I see that there is interest in six wheel scrapers so I thought I would put this in to stir up some interest. During the '60's and early '70's, there was a fleet of these scrapers working at Benmore then the Upper Waitaki in the South Island of NZ This one (photo from the net) at a park in Twizel. I spent quite some time maintaining and rebuilding these scrapers and they were quite fast when on a good road. I was clocked by my escort at 50mph on the oad between Pukaki and Twizel once. They were powered by the IH DT817 engine and 5 speed Allison power shift transmission. Eventually they were replaced by a fleet of 15 IH 295 scrapers. When time permits, I will look for some of my photos of these old work horses. John
Hi John, I recall one 495 the Ministry had to haul penstock sections at Twizel. That was in the late '70s. I spent a bit of time in that last shed on the road with the IH sign hanging off the front. Cable control
Ih 495 How much did that beast weigh? Did it have a pusher on the backside?
Not sure of the weight of this beast but the bowl capacity was about the same as a Cat 631. Only single powered and had to be push loaded, generally with either a Cat D8H or D9G. I remember the penstock carrier - quite an impressive sight when loaded up. The double trailer arrangement we made up to haul the penstocks to Tekapo B on the public roads looked quite impressive too. Below is a photo of the fleet of 15 IH 295s that replaced the 495s. You will notice one on the right sitting up on ramps - would have been having a tranny change out. This was a common occurance in the 295s. The Allison trannys gave a lot of trouble where as the same Allisons in Terex, Wabco and the 495 scrapers gave a good run. One scraper is missing, probably broken down and away for repairs! Also included a shot of the dozers used at the same work site. These consist of the following: 3 D7Fs each pulling tandem vibrating rollers 1 D7G 5 D8Hs & Ks 1 Komatsu D155 with angle blade 2 D9G or Hs I spent some time looking after all this equipment at this work camp. Good fun trying to reverse the D7s with tandem rollers across the fill we were placing. Major jobs were trucked back to a centralised workshop. This equipment was only about 10% of the total equipment over the whole hydro electric construction site. John
Cool pics there John good to see some NZ scenery in the background, who were you working for on that job? Cheers RDG.
RDG, I was with the Ministry of Works for about 4 years and a little while with Burnetts. John