Pics From South Aust. Just a few pics of what we do down here. Our core business is crushing limestone products for the local trade as well as on farm crushing for the farmers in the area. The one unique thing about our operation is that we do not quarry the stone, we just load and cart it from stockpiles in the farmers paddocks. The majority of this stone has been hand picked over the last 100 years and in latter years it has been picked by machine. Nowadays the farmers us large rollers with angle iron ribs to break down the stoney country. We also clean out dams, clear fencelines, build roads etc., for farmers. We don't get involved in civil construction at all. Pic 1: My first crusher in the 60's Pic 2: My second crusher in the 70's The rest: Our current operation. This plant was built in 1982. Rn'R
Our current operation. Rn'R
That's a nice little operation. What sizes are you producing?
Rock Sizes. Hi Stretch, thanks. We scalp at 60mm, then through the summer months we rescreen the scalps and take off 60-40mm which is used as soakage rock for septic systems. The -40mm is put over a 6mm screen to take the soil off which is blended with sand, watered and sold as sandy loam. The 40-6mm is used as a rough base product. Our crushed products are 20-10mm, 10-6mm and -6mm. We also make crusher run and road bases. We can vary the sizes by using different screens. Rn'R
well done!:thumbsup
More Pics From South Australia Thanks Euclid. When the old fellows picked the limestone off the land they only had