On the front cover of this month's contractor's hotline there is an ad for the "SD600TX Super Dozer". This thing looks like a diesel locomotive on 8 tracks w/ a blade on the front and a ripper on the back. It supposedly runs on micronized coal at 10% of the cost of diesel. Here is a link to the online version of the magazine: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/b004946a#/b004946a/1 My guess is, this is an idea somebody has, that they are trying to attract investors or customers for. Have any of you heard anything about this?
Never heard of it, definitely a mine machine if it ever comes to pass.
Maybe it's the same group that's trying to build the ETF trucks.......just sounds to me like something they might dream up.
saw that too, looked around a lot but there is no info to be found I guess..
I'm going to say no way! Even in mining you still have to have the support to keep it going. Who the hell is going to work on it? and it looks like an awkward desighn.
it would sure be tough to set upright again if it tipped over!
Here's another view. No web site or anything, but you do have the option of either coal gasifier-gas turbine power or a reciprocating micronized coal power plant. http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1zbme/RADCentralOctober201/resources/40.htm
I want to see you sift it and then i want too see who would pay the price tag for it ? and come on think about it the turning and everything on it would be nuts maybe for the oil sands in canada or something like that. but i could see no use for it 600tons? for a dozer and 8 sets of undercarriage to replace???
The conditions in the oilsands dictate that a machine has to be quite agile. This thing, would not be even remotely close to agile. It would simply sink, or get bogged down and stuck at every turn.
so in that case i guess the machine seems like a useless bit of gear as i hounestly cant see where it would have a big advantage over anything on the market.
I agree, I can't personally see any benefit to a machine like this. However, if someone could come up with a practical use for it, I'd love to hear it.
Avatar 2 Brian!
I think there is a pretty good reason why dozers are stuck at around the 1000hp mark while others like dump trucks get bigger and bigger and bigger...
This kind of lends a whole new meaning to the saying, when your buddy yells out - "pour the coal on, man!!" :falldownlaugh Looks to me like it's merely a prototyping exercise to see if some company might be interested in the idea. AFAIC, it's got all the attractiveness of a lead balloon. You get these crazy ideas appear on a regular basis - and they usually die and disappear, as quickly as they appear. Gas turbines have been advocated as replacements for IC engines since the 1950's - but no-one has ever got around the dreadful thirst of gas turbines. I guess we need these "creative" guys with dreams and schemes in their heads - but those designs have to be tempered with a whole dose of what works and what is acheiveable - and more importantly - what is a real advance on current designs. Here's a link to a designer guy, Jon Pope, who is pretty good on producing wild design ideas. He must smoke some good stuff. http://www.coroflot.com/jonpope/super-dozer-5000
Looks like a locomotive simular to the one Western had back in the 60's except it was on rubber and no ripper
the man that invented the diesel desighed it to run on coal so they are going to make it do what it was made for
Hmm .. IMO, that statement is not historically correct. Yes, Rudolf Diesel did attempt to build a compression ignition engine using powdered coal dust. However, the engine exploded when it was started - and all subsequent attempts at injecting coal dust as fuel, failed. Diesel rapidly dropped the idea, and went over to oil. Thus, no engine was ever produced that actually RAN on coal dust. The history of fuel injection makes for interesting reading. The British pioneered common rail injection in 1913, and utilised injection pressures of 5000psi, a remarkable achievement for that era. http://www.dieselduck.net/historical/05 documents/History of fuel injection.pdf
the only thing i see is the worlds craziest kill dozer. The thing is unwieldy for anything else.
Actually, Rudolph Diesel's engine used peanut oil as the fuel.