I was just wondering how many of you veteran scraper operators (or mechanics) know how to or have seen someone else neck block a scraper (one with downpressure like a cat or deere))and lift one of it's own front tires off the ground all by itself-nothing in the bowl,no dozer or anything parked on the tail.I only met one mechanic that knew how in the 6 years after a 20 year veteran co-worker showed me how it's done.I can't count how may guys argued with me and said it can't be done.Never found one willing to make a nice wager on it though....go figure.
I have seen it done a few times. You block up under the front of the machine good then lift the bowl. That in turn lowers the front lifting the wheels off.
We just 90 degree the front and jam a solid piece of steel in the hitch oscillation stop and then turn full lock the other way and you instantly have 1 front tyre off the ground, this is an old tyre fitters trick from years ago my dads tyre fitters showed me in the late 70,s. How about anyone seeing an apron go up as high as the cylinder will lift it and then going over centre?
That's what I'm talking about-blocking the neck with a piece of steel then turning it and pushing down with the bowl-just like if you had a dozer parked on the tail- to raise the opposite tire.What Brian was saying sounds like how to get the rears off the ground on a Terex with no down-pressure.You lift the bowl,block under it and let it down,lifting the rears off the ground.I loved changing scraper tires,they're so easy-especially with a tire hand.Thanks for the replies,gentlemen.
From going to work with my dad in school holidays and then going with the tyre fitters all day back when i was 10 years old in the late 70,s a tyre hand was non existent in Australia, all we had was 950 Hiab cranes and a nicely manufactured tyre hook so a lot of pushing and shoving was the order of the day, in fact the crane in that set up was often used to break the beads. I recall one day going to the Cat dealer and having to fit up 18 777 tyres for new trucks, 24.00 x 49 i think they were, we organised there yard hand to run the forklift and lay out the rims, we dropped the flanges on then dropped all the tyres on and fitted bead seat bands and then got a D9 and positioned 2 blocks to push the beads down with the blade and fit the o-ring and lock ring, biggest part of the day was blowing them up!! I went through the factory in Decatur after Conexpo and on the scraper line they have 2 IMT tyre hands bolted to the floor and as the scraper comes down the line they fit up the L & R tyres, was a neat set up.
That would surely be the same tire hand set up as the trucks use-best set-up in the industry for handling big tires.I've used FEC as well as a couple of other types,and I love the IMT cranes and tire hands.Those tire hands were the best invention since hydraulics for that type of work.Makes doing it with just a stick boom seem ancient.With the bigger haul truck tires,you can even break the beads with the tire hand with the wheels laid flat on the ground by getting the pad of your tire hand between the flange ring and the bead seat and prying with it.The guy who showed me the neck blocking trick used to bring 36:00-51's in off of 120ton haul trucks and get that tire hand prying on those old rusty wheel parts and have half his truck off the ground.Called it "parking his truck on 'em".It was about the best way to to it.Anyway,Thanks for the reply,Gavin.That would've been the tire size on a triple 7 back then.They run 27:00R49 now.Think it was the later 777C that went to 27's.
I've seen it done the way Gavin described, solid piece of metal, (the one we used was round, about 4-6 inches in length and about 4 inches in diameter, if I remember. I was the operator, not mechanic) stuff it in block and do exactly what Gavin said and one front tire comes off the ground, lickety split.
I used to keep a block of aluminum for that purpose.