Hey guys, Got a question regarding travelling/working on slopes in an excavator. I know that the general rule of thumb is not to operate an excavator over 35 degrees/70 percent gradient due to lubrication and gravity but is that max grade both the travelling and working conditions as in could you slew around if needed at that grade? and when climbing up a pile/slope at that grade is it theoretically safe to have boom and dipper up in the air more vertical with your bucket just in front of the machine as if you were travelling on the flat as opposed to stretched out low? I know most of the time the bucket needs to be dug into the slope to help with traction depending on the material but I’m just curious. Thanks, A_L
you simply can't generalize like this. It takes experience to understand when you can swing back and when you are courting disaster. When you get to the limits all you have to do to lose it, is stop that swing that you should have never started in the first place. It breaks your traction and might put you sidehill in the blink of an eye. Nothing good comes from that. Many times you don't need the assist but just carrying the bucket and boom low and in front shifts the weight where you want, which will be biased severely to the downhill side.
every thing sky king said. Plus you want to be leading with your drive motors. If you need to swing every thing comes back up in towards you keeping the bucket low and slow, if you start to break traction swing the bucket back in front of you and put down pressure on it. Also wear your seat belt the pucker factor is great
Get a TigerCat, put a bucket on it..... Steep Slope Harvesting New Zealand Style Tigercat and AB Equipment are promoting efficient steep slope tree harvesting systems in New Zealand. Read about it in Between the Branches, March 2014. www.tigercat.com