Motorized Crane Platforms

[DrJB]

I have pondered why TLG rarely includes a motorized platform rotation in their official models, especially when the large turntable is included. To my knowledge, only two large models have such function: the 8043 excavator and the 8258 Crane Truck (there might be others) ... Now, when it omes to the iconic cranes, 42009, 8421 and. Others, none of those have a motorized platform turntable. Why is that? At first I thought it was just to limit the complexity but then it occurred to me that, with such large boom, maybe any gear meshing with the turntable will easily break if one pushes the wrong way ... Any other thoughts or explanations why such feature has been consistently missing?

Edited February 26, 2014 by DrJB

[krtwood]

It makes sense to motorize it on a RC model like 8043. 42009 you have to have your hands on the platform anyway, so what would be the point? And how are you going to add another position to the control switch? You can make an argument that there should be another motor in the base that just does the outriggers and that would free up the 4th position for rotation, but it's already an expensive set.

[DrJB]

You do not need another motor, one function is already 'wasted' on the super-structure as you need the red lever to be in the bottom left position to activate the outriggers (send power to the chassis) and then another switch that control up/down or in/out of outriggers. You can instead have power running continuously to the chassis, and that's how you recover one function on the superstructure. What you do need though is an XL motor as the L barely cuts it. The gear trains have a lot of friction in them as they're optimized for 'compactness/symmetry', not necessarily for friction losses. Granted, maybe it makes no sense as the machine is NOT RC operated ... but still.

Edited February 26, 2014 by DrJB

[MrTekneex]

As I remember also 9397 Logging Truck and 8110 Unimog provides motorized turntable platforms.

[Alasdair Ryan]

And the air claw rig....