Collab 2020: Modeling Heavy Equipment (Backhoe)

Ok I am hitting a decent snag where reality clashes with reference. I wanted to get some community feedback/critique on my thought process.

The lower hydraulic does not seem to fit based on the reference angle it is shown at

I know the proportions are correct because I rotated the main loader arm in order to figure out the location for the lower support and also using a common reference bracket for it’s location.

So, I just rotated everything and lined up to make sure I got close enough and I think I am going to push on with using the Red Dashed line (on the first image above) for where the hydraulic is supposed to go: My only concern is tire/wheel clearance where the main frame connects to the tire/wheel. Maybe I need to collaborate with spikeyxxx  as well since he offered the wheels???

I’m going this route I think. The lower support is about midway along the loader arm and that would make most sense for load-bearing support while it is cantilevered in the air holding a “load”

@theluthier blanchsb ppfbourassa 

As far as I can tell from the reference pictures, thos two, ugly, additional pieces on the loader bucket are on all the pictures and seem very functional to me, although I 'm not sure what they are doing, I read them sort of like this:

So they can be put in different positions...

blanchsb Are you saying the piston doesn't seem to point at the part it needs to connect to in the drawing? If that's the case, I'd say to follow your intuition, it's probably just a mistake in the illustration.

Or are you saying there isn't enough room between the tire and the body for it to fit? That's trickier, because it looks to me like you are on the right track.

spikeyxxx My interpretation of this front area is that the base model has this rail going across so the user can add or modify the bucket to do any number things, and this particular reference has these metal bars attached because it's a function they needed.

I could totally be wrong about this, but if they are added by an individual owner, I'd rather not include them in our model.

ppfbourassa You are probably right. I looked at some more reference online and did find pictures where there is nothing connected to that rail.

ppfbourassa yeah I am saying that it’s not pointing to the part it needs to connect to AND I’m a little concerned if I go with my gut and ditch the reference that the hydraulics will interfer on the back side of the wheel/tire where it connects to the axle

Gotcha,

For what it's worth, I think you are correct on where it should connect, and how thin the axle is.

Those things are forklifts attached to the bucket, you can see where they can pivot on the top. and they are hold down with bolt on down.

Caterpillar people can do mods to their rides too

one thing i've learned when doing exact models of real things that blueprints are lacking, either because copyright stuff or that things have changed between different years of same manufacturer and then you also get reference pictures that might be on different model. So the more you have real reference pictures the better. 

:)

louhikarme there is also the little issue that what we get are usually not the actual blueprints (I mean the technical drawings) like the ones they use to manufacture something.

Anyway, a blueprint is just a copy of a drawing, so any drawing could be made in a blueprint. The naming is not incorrect, it just sounds more 'official' than it is.

They make a drawing on transparent paper and then lay that on top of special paper with a light sensitive layer (which is yellow, by the way), shine a bright light over it so only where the lines are on the drawing the yellow layer stays. and then they fixate those lines with ammonia, which turns them blue. Hence the name;)

This is also worth mentioning the differences between a concept drawing or blueprint and a technical source-controlled-engineer-approved-drawing.

Many sales catalogs fall short because they are built by Sales and Marketing departments. These departments don't interface on a daily basis with the engineering departments. So, naturally you get the "Silo" effect where one department posts stuff and then the other continues with trial and error development.

I agree with louhikarme. Those forks rotate forward about the pivot bar on the top and turn the bucket into a fork-lift hybrid. Notice the forks get thinner at the bottom and thicker at the top. Ease of "stabbing" design.

Okay, thanks.

and because of the ammonia part of it making blueprints stinks... 

Okay. I feel like I am done with the basic block out. Maybe I have gone farther than expected or maybe this is just right. I’m hoping it is far enough Because I am ready to move on to train some more. I have most mirror modifiers still active but there are 40+ objects so I don’t remember if I applied a couple on the more basic shapes.

I’m including the wireframe and basic render here for feedback and critique. I tried my best to have clean topology to make it easy to add SubDiv Modifier(s) but there are probably areas that can be improved farther. There are a lot of circular cuts. I kept all circles at division of 8 and maintained same circle-rotation on pieces that shared a circle cutout.

If this looks good enough then I will upload it to the Google Sheet. Hope everyone else is having as much fun as I did! Go DOGs!

Wire Frame - Loader Arm Assembly

Block Out - Loader Arm Assembly

Reference and Playing Around

Notice how the lower frame is cutting into the lower hydraulic. That will have to be thinned out to make room.

I checked out the similar CAT machine at my work and there is plenty of Front Axle clearance behind the Front Wheels. There’s not a ton going on back there so I think the lower hydraulic shouldn’t interfere.

ppfbourassa I’ll send you the updated file here shortly the same way I sent it before.

I posted the link via private message ppfbourassa but noticed that you already uploaded your to the Google Sheet. My bad.

@theluthier  I added a comment on my ”Attemp” row for the Loader Arm. When you get a free chance, let me know if you are able to download it just fine.

dostovel  I just put the link on my ”Attempt” row’s comment section for the Google Sheet. Hopefully that should work for you too.