On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 4:16 PM, Eric Funk (antispam) < [email protected]> wrote:
> > > An arm is a crane ... > > > ... and the fallen mech has two. > > It's very difficult for a crane to pick itself up! the load limit of a mobile crane is a pretty small fraction of its own mass. It's much easier to anchor a pulling vehicle for a horizontal pull than it is a lifting vehicle for a vertical lift. It's conceivable that the mecha could use its arms to push itselft up, but having the arm strength to do that limits what can be inside the arms, makes them more complex mechanisms. Don't ignore the ground pressure, either. Hands are likely to be much smaller than feet, and so have higher ground pressure. If you're stuck because you're bogged down, you're stuck until recovery equipment gets there. [1] And a vehicle that's stuck in sticky mud can be *firmly* stuck. I got my SWB Land-Rover stuck in a stream ford, in mud up to the chassis. A large bulldozer wasn't able to pull me out. A crane was needed; the operator said the peak load was between 5 and 10 tons. the truck weighs two: so a force of 2 to 5 times the weight of recovered object. [1] which suggests a number of mech trapping techniques: put a thin layer of stablized surface on top a mud pits. lighter vehicles will have no problem, a mech breaks the stable layer, and is into the bottomless mud. -- David Scheidt [email protected] _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
