Does anyone know about these machines? Crane is having a tough time walking and steering. One dog is currently frozen out so I can only turn with one track. How difficult are these machines to work on to get it to walk again? Are parts hard to find? Are the frictions expensive to fix? Does anyone have any manuals for one of these? thank you for the help
Hi I assume the machine travels using the swinger frictions and has air frictions.How does it swing?New linings are 1/2" thick,have alook and see how yours look.How worn are the pins and linkages?With the engine shut off and full air are the the air pots leaking?If the crane wont walk at all it could be the vertical travel shaft,seems the splines go at the top of the shaft making for no travel at all.Its not hard to adjust the frictions,hook the machine up to shop air so you don't have to run the engine.apply the frictions so they are engaged to the drum on one side there should be 4 square head set screws that bear on the shoes.using a feeler guage set set the square head set screw to the anchor end of the shoe to .022" and the screw at the live end of the shoe to .044" (these settings work on my 5299 and 4210 cranes) something close will get you going if its an adjustment problem.The adjustment on the air pot rod will affect the throw on your swing lever.the clevis on the air pot should spring back 1/2 a hole when you remove the pin as you hold the lever back to full realease position by hand.you need to rotate the friction assembly a couple of times to acces all the screws,do this with the engine.You will need to adjust both sides this way,one side is easy,the other side is a little harder.IPS has been good for parts and manuals 1800 253 0388 Regards Dave
Thank you i appreciate the help. The other question I have is how to properly lower the gantry in order to move the crane.
Now you got me thinking way back. As I recall on the small Americans, after we had lowered and shortened the boom to base and mast only and ready for transport we pulled about 4? pins in the gauntry and lowered the boom which slid the gauntry into itself as the boom was on the ground. After re-pinning the gauntry in the collapsed/shortened position you should be able to boom up the short boom for loading and travel. If I remember right the boom charts have some charts for use with the gauntry lowered. This is all thinking back 45 years so I hope someone else chimes in and either collaborates or booms me up into the proper memory position. EDIT: If I recall correctly if going a short distance like around the country block from one side of a county bridge to the other and no low wires present, we would lower the gantry only half way and truck the crane complete with 100' of boom on it. The operator would set in the seat and swing the crane on the corners to keep the boom tip out of the woods. Probably can not get by with that today.
I helped take apart a big American truck crane years ago, that is exactly the way we did it if I remember right. I remember that for some reason the operator had to disengage the boom sprag, can't remember why now for the life of me. I remember one of the Ironworkers was up by the gantry, the operator told him not to go under or get close to the gantry because it was "live"(i.e. could free fall). Anyway, it would be a good idea not to get under it.
I started off writing a description of how to drop the gantry and unrig your machine.Not knowing your level of experience I thought against that.To us who use these machines every day its seems very simple,easy to describe,but theres some serious traps waiting for those who haven't been around these machines.The best thing you can do is find someone who has experience and make the the call to IPS or any dealer you chose and get the manual,even the experienced operator will want to see it if he dosent run Americans every day.Study it carefully and don't skip the steps. Regards Dave
Mr tugger seems you have run around the block once or twice
+ 1
Me thinks some do ,(Tugg)