When I was a kid, there was a heavy equipment company on M-37 north of Hastings, MI that had a Michigan 675. Everytime we would drive by, I would stare in amazement at the shear enormity of the machine and dream about what it would be like to run it. When I was a teenager in 1998, my grandpa contracted that equipment company to off load and handle a Cadman hard hose traveller in their yard for assembly. While we waited for the trucks to arrive, I finally got to get up close and personal with that 675. I was every bit as awestruck then as I was when I was a kid driving by and staring at it. Walking under the rear of the machine and seeing those 2 Detroits overhead is quite an impressive sight. Everything on the machine is enormous, and for a wet behind the ears teen, I couldn't comprehend how it was dreamed up or built. Flash forward 10 years to summer 2008 and I was working as an engineering intern for Caterpillar in their Decatur, Illinois plant. The Decatur plant builds the M series motor graders, all of their haul trucks and all of their wheel tractor scrapers. It is a huge facility as you can imagine, and I still got that tingling feeling walking around the biggest of the big at that plant. The 797F, the 24M, the 657E. The 797F has never been completely assembled at the Decatur facility. It shipped out in multiple sub assemblies and was only final assembled at the mine that bought it. In 2008, as part of a marketing and promotion campaign, Cat built a 795F AC drive truck at the Decatur plant. We all got the chance to sit in it, take pictures, etc. Sitting in that seat reminded me of that old Michigan 675 back around home. Technology has come a long ways since the days Clark built that machine.
I wonder if any of those 675's still exist, or have they all been scrapped. Cool machines. I have an old Michigan 280 wheel dozer, and I also wonder if any of the old 480's still exist.
Back when I started at the quarry in 1968 the main loader that fed the primary crusher was a 475IIA Michigan. A few years latter when I got a job in the new shop at the quarry I had a lot of hands-on time with that machine! As I recall one of the first engines I help rebuild was the V-12 Cummins in that machine.
https://awesomeearthmovers.com/thec...ecessor-of-todays-giant-mining-wheel-loaders/ According to this article, only 3 are known to still exist. That's actually a picture of the one I saw as a kid.
The 1970 prototype 675 used GM engines. The 14 production models built between 1973 and 1976 had Cummins engines. Two machines were bought back by Clark and turned into 675C models. I used to have a C model brochure and it listed the 675 as "Offering the biggest bite on wheels with buckets up to 36 cu. yds. Unfortunately the brochure got thrown out when I wasn't there to save it. Weighed 190,000lbs.