i had a dream years ago to build the world's first real power loader for the movie aliens
there have been setbacks but we're finally set up in this fantastic facility we have an amazing team
and we have some awesome sponsors on board which means there's nothing stopping us from building it
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the power loader the project that has started and stopped more times than i care to count
there have been setbacks from financial issues to scheduling but we choose to build the power loader
in this decade and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard because
that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills because that
challenge is one we are willing to accept one we are unwilling to postpone and one we intend to win
and the others too seriously though this project is quite the endeavor which is probably why no
one else has attempted it ever before one of the biggest questions was how are we going to do the
base the way the legs were designed in the movie meant the power loader had a super high center
of gravity and if it picked up anything or even tried to take a step it would definitely fall over
the reason it didn't in the movie was because it was made of foam had counterweights had a
person inside of it controlling it and the whole thing was suspended by wires like a marionette
aka it was completely fake you see the funny thing is james cameron actually intended the power
loader to have four legs which would actually be possible to do in real life but when the empire
strikes back came out in 1980 cameron decided the power loader would look too similar to an atat
walker and they redesigned the power loader completely to be a bipedal machine so legs
are out tank treads like the militarized version of the power loader were in but where do we get
treads strong enough to hold a 5 000 pound plus vehicle we had to take a look at the construction
vehicles and what better heavy-duty construction equipment company than caterpillar themselves
the actual manufacturer of the p5000 power loader in the future luckily during my trip to bc this
summer to drive the furion robotics racing mech jonathan tibbett introduced me to this guy robert
who introduced me to someone else by email who introduced me to someone else who introduced me
to someone else who introduced me to archie who is the global brand creative director at caterpillar
the guy responsible for the amazing cat trial videos on youtube where full-size construction
equipment competes in unique and awesome ways who when hearing about our plan to make a real-life
power loader from aliens was in 110 so he's invited us to visit a local caterpillar dealer
and see if we can't find a compact track loader that's gonna work for our project
so we're here at our local caterpillar dealer battlefield equipment rentals and
we're going to look at some compact track loaders for our aliens power litter project
hey rob so on our youtube channel called the hacksmith we have a series called make it real
where we take fictional ideas from comics movies and video games and try and make real working
prototypes one of our biggest projects to date is the aliens power loader build as you know
in the aliens franchise it's actually made by caterpillar in the year 2100 so we were super
excited when caterpillar offered to partner with us on this project and invited us to come down to
our local dealer with you to take a look at some machines thanks for coming in guys super excited
around here you'd like we can show you a couple machines in the yard that actually might represent
what might work for you sure let's do it all right guys i'm going to start with a few of the models
we have here to offer at caterpillar this here we talked about horsepower and high flow the 262 skid
steer this is xps tremendous machine for lots of different applications and construction and
landscaping and so on size-wise are we heading in the right direction oh yeah this is pretty
awesome i really like those specs i do think we want to go with the tracks just for that lower
ground pressure and you know to make sure we can go off-roading and they look way cooler than tires
we'll work towards the track machines here in our track machine this is the biggest this is
the great gusto it's the 299 d3 xe 40 gallons a minute 4000 psi this thing is a monster the
cab everything's identical like i said before and the horsepower per rating is actually the
same on the smaller model the numbers are great but i think that we need something a little bit
smaller we want to make sure we got that reach in front of us but we want to make sure we can clear
the tracks we want to make sure we got the reach on the sides as well the engine of this one is a
little bit taller and a little bit higher off the ground you might have some elbow clearance
issues if we go with something this big you got anything smaller i'm thinking the 239 is the best
idea because you get the same amount of powertrain horsepower and ground footprint but less machine
to push around which gives you the power you need should be a winner now that rob's taking us
through the machines it sounds like the 239 is perfect for our application it's got the right
load capacity it's got lots of horsepower lots of flow and it's got the clearance that we need
for the power loader elbows what do you say let's pack it up let's get it going awesome
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helping to support this power loader project by doing so all right so the guys at battlefield
equipment rentals also showed me how to drive this machine so i'm going to teach you guys
how to drive the caterpillar compact track loader step 1 seat belt step 2 safety bars
time to put the key in first turn to the on position the screen will turn
on and once it's loaded up we're ready to turn on the ignition next up we turn off the parking brake
all right so now that the machine's on we can start using these joysticks
the left joystick controls the drive system so if you push it forwards
the machine goes forwards if you push it back we go backwards
if you turn it like this it steers like a tank now the other joystick's the fun
one this one controls the boom arm simply pull it back to lift up push it forwards to go down
now we don't have a bucket installed on this but if we turn it left we turn it right it tips
and we turn it left it pulls it back up now that might seem a bit slow so we turn up the throttle
besides the thrall adjustment there's also a gas pedal
also got our headlight controls and we can lock out the hydraulic system
we've also got a great rear view mirror which lets you see all around the caterpillar
anyway i think that's about it it's time to let bogdan play with it
imagine being you i do i can't see me
the system we chose has a 67.1 horsepower diesel engine capable of putting out up to 26 gallons per
minute of hydraulic flow at over 3 300 psi it's got a tipping load of over 4 000 pounds and is
capable of traveling up to 7.6 miles per hour the low ground pressure of only 5.4 pounds per
square inch and its performance tuned suspension are awesome and the low ground clearance and
shoulder clearance would be perfect for our power loader we just got to figure out how we're going
to mount the power loader onto it here's a model of the current upper body the plan is basically
to strip down the caterpillar until it's only the tracks and the engine bay then we have to build a
support structure to act as the legs and be able to support the entire weight of the upper body
finally we have to put together the cockpit to allow the driver to control the whole thing
but before we get too caught up with the numbers and all this design i
really want to see this thing move so to do that let's start off with a shopping
trip
fittings
unfortunately the type of hydraulic oil we use for testing our power loader is not the same type of
oil that caterpillar uses in their machines which means we need to drain the entire system flush the
whole thing and replace it with the same type of hydraulic oil that caterpillar uses let's do that
now that we've switched the oil in our power loader it's
time to do a side-by-side comparison to show you
just how much more flow the caterpillar has than our old pump i'm excited for this
time to see what the track loader can do it's honestly pretty ridiculous just how fast our power
loader is with the new cat which means it's time to strip it all down so that we can mount this
we'll have to start off by removing both of these arms along with the hydraulics and the
safety interlocks and we'll need to remove the bushings as well this entire cabin will have to
be removed but we got to make sure to keep all the electronics well this entire front
plate's gonna have to come off and we'll have to relocate these okay what are we waiting for
let's get started you do realize it's just me right you might need some help from the team
oh there's the first two pieces of the caterpillar a couple of thousand more to
go
okay
so
it's free
you know driving this 239 compact track loader makes me kind of feel like a real
tank commander but if you guys want to feel like a real tank commander
try world of tanks today you'll be able to take your tank for a rip across the
open fields climb steep hills tear across the desert and bring on battle in industrial zones
there are over 40 battle arenas to choose from team up your friends and destroy the competition
huge thank you to caterpillar for giving us this compact track loader the team did a fantastic
job taking it apart and making sure it still works on the next episode hopefully we'll finish
that design and start manufacturing and if we're lucky that means we're going to be able to mount
the power loader on top of the compact track loader for the very first time i am so excited
you