I plan on putting a new slope board on a D8T on my mass-grade crew, and probably follow suit with some other dozers as well. The problem I'm running into; I can't find any slope board manufacturers? So I started researching with my Equipment Manager. Online searches found a G&X article mentioning slope boards, with one manufacturer: Mountain West Attachments - www.mwattachments.com The web link doesn't work, the phone and fax numbers are disconnected, and the e-mail address is invalid. Obviously out of business. My Equipment Manager then spoke with a Kiewit Equipment Manager who informed him that CAT used to make slope boards, but discontinued doing so due to convertors overheating. The problem became so bad that CAT published a bulletin citing the issues and discontinued production of the boards. From what I gather, Mountain West Attachments went by the wayside shortly thereafter. So what's the scoop? In a recent Equipment Today article there's a picture of a new D8T with Accugrade GPS and a slope board (Sukut machine). And they're not too uncommon on new dozers in MachineryTrader, Catused, etc. They're big in California, and I know a number of contractors out there are running them on new dozers; Sukut, Pinnick, Teichert, Archer Western, etc. When I worked at Kiewit, we ran several of them on National Division dozers. So who is still manufacturing them? Why did CAT have so many problems with their design but nobody else seems to? And most of all, where can I find one?
Look up Safe-T-Cab Thats who put the board on my D-8T when we bought it. I don't have the contact info with me, but it was all arranged by the local Cat dealer here, Johnson Machinery in Riverside CA Their # is 951-686-4560 I have never heard of Cat manufacturing them, but there used to be several other companies, but they are all out of buisiness. Saf-T-Cab has been around for many years in California. You see the D-8T in my avatar has one. I have never heard of converter issues when running boards, but they will cause accelerated U/C wear one one side. This is a good trade off for the production gain. Hope that helps
Why does a slope board cause converter overheating? The only reason I can think of is operating at partial throttle for extended periods.
I have in the fleet 3 D-9's, 2 D-8's, 1 D-6, 1 D-5 and 1 D-4 with slopeboards, and have had in the past 5 other D-8's with them, and I have never had converter heating problems, unless they were just worn out. Sometimes stories like this get started by people who don't have one, but just assume thats what would happen. here is the link for Saf-T-Cab http://www.saftcab.net/
Peter from ATECO. Do you still have the need for slope boards, we can fill it. Mountain West was manufacturing our boards without our license so it was enjoined from production. Our boards are now produced in Ventura, California. Let me know if you are still in the market for a sloper. Peter My email is [email protected] .
Welcome to HEF PeterP. If you would take some time please take a look at the Forum Rules Here's an excerpt from the rules - This post is your "freebie" and feel free to answer any questions about your product in this thread only. Thank you for your cooperation.
i see slope boards are a big thing out west, but i dont really see the pont of them. Someone care to expalin?
So you can keep your dozer on flat ground while cutting a slope. Most of the slopes I cut where 1:1 or 11/2:1 and if you got 50' of cut thats hell of a lot easier with a slope board. They're also nice for finishing and grubbing.
sorry just never really been around them, i would like to get some seat time in an 8 or so with slope boards, but dont see them around here. I just think i could do it better to get up on the slope and just run it using the blade, or maybe i am pissing something??? Anyone have a vid of this thing in acticion to better show the advatageds of using one?
Slope Boards Slopers are the best things since ice cream. The attachment will give you much wider swath to finish on flat ground and gives you full control of the angle of slope. If I had to compare; it's like shaving with a nice sharp blade as opposed to shaving with a log. If you are running a finishing tractor you can have a sloper on each side of the blade doubling the rate of cutting finish grade.
One of the nice things about SB is that you can see the whole cutting edge and what its doing. Everything is on a slope in Socal and they can get pretty intricate. There not the greatest thing in the world or anything, but pretty handy for a specific task. Every company I worked for had at least 1 dozer with a SB or 2. I don't care for hands that use SB for everything its just added wear on the machine. Running a SB off each side of the blade make your D8 have a 30' swath thats pretty handy for light pushing.
I am with you Dozerboy, I was interested though, to learn how many operators or owners, would be interested in having the ability to preset the angle of the slope board blade, say 1:1 or 2:1 or even 1-2%, etc. It may be useful even if you blade a finish grade on a pad at 2% the board could guide the dozer blade to a fixed grade angle. Anyway, just thinking?
id be interested to see it work
they give you wings better than redbull
Why not just climb on batter off with a percent level on the dash?
That's bascily how I do it. I just use a magnetic angle finder, like for pipe or welding , and mark hash marks with a sharpie on it. Works great for blind rough in and working with out stakes or surveys. I use it for cutting roads/driveways too.
Yea mate I used to try n put the dozer on the right angel and then set up a spirit level on the dash but a bloke I was working with showed me this digital spirit level that showers u exactly what percent ur on bloody brilliant never looked back
Cool ! That's a good idea. But that too high tech for my low tech world Lol ! We like things the hard way !