Here are a few shots of a Komatsu PC1250-7 that is working in the china clay pits in Cornwall England.
Wow -- nice shots! Thanks!
Well we now know why their call China clay pits. If he keeps digging with that he'll be there soon (china) nice pics:thumbsup
Great photos Nick, Is that a Bell truck?
Hi all thanks for the nice comments,:notworthy Yes Wulf the truck is a Bell B50D nice trucks !! I have more of these photos which I will post in time. Nick.:drinkup
More photos for your enjoyment!!:notworthy In one shot we see operator Michael Lyne at the controls, these shots were taken by a professional photographer from Komatsu for use in a calender and were kindly given to me by Michael.
Nice pictures Nick.:notworthy
I didn't know that they made 50ton articulated haul trucks? How come we only have 40ton trucks here?
50t Adt Hey Traxs Bell has prodused these for some years now. I belive they are sold as Deere in the states. Moxy is introducing a 50t at Bauma in april. Orderbooks is full for their modell. A local contractor has 4 Bell 50t on a project here in Norway, and they are huge. I've spent time in the A35, but the 50t is bigger. You can sit in a summerchair and have lunch on the side of the enginehood.
Why is there only 4 teeth on that big of bucket?
That surprised me too. I'll bet it has something to do with the fact that the machine is used exclusively for digging that clay...
They only have 40T on the deere website...I guess North America doesn't get it!
It looks like there is some rock there he is digging in. My guess that the 4 teeth would give more pressure on each tooth to break up rock a little easier.
It’s not really rock I don't think more like sand stone. We have it out here its a clay and sand and its mix hell on teeth.
Question - how come the shoes on the trackhoe are so narrow?
All our hoes have the narrow shoes due to the amount of rock they are constantly traveling over.
I can totally understand that - don't know much about quarry work. When I saw that hoe I instantly thought about how unstable it would be on one of our typical jobs. You know mud, slopes, clearing and grubbing. Knowledge is power or something like that......
Countryboy hit the nail on the head, the wider the shoe the greater the twisting effect on the shoe and links when working on uneven ground and traveling over rocky terrain That PC1250SP comes with 28" as standard because of the type of work its intended for. A PC1250LC track will be longer and has quite a bit wider shoe as standard. The message from anyone that ever had to repair a busted pin or track link on a 100 tonne machine down in the the pit will always be... use the narrowest track shoe possible!
good call
Floatation is not nearly an issue in quarrys. PLenty of rock around. Which also plays havac on U/C's
Most hoes around here are running the narrowest pads possible, with the exception of 20" pads on a 120. Our 312 had 24" pads and just about every other 120 around here does as well. A couple 200's are running 28", but that's it. Too much rock here, if you're running anything wider you'll be needing new links and shoes every couple thousand hours.
Hi All,:notworthy Yes I have to agree with most of the previous comments as we say over here its "Horses for Courses" you should always choose the appropriate tools for the job in hand. Those track shoes are ideal for the tough conditions in the quarry but would not be much use in a boggy field. At the induction session at the china clay quarry we were told that the material is one of the most abrashive found in the world ?? I never stayed in there long enough to find out!! Not my cup of tea quarry work!!:Banghead Nick:thumbsup
Nick, Have Komatsu changed the their yellow back to the dash3 or5 colour-it sure looks like it in the photos. Neil
Hi Neil, The current Komatsu yellow is the same as the Dash-5 colour as far as I am aware, and I have been operating quite a lot of Komatsu stuff in the past few years and it hasn't changed that much. Nick
Thanks Nick Its just that in your photos the machine has an orange tinge to the paint much the same as the earlier Komatsus whereas the current ones have what I would call a very bright lemon yellow colour!! Neil