Hi guys,check this video out,seen photos but never one working fantastic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gAYeyUB7oA
Loaded in 30 seconds in rocky conditions, good vid thanks for posting and welcome to the forum
I believe those tractors belong to a local contractor here in northern Ky/ southwest Ohio. Got to see them working years ago about a mile from where I grew up.
Yep. They belong to Coppage.
I'm thinking that's why the artic truck is parked in background.
especially considering the rear engines arent doing anything (look at the rain caps)
Can someone tell me how that set up works. I cannot figure out the control of the rest machine.
have you operated scrapers,over here you seldem use the rear engine untill pulling out when the pusher will change to 2nd and get rid of you,kerry
The DD9's use a joy stick for steering it has 3 petals on the deck 2 are accelerators for the 2 tractors and the3rd is the steering brakes they are air controlled to turn left you pull the joy stick back toward the operator and touch the brake the front tractor turns left and the rear tractor turns right and just the reverse actions for a right turn.You make many turns instead of one 45 plus degree turn.It keeps the strain off connection between the tractors. (hope I got it right its been 45+ years)
Interesting post, looks like they behave nicely as far as following. Take some getting used to I'm sure, having another 9 tailgating all the time
cool video wish there was more.
Nope, I'm a mechanic. I just watch ours when there running, and its 2/3/4/or 5 engines all full fuel trying to get as much material as fast as possible. If its there, why not use it?
YA Terexkerry your right! 30+ years ago I use to run ts14s & ts18s & never used the rear engine when loading. Pour it to it as you left the cut! The old timers would blow a gasket at the younger guys when they loaded with the rear engine. They'd say let the dozer do the loading & keep the front motor revd up for the steering & hyd pumps. Too much rear tire wear was the reason. Thats a great video & would like to see more of the action!!
So can you call that a D18??? that is pretty neat
Looks like fun. I would like to spend a few hours in the seat of a quad some day.
you are right 61bg;over here half the time the pusher has got the rear a foot off the ground,take it easy,kerry
So I guess once you turn them, it will continue turning until you steer it in the opposite direction to straighten the pair out? The poster of that video has another one of that DD9 that says it was taken in 2009.
No you move the joy for either left or right turn release it back to center and both tractors will go in the direction of the lead tractor if in reverse the lead tractor is the slave and forward turns its the front tractor. Remember the DD9's are production units mint to push scrapers they should not be used for cut clean up or such and you try to make small turns as in the video. By the way the Operator sets at 45 degree angle
I wonder how the delay works? Noticable in the first load where the lead is straight behind the scraper and the rear still has to complete the turn to get in line, seems to make the same moves as the lead but with enough delay to follow perfectly.
I am having to dig deep in to old memory bank. as I stated earlier the front tractor has 3 petals the one brake is for both tractors when you turn you use very little brake. with steering still disengaged for a quick second the non-lead tractor follows, where I was at it took a lot of training to became a Operator the are not easy
So you keep the steering clutches disengaged to get it to straighten out? Didn't think of that.
Found this
Thanks DPete a picture are worth a thousand words I worked in a open pit mining operation our Quad-track operators were paid .25hr more than the 666 scraper operators if my memory is right. long time a go (67-68) Our slave tractors had no sit or controls
DPete - Thanks for the Quad track info. I knew I had the info, but I couldn't remember where it was located (CRS). Here's a link to all three pages on the Quad Track design and operation. http://www.pbase.com/onetrack/caterpillar_technical (select picture viewing size by clicking on "small", "medium", "large" or "original" at bottom of page)
Good link OZ
The Quad 9G's have Serial No 90J and 91J built from 1969 to 1974 with an all up weight of 79'470 Kg with about 770Hp under the Toe, the Quad 9H's have Serial No 97V and 98V built from 1974 to 1981 all up weight of 81'100Kg's plus a good chance of 820Hp with both treadles down. Who ran the "First" set??? was it Collin Co.???
Couple pics from a book I have, note the tank position of the early unit rear tractor.
No, you call that a DD9G is the proper designation. Came out of the west coast connection that Cat had years ago
Buster Peterson of Peterson Cat San Leandro Ca.
I really like the old d9's i own mostly cat machines i also have 21c and the 41b fiat allis just good old dozers. I have a bunch of different test that compared the double dd9's to the performance of the 41b right down to a cost per yard 41b wins really lol its just in my books has from production of ripping to pushing scrapers etc.
Where are the ROPS? I guess it is not in the US that video....
Hey fiat41b, Is there any way you can post any of that comparison test? There use to be a contractor around here that had a FA41b around 1976-7. When I first saw it I could not believe the size of it as the largest AC/FA machines I had ever seen were the 21s. They also had a single D9G on the same job & the 41 was parked right next to it. There was no comparison!
Yes that DD9 is in the US. It is located in the south western Ohio northern Kentucky area.
ROPS were not compulsory for the first 5 or 6 years the DD9G was produced. I would guess it depends on the particular State OH&S laws, as to whether a ROPS is required to be fitted to a tractor that left the factory without one.
