i finally got a new computer, the new 37 has over 2500 hrs on it now, i got to run it for a couple months, but didnt really like the new 6 cylinder in the front, the power was comparable , the 6 was alot more snappy, just partial to the 3408, plus the seat in the new 37 didnt work as good. since the 37 that ive been running for three years an 05, came back from cat with a midlife rebuild i took it instead, rebuilt from the ground up, even a new interior. now that i got this pic resizing figured out maybe ill be able to post them, here is a couple of pics i took last night at work, 37 e 2s. the first pic is the not so newer 37, pretty cool how they made the air sucker for the front right there, you can change the air filter from the ground, if your tall you can check the oil too, the second is the one i run, the good one in my opinion
Clever parking spot. I also miss the smoke signals that the E's will send up!
Nice pics btw
What part of Wyoming? Who's the contractor? Is S&M still around in Gellete? You stock piling top soil. Mike Nebergall
we are in northern wyo, we mine bentonite, in the pics we are dumping overburden back in the hole we dug the bentonite out of, we are 200 miles from gillete so im not familiar with the companies or contractors in that area, some day im gonna take a tour of a mine over there though, check out the big ****,
Goodmorning 637slayer, I worked in Wyoming 22 years ago and worked the big mines Antelope, was one out of Bill wyoming next to Black Thunder, and three or four more in Gillete, they ran the biggest and the most modern Dozers, Scrapers and the biggest off road haulers made what a neat experience. I had come streight from the Orange county area in California the Wyoming contractors had the big scrapers 651,s and two or three 657's of course D9H push cats, I could not believe how big the off road trucks were a 657 scraper could park the scraper canopy under the lip of the dump bed and the top of the canopy still cleared the bottom of the lip a good 6 feet maybe 8 feet it was unbelievable. I thought the contractors treated there operators like !%*# and the wages I think the scraper operator was getting $7.25 an hour back then of course coming from california being Union. I hope things have changed quite a bit for all the operators. Have a good one. Mike Nebergall
I don't think S&M is around anymore. I don't know that for sure though. I know Osbourne is not
i have e few friends that live in gillete, they work for contractors at a couple of the bigger mines, one works at n.a.r.m., all they do is spread topsoil, and strip top soil, they run quite a few 57s, matched with 51s to do the touch up work, the bulk is handled by a fleet of bottom dump trailers, powered by a 777, they load them with a big cat trackhoe dont know the numbers, the ones with the cab way up high so you can look into the trucks, wish he would send pics, hes sent a couple cool ones just from a cell phone, he was tracking a d10 across the mine and snapped a pic of the orange cloud that happens after they blast, hurt my lungs just looking at it, a couple of the big draglines, my fav was a pic of a trailer they made to haul their big dozers and hoes, big, wide, low to the ground pulled it with a 777.
Yea slayer, I don't hardly know anyone any more up there. I know Osbourne used to have a bunch of triple 6's and I drove by their yard a year or so and there is nothing. Just a small outfit there now. I do seem to remember gettin an auction brochure for Osbourne the more I think about it.
ive run across quite a few people who worked for them back in the day big outfit, now one of the bigger ones that took their place is the washington group, im pretty sure thats who my friend works for now, they run quite a few 57gs, one time we were in a bar over there and a group of haul truck drivers came in and started celebrating, we got talking to them and they were partying because they finally got a hole filled in that they worked on for almost ten years, i think they were all running 797
I took the back road from Sheridan to Gillette about two months ago. I had'nt been that way in along time. I do remember seeing a bunch of 51's and probably 57's working at one of the mines just north of Gillette. That might have been your friends.
Wow, now that's a fill and definitely worth celebrating! Bentonite would be interesting, it is quite the stuff the few times I have been around it. Does it have to be ripped before you are able to load it? Must be kinda similar to very silty soil. Cool operation you work for.
Slayer, glad to here your still kicking it in the salt (bentonite) mines. Please post more photos. Cant wait for the CCM 637e, my favorite machine in scale form. I have an old brochure of the S&M dispersal, I will see what format it is in and will post up what I can in this thread, if that is agreeable. If i remember lots of coal bowl 51's and 57's were listed. Gd10r
now that im catching on to this resizing, heres a pic of my scraper right when it came back from being rebuilt,one of our scrapers all parked together, should of parked them in a line so it would look like we had more, the drill truck drilling the bentonite for samples.
Hey Slayer, you heard anything about an Auction coming up in Gillette by Ritchie Bros? I got a brochure that had a whole bunch of 651E's and 657's. I was just wondering if this might of been the outfit your friends work for. I think part of them were Larry's Inc, but i don't know that for sure. The only reason i thought it might be them is because of all the Cat belly dumps for auction.
Could they be McCoy's scrapers, I know they moved up in the Gillette area about 6 or 7 years ago out of southern California? Mike Nebergall
They could be! I know Larry Inc likes moving dirt with big hoes and 100 to 200 ton belly dumps and there is a few of them coming up at that auction. Look on Ritchie bros website. it may have more info
637slayer; Tell me on a job that size why not use 657,s
we work in some tight spaces, in some little pits where we barely have room to push pull, personally i think 57s would be ok, but i can see the higher ups side also, ive lobbied for 57s for awhile now to no avail
Why not lobby for some radial tires on the E model? Damn shame to still be running on rags,especially on the front. Should've at least pulled the Michelins off the rears of the G's when they were new and put on the fronts.:my2c
Why do you park that way? To leave at the start of shift everyone has to back out...
