 |
| Caterpillar branded
box. |
 |
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| Tyres are good. |
 |
| Detailed
chassis, with plastic parts. |
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| Mesh grille at
the front is very good. |
 |
| Smooth cab
deck. The equipment cabinets are plastic. |
 |
| Fire hydrant
adds detail. |
 |
| Maximum tipping
angle is shallow. |
 |
| Radial grid has a
nice grille. |
 |
| Smooth finish
to the body. |
|
 Comment on this model.
The Caterpillar MT4400D AC Mining Truck was
announced at MINExpo 2012 and was a development of a
Unit Rig truck acquired as part the Caterpillar purchase
of Bucyrus. s used for mining or large-scale
earthmoving operations.
The maximum gross vehicle weight is 392 tonnes, with a
nominal payload of 218 tonnes.
This model is derived from a version first produced by
BYMO many years ago.
Packaging
The model comes in a Caterpillar-branded box, and
inside the model is enclosed within two expanded
polystyrene trays.
The
model arrived missing the main driver's side mirror,
which was supplied separately.
The box
includes a small collector card which has some
information about the real machine and a nice photo.
Detail
The chassis looks reasonably detailed with a number of plastic
elements with the colour match being good in most
places. There are some nice large rubber mud flaps
between wheels. The engine is just visible and it
has some good detail including a cooling fan.
The wheels are plastic but detailed, and the inside
faces look realistic. The large rubber tyres are not too
shiny with a good tread pattern.
At the front the metal hand rails are good although the
plastic stairs and ladder are thick with no texturing.
The front
grille is very good with a fine see-through mesh and the Cat logo
is sharp.
There is a strange looking gap in the handrails
to the side of the cab, which should probably have some
chains across it. Weight load indicators are modelled
on each side. There is no texture on the cab deck but a
fire hydrant adds detail. The main cabinet is plastic
with reasonable detail. The radial grid is
also plastic and it looks very good with a fine mesh on
the front.
The cab is metal with a simple interior containing two
seats and a painted beacon light on the roof.
The dump body is a heavy metal casting and looks
convincing. However the lift rams are
less good. They are four-stage yellow plastic so
they do not look realistic. Very thin chains hang
between the tyres as rock deflectors. There is a
chain to fix the body in the raised position during
maintenance, but it is not usable.
Features
The truck rolls well. The steering is fairly
shallow in terms of angle.
There is no suspension
or movement of the wheel mountings.
The tipping mechanism extends to around 45º, so it is
short of the angle on the real truck. The rams will
hold the body in most positions but this mainly because
they are poorly engineered and do not remain
in straight alignment. The review model had cracks
appearing in the cylinders due to the eccentric loading,
and the rams seem unlikely to tolerate much use.
Quality
This is a reasonable quality model with quite a lot of plastic
used.
The paint finish is generally very good and the graphics are sharp.
Price
It is a large model but pricey overall given the quality
and features.
Overall
As a large model it is impressive
and some details are nice. However some aspects fall
short including the incomplete handrail outside the cab
and the poorly engineered body lift rams. Tonkin really need to re-engineer the rams before
producing any future runs of this model.
Footnotes
The model was available from September 2014. It
was first released by BYMO as a Terex Unit Rig model
around 2008, and this Caterpillar version has a number
of revisions.
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|
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| Impressive
model. |
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| Steering angle
is restricted. |
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| Plastic engine
detail is good including a fan belt. |
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| Access stair
lowered.
|
|
|
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| Profile view. |
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| Gap in the
handrail outside the cab. |
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| Rams are very
poor. |
 |
| Being loaded by
a Caterpillar 994H |
|
