American Reacts to Menzi Muck M545 "Walking Excavator" in Switzerland

[@schlapi]

Swiss dude here. Menzi Mucks have been around for quite a while. Company was founded 1966. They have been around for as long as I can think. Lots of steep slopes here in Switzerland where a normal excavator can't operate.

[@IWrocker]

That’s really cool 🎉

[@tilly704]

switzerland is absolutely a powerhouse in robotics

[@SAA-hr9gr]

​@@IWrockerand the operators have soo much experience and have nice salaries since the machine can't be used without a trained operator. It was cool when I went to a construction sight by a river and see one of these guys chilling on the steep bank above me. 😂

[@namewithheldbygoogleforsec673]

@IWrocker, In 1966, Edwin Ernst Menzi (1897-1984) and Joseph Kaiser (1928-1993) together invented the walking excavator for work on mountain slopes. Subsequently, Kaiser AG, Schaanwald, Liechtenstein, and Menzi Muck AG, Kriessern, Switzerland, developed excavators separately. Despite the advantages of the design, it failed to be widely used for a number of reasons, including the relatively small gain in mobility; the fact that most excavation is done in urban areas; and costliness, both of the electro-hydraulic controls and of maintenance. The walking excavator is still not well known to the general public. Today, only walking excavators and forest harvesters, such as the Ecolog forest harvester or the TimberPro tilt cab, are designed to move and work in mountains. More info can be found by checking Walking Excavator wikipedia. Sorry, i couldnt post the wiki link

[@Inazuma68]

Cheers from Switzerland 🇨🇭 We have these things for over 50 years in different sizes. Always great to watch these experienced guys working with it. Great technology we are proud of. Al the best to you

[@Rasworth]

So I have the pleasure of operating one of these bad boys in South Florida … I clean canals and ditches I can go into about 6ft of water … I also was the 1st in the United States 🇺🇸 to get the X45 model which is the new model it has 4 wheel independent steering, crab walk, and an option to keep forward movement when you swing around. The model shown here looks like an X40 the previous model …We have 4 .. 2 X40s and we just got a brand new X45 ..lol those Swiss guys are the real bosses when I comes to the Menzi ..I have 4yrs experience operating the Menzi and as scary as this looks .. the strap would of gave me the courage lol 😂😂😂 guy in this vid is an awesome operator!!! ..

[@88Marc10]

As a swiss guy (and as a mechanical engineer) watching a menzimuck is always amazing. You see them mostly in the Alps like shown in the video. Driving these things really is an art.

[@35manning]

Most excavators have 3 or 4 pedals, sometimes one is turned sideways. These pedals are two directional. Eg, on a normal tracked excavator, the middle two pedals control the tracks. Push your toes and the tracks move forward, push your heels and they move backwards. Push only one, and you turn. Of course, if you swing the cab around the pedals don't know that so you have to drive it "backwards" to go forwards. The other pedals can control a number of functions, such as the boom telescoping, the boom rotating (some booms can swing seperately from the cab), the attachment rotation etc. The joysticks also have buttons and other controls like sliders, mini joysticks etc to give further controls. This is one of the cooler videos of these machines working, but you need to look up some other videos of them being demonstrated for potential customers to see what they can REALLY do. Note, these machines have some big limitations compared to "normal" excavators. Aside from the complexity for the operator, the mechanical complexity means more failure points and service costs as well as that these machines are quite limited in the working loads. A simpler machine 1/4 the price can lift just as much, which is why you only see these being used for the speciality jobs where other machines just can't get to. Older versions of these also didn't have wheels on the front, just the rigit legs (spades), so to move them you HAD to lift the machine with the bucket and walk it along to the job site.

[@IWrocker]

Great information here thank you 🎉

[@jensschroder8214]

Although the Excavator does not have a caterpillar drive, each wheel can be raised or lowered and pivoted individually. The Excavator is designed to use very narrow access roads and at the same time to do its work on steep slopes. It doesn't matter if a wheel has to be higher or lower for the machine to stand straight.

[@idkusername2795]

Living in the alps I’ve seen those in many construction sites, i sometimes see them hanging on inclines that look like it should just fall off, back wheel on the ground but the front is just hanging over nothing.

[@dutchbachelor]

Austrian here, as neighbours of the Swiss, we have a lot of Menzi's in operation as well. I remember them even back in my childhood in Tyrol in the 80s. And each and every single operator I ever saw of those things was some kind of a wizard with those things, going up and down slopes that were impossible to stand on like it was nothing. I saw them being used in the construction of ski lifts (mostly), clearing forests, dredging for new sewage pipes and power cables down from the mountain huts, clearing debris after a big storm or avalanche... All kinds of things.

