Years ago I went to possibly buy a Gradall. I went to test one at the factory and got a tour. I had a great time watching things being made. It was a holiday or something and nobody was working. It was still great to see how it was all made. Anyone else get a tour in a heavy equipment factory? I always wanted to go to a car plant also.
Back in school I toured CaseIH in Racine WI, JD in Waterloo IA, and JD in Dubuque IA. All very interesting and would like to do the JD tours again
When I worked for the Cat dealer, I went a few times for tours with customers, and a few times to training. Alot of the parts people think are formed out to suppliers, I watched being made in Cat's factory.
my buddy and I are doing a cross country road trip in the middle of May and plan on stopping at Cat and Deere in Illinois...anyone know if theres daily tours open to the public at all?
I have been the Paccar plant in Montreal. It was very interesting. They assemble the Kenworth T300 and the Peterbuilt 330.
Years ago I went through the Mack factory in Allentown. It was part of the antique truck show at Macungie- they had busses running that would take folks to and from the plant. Once at the factory you just went inside and wandered around. There were some arrows made out of tape on the floor to show you which way to go and some signs explaining certain parts of the manufacturing process, but other than that you were on your own. It was on a weekend, and the place was deserted- no security, no nothing, you were free to walk around wherever you wanted. Pretty cool:cool2
I've had the pleasure of being in many manufacturing plants during my years of servicing commercial garage doors, crane operating/servicing, heavy plant machinery moving, and aerial lift/contractors equipment servicing. I always loved being in "plants" and seeing the processes at work. Back in '02 I went to the JLG plant in McConnellsburg PA for technician training, they took us through the plant during operation hours, that was a trip I really liked.
been inside toyota cambridge ontario plant
Been a while but I went thru pete and kenworth in WA once. The fun ones were Cessna, Beech and Lear in Wichita, KS, but an airplane nut as well.
I would like to go to JLG and see the equipment I use being made. PA is close to me anyway
I went to the Sterling truck plant in ontario years ago. Ive been to Cats mapleton foundry, the mossville engine plant, SS building in East Peoria, the East peoria undercarriage forge, and Aurora loader/ excavator plant. As well as headquarters in peoria. Made it the the Proving grounds in Arizona as well. I would say if you called and made arrangements for a tour theyd be happy to do so.
Been to Mack trucks in Charlotte,NC, Link-Belt in Lexington Ky, but my favorite was the Komatsu plant in Chattanooga,Tn.We toured the factory and then headed out to one of Vulcan Materials quarries to have a field day with some new Komatsu equipment.WA-800,WA-500,WA-450,were some of the loaders.PC-1000,PC-650,PC-400 and smaller excavators.D-475A-2 dozer was bought by a fellow from Nova-Scotia,made the deal right there after trying it out. The one thing that got my attention-along with many on the tour was the dynomometer.They had a WA-500 chained down to it with the back axle on the rolls,no front driveshaft.The testers were just hammering this thing.Fourth gear wide open throttle forward and shift into reverse no letting off the fuel.Fourth gear and drop it to first-anything to try to break it.The tires were literally flattening against the load-so hard it was almost trying to hop off the rolls.They would load up the rolls and try to overheat the torque-converter.I thought parts would be flying off that machine-none did though. Dominion:canada
That's cool! I'd like to have seen that WA-500 on the dyno.
I've been on a tour thru Cat's plants in Illinois where they build their dozers, large wheel loaders, compactors, and pipe layers as well as the foundry where the engines are made. It was one heck of an awesome experience. If you ever get the chance it is well worth it. I've also been to Al-jon's facility in Iowa where they build their landfill compactors, scrap balers and car crushers.
That was Brogan Minings machine, Companies been gone for a while but the machine is still in cape breton somewhere.
I've been to Komatsu's Chattanoga plant when they built the WA500-WA600. It has since moved back to Japan from what I understand, but they were putting wheel loaders and exscavators together in the same place. It was quite the tour. We watched them weld the boom's together or at least the robotic welders. Pretty impressive place.
Speaking of Cat tours. Do you have to be an owner or making a deal or can a Deere or Komatsu guy get tours there?
How in the world do you get into those Wichita aircraft plants? Since Sept 11 it seems you can't get see any of the interesting stuff. My brother lived in Montreal for awhile and he tried seeing the Bombardier CRJ plants as the Bell helicopter plant but no luck.
You mean this one? Brian
A number of years ago I toured the Cat foundry, grader, tractor and engine plants. It was a terrific tour and the Caterpillar people treated us like royalty. I left there wondering how they kept prices at the levels they did, given the amount of research and effort put into manufacturing their products. The funniest thing was when we called the front desk in the classy old hotel we were in for a bucket of ice for our cokes...errr..refreshments. The bellboy came up with two five gallon pails of the stuff. Even we couldn't use all that! One winter I welded at the Versatile plant in Winnipeg Manitoba. Really good factory but not nearly as much fun working in one as it is touring one!
Hi guys! I agree it’s very interesting to see our beloved machines being made. Been to Bobcat plant in Dobris, Czech Republic ( http://url.synthlife.com/b12k3uul ), Manitou plant in Cavazzona, Italy ( http://url.synthlife.com/xjlsdt30 ), my friend Ad de Smth visited Hitachi plant in Amsterdam, Netherlands ( http://url.synthlife.com/7n8vjf2g ). A have also visited more „exotic“ production plants such as Way Industry (Slovak producer of skid steer loaders Locust, http://url.synthlife.com/5z6tph6f ) or PPS Group (Slovak producer of wheel loaders Detvan, http://url.synthlife.com/649juihk ).
That'll depend on how exactly you get the tour. If you go through your dealer, it might be kind of tough; if you can schedule a tour through Cat HR, it doesn't particularly matter what affiliation you are with.
about half a dozen self tours of auto plants, when i hauled refrigerant... really interesting stuff.... got yelled at once..."where's your station".... I'm delivering..then the go to your truck speech. Done tons of work in the all aircraft plants here... you could walk around them all day long,without any one bothering you..
been to the jbb plant in ga it was a neat place, hate there machines but there demo yard was a fun time