Just got this gem in today. It's the first one I've ever seen. Does anybody out there use these? What are your thoughts of them?
Fab shop had to much free time? But that would work well on a open pit haul road as a back-up water truck, years ago we used 660 Cats for 10,000 gallon tankers
You'd think it was another Brent Engineering experiment but this is actually a genuine Cat product. Excellent for sites with steep hills.
i've never heard of a 639....great find! how long does it take to fill up with a 5/8" garden hose? lol Pj
rofessorwell my 5 gal bucket takes 3 min to fill so 10,000 gal should take 15hrs or so hrs at my house....:falldownlaugh
5 gallons every 3 minutes would be about 100 gallons per hour and take 100 hours to get 10000 gallons. Or just over 4 days. Now if that were pubic water explain that bill to the wife.
Cat 639D was the biggest elevator scraper that Cat ever built, primarily to compete with the WEabco 333FT & 353FT. Seems it went the same way as they did as it wasn't in production very long. Personally I think it's pretty sad to see such a fine & rare machine converted to a water tanker but that's my personal opinion. Far too often these things are cut up and before you know it they are all gone.
I think most of those 639s were sent your way-they are even more rare here! I've never seen one, unfortunately.
Hi Buckethead, Yep, a few down in the south pacific, mostly Australia. I did a half day on one. Awesome power at your control but not as smooth as a 353FT and the visibility left a bit to be desired to the right hand side. I guess I missed the sound of those GM's too Nothing wrong with a 3408 but as I've said before a Detroit is the best way to turn fuel into NOISE :cool2
I took part in building a new town reservoir project in 1992.I think there was one or two 639s there.Loaction was Margaret River,Western Australia. Jim
I thought the 633 was the big elevator?? Pj
Hi powerjoke, The 639D was based on the 633D but with an extra ingine like a 637D. Same capacity as a 633 however but way more power (obviously), heavier and could handle some of the jobs you would usually stick a TS-24 or 637 on. Ate rocks for breakfast provided they weren't too big.
I saw quite a few 637's converted to water pulls when I was in California. ACI had one on the job I was on, and Independant had at least one on a job I drove by to get to work, or to go home.
90% of the population of these machines are in Western Australia, very popular with all the sand mining that goes on there.
I want to think we had one on a job we did in El Centro CA. I was never there, but I saw pics of it it had a cutting edge mounted on it too.
There is one in NZ that I know of. Hatuma Lime ( Topp Family) brought one in from Aus about 5 years ago to work with a international 444. Both big twin elevators and shifting lime and overburden. they also run some twin powered Michigan scrapers. I think the cat wieghed in at just under 60 tonne according to Goughs.
I think most of the 639D scrapers are owned by the company I work for now. They form part of the 90 scrapers in the fleet. I used to do night shift in them loading a hopper with ore. Most of them are parked up now and only used for top soil removal on new sites. They also custom made 7 x 651 scrapers fitted with elevators which made them the biggest elevating scrpaer with a 50 tonne payload. We have 633 and 651 based water carts but why go twin power on a water cart?
Hi, Stan do you know any of the history of the 444 at Hatuma lime ? Back in the 70s/80s I worked for G A Renner in Tauranga who bought a 444 new in about 76 , they later sold it to Fentons in Ngatea as far as I was aware it was possibly the only 444 in NZ, there were several 433s around down Wellington way that I knew of, often wondered what happend to the 444 after Fentons sold up. Cheers RDG.
Forkman... Can you post some photos of these 651's converted to elevators? Love to see the conversion
I'm pretty sure 29 Palms Marine Corp Base still has one of these for its Range Maintence Fleet. Works awesome for long stretches of road getting laided as fast as belly dumps can line up.
444 pics Hi RDG The renner 444 x fenton bros still earns its keep at Hatuma lime works pics taken recently cheers malcolm
Thanks for that Malcom, good to see it still going, looks real tidy obviously gets some TLC . Cheers RDG.
Hi Malcom and RDG Fentons also had a 433; ithink that is right no. Twin engine, open bowl scraper. Wayne fenton converted this into a towed scraper for their TD25E to tow. Malcom may know of this machine better than me; as he knows Darcy Fenton. Merv
433s Hi Guys Fenton bros 433s new and working plus the converted one done to keep the others going when IH were going down hill and parts were hard to get made a nice scoop though the td25 and the 433 ran the same hyd pump so it all worked good cheers malcolm
Wow, nice pics malcolm. Those two low boy trucks are awesome.
I see theres 2 x 629D's for sale in Queensland mid june
We just sold ours. It's on a boat to Venezuela as we speak.
Is it true that Hatuma Lime also have an old Euc SS12 that they still use occasionally as well?
A 639 is originally a twin engine 633 elevating scraper.
Here is a few links to the Cat 639D; http://www.ritchiespecs.com/specifi...per&make=Caterpillar&model=639D&modelid=94138 http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0001.../cat-639d-twin-powered-elevating-scraper-1980 Thanks!
Now I knew about 639s but never heard of 629s. Those fellas at Cat locked a 623 into a room with a 627 and popped the 629? Cool!
I've not worked on any 639 tanks but a heap of 631's. St Barbara Mines when Rossy Atkins had it built a tank with a brand new 651 tractor on the front. He would never have used a 631 when a 651 would do. . Friends of mine built the tank and I bored the gooseneck.
My thoughts exactly,what a waste
I see this topic is really old. However, in Texas and surrounding areas, tankers made from old scrapers are a common thing. I had a couple of old 613's converted to tankers for road watering, back in the early 90's, and they were great. I believe they are still in use today. C.L. Boyd, the JD dealer in OKC did ours. Jeff