Date: 2012
Background: One thing that I've always been very fascinated by are wheel loaders. If I see one on the street I can't help but turn my head and watch as it moves around. During my summer job back in 2012, I had access to a mechanical workshop and decided to practice my welding skills. I had never held a TIG welder and was in all honesty quite bad at MIG welding as well. So when my collegues went off for lunch break, I searched the scrap metal bin for odd pieces and tried to weld them together. This continued for a few days until I had a thought; if I'm going to spend all my lunch breaks welding, I might as well try to make something useful out of it, even though I'm only welding scrap pieces. And like that the idea of having my own wheel loader came to life, and a month or so later, I had myself a mostly recycled remote controlled wheel loader.




If you think some design choices are weird, that is probably due to the fact that it is made from the scrap bin. The finished loader is powder coated in authentic Volvo BM yellow and features two 24V 450W electric motors. The whole thing weights in at around 100 kg and I'm able to lift 65 kg on a pallet before it begins to tip over forwards. I've made a few different tool attachments for it and it really is the best toy that I've ever had, all categories. I can move beer cases (the pallets are the exact same size as one 24 pack), mow the lawn or plow the driveway. Below is a quite old (and not so exciting) film from one of the early test runs.

I am currently in the process of fitting a FPV (First Person Video) system in the cockpit so that I can drive it from far away and out of sight. One goal is to be able to successfully perform a driveway snow removal while sitting in my living room, just for fun.

I have also written a few scripts and storyboards for a quirky TV-series for children where the loader is the main character. I hope I get the time to film at least one of those episodes.