This is our new 320D that came in the same day as my new D6T. I'm not going to be the one to put the first scratch on the counter weight. Boss has a big issue with that!:usa
Is that a reduced tail swing model?
No it has the usual counter weight, nothing special about it.
Cat paint is pretty tough to scratch.
Yeah but we are getting into a lot of granite rock on this road job. It's located in western north carolina.
Nice machine! what weight is the 320 size machine? 45,000 lbs?
Yeah right on it according to the manual. not sure what size bucket is on it, so may be more or less?
I use to have a former employer that would go nuts over scratched counterweights, he'd sand, bondo and paint all the time! I completely understand and try and watch all the time, but when you get out in deep mud it's hard. Current employer they don't care, some older excavators the counterweights nothing but rust. Saw brand new Hitachi the other day about a month old and somebodies already been swinging back end in dirt pile
The reason being about the scratched counterweight is that if you don't know the back end of your machine is, that just as well could be blood on there. ( A little gruesome, but is true ):bash
Nice machine and pics. What are you building there ?
Road widening, Cutting a 1.5 to 1 slope. We had to be careful not to allow any dirt or rock to fall below onto passing traffic.
nice new hoe!
Couldn't agree with you more DR RPM. I hate to see our counterweights get scratched. I also have been known to put bondo and re-paint when necessary. When possible I like to have the fella who damaged it help me. :IMO
I don't like scratching the very bottom of the counter weight but it does happen, just spay alitttle touch up paint on it a few times a year and it stays looking new. Now dents will make me:cussing:cussing
True... Bit this is a machine.... A tool you are talking about. Getting a scratch on the back of the machine happens. If it were blood, chances are the blood donor was dead in the first place. These machines do not travel very fast. For someone to end up in a place where they could become a smudge on the counter weight does and has happened on occasion. How the operator or people on the ground missed this in the first place always amazes me. A machine working in a situation where someone could become a smudge is not a place where anyone with an iota of intelligence would ever put themselves. Unless you came up out of the ground behind me, I already know you are there. That, or someone working with me, someone on the ground has or will let me know about you. I'll waste time and slow down production by watching out for you. I don't trust you since you put yourself out of eye contact with me. This is where the daily or weekly tailgate safety meetings are useful. I always emphasize to everyone, supers and foreman included that if they expect me to get any kind of production, there are certain places where they or anybody does not belong. This includes parking, visiting, conducting business hiding behind me or off to the side of a machine that I'm running. When production loading, I always let them know that I will NOT turn around to look behind me each and every time. If I did that, we wouldn't be production loading, would we. If you decide to park, sit, walk or do anything behind me and I see you, I'll stop and if needed, I'll ask you to move. After all, you knew better....we talked about it in the safety meeting. So please move on. I don't trust you or your judgment since you are in a place where I cant make eye contact with you. If I cant see you, you might end up dead. End of story... I don't want any blood on my hands. It makes no difference to me who you are. If you want production from me, I need to be comfortable. For me to be comfortable you need to let me do my job, keep eye contact with me or just stay out of the way. That said, just hurry up and put that first little (controlled) scratch on the machine. Now you have one less thing to worry about and can get on with making some money.
well i've been on it a couple of times, but mainly run my D6T dozer. the guy in the pic's runs it mostly.
very nice lookin machine
Nice machine. :notworthy I have been hearing some roomers that the D series is significantly better on fuel than the C series, any truth to that?
Nice machine! good luck
Yup, they get better every year, our 2005 320CLU will suck a tank dry in 10 hours, the 2006 CLU will suck it dry in 14 hours.
there should be no more scratches on the counter weight then the rest of the machine. Yeah I understand mud etc. may happen but you should try to plan ahead of time to prevent those situations.We run all zero tail swings right up to the 235's.The fact that you dont have to worry about anything behind you just means you are paying more attention to the boom and bucket.Its safer,its easier on the machine,(cosmetically) and production goes up because you are not slowing down to check things over.( yeah I know you should always watch around your machine,but you get what Im saying)..............That is a nice looking machine,I have never been attracted to Cat for some reason,really dont know why to be honest.Is it safe to say that Cat is still top for excavator sales?
I agree 100% with rollover Pete. I hate working on a job with other trades. They just don't know or don't care how easy it would be to get hurt or killed on the job. I do my best work alone on the job , preferably behind a locked gate. all by myself where i can concentrate on the job at hand.
Thank you Pete. Anyone that has worked demo where scrap production is being pushed can tell ya, there is no way to avoid a scratch on the counterweight. Things get pinched inbetween tracks and the end up hitting the counterweight. I had a brand new 320cl. My job was to process all our non ferous metals, and load them for shipment. This ment making things as small as i could, so i could get more in a load. While tracking over a piece of stainless steel, a piece caught between the tracks an hit the cw. I recived an ass chewing for that, and got the that coulda been a person speech. I dont care what work your doing, no one should be behind you, that includes the owner of the company pulling up behind you in his escalade. His favorite was to follow the loader/water truck, which both switch direction constantly. Another habit of his, from what i hear, is to pass his trucks on the highway, using the breakdown lane.
Rollover Pete :notworthy Well put and I agree 100%. People quickly forget just how easy it is to get hurt around machinery. And just how time consuming it is trying to keep an eye on them while also trying to do your job. :cool2