"Lil' Giants Construction Co." tackles 15-year basement project [UPDATED]

What's the point of building remote-controlled construction equipment if you never have a chance to use it?

That's what Joe from Saskatchewan figured when he started up "Lil' Giants Construction Company," the smallest mining and excavation company in the world.

Joe – he goes by "Lil' Giant" on the Scale4x4rc forums – has hired out the R/C, um, company to excavate a scale tonne of dirt in his basement. And by "hired" we mean he works the controls.

He's been going at this basement digging project for the last 15 years, excavating more than 200 litres of dirt (eight cubic feet) annually.

And his Lil' Giants do everything. Using remote-controls, Joe trailers the excavator to the site, unloads it, uses it to dig, scoops dirt into a variety of trucks and hauls it up out of the basement and outside using a ramp.

The mining project gives Joe something to do during those long Saskatchewan winters, but also reminds him of the equipment he used growing up on a farm, he writes in a post.

But Joe has recently bought up an old barn, and plans to "hire" Lil' Giants for work on a new, bigger project there. The fun never stops.

UPDATE 15/02/2012: After attracting attention from several international car blogs, Joe from Saskatchewan is coming forth to better explain his story, beginning with a correction.

While Joe's been in the R/C construction hobby for 15 years, his basement digging project actually started in June 2005, seven years ago, reports CarScoop.

Joe reports, too, that his annual dirt excavation and haul is closer to 54 cubic feet per year, or 1,500 litres. (If Joe's got his math right, that's a lot of dirt.)

Joe also explains what he did with the dirt before the truck-ramp to the window was built.

"Earlier videos on YouTube show 'unloading into a conveyer,' which was how I transported the dirt out," he says. "Because the conveyer was too quick and efficient, I pulled it out in the summer of 2010 so I had more R/C activity."

We mentioned Joe grew up on a farm, but not that he still keeps a crop field. The models distract him during his free time in winter, but have proved helpful in other ways, too.

"Some of the techniques that I have learned in electronics, welding and machining for this hobby has come in handy for making complicated repairs and improvements in my farming operation too."






(Scale4x4rc via CarScoop; YouTube)