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Given the thick mass of plumbing behind the valve body in the wrecker's gondola, I'd be a lot less comfortable about replacing the hydraulic valve body than I would with strapping some sort of external actuators onto the existing valve body. But maybe that's just me, and my approach wouldn't be...

Yup, the controls on the M936A1 are all manually actuated hydraulic valves. If somebody makes affordable electric actuators for retrofitting onto lever-operated directional control valves, then adding the RC system on top of those would probably be pretty easy.

Thanks for posting, LOR RC. How would those systems actuate the control valves on my wrecker? (I've sold the M543A2, but now I have an M936A1 that uses the same crane). Note that these trucks do not have any electrical control valves to connect a radio to; the valves are all mechanical.

Great idea! [thumbzup] I was thinking along the lines of putting a knuckleboom on my M923. After unsuccessfully looking for suitable knucklebooms that didn't cost 3x what I paid for the truck, I got frustrated and bid on my new M936A1 on GL (waiting on EUC clearance now). So that has me back...

My -10 TM states that the crane on my new M936A1 will rotate 360 degrees. My M543A2 crane only rotates about 270 degrees. Does the M936A1 crane lack the stops that the M543A2 has to limit rotation? And if so, can it spin all the way around without anything getting hung up? I don't suppose...

Cool! I sold one of those crane control boxes to somebody a while back. Was that you? If so, I'm especially glad to see it doing its thing! I had bought the control on eBay with thoughts of using it to retrofit a remote control to my M543A2. I never got around to doing that, but now I'm...

I will take a look at the controllers on eBay. My preference would be for a control with four single axis proportional controls with spring return to center, just like the original manual controls. One or two more proportional controls might also come in handy... If I'm going to the trouble, I...

Those are lead-screw actuators. They don't satisfy my primary safety requirement of releasing the valves when power is disconnected. A lead screw actuator will hold position when power is removed, even at loads much stronger than what would stall the motor.

Environmentally sealed stepper motors may be another option, and they're a lot cheaper in the size that my first guesstimate suggests (around 280 oz-in of torque needed, I think): IP65 Rated Sealed Step Motors

Yeah, it'd cost almost as much as the whole truck. Doghead's reins idea is looking better and better...

Hmm, this looks interesting: linear voice coil motor by MotiCont I don't know about the cost or how well they're environmentally sealed, but they appear to be available at around the force and stroke length that I think is needed, they're mechanically a lot like double acting pneumatic...

If y'all have hands on experience with those large servos, can you tell me how environmentally robust they are? I'm talking about tolerance to moisture, dust, oil, vibration and sunlight, not about tree-huggy stuff. :)

Thanks, I'll look into that! I haven't measured the force needed at the likely connection point on the valve levers yet, but my seat of the pants guess is "about 5 pounds". A rotary actuator with a lever arm on the shaft might be able to do the trick. Even a plain DC motor (possibly with gear...

Is the word you were looking for "potentiometer"? Because I know all about those! I'm still hesitant to take apart the original hydraulics, but I'll keep that in mind as one of my options. It may end up being the easiest one. Well, I kind of already do that. I sit up in the gondola to operate...

Oh, by the way: I got the impression that most (all?) of the electrically-operated hydraulic directional control valves that I've seen so far just turn on or off with a solenoid valve, as opposed to the proportional control that's possible when manually operating valves like the ones on my...

Understood, but I'd prefer to leave the original hydraulic system alone. I'll look into the electromechanical valves some more to see if that changes my mind, though.

It sounds like we're thinking on the same page. My mental picture has a bank of four actuators mounted on top of the panel over the valve body, with linkages going back to the vertical levers that actuate the poppet valves. I'd want to use some sort of actuators that move freely when unpowered...

I've often thought that it would be nice to add a remote control capability to the crane controls on my M543A2 wrecker, or on the M936A1 that will replace it soon. I usually use it by myself, so it can be challenging to not be down there on the ground to maneuver the load. I've had to resort to...