[@PropperNaughtyGeezer]

I think its the first Transformer. Here in the forest they once had a machine on six "legs". It felled trees, delimbed them, cut the trunks to length and stacked them. Similar machines are used here more often, but usually with wheels.

[@SirHeinzbond]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qXzVqaGqrMiLi6s you mean this one, but i guess it's all to expensive for widespread...

[@gedece]

You think transformer, I'm thinking Mecha.

[@grimuk3817]

@@gedece Zoids ftw.

[@namewithheldbygoogleforsec673]

@@SirHeinzbond no, i meant the wikipedia link that my comment was pasted from. when I tried to paste the link, it just showed a link 3 lines ling, and showed a blank page.

[@wiedapp]

In Germany we call these six or even eight wheeled wood processing machines 'Harvester'.

[@GeeShocker]

First time i've seen the Muck in a catalog for construction/road maintenance equipment was in 1986. I would love to have a "Schwabenbagger" for gardening purposes. Another machine you might like.

[@derKarl_stp]

I have seen these machines and other versions on the market a lot over here... from cutting brush on rough terrain to working in rivers, from climbing mountainsides you can't walk on to working right over trenches... they are specialised machines and need a lot of knowledge to work with for the MenziMuck 545 for example you got 2 joysticks with a total of 8 mini joysticks (4 on each) to be able to individually steer the undercarriage, then you got a total of 4 pedals and plenty of buttons... and this as a STANDARD on the controls... you can extend them for the use with drilling riggs, harvester-heads and other specialised gear... and you can add winches on them, they even build railroad versions that can drive on tracks as well as offroad without any problems... got to meet Ernst Menzi, the grandson of the company founder twice during the worlds biggest tradeshow in Munich... pretty cool and handsome guy by the way, the 545 from the vid has not just the (hydraulical) extending "paws" but is also secured with a winch on the other side that is directly driven by the excavator undercarriage... I love the possibilities you can get with them

[@derKarl_stp]

just fixed one more typo in my text... by the way, there is two major companies that made these kind of machines for a long time, there is a third one which had some collaboration with Menzi Muck recently on the smaller machines (and it is from Italy and has the largest range of walking excavators, from 1.5 metric tons to almost 15 metric tons) perhaps one day you make it to bauma in munich where you for normal have all the large brands pretty much next to each other

[@ArfurFaulkesHake]

The first prototype of the Schreitbagger (stride digger) was the Muk 2000 it was built in 1965.

[@owbeer]

an older guy i knew won the belgian lottery twice in a short time, he bought an excavator,a big plot of land and just had some fun with it.

[@formatique_arschloch]

I would do exactly that. Among some other similar things.

[@Itsjustme-Justme]

That could be me. Sounds fun.

[@IWrocker]

Now that’s what I’m talking about 😎🎉🤣

[@joerglukas6663]

Look at Menzi Muck Bauma...

[@vampire4312]

Was wondering how long it's going to take you to stumble into, or more like, being pushed into, Walking-Excavators and therefor inevitably into Menzi-Muck. I would say, the company and it's product is pretty well known in Switzerland. These things can really be handy to get an Excavator to places where no Excavator has gone before. ;D

[@007bird]

we have them in Texas cleaning rain drains and creeks

[@VideoDotGoogleDotCom]

His salary must be through the roof.

[@TheGrizzlyBeer]

These guys get paid pretty well, but you are not getting rich doing this

[@keno77]

@@TheGrizzlyBeer pp

[@lilgluestick]

Probably getting paid 140-240k (euros/usd) per year in Switzerland lol

[@cegesh1459]

LoL no. Workers aren't paid good in Switzerland.

[@crodvideo]

The inventor of the walking spider excavator Ernst Menzi (1897-1984) was not just a genius inventor, he was also a born entrepreneur. He was a strongly influential figure in the history of the Menzi Muck walking excavator. Thanks to the success, his thoughts and ideas live on beyond his death to confirm Ernst Menzi's position as an inventor and forward-thinking entrepreneur.

[@mickd8188]

There is a contractor around the Gold Coast/ Sth East Qld area that has one.. he does a lot of drain and pond/lake cleaning for council and rail network etc. They use it as it can walk itself through the mud and slop in these situations and down the steep embankments like in this video. Certainly a rare sight but cool bit of kit.. Cheers

[@IWrocker]

Awesome! 🎉

[@lemaitredestabourets9603]

These are incredibles, i've Seen this model from reaaaal close on some tricky terrain ( something like a 70° slope in mud, the Guy had to winch himself thé whole time) wonderfull machines

[@Happymali10]

6:28 I think the door is open partially because if he overturns in the water it's easier to get out without having to break the glass first.

