Recently the adventures of clan Lohnes at Diggerland USA were documented on these pages. For some reason they didn’t have a ride like this to try.
Liebherr is one of those giant companies that makes everything. You might have seen their construction equipment on jobsites all over the world. All sorts of cranes and dirt work machines might be the most common of their products. They also make navigation systems for aircraft, landing gear, machine tools, and even an outdoor wine refrigerator to keep your Chateauneuf-du-Pape ’62 chilled to 47 degrees. In this vid they are showcasing the abilities of their track excavators.
We don’t speak German, but I did make out “15,000 kilograms”, which works out to around 34,000 pounds. Seems about right for a machine of this size, which appears to be a one-off for this stunt. It has some hooks on the undercarriage to grab the tower, the boom seems especially beefy, and the plate doing the snatch and grab isn’t what would be used on a common bucket. The pins locking said plate to the tower are fairly common, allowing an operator to switch buckets or attachments without the need for a sledgehammer and drift.
The operator climbs into the cab, but we don’t hear the clanking of his giant steel balls. Not to worry folks, he fastens his seat belt. Up he goes, grabbing the tower with skills we will never possess, sliding the tracks into a cradle and grabbing the next hook. The announcer at one point stands directly beneath the climbing hoe, I’m guessing all went fine in rehearsal. Once at the top, ol’ Steel Balls does a little hot dogging for the crowd. Clearly not his first rodeo.
Obviously Diggerland USA wasn’t done constructing their tower during Brian’s visit, I’m sure it will be done by spring.
man has some SKILLS
So….how does he get down?
Gravity?
who did it ?
The GERMANS DID !!!!!
I need a cigarette and I don’t even smoke. I was skeered just watching him.
The guy driving the digger is Austrian and the stunt was done on the Opera Square in Vienna/Austria as part of an old German TV show called “Wetten Dass” (Loosely translated as “I bet you…..)
There used to be all sorts of crazy Guinness book style bets from “normal” (read ‘crazy’) folks and the famous guests in the studio (in this case The Spice Girls) have to bet whether they can do it or not in a given amount of time.
It was very popular and entertaining.
How does he get down?
He doesn’t – you can see his rotting skeletal corpse after he died from thirst and hunger as a modern art installation.
It turns out the digger driver had unnatural urges towards heavy plant and was offered to take part in this fatal stunt instead of a long prison sentence!
It could have been worse – he could have been HGV positive!
If this had failed that dude on the ground would have been flatter than a pancake.