We have Cat 637 D models, E models, G models and K models. I've personally been inside each one and a 627 B at a different employer. The common consensus out here among a strong majority of the employees is the Cat 637 E is the far superior machine, and I agree. I'm curious how the rest of you views caterpillars line up and what is your favorite generation of scraper?
Any model prior to the intrduction of the cushion hitch when real men operated scrapers.........
Any models prior to the introduction of the engine, when REAL men carried it in buckets? Out with the old, in with the new gramps.
Had a bit to do with 623 and 631 B, D and E’s a while back. All where problematic, but the 631e with hungry boards was a sweet machine. (Alot newer at the time) i do love the sound of a 3408.
What, no votes for the DW20? I actually enjoyed them but I was young at the time. A fella got a lot better with the clutches after pulling new cable through a time or two.
D7e with a Birtley cable scoop.
That's "Mr Gramps" to you sonny, and note in my post I said operators - not drivers or lever pullers.
I started my heavy equipment career working on DW20s .
I've spent some time in the 931s and self elevators of Cat and Johnny. I only have one scraper story to tell and I was running the cobbled out 225 on that job. Scarsella had 6 -B's on the highway 3 job by Bangor sub base and Poulsbo. 6 to run 4. One day I showed up, 4 hoods were open and the scraper guys and dozer guy were going home. He was too cheap to move the 6 idle -D's down there to finish the job
See this thread for a few scraper stories........ HeavyEquipmentForums
0k, I have one more We were stripping at Lakeland Hills by Lake Tapps, and making this insane ridge spine of stuff at the back of the property. Picture dumping a scraper going higher and higher and barely widening enough to sit up there on top. It had a lot of pucker to it. I remember one time looking back in that fisheye mirror that was still attached to the right side and I watched my cutting edge stand up this 20-in truck tire and wheel. It stood it up perfectly, and then off it shot down the grade picking up speed and bouncing 10-15 ft in the air. Oh crap! There were houses down there!! Luckily there was a fringe of trees about 100 ft deep and it bounced off into those trees and then I saw one of them take a mighty hit, way way over and then stand back up. I'm pretty sure it stopped there. Pretty sure.
I take it you didn't go down to check.?
I kept my mouth shut. I figured I'd hear about it if something happened lol.
I have never heard any man sing praises of a 631 scraper. To each their own, but virtually the top of my useless machine list. Can't get a full load unless going down a 20% slope, **** under one of the tires and you're stuck, I really can't think of a good place for one except in a scrap yard. Sorry for the dissenting opinion.
I reckon the same comment could be made about any single-engined scraper unless it has some serious pushing HP from a tractor behind it in the cut.
On that same vein, I have one more story lol. I got dispatched out of the Union Hall my very first time to go run dozer. I get there and the guy says wait, we don't have any dozer for you to run right now, but we would like you to run this scraper. I said mister I've never even stood next to a scraper. He said that's okay. This apprentice lady has never pushed one before either and you guys will have fun. She had a six
Here was a good place for them! Of course, I got paid for movin em in & out.......Sometimes the brakes even worked.
Brakes? That's what the can is for.
But not when you're driving one on asphalt......!!
Too bad. So sad. Shouldn't have paved that road in the first place!!
We had a fair sized fleet of 623B scrapers at our plants back in the early 90's. Those were pretty good machines, and although they could require costly repairs, they were very durable and survived the general lack of maint. pretty well. In Texas, we got "machinery" license plates for them and roaded them from pit to pit. At least, the crews had to keep the brakes working on them when going out on a highway. We tried a couple of 623E machines, but they were not nearly the machine the old 623B's were.
It was the Main Street of an English country town……. See the thread I linked in an earlier post.
Buckets!!!! Luxury, why when I was young we had to carry it in our hands. 1 cu cubit per hand, and we could not spill any.
I ran TS14’s and the first time i had to run a 631B i was always stuck. The guy i worked for had a few 631B’s and they were always broke down compared to the TS14’s. One guy used to refer to the 631’s as dirt gobbling, road wrecking sons of b****es
I've heard others that also preferred Terex over Cat and they were better in softer ground.