[@donaldhalvorsen4135]

The joysticks have 3 4 way micro joysticks as well as rocker switches a diverter valve buttons on the front of the joysticks.

[@pipikr]

In Austria they was called optional "Spinnerin" (spider) I test operate a Menzi Muck 3000 t1, from the 70s , years ago. (my uncle owne one a few years)

[@simwil524]

Here in Germany i saw those multiple times. Mostly working on small riverbeds to free them up in places a normal excavator cant drive without cutting lots of vegetation

[@bastiwen]

Hell yeah finally a video about my country!

[@user-qo4yv8wg3d]

Yet another Swiss guy here. I'm not particularly interested in this kind of stuff, but I happen to have lived less than ten miles from that place for more than 40 years, so, being a hiker, I know that area like the back of my hand. And of course walking (or spider) excavators haver been a very familiar sight to me since I was a teenager (dangerously approaching 76y now). The Muslen Reservoir shown in the video is in a steep ravine less than 200 yards from the northern shore of the Walensee (in English often called Lake Walenstadt), one of those utterly picturesque little lakes (about nine square miles, only one mile wide but almost 500 feet deep) between mountains of around 6,500 feet. The power plant is about 600 feet below the dam, right on the rocky beach, one of those typical little local plants you can encounter all over the country. It was built before WWI and last upgraded a good 50 years ago, With its modest 4,2.million kWh per year it powers about 930 households in the nearby villages. On the Walensee shore, there are several other comparable little power plants that feed the local power grids. However, the fact that those local grids are all connected to the main grid is one of the reasons why I have experienced a total of only about two minutes of power outages in more than 65 years in that area, which is nothing compared to several days in just a few years in Northern Michigan. I kid you not.

[@luca-bk5sg]

If im not wrong they also climbed on a Mountain(Säntis) with this machine

[@Bluepeter62]

The Muck's are also very accurate and precise. I remember a game show when a guy opened a beer bottle with it.

[@ama220]

hi, what you don't see is that he has several buttons on the joystick, many futions can control the machine forwards and backwards. the rotor tilt is also controlled with dom and other fusions. etc. Anders

[@olivierdk2]

3:05 You're right, here in Europe it's 170000 EUROS, So once you add the custom and Duty Tax ( rates are between 0 to 37.5% depending on the specific product who is imported ).

[@danielfehrenbach2226]

I actually drove or shall I say tried to drive a similar excavator in the army. I never forget the sweat of this time. It’s quite scary but if you got the balls to do it, man that was great. And yeah it’s a lot more complicated than the normal ones

[@kristofferholst6053]

It’s so cool, it’s looks like something Ripley would use to kick Alien butt 😂

[@arnaudhild5793]

We have our own here in Arizona, we’ve experienced operator running those machine for years ! Good video , hit me up if you want more pictures and video

[@geneard639]

You know that door is open so he can escape if he has to. They should call it a Wall Crawler or a damn Spider with that line it dangles from.

[@analogwarriors]

That thing is in fact called a "Schreitbagger" or walking excavator. The pedals are for selecting which leg to use and the joysticks are for controlling the motion.

[@steffengimmestad2195]

Thats not right as far as my experience The pedals are from left to right: - Telescope on the stick in and out - Winch in and out (some models have a mooring winch that you select the desired amount of brake/pull and it runs in sync with the wheels - Forward or backwards on the wheels - Aceccery for instance tilting bucket, jackhammer etc You controll the legs in- out- up-down ad the claws with nobs on the joysticks in addition to the rototilt. There is a lot going on and it takes time to become experienced with these maschines. I drive a older version of this machine called the M540 and before that the mini A20 menzi muck. What this guy is dooing is impressive!

[@Somani6]

thats where i was growing up :)

[@joel387ktm]

Those menzis are beyond impressive

[@taktlosnixda2478]

In German those machines are called Schreitbagger . This Technique is older than 50 Years .

[@markkraus3598]

Menzi has been around for a while, there here in America & the only dealer is in Lakeland Florida . Good luck getting parts !!

[@milksheihk]

I saw something on discovery channel 15-20 years ago where they had a machine like that somewhere in the US with a grabber on it, they were using it for mountain logging.

[@RandThompson-dd3sk]

I ran 1 of the 5 prototypes in the late 90's in Florida. The Menzi Muck 5000+ was the prelude to the A series. Amazing machine that I had in unbelievable places and unbelievable jobs. It was a fairly well thought out but there were issues that could have been taken care of at the factory but were corrected in the field. I had 1/2 hour training from the delivery driver. 1/2 hour was all the fuel it had on board at delivery.

