Has anyone seen a Kmoatsu scraper or operated one ? I saw a picture of one on the web but have never seen any around .
Well I've heard of Komatsu . My brother worked for a company a few years ago that ran 3 or 4 of the WS23 with Cummins 6 cyl. engines on both ends. I don't remember the engine models as this was probably 12-15 years ago. They were a bit better than a Cat in the mud but overall the breakdowns and parts availability made them a bad choice. Electrical and hydraulic problems were an everyday given. They sent them to the Florida auctions about ten years ago and I watched them auctioned but can't remember what the final bid was.
Well this is just my personal opinion...but thats pretty much the story on all komatsu stuff...good for the first 2-3000 hours then they start to fall to pieces . We run 3 Komatsu excavators ( 270 and 2 300's ) and i cant stand to operate them any more . They seem like there is something loose somewhere and by first coffee break you are so stiff and sore .
http://www.classicmachinery.net/forum/scrapers-f49/komatsu-ws-235-motor-scraper-t1070.html You might find this forum interesting, there are some good pics of Komatsu WS23's in this post. You might have to register to see them, but it's a really good site, and pic heavy. From the UK. Alan627b http://www.classicmachinery.net/forum/index.php
Thanks Alan, I new that I had seen some on one of the boards somewhere in the past few months, I just couldn't remember which one (to many I guess). I don't think I ever saw a single engine Komatsu until Plantman posted those.
Komatsu scraper 2 type large:WS23 small:WS16 I find WS16-2. http://www55.tok2.com/home2/history/photo/463.jpg
hello WS16S-2 catalog http://www55.tok2.com/home2/history/pdf/ws16s-2.pdf Thank you
there are not a lot but i found twho here scrapers komatsu one is very old 1979
scraper komatsu http://www.machineryzone.com/html/MZ/US/photos-us/scraper-komatsu.jpg
A Komatsu on the left. Sorry about the pic quality, but this was 10 years before digital cameras. The Terex is a TS-24, so you get an idea of the relative size.
The company I am with now had a WS16S which I spent some time on, had plenty of power 365HP Cummins, suspended axel, oil cooled brakes all round, air over/hyd controls which were very touchy, impossible to do any trimming with as there was no feel, it was either up or down in 100mm steps, a million grease nipples on it especially the suspended axel which had to be greased from under the machine, the ride was probly the best thing about it, a bit better than what cushion hitch gives you. There is an outfit here in Qld still running 20 or so WS23s. Cheers RDG.
Must have got to hard to fix this one so they left it behind.
http://www.machinerytrader.com/list/list.aspx?ETID=1&catid=1081&Manu=KOMATSU 4 WS23's for sale. The pics show this one having a cushion hitch ala Cat... I wonder if somebody engineered a Cat hitch from a 637 to them? From what I know these used a suspended axle rather than a cushioned hitch. Interesting.... Alan
Yes, Komatsu did make twin engine push pulls. I saw two new ones in the Hayward, Ca. dealer yard. They looked like 657s. They were just off loaded and did not have the tires on them yet. That was in the early '80s. My son was the parts manager there at the time. I have no idea who bought them.
Hi Don, yep we had them in Australia. WS23's they were. We had 5 in a fleet on one job along with other makes. They had a Komatsu-manufactured (or copy of) a Cummins KT1150 engine and a Komatsu copy of the old Cat 9-speed 3x3 trans. They were equivilent in size to a 31C. They were quite fast on the haul and beastly to operate. A mass of hydraulic valves were mounted directly under the floor pan of the cab and within an hour, the floor was red hot. We used to put sheets of plywood on the floor, wet rags, whatever we could find so out boots didn't cook us up. The controls and transmissions were wild, controlled by air over electric over hydraulic and not necessarilly in that order. On the haul, they would change for no reason from 3rd lockup (= 9th in a cat 9-speed) down to 2nd TC ( = to 4th in a cat 9-speed) and the operator would be kissing the windscreen while the wheels dug in and bounced out several times as it slowed down so suddenly leaving huge wheel gouge marks a foot deep and ten feet long in hard ground. No one liked them but they could take whatever and more than anyone could throw at them, there was always more left in them , they were a very tough scraper and were very reliable. They had suspension struts on the front and gave a good ride. I have some pics, I'll dig them up. Cheers tournaphil
Leightons in WA had some in W. Aust. in the early 90's. I remember they spent a lot of time parked up and broken down. They didn't keep them long.
Around 1987, Anderson Equipment had a pair of demonstrators in the Pittsburg area. I took a closer look at them once, but we didn't need any on our current project. The sales rep with Anderson told me that the machines had been out on a dozen different jobs, but were always soon returned for being unreliable with way too much downtime. He also mentioned that Anderson was returning the two to Komatsu because there was just no interest in the machines in their territory. I don't believe that I've seen more than a couple anywhere since then, and none working.
RayF was that at Mt Keith tailings dam job was the with west-trac komatsu engineers come onsite and took more photos of leightons cat than there machines:Banghead
From memory it was before Mt Keith started up. I seen them parked up in Leighton's Kurnall Rd yard when I started line boring there which was about 88/89. They had been on site somewhere and were not a success and I think Komatsu took them away eventually. At the time Leightons had a big fleet of 631E's at Lady Bountiful? near Broad Arrow. For years Leighton's kept me busy boring cushion hitches.
