On the job cleaning up loose rocks.
Woo .. Those 89's look real weird .. More pics please ..
Those 89's are wierd! Why is there so much steel in front of the grill? I dont think the 89's would be pushing anything in the front at any time. The 992C is just an awesome machine- pure and simple- you see it at so many mines doing heavy work, and for a good reason. Those machines are relatively bulletproof and will run for years unerringly, they're the quintessence of a wheel loader and the only other loader that comes close is a Michigan 275 or 475.
Mate, I dont know why the owner had those bull bars added? He may have been worried about the radiators getting damaged? I agree, I loved operating that loader. She was a real work horse. I later transfered to a huge open cut mine in the Valley and I spent about three years operating a Letourneau 50 series. Mate it was one majic machine.
Probably more worried about operators falling asleep at the wheel on night shift and running into the berms ......... lol Those photos must date from the early/mid 90's. Those are 1st generation 789s. I first assembled one in 1991. 992C/789 not really a match because the sides of the 789 body would be too high for even a High Lift 992C to reach in easily. It must have been a challenge to get a correctly distributed load on one with that loader. Both versions of the 992C (42X/49Z) were dogs IMO, however they were better than the 992B they replaced but not by much. Cat then spent millions improving the engine/powertrain/hydraulic/frames and missed the target badly when they brought the G out with the one-piece cast boom. Oh what pain we had getting the production of that and the linkages/pins to work reliably. If I ever saw another 992 again it would be too soon, give me a 994 any day.
Interesting read there Nige, thanks for the info! ;D
Look at it this way. The 992G was first introduced at MineExpo in 1996. It's now 2011 (well 2012 almost) and only now with the 992K are the linkage pins on the front end getting anywhere near reliable. 15 years to get it right - not bad. Talking about operators falling asleep and running into berms, I found this photo from my voluminous archives .......... I guess the operator ought to think himself lucky the berm held.
We had an operator fall asleep after a 12 and a 1/2 hour night shift go through a berm, roll and the truck landed on its cab and onto to load which virtually remained in the body. Luckily for him it was on the haul road, just meters from the ROM stockpile and the drop was only abot 15 feet