Probably because scraper tires are near impossible to come by this year, or last year, or any year really. The way I understand it, tire mfg's only gear up to make those nice steel belted radials once a year and they never make enough to meet all of the orders. Don't quote me on that. It does make sense however, keep supply down demand high and prices outrageous right? Not to mention, the H model scrapers came out this year, and you can bet your @$$ cat had called dibs on a few of those tires before they even announced H model production dates.
Just guessing, but looks like the crew has a bunch of old grey hairs that can't handle the tall climb up the ladder anymore
Someone fed you a line as far as only producing tires once a year. Those lines run every day, they don't switch from bias to radial and back-each requires a different process and equipment/molds, as well as different rubber compounds.Besides, Michelin only makes radial tires,period. They do not produce a bias ply tire of any sort. It's just an issue of supply and demand, as well as availability( and price) of raw materials.
Prices have increased so substantially in recent years due to the exorbitant price of crude oil. It takes several barrels to produce an off the road tire.
Yeah, thats why I said don't quote me. He is our local tire guy but he is definitely one of those "feed you a line" guys. We did go to a different dealer and talked to him about what causes the price fluctuations, and he said crude was actually one of the lower cost determining factors compared to some of the other raw materials.
we always put new on the front, you must have good eyes tireman i still cant see which e had the junk tires, they prob dont even have that many hrs on them, just people not caring, spinning. we do dig in alot of rock too, still no excuse, i see some guys get new tires in a few days have spin marks that go almost all the way round the tire. we did take the new tires off the back and saved them for the front. we park that way so we dont have to chalk our tires, i hate the backing out part also. just pleasing the almighty msha, we have to park into a berm or chalk the tires, its funny seeing a truck faced downhill with a chalk on both sides of the tire, like its gonna roll uphill, stupid stuff like that doesnt really even bother me anymore.
Yair . . . 637slayer. I'm showing my ignorance again but could you elaborate on the "chalk the tires" thingy . . . please? Cheers.
Pretty sure he means chock the tires, Scrub Puller-to put blocks or wedges against them so they can't roll. I was referring to the newly rebuilt E in the pic of when you first got it back. Those are bias ply tires on it in the photo.
i did mean chock, as per msha we must be parked against a berm that goes halfway up the scrapertire, or get out the big orange chocks, msha even wants the dozers chocked, if my bad spelling threw you off Scrub Puller, a chock is a big orange wedge that goes under each side of a tire, even if you are parked on a hill facing down with your can sunk in the ground you must chock both the downhilln and uphill side, the rebuilt scraper is the g that i run, i went back 3 times and looked at the lineup, i came to the conclusion you zoomed in on the tires, sorry i didnt get the 637g sticker in there, my photo skills are just a little better than my spelling skills. those tires are general titans, not even 4000 hrs on them and they are splitting at the lugs, im trying to make them last till they get another new scraper in dec. try to get the michelins off the back of it, the only way ill ever get michelins.
Yair . . . Gotcha 637slayer . . . In my ignorance I did not even consider a regulation that requires chocking of scraper tyres . . . with the bowl down. Cheers.
ya who would of thought a scraper needed to be chocked with the big brake stuck in the ground? Heres another funny new rule, the biologists want us to relocate rattlesnakes to a safe spot instead of killing them. i thought i took a good video of me relocating one last week but it didnt turn out, so i put a couple pics on that i took that day, one is of my pard still trying to figure out how to stay on a pile, in his defense when bentonite dries its really loose and fluffy, a pic of the sun coming up over the mtns through all the smoke, its been terrible lately, a pic of the pit the d11 just got done, the white stuff is the bentonite, were waiting for the drill results so we can pile it up.
Here are the photo scans of S&Ms auction in Gillette. Sorry for the long delay. G
G That is quite the list. Do you recall what year that was?
I skipped two pages of pickups and service trucks and trailers, it was 1997. Thanks G
I found myself in Wheatland, Wy in Oct of 76', at the tender age of 25, at the coal fired plant being built there. Site prep, with dams, roads and the pad for the generators. Worked for Forgey moving overburden at Exxon's Highland mine north of Douglas, Rissler-McMurray on the first straightening of #59 toward Bill, and finished my time in the state with five years at Bear Creek Uranium, also north of Douglas. Moved to AK in 84' for more road construction. Also worked a season for Neosho, constructing a piece of the new coal train railway (at what would become the Antelope Mine) east and south of Wright. That was the horrible winter if 78'-79' and I have always wondered how the 2', 3' and sometimes more of muck, slush and crap that went into some of those fills worked out for them...different times and a pleasure to recall.
they still tell stories about the days the power plant was being built, wild times. that town was too small to handle so many young working men, you prob had some beers at the commadores. i remember sledding off the roof of our shop in 79, so much snow it was like one giant snow drift, big shop too.
I have the forgey dissolution auction and all the Rissler auctions as well. Forgey had some great looking iron when they got rid of it. Graham