Does anyone have experience with Cat 623B scrapers? I was thinking about buying one but I've had no experience with elevating motor scrapers. Any reasons not to own one or reasons they are good? Do they all have "cushion hitches"? Do the engines have the power pull loading heavy clay? What is the most common break/ wear parts? thanks for any help..
I have experience with 623 F's and G's And they are a must have machine when finishing, no other scraper can pick up the windrow and move it as easily as they can. We usually bulked out the dirt with the 31's and the Deere then brought in a 14M or a 6T with a vpat blade and each finish tractor was assigned 1 or 2 623's The blade would cut the road to with in a tenth and blade up a windrow for the paddle wheels to haul it to a waist area or dump it in a low spot. The dozer would work in the median and shoulder get them cut to grade and leave a windrow for the 23's to pick up. We manage to finish 5 mile section of highway in about a week, and started soil cement the next. The B's shpuld have a cushion hitch, but breaking and wear parts i dont really know. we had 2 brandnew G's and 2 G's with 1500 hrs
Go for an E ahead of an old B if your chasing a cheaper earlier model. Stick with the 29.5x29 wheel/tyre combo, some had 33.5x35's as any I had anything to do with gave trouble with the final drives.
The elevator is a wear item just as the tires are. They are a very good machine, but don't work to cheap because your cost per hour is substantial. They certainly have the power to load themselves, but not necessarily the traction. They are ideal used in the manner that Vapor described, but have their limits when used as the sole earthmover on a job. The finishing ability is outstanding!
The hitch is a wear area we grease ours daily, the speed reducer ( elevator drive) is expensive to repair( change oil often), on the clay you may want to ripp, it is easier on the machine, some clay needs to be ripped to dry enough to load, a drop center blade also helps, if it is slabby you often need to back paddle to help unload, stay off the diff lock, they are skimmers not gougers like an open bowl 2 or 3 tenths cut not 5 or 6 , keep the rpms up for max hydraulic power while loading. Brakes if it has any should be used only when needed, we try to save ours for loading and unloading from the lobed, most of the time you don't need them during the day, drag the scraper if going downhill. Keep the haul road smooth as possible it is easier on man and machine. Hope this helps
I appreciate the advice. It sounds like there are some of very knowledgeable operators out there. I'm going to get a first hand experience of my own, I bought one today so I hope it turns out good!
cavalry113; Post some pictures of your purchase and all the best with her (Now the learning will start, stay safe). Leroy
Best of luck, they are a productive machine in the right application. Pics would be good.
If you have not run an elevating scraper before (or even an open bowl) keep one thing in mind as you learn: what the back tires run on dictates what the cutting edge wants to do. If you need to cut lower on one side (say the right side) start your cut in a curve (turning to the left) allowing the inside rear tire to ride up on the edge of your cut, which will let the far side (right) begin cutting more than the near side. You will soon figure these things out, especially if you are doing the entire work with just the scraper. A couple of other things: 1) Wear your seat belt, when you nose over the first time it will help keep your face out of the windshield! This happens when turning downhill, not a big deal but the first time may cause you to suck the seat cushion! 2) Keep your can close to the ground. 3) When building a stockpile, always build the sides higher than the middle, this will help you stay on the stockpile. 4) Greasing daily is very important! Have fun! Please keep us posted and feel free to ask more questions as they arise. There are some very knowledgeable people on here like DPete that will be glad to help!
Yair . . . . I might also add (if you havn't run a scraper before) be aware that full lock turns uphill or out of a slot could result in a backflip. I'm not being melodramatic or trying to put you off, it can happen and quicker than you think. No tight turns uphill especialy when empty. Cheers.
I co-sign what they said. Make sure you read and understand before you start the machine.
I agree with the speed reducer being expensive, I put $26,000 into one of our b's at work in January. That included almost all parts new, but still expensive.
Ouch!! a lot of newcomers to elevating scrapers don't know there is gear oil to change in the speed reducers, they see hydraulic hoses going up there and think it's covered. We change ours every engine oil change
We run redline synthetic gear oil in ours which basically stopped problems from wear on them. This one lost the duo cone seal behind the sprocket and wasnt caught before destruction. The only pieces I could re-use were the front cover and bolts, everything else was trashed.....not good.
I agree. The story is pretty similar for all elevator drive boxes on scrapers, use the best oil and more regularity in oil changes than recommended in the service manual. Duo cone seals I'm not a fan of them. We had an incident with high tensile fencing wire catching between the sprocket and the drive. Two hours of cutting wire before we opted to remove the box & transport it town to strip wire out from the seal area. Found 5 strands of wire under the seal area. Luckily, we had spare seals on hand plus passed a wad of $$$ to a fitter to repair it straight away, amazing the response to cash in a pocket is The moral of this story, don't load in long grass if you haven't walked through it first.
Bailing twine tends to give the same trouble, not fun !
All very good advice!!! Also put in a set of new & good batteries & have the starter rebuilt... Try to keep the running daily hours under 10 hours a day, because from past experiences- when we ran 10-12 hours a day, thats when the problems came out!!! ....Also buy good chain- not cheap ones, because cheap ones wont last. Watch your tire pressure-make sure its even, too. These are just my opinions from experiences! Thanks!