Popular Post Bombsquad Posted January 30, 2017 Popular Post Posted January 30, 2017 Gather round children I'll tell you a tale... I'll try updating this thread as I go both for your own interest and my sake to document the build. Ive been crazy about diggers and trucks since before I could walk, and back when I was about 10 years old my dad took me up from New Plymouth to the Field days in Hamilton for my birthday. As we went through the gate one of the first machines I saw was what I later learned to be the Kaiser X4 Turbo walking Excavator. This thing was mind blowing back then, in fact I was so enamored I returned home and built one out of Lego which won me second prize in a contest at Toyworld (prize was a technic Helicopter which I believe I still have at the olds place). Anyway fast forward 20 years and through some searching I became friends with the man who back then owned my dream machine, since then hes owned several other versions. He sold it to a lovely guy up past Opotiki, so with some rough directions and a lot of hope I set off on an adventure with my poor girlfriend to find it. I knew it was up east cape way, past a school, over a bridge and up to the right "you can see the beach from the machine"... cant be that hard right?? First trip we drove right up the coast from Whakatane to a little past Waihau Bay, and up every road on the right that looked hopeful but with no luck. It later turned out we drove straight past it (behind a row of trees), and were intently looking at a shed full of things on the opposite side of the road!! Upon returning home I quizzed the old owner again, and he told me you could see it on Google maps Two more trips up there id not only found it, but found the owner and struck a deal. Yesterday myself, the missus and my mate set off to retrieve it.. How shes sat for 10 years: 28 Quote
Popular Post Bombsquad Posted January 30, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted January 30, 2017 Loading her up. This was a nightmare.. It doesn't run so no hydraulics, which meant cutting hoses and allowing the bleed out of the legs so we could move them manually. Obviously the flip side of this means they went wherever the fuck they wanted and with a machine weighing 7 Tonne this made things farking hard!! In the end it took 6 hours, 4 of us, 2 block n tackles, the hydraulic winch of the transporter (snapped its cable twice) and a very underpowered old tractor 18 Quote
Bombsquad Posted January 30, 2017 Author Posted January 30, 2017 At 9 pm we left Opotiki bound for Hamilton. at 2:30 I finally made it into bed.. absolutely wrecked (and with a log book full of creative time lines). Today was her first wash in over 10 years, you can almost see the potential And just because we all love original owners manuals 9 Quote
Popular Post Bombsquad Posted January 30, 2017 Author Popular Post Posted January 30, 2017 Not mine obviously, but this is a pretty good way to shed some light on what they are and do, and how they "walk" compared to a regular machine. 13 Quote
igor Posted January 30, 2017 Posted January 30, 2017 My boy and I will be watching that video tonight. No time before school. Quote
cletus Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 Thats a cool project! Must have a lot of hydraulics to move that many parts Quote
johnnyfive Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 Wtf wow. Thats different, are these fairly unique? Looking forward to seeing you tear into it. Awesome mission to get it Quote
Bombsquad Posted January 31, 2017 Author Posted January 31, 2017 12 minutes ago, cletus said: Thats a cool project! Must have a lot of hydraulics to move that many parts Has 12 rams and two wheel motors running off two pumps, flows 170 litres a minute (nearly 3 litres a second!) at 250 bar working pressure. 2 Quote
Bombsquad Posted January 31, 2017 Author Posted January 31, 2017 3 minutes ago, johnnyfive said: Wtf wow. Thats different, are these fairly unique? This is the only X2 in NZ and none in Oz afaik, there was a first gen one there but i dont think its around now. They are more common in Europe where they are made, and theres 3 main factories making them now (Kaiser, Menzi and some other one who ripped off Kaiser way back.) The chinese tried building them XCG made one and so did someone else but theirs were rubbish and the working environments for these machines are not great for Chinese steel. Quote
johnnyfive Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 Mad stuff, what kind of advantages does its crazy legs give it? Quote
Bombsquad Posted January 31, 2017 Author Posted January 31, 2017 8 minutes ago, johnnyfive said: Mad stuff, what kind of advantages does its crazy legs give it? Stability, maneuverability and working envelope. It weighs 7 tonnes, uses a 12 tonners attachments and has the hydraulic punch of a 20 tonner. They work in water as they can jack themselves up, and work on steep terrain as the legs allow it to level out on the hillside where a normal machine would tip over. 5 Quote
Willdat? Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 @scooters Should check this out...he works with hydraulics day to day plus he can explain it to me! Is there any footage of what the driver is doing with some of those wheel lifting maneuvers? Quote
johnnyfive Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 Crazy, reckon you'll have many jobs for it in your demo work? Such a wild thing Quote
Bombsquad Posted January 31, 2017 Author Posted January 31, 2017 Dunno, i do some pretty crazy stuff and built a bit of a rep on doing the stuff other guys wont do so maybe. its really more of a toy than a tool for me though 3 Quote
yetchh Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 Fuck that's a cool machine.. be good to see it up and running, what size engine? Quote
danger Posted January 31, 2017 Posted January 31, 2017 How do you control track length/spread? with your feet? Quote
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