the 200,300 hopto, the 50 drott were my dad's dad loved detroits. the drott 50 had a v6-53. we had a job installing new water and sewer main in 76 in a small town in south dakota. sewer we raplaced was put in wpa days was down the alleys. well....i swung, and a low branch caught BOTH mufflers, and didn't just break them or bend them...it cracked and broke chunks out of the exhaust manifolds. was VERY loud for a couple of days until i could yank them off on a friday and have my dad weld them back together.
here's a few of a 26' deep lift station and wet well we put in in 73. That's me riding the sling. OSHA would have a heyday the looks of that hole, and me riding the sling.
did this job in 75. river crossing job.
my dad's very first piece of equipment he bought in 47. badger ladder trencher.
Neat photos, thanks for sharing. Remarkable how far heavy equipment has come in a relatively short time. Now I have an excavator that will dang near dig the trench itself and a dozer that puts finish grade to .10' with a push of a button, all the while sitting on an air ride seat with A/C blowing and Bluetooth radio playing.
Good photos, thanks for putting up! You look fine in that sling; after all you are clearly demonstrating 3 'points' of contact... That Drott looks pretty nice...
have to add. my dad welded in the shipyards in bremerton, wa during ww2. he was a crazy good fabricator...and could weld anything.
my son has bought into an underground company in north dakota. they bought a gps'd new 350 komatsu. that tech is crazy. it was just coming in as i was selling my stuff, never got into it.
The GPS tech has fundamentally changed the civil portion of the job site. We can't compete without it.
i laid a lot of vcp and rcp working for dad over batter boards.
The first excavator I ever ran was an 880B Case. Probably the same cab and ****** levers as that 50. We did have a 1080B later, that was probably pretty comparable to the 50, I liked that machine.