Any estimates on 'Ring lap times?

Personally, I've always wanted one of these with someone riding shotgun up in the control booth... just in case we hit traffic.

"The grey Escalade blocking two lanes... could you move her, please?"

This comes from a CDL construction equipment operator. WHY???? It looks like you give up a mechanical linkage to the steering gear! What about the steering wheel when you operating? Does it fold up and go away???? BAH

"Jiri Kubec hopes to eliminate the compromise necessary in mobile crane design."
Gosh, how many hours have we all spent hoping to do exactly that same thing?

@tenbeers: 14:2:37:27.04.

I don't know if its the 8 wheels, the giant boom, or the yellow paint, but I think I want one.

Meh. Tonkas and Choo-choos don't do it for me anymore.

However, if thing can combine into devastator I'll be in the bathroom... "combing my hair"

I don't know. Something about being in a little glass box in front of a giant rolling mass doesn't seem like the safest place to be.

Personally, I'd like some of that mass to work in my favor in the event of a collision.

Has Foose had a crack at this yet? Funkmaster Flex?

@blogsdo: Come on now, this is more for the guys at the Chrome Shop Mafia. (Trick My Truck).

Pretty design. Does it work? No. Will it ever work? Not likely. When I was a student in Industrial Design I thought design was going to save the world. Then I graduated and got a job.

I don't understand why this would be better than a mechanically simpler twocab set up, but then I don't know much about cranes

The hydraulics to make this possible would cost more than twice of what it costs to make a two cab model. and if you have an issue with the second cab, then hire a boom truck where the controls are on the bed of the truck and not in a cab at all.

(Former manager of crane and rigging company)

Not exactly a crane (it's a drag-line for mining coal) but it is mobile. I climbed to the highest point on it (160 feet up) and got a nice view of Kansas for miles around. I could probably see Oklahoma and Missouri come to think of it.

@jarque: Drag lines Rock! BTW, not to be picky but that is an electric shovel in the picture and not a dragline.

@JSmith53: Speaking as a current industrial design student, if your job doesn't afford you the chance to change the world - at least in subtle ways, by, say, making sure a new alarm clock looks good and functions well - then why did you go into industrial design in the first place?

@kleinlowe: I thought that's what I wanted to do. But turns out, I'd rather work to live than live to work. It was a fun (and hard) way to get a degree, but I wasn't willing to make scratch for that kind of time investment.

Besides, you may know how to make the clock better, but unless you have the communication skills to convince those your way is best, there will always be somebody telling you you can't do it that way. I decided to go into sales so I can exploit my ability to convince and make top dollar for it. My advice for any Industrial Design student: develop your communication skills. Oh, and listen to others and ask lots of questions.

@JSmith53: Thank you. One of the hardest things to learn has been just that; you can't present a sketch and just expect it to speak for itself. A crappy sketch and a half-hour of explanation often trumps a fine rendering left mutely on a desk.

@kleinlowe: Oh, also: I'm really hoping to find a job that gives me the opportunity to work with varied things from architecture to packaging to graphic design to etc - get my dirty little fingers into as many pies as possible. Changing the world comes a close second to that. And this design? I think, at least, it's symptomatic of extremely bad design - throwing more technology at a problem rather than trying to unearth the elegant simplicity hiding beneath it all. In addition to compexifying the cab mount, the cab now needs to have double the controls - one for driving and one for, uh, craning - crammed into the same space. The more I look at it the less I understand what problem this is meant to solve. HVAC simplifying? A single operator in a hostile environment who can't afford to exit the vehicle to change cabs?

@kleinlowe: Exactly. Design for the sake of design.

Good luck finding a job!

@prndl: My old neighbor has three+. He parked one outside his house w/ a star on the top. He had to lower it though, as we're near an airport, and he didn't want to snag a private plane.

[pics.livejournal.com]

They are loud, but WAY fun!

I get to walk by two construction sites in a couple of blocks from my work parking deck. One has 3 big boy cats chewing up an old building--amazing how dexterous they are these days--one had picked up a big piece of steel, like a huge sidways door, and was delicately using it like a dust broom to clear the last pile or rubble--only with 20 or 30 foot wide sweeps. One had the pincers on the swivel. And further on there's a big crane and some pump/well digger rigs. I still envy that job.

"Checkered Flag" really sucked... but while not a driving sim, "Roadblasters" was entertaining enough for a while... great graphics. APB was pretty fun, too.

Oh, different Lynx.

@Gradall: These things haven't had a mechanical connection to the wheels for years, all hydraulic.
I would love to work in one of these. Drive to the site, do the lift and drive home without ever having to get my fatass out of the seat!

This is a solution to a problem no-one has asked for.

Not only that, but it's been answered before, with far less complexity and sillyness (I dunno the name of 'em, but I've seen single-cab crane-trucks before, they're rather 'short' compared to the traditional ones, but they're no less capable)