The Dual-Crane Pipe Transporter

First article of 2018, yay!

Today I present you the Dual-crane Pipe Transporter, a vehicle that came directly out of my mind. I mean, in my remain, I never seen a +real+ vehicle like this one.

The Full album is available on FlickR.

The design:

Few weeks ago after the Cossack has been completed I was planning to make a pipe layer. But a pipe layer in fact just lift and drop a pipe, it can’t transport it from a site to another. So I needed a sort of flatbed equipped with one or more crane and capable of loading/offloading a pipe or another long load and move with it.

I based the design of the Transporter on two vehicles from my Idea collection.
The lateral reach stacker Meclift ML5016SR (on my to-do list for 2018) and a classical side loading container trainer similar to what has been released in the Mack Anthem 42078 set.

The Dual Crane Pipe Transporter is a tracked vehicle equipped with a large flatbed to transport pipe of long loads, a dual articulated crane, 4 outriggers, a sliding cabin for improved view and a counterweight.

This kind of vehicle could actually been used on construction site of oilfield for the transport, the tracks allow a low ground pressure and good traction so it is suitable for every environment.

What’s inside?

All the Power functions elements are located in the main body between the two cranes and the two tracks. Are used in this MOC:

• 2 PF-L for propulsion (1 per track)
• 1 PF-M for the crane main structure w/ linear actuator
• 1 PF-M for crane articulation w/ mini linear actuator
• 1 PF-M for outriggers w/ 1 mini-LA per outrigger
• 1 PF-M for winches
• 1 battery box used as counterweight

Plus 2 SBricks Bluetooth controllers.

Pros/cons:

Pros: This vehicle can be used as a lateral pick&carry crane, it is very usefull for long pipe (see videos) or a heavy load between two sites. The outriggers, counterweight and articulation allow a large range of operation without any risk of tilting.

Cons: Due to the design of the dual crane only one pipe/load can be transport at a time: the bed is no longer flat when crane are in movement. The only method to keep a flat bed with dual crane is to use ship-like crane (see image below). If I’m not too lazy this year I may built something like this.

A video to conclude:

Thank you for reading.