[@clxudzYT]

I thought about recommending this to you for a few days now, but I couldn't find a good video. I used to work with a M220 - these things are amazing! :D

[@GeneralThargor]

That is an incredible machine, the thing you were grasping for, the mech suit. Yeah, Aliens dude, Sigourney Weaver, yeah, mech suit. Anyhoo, thanks for the video. Awesome as always. Oh yeah, i forgot, he has a cable attached at that back to get up and down. even though, incredible machine.

[@lilrock999]

This is swiss engineering on its own level🇨🇭

[@mathiaseder3809]

Hi, we in Austria have such excuvators to, we call dem spinne - "spider", because of the move this Maschine is able to do , nice Greets

[@Menzigombauer]

With these excavators we are on another level. either you are good or you are dead, I say this from experience. I know the operator and he is very good. It's nice that our work is appreciated and of interest. Thank you. 💪💪💪💪

[@Suchac_cz]

...maybe the word, you were looking for is "EXOSKELETON" 😁

[@johnjingleheimer6992]

My friend paul owns menzi muck of central florida and hes been selling them for over 30 years our county of polk uses alot of them .

[@peterjanssen2105]

So the Autobots are for real as you can see, respect for the driver ( and machine )

[@jamestrombley386]

That machine and operator are on a whole new level of awesome.

[@Mike_79]

I have seen this in the forest in France. Here in Belgium we use some Belgian horses. Biggest horses in world.

[@josephison3840]

We have the menzi mucks all over the us I travel all over teaching operators how to use them

[@sadev101]

saw an older one working in spain in 2007 so they are around. for a while. its harder to learn but its just a diger with extras

[@nicolasdubray6664]

We call that a spider digger. The 4 leg could move independently.

[@eddiezweers4158]

@8:10 Like the Spiderman villain 'Doctor Octopus' (Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius) you mean? Well he's from Switzerland so his first names could be Otto Günther, who knows huh? haha.

[@isbellricky565]

I saw this machine back in the early to mid 80s.

[@alexpervanoglu7420]

Sewn them working here in Spain in the mountains. They're incredible bits of kit. Also known as spider diggers. And yeah who wouldn't buy one with a lottery win hey. They also have competitions where drivers have a time limit to get over obstacles and back. Also fun to watch.

[@Hi...........................-]

I've seen these in person before, they do cool!!!

[@bernardmcnamara]

I would love to own & lurn how to operate one of those machines. M545x - M525. There is a dealership Naviq here in Qld Australia. 🇦🇺 On the Sunshine Coast. But there's are painted a brilliant lite Green. One more thing you never picked up on is that there fitted with a winch & cable plus have many other styles of attachments for different uses in different industries... P.S Ian Here in Australia a forklift is licensed as a Forktruck & I to have a T10 Forktruck licence alone with many other licences... Thanks Mate👍 from Australia. 🇦🇺

[@HD.Beamer]

Hello from Switzerland :-)

[@Inazuma68]

Salutti 😎

[@007bird]

we have these in Texas we clean cement drains and creeks for 30 years nothing new, you don't see these on the street unless they are transporting.

[@henningpieterjordan7416]

We call IT crawler...Like an insect / Beetle..used in heavy Terrain...!!!

[@diggerwheels7839]

That's how almost all of the excavators in the UK for the Last 30 years it's nothing new and yes the operator is awesome

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

I wonder who controls the winch speed. What a cool job.

[@effektgeraeteinfo]

Doctor Octopus after professional retraining.

[@hawkamania5014]

they are some time around even in germany on steep hills, i mself now its as the "spinnenbagger" (spider excavater in english)

[@jens-peterreckling5542]

Hi IWrocker, tthe Menzi Muck cost till 500.000,- Euro and he can go nearly every way.

[@donaldhalvorsen4135]

Spiders have been around since the 70’s

[@gonun69]

My uncle has a really old Menzi Muck. He bought it many years ago when he was 19 or so, and it already was an old machine back then. Doesn't have the joysticks, just a lot of levers and pedals. But he works that thing as if it was just an extension of his body. Found a video of the same or similar machine here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZrMnombarKgi9U

[@matthewcullen1298]

Incredible operator 😃

[@kukipett]

My friend who was a farmer had one that i borrowed some times many years ago to do some digging around my house. It had only two wheels and two legs and you could hooked it to a tractor to move it like a trailer. But those machines are not cheap at all!!!