I was a wty fitter for the then NSW Cat dealer Gough & Gilmour in 1991/92 at Leightons Thompson Creek dam site where they presented Leighton with the 100th 631E/D series scraper they had purchased, the unit number was SP505 and for a long time it had me baffled how a unit with the number 505 could be the 100th, we had many other 631E on site with numbers like 573, 595 etc so i figured the 500 family numbers at 100 scrapers should have been unit SP501, turns out the Komatsu,s Leightons had were 631 class machines so they used up 4 of the SP500 series numbers at some point and thats how 505 was the 100th Cat scraper.
Thanks for the link. The photo is great. You can really see the machine on it. :drinkup
Here is one at Ritchie Brothers in Phoenix this spring.
It looks like Komatsu used a lot of IHC tech, the bowl and hitch look like tidied up 295 items. If they go like an IH scraper they'll go better than the equivilant Cat of the time, but, while IH got your back up, Cat did back up.
I've heard talk on another forum that Brandeis Machinery sales is looking to hook up a Komatsu HM400-2 40 Ton ADT to pull a 33 Cubic Yard scraper. Don't think they've done it yet, but they may start scraping in that direction with Komatsu!
The engine model was SDA6-140. They truly are way better than Cat in the mud and in my opinion just plain better than cat. I worked as a mechanic/operator for a dirt work contractor for nearly 30 years and we had six of them and they would just run circles around the 637e machines. They were considerably easier to maintain as well.
The engine model was SDA6-140. They truly are way better than Cat in the mud and in my opinion just plain better than cat. I worked as a mechanic/operator for a dirt work contractor for nearly 30 years and we had six of them and they would just run circles around the 637e machines. They were considerably easier to maintain as well.
This is still an excellent photo though. It shows two scrapers that are far better than cat!!! The WS23 is roughly the same size and capacity as the 637e/g but twice the machine in my opinion. It has more power better torque better engines and drive trains and they are so much easier to service and maintain.
Taken today on my way home from work, Boise ID.
Thank you for posting these most excellent photos!!!! This brings back such good memories!!! The company I once worked for had six of these rigs and they were all pretty darn good!! We only had the one problem child though!!!!!
Horrible bloody things they were... I to was unlucky enough to have done some "cocky" work and old mate had brought a couple direct from the Australian Army although it was rare we had them both working together... Speaking of which I got talking to a bloke about them a few years later who had been Army all his life and in the engineers and he told me the story about how when they put this order through to Komatsu, which also included D65 dozers and some other gear it was part of the deal that all the machines had to have there air conditioners removed! And then he told me about the famous TV add that didn't do over to well? Anyone in Australia who like me is no longer a young bloke shall we say??? May remember a famour add year ago for people to join the Army and this add had snippets of different things you could do in the army while a well known instrumental song played along something like "Da Da Da Da Dar"? and in one piece you see a komatsu scraper flat out & crossed up bouncing the front wheels off the ground, anyone remember it? Well it turns out the execs at Komatsu also saw it and were not really impressed seeing as they at the time had a yard full of gear in for warranty repairs and komatsu did there best to tear up the army's warranty altogether! Not exactly sure how it all turned out in the end but that said the Australia Army have never brought anything from Komatsu since, at least not in any numbers?... No, you can keep your Komatsu Scrapers...
Did some time on one of those ex Army WS 16S a few yrs ago as the company I was with had one, about a million grease nipples on it, LOL.
In 1988 i was working for leightons at the junction pit at Kambalda.Before i got there they used 631e,s and i think my mate said 4 or 5 komatsu scraper,s .Leighton,s couldnt get any 31,s quickly enough for this job so they had to go komatsu.One was rolled in the first couple of days and another 2 i think he said over the next few weeks.Leighton,s end up getting more 31,s,from over east i think and komatsu,s were **** canned.Sure he said ,no cushion hitch set up and shockies on all wheel,s.
Yes, I sure do remember that ad. Loved it at the time and it probably swayed a good few young lads to pick up an SLR and don the khaki. It was also a good training video on how not to operate machinery and I can understand Komatsu's conniptions upon seeing their gear flogged in that way.
I couldn't agree more! We had 6 of the WS23 machines and they truly would work circles around the overrated Cat scrapers. The only one of the Komatsus we had any real trouble with was the lone Cummins powered one. The other 5 with the SA6D 140s generally only needed routine maintenance.
I couldn't agree more! We had 6 of the WS23 machines and they truly would work circles around the overrated Cat scrapers. The only one of the Komatsus we had any real trouble with was the lone Cummins powered one. The other 5 with the SA6D 140s generally only needed routine maintenance I really have nothing against Komatsu scrapers. When I worked as a mechanic for an earthmoving contractor, we had 6 of them and 5 were very good, solid machines. The one Cummins powered machine was the only one that gave us any real trouble. And every problem we had was with the Cummins garbage engines.
mt KEITH MINE TAILINGS DAM 1994-5