Interesting thread. I’ve owned some TS14B’s years ago.Very good in bad muck. I’ve also driven plenty of TS24B B10 lot and the Yanky B9 lot scrapers.Love a Detroit. Terex scrapers were cheap and economical in the right hands,and could shift soft muck in the UK better than any Cat. However,I love a 631C all day long. Funnily enough,currently working on a 637G that’s got a reman 3408 stuffed under the bonnet.The others are all C18’s?
Not questioning you, just wondering whatever managed to catch your eyes on a single engine turd like the 631C? Maybe you know that your dozers would have plenty to do shoving them around?
631C's were one of my favorites also, Nicky. I spent many years running them and pushing them. Those things would go like hell in 7th and 8th gear on a good long haul road. I pushed them in cuts with D8's,D9's and D10's. I spent more time on dumps and fill areas mostly, pushing them with D8's The bowls had two foot high side boards welded on them to. They were kept in excellent shape and always had good front tires. A typical day on a fill area would be 250 to 300 loads a day in 10 hours. When the owner of the company bought new scrapers he would have the rear tires taken off and replaced with old ones. The new 631E's he bought to replace the C's were a really nice upgrade.
The sound of that D343 allways won me over! Over here,we allways pushload with 9’s.Almost no push pull scrapers or self loading,so the 631’s were very popular. We also had many pit heaps that needed levelling after mines closed down,so they were ideal downloading all day
Did you ever check out Holland Loaders ? I used to push 631C's away from them after they were loaded a short distance until they could upshift and take off. Out of curiosity I timed the Holland Loader in action. It had the scraper bowl running over in less than a minute.
You bring up one of the keys to running push cat behind direct drive scrapers like DW15s and 20s, which was not to quit your scraper until they had a chance to shift and pull away. Conversely, if the scraper operator didn't lift and get gone in short order, a couple rounds of quitting them a bit early usually provided incentive to change ones behavior!
You remind me of the very loud discussion I had to have with my brother over 20 years ago. Pulling a 20 yard converted Allis 260 with a Deere 8650. If he didn't quit on me, I could grab C-range pretty easy. After the third time he left me sitting with a full load and not being able to get going in anything over B2, I chewed his ***. He actually argued with "why the hell do I need to keep pushing after you're full". I just told him, if you're to dumb to understand I can't get a load moving in road gear after I've stopped, then I can't help you.
The most efficient loading of scrapers I've ever seen was a original D10 pushing 631's up a 12ft high bank. The dozer never pushed further than the length of the scraper which was heap loaded in an average time of 25 seconds. The beauty of this method was the quickness the dozer could get back to push the next scraper. 550000m3 was shifted in 3 months. It was also the first time the Government couldn't keep up with the progress payment cheques.
The fastest loading time with a Holland Loader that I saw was 25 seconds. I timed it. The loader operator didn't empty the belt after the last load, which he was supposed to do. The empty scrapers pulled under the belt as soon as I got past it. Although it required the loader to have two tractors on it. there was huge savings in track wear as opposed to using push Cats on the stingers and push loading.
I've been trying to find a video of this, but wasn't too successful yet. There is so little scraper work around me that I'm amazed when I do see some working. The few I usually see are self elevating, so they usually move fairly slow. I do see a fair amount of guys with tractors and pull pans, but it's usually excavators and trucks shifting the dirt.
Are you guys talking about these things?
I’m only posting because these came through my feed a few days ago. I tried searching for them in the past with no luck. The words Holland and Loader bring up too many other results.
Those Holland loaders could really spit out a load in a hurry. Back in 1973-74, I worked on a huge dam building job in eastern Ohio. The contractor had a Holland loader backed up against an old mine highwall, and had 3 D9's pushing to it. They were loading a fleet that consisted of 10, 50 ton Payhaulers and 10 old Cat belly dumps. The haul was downhill, and really short. I hardly ever saw a truck waiting for a load, and we hauled millions of tons for that project.