[@RabeHK]

I have seen one of these climb up a mountain while we took the cable car cable car

[@pietergreveling]

Some extremely heavy transport and lifting! Mammoet Moving massive furnace modules using the power of 322 SPMT axle-lines kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGjIomNtlqyiaLs All you need to know about the Mammoet Self-Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT) kzbin.info/www/bejne/rX2WiqmFmpWNnac Mammoet replacing Coke Drums at Chevron’s El Segundo Refinery kzbin.info/www/bejne/bHy4dYtnnLGffJo PTC200-DS lifts 1,600 ton wash tower kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3iyYWVmj6eFqrs

[@curtisruth709]

I love These machines get to play and use them all the time If you really want to sharpen your skills and operator find somebody or a company that has one and see if you can use it or rent it These machines will do wild things

[@TedDeSander]

Menzi Muck is one of our customers, they use our PLCs in their machines. I suggest you take a look at the BAUMA, worlds biggest trade fair for building equipment. BAUMA 2022 was in Munich, it's always impressive to see those machines. If you plan to visit it, the next Munich BAUMA is in 2025 ;)

[@LST_TV]

Greetings from a neighboring village of Rüthi, the village where the HQ of Menzi Muck is located👋🏻

[@samuelbhend2521]

The winch is build into the undercarriage of the menzi muck...

[@willymoritz1313]

If you like machines as the menzi muck you should look up Huddig and all it's configurations, it's really a multi carrier machine that can do the most 😉

[@Hirndille]

It is said, that controlling an excavator like this (also called a spider excavator) is about 4-5 times more difficult than a "regular" excavator on tracks or wheels. I definately believe that. Adding to the "normal" movement of an excavator, those 4 legs can be individually brought up and down, left and right, stabilizing pad up and down, winch in and out, bucket rotate, arm extend.

[@matsjohansson3645]

Rototilt for the bucket is common in skandinavia and Switserland, not so sure of the rest of Europa thou.

[@rahansk8200]

I had already watched this video 3 times, I was so impressed. Like a spider on a wall...

[@joerglukas6663]

Search for Menzi Muck on Bauma.

[@sadev101]

impressive as it is you do realise he has a steel cable at the back

[@geertcox8647]

Barts Farm In ex DDR us one wisch 2 weels and 2 lechs in the wood. Gr from the Nederlands.

[@billabong9215]

You have to leave the door open so you can jump out if it gets submerged.

[@lars353]

Hi, the German YT Channel Bart Farm has some Videos with an very older model of a Menzi Muck they have in private. In Europe these Diggers are very specialized machines with high prize and not really usual for common jobs… The most Diggers here are kubota, wacker and so on like US. Best regards and greetings from Germany, Lars

[@beethekay]

There is also a video out there, where they drive some kind of parcour challenge against a tank... I think you'd like it. Just can probably just search for it, but the original video is from @WeltderWunder and is called 'Panzer vs. Schreitbagger - Welt der Wunder' (it's 8 years old but still a banger)

[@-sandman4605]

Crazy, i have never until now seen one of these. 👍😎

[@lindgruen3118]

Watch the one on top of a chimney.

[@philliplopez8745]

I think that they run a little over a half a million per copy .

[@Terji]

wow thats amazing. i want to see more of these

[@luckyheaqshot-highlights9521]

There is an video how a "menzi muck" climbs above an 4x4x4 Meter square without a winch

[@hackbyte]

8:00 I told you about them in other comments..... We have these around in europe since about 20 years or so? Maybe 30? And heck yeah, they're actually pretty cool mechas ...... they just don't walk on 2 but on 4 - nah - 5 legs ;)

[@volkhardhenschel1863]

@IWrocker look this exhibition video of menzi muck schreitbagger walking excavator.

[@hackbyte]

BTW .. look up "schreitbaggerwettbewerb" ... aka walking excavator competitions... They're not only very skilled drivers .. but very competitive ones too. ;)

[@felixtheswiss]

The first Menzy Muck was built in 1966. Of course less capable than the new ones. I liked them since I was a boy.

[@Gordon_L]

That company could probably build a Mars Rover for much less than NASA could .

[@Inazuma68]

100% sure - Swiss quality 👌

[@Dogmataa]

if you want to see this machine in a DemoShow link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o17UpphvpMtnobM "Menzi Muck DemoShow @ Bauma 2019 / Full Version"

[@AMeise-vy4fk]

Would be a nice Upgrade for post10

[@benjaminklein6164]

This Schreitbagger are awesome

[@chicomanisco]

This is the Machine 💥

[@jimited1]

That's a squeaky bum moment!