Is it fake or not?
It could be done; it's probably made much easier by the guy just out of camera range flagging him.
It's a wheel loader and not an excavator. Second item I see is the fork moving side ways and the left front wheel never moves. I couldn't see anything in the video that indicated there was a side shift grapple setup installed on the wheel loader. I'd have to say fake when they shut out the view of the whole machine.
When he is driving up, there is a hydraulic hose and something shiny on top of the fork carriage.
It isn't a thread that is going through the eye of that needle. It appears to be glued to the fork but I still can't see anything that would make the fork shift to the right without the left front wheel turning.
I don't really care if its fake or not. Show me a operator who is smooth and fast at his work, doesn't waste motion, and doesn't abuse the equipment. Stupid stuff doesn't impress me.
It's not visible how big the eye of the needle. Maybe it's a special needle for hokus pokus purposes with a very big eye?
Has to be fake! Think about any mechanical or hydraulic movement on any equipment. Any movement with even the littlest touch of the control would be a 1/2" or more, no way you can make a movement small enough to adjust to hit the eye of a needle. I dont care how good of operator you are, you cant make a machine move in that small of movement. Just the operator in the cab sneezing would move more that what you see in the video.
I think it's possible with the right operator and the right machine. Some machines have more precise control than others.
The operator must have perfect vision to be able to thread a needle form the operators seat. In my opinion, it is fake.
Hard to say. The first part of the video it looks pretty hokey. In the 2nd part from the other camera if you look super close at the rear wheel it does look like the machine turns slightly. Wouldn't need much turn movement for the fork to move an inch or less.
Unless I was actually there and saw the entire operation with my own eyes.......it’s fake.
OK I hate to beat this dead horse but I did think of a way that this could have been done. I would suspect that there is a pre-established stop guide outside of view. Basically the operator already had the solid stop set in the correct location for up, down, in, out, left and right. Then all he dad to do is drive forward into the stop guide and pump the controls to the left. May be real but with some hidden magic... I still find it impossible to do with no extra hidden stuff.
Also no mention was made of how many times this was attempted without success.