Alliance May 24

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Digging deep into construction machinery news

Old style, modern thinking

Tue 30 May 2017

Old style, modern thinking

The machine in question was a Komatsu PW128UU-1 wheeled excavator which by all accounts was part of the Japanese manufacturers highly mobile and compact Urban Gear range of products, aimed at the Asian and Russian markets. What makes this machine of interest is that its engine is mounted low down on what looks like a small mobile crane style undercarriage which is capable of travelling at speeds of up to 50kph! I have to be honest and say that I had never seen one of these models before, which looks to be based on the more conventional PC128US tracked version on the specially designed highly mobile undercarriage. But a quick search on the internet reveals that these were built in decent numbers over 21 years ago. This got me thinking about other machines that may have used this style of engine placement and one that instantly sprang into my mind was the Drott/Case Cruz Air 40 from the early 1970’s. These Detroit Diesel powered machines ranged in weight from 15 to 17 tonnes depending on specification and were touted as the way ahead for wheeled excavator design back in the day. While more recently the focus has been on visibility as well as mobility, it’s clear to see that visibility probably wasn’t high on the priority list of the design team on this machine. Eventually when the Drott name was dropped from the product, these machines went on to become the Case 1085 model. Check out this video, courtesy of Jeromy Gagne, of a surviving Drott Cruz Air 40 being played with by Jeromy's dad Tim somewhere in the USA.
We would like to thank Ollie Kitchin for the heads up on this topic, which I feel has made for a very interesting feature.

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