We had 2 Hough D-500's with full ballasted tires that would out push our DD9's for about 1 hour then the converter would over heat and we would park it on the dead line again. We even tried to use them to tow dead electric end dumps from the pit to the shop but not much luck. So DD9's weren't the most powerful but ran 24x5 pretty well.
RC, I think that was before ROPS was required. Anyone know why in some photos the fuel tank on the Rear D9G is turned 90 degrees instead of being mounted in normal way?
Greg What I had heard at one time was that it was for better visibility backing up. I also heard that the later ones were mounted normal to make it easier to split the machines and use them separately if the job required it.
Buster Peterson, might have screwed the first "Quad Track 9" together but who was the first Customer to run the chariot???? or the first person to put out the coins and buy a ready to run Quad??? the first Serial No started at ???
Tony - The first DD9G S/N was the Buster Peterson "Quad-Trac", produced in 1965. Note that the "Service Reporter" magazine that reported the release of the "Quad-Trac" was Issue Four of 1965 (Sept-Dec). Thus, the Peterson "Quad-Trac" was built from late 1965 to 1968 - when Cat started producing the DD9G with 90J/91J S/No's. It appears that the Peterson "Quad-Tracs" used regular production D9G S/No's. According to my book, there were 51 of the DD9G's built, but only 7 of the DD9H's. Eric Orlemann claims there were 10 Quad-Trac D9G's sold. I can't tell you who bought the first DD9G. It looks like a lot of the DD9G's and Quad-Tracs were separated and used as individual tractors - and probably sold off as individual tractors as well. There's some good pics on "QuAD's" website, of a DD9G working in the Maastricht ENCI Quarry in the early 1970's. According to "QuAD", as far as he knows, this was the only DD9G sold outside the U.S., into Europe. According to Deas Plant, Bell Bros of Western Australia purchased one DD9G and it was used at Alcoa in Pinjarra. I have no knowledge of that tractor. http://www.bouwmachinesvantoen.nl/bedrijvenpagina/Curfs/curfs.htm
It is my understanding that S.J. Groves and sons was the first contractor to purchase and utilize the quad tractors. I work/worked with quite a few guys that came from Groves and would just sit in awe after work listening to their stories of 666's and quad 9's.
The Anaconda Company had some of the early DD9's, late 66 or early 67. Had trouble with the hitch breaking got that problem fixed. I know in 67 they had stripped one to the frame for overhaul don't know what the hours were but they were high. Our shop had 5 groups track,scraper, electric trucks, fuel&lube, and pit mechanics (of which I was one)we also had a cutting edge crew that changed or turned the cutting edges on the 666's every shift, and some of the action then is now fuzzy in the 72 year old brain of mine
Peter K. and Western Contracting both used Quads. Kiewit had one in Kansas but had them split and "C" dozers on them. Western had one in Chamberlin, South Dakota and was used on the bridge approaches across the Missouri in the early 70's. Western let it set in S.Dak for several years along with some 3 axle Euc scrapers. I believe once or twice a year they would come around and start them. Lost track of them and don't know where they went. Maybe some old Western guys can add a little lite to this. Western use to have machinery yards all over the country. The 91j Kiewit had was sold to a guy in S.Dak.
That brings back some old memories. The ones I saw at that time were building 63 north of Columbia, Mo and they were pushing cat 660 scrapers. I wish I'd taken more pictures of that kind of stuff. They used one standard D9 then followed with the DD9's, so that made 3 D9's pushing one 60 yd scraper, and they had two pusher set to keep up with the number of scrapers (can't understand why they had some of the bottoms torn out of the scrapers). You could tell the days they worked, just look for thef black cloud.
Oz, I think the BB set may have been DD9H,s, talk on this side of the island is they came over to the Hunter Valley and were purchased by either Paul Cant (Bloomfields) or HVE (Hunter Valley Earthmoving) and didn,t stay together for to long, supposedly split and regular blades added to each machine. Did you get my email?
A salesman from Guntert and Zimmerman was telling me about a completely rehabbed DD9 that a man from Kiewitt had out in the northwest, I think it's posted on here somewhere.
Gavin - Yes, got your email, sorry for the slow reply.
Maurice was that a Western job in Missouri? They built a few large dams in Kansas. They did have 660's and quad 9's.
Not sure, I was probably 12 or 13 at the time and they were building Hwy 63 went through part of an open pit mine that is now Finger Lakes state park and was created by PeaBody coal, and from some of the research that have done I believe that Big Brutis was the shovel used in that operation. What a contrast! That sure made a D9 look like an ant.
You Got it right, a Quad Hand can get pretty tricky with that joy stick, as far as straightening up the back tractor when you can in at a angle etc etc
I'll bet the learning curve can get expensive! A fellow I used to work for used to run these on a large canal project in New Mexico in the 70's.
Oxbow, that is where I broke in on a Quad for PKS in the mid 60's on I-40 east of Albq, yes seen a guy turn to short and clip front and rear track and broke ball holding the tractor together, that was the reason I got out of the seat of a scraper and broke in on the Quad, can still hear the Bark of those 9G's.came to Alaska late 60's and ran Quads here for Kiewit and Green, good memories.
That would have been a great experience, sorry I missed it.
That was an exciting era, I worked on a job in 1962, there was a brand new Quad-D9G on the job, they teamed it up with a single D9G triple pushing new 657's before there was push pulls. That was exciting. Nothing like moving dirt back in 62' in California. Mike Nebergall
We used a quad and 1/2 in Alaska for M-B on the Alaska Hwy Pushing 651Bs, all that Big Iron is pretty well left the state, Granite still has MBs old quad, plus part of another one that was PKs back in the 70s when I ran it, everyone using big hoes and trucks seem like now days, still Great memories. Tommy
Good afternoon, muckshifter631c, I use to own 10 scrapers, 6, narrow nose 637C's and 4, 657B's push pulls, and all the support equiptment, I'm not trying to be nosey, how did you find the video of the Quad-D9G? I ran Scarsella Brothers Quads in Washington for 3 1/2 years, 10 years ago. Loved them. Mike Nebergall
Thanks! Very interesting!
If the second unit had no seat or a fuel tank turned sideways, how was it hauled from job to job, back it onto a trailer, then unhook them and haul both on two seperate trailers, then back up to the still loaded one, hook them together again and drive it off the trailer or how? This got my curiosity up.
In the early 70's I had to do with the "only" DD9 outside the US , in the Netherlands . The machine was not transported very much , but if so , the tractors were taken apart by loosening the big ball and socket and the air hoses etc . Our DD9 was equipped with the so called weight transfer system . This frame could be hanged up during transport . Then the machines could be operated from their own seats . Later these machines were sold apart from each other and have worked some years in Germany . The Netherlands , johan7
I can't say for sure, but I would imagine that the operator would stand or sit on a milk crate or something to move it short distances like loading and unloading. The controls are all there still. johan7 Welcome to the HEF, and thanks for sharing about the DD-9.
Hello JDOFMEMI , I found a pic of the DD9 with the 2 tractors seperated for transport . This work can be done in about 30 minutes . We had the model with the weight transfer system and with the hydralic ram we could lift the subframe to fasten it to the mainframe . As you see the secon d machine is equipped with a normal seat . The Netherlands , johan7
Thanks for the info! opcorn opcorn
Thanks for the pictures and explaination guys, and johan7 welcome to the forum.
I got a few pics of the back half of Coppage's DD9G. They were running the front dozer by itself because the back dozer busted a final drive.
Thanks Truck 505 for the interesting pics ! By studying the pics I came to some questions : - I notice the instruments for the pony motor on the dashboard , but there is no pony . Did they make a change-over to electric start ? - There is that weight transfer ram missing . Is that original or was it removed ? I know that on later machines this ram was dropped . Johan7
Yes it was converted to electric start and yes they removed the weight transfer ram.
that is pretty cool
You know I saw my first set of Quads in 1962, fell in love with them then, and I'm still in love with them now. I was fortunate to run Scarsella Brothers in the middle 60's for three years, on the 395 job for them. Its nice to see that video on YouTube even though the operator could of worked a little closer, I mean picking up the scrapers a little faster. But it still nice to see some of the contractors are still enjoying the DD9G's and H's. Later, Mike Nebergall.
Pretty photos and video here. Just wondering what is the information of the engine of it?
I was back to the job the double 9's are at and got a couple pics of the front tractor.
How are they getting away with not having a ROPS on the front Cat?
I could be grandfathered in.
scrapers interesting reading about scrapers & pushes, my farther claim to fame is he was in the caterpillar film one turn of the earth filmed in the 60's he is on D9 pushing 657 scrapers in the UK, was still operating until he was 75 years of age, he is 80 now still mad to do a shift
That is a very good fillum, i have a copy of it. Lots of Aussie stuff in it too.
You might like this. Gavin, Good morning. I would think you dudes on the Heavy Equipment forums.com might enjoy this. Here in the United States, in Bakersfield California, at the Famoso drag strip it the winter nationals. Its all nostalgia, Funny Cars, AA fuel cars, and lots, and lots, and lots of fantastic antique street cars. Go to www.bangshift.com on your computers today. I would think 9:00 a.m. California time. I swear to God, you'll enjoy this. Saturday night they're having 80 nostalgia drag racing cars, every famous car ever built, that has been resurrected, duplicated or re-built will be there live on The Bangshift.com website. Its called a Cackle-Fest. They should be talking about it today, on the live broadcast on you computer. Saturday night on Bangshift.com I would think around 6 pm pst they would be starting the cackle-fest portion of the event and I think you guys on the forum would really enjoy that. Gavin would you post this for me - I couldn't figure out how to start a new post. Let me know how you guys like this (remember Friday, Saturday and Sunday drag racing on Bangshift.com) Mike Nebergall
your right there gavin not a bad film, I was over your neck of the woods a few months back was working at liebherr mining at mt Thorley opposite westracs yard, did a stint at mt Arthur coal there workshops are something else, but sadly had to come back to the uk. just missed the bush fires by the looks of it.
Big Brutus was owned by P&M and was in Kansas it's entire working life. Never owned by Peabody.