes. I have filled the chest holes with Apoxie Sculpt, since they are solid in the movie and concept art.
I hope this helps you all make Long Haul all he can be!

 

Questions and Comments Answered!

The mech alive gimmick on Long Haul is so lame, they don't even mention it on his box! When you turn his head, the disc in his chest spins. I just glued mine into place after the head mod.

It was on the arm that had the snap forward "claws." There are internal gears and struts that allow for the mechanism to work.

I don't pull the pins on the lower part to seperate the chest pieces. I have a thin precision screwdriver that can get between the post to the screws, and get the chest piece apart.

A ball joint might hinder the transformation. The wrist fold that it currently has works very nicely, and adding the post gives it full mobility without changing the transformation at all.
Hope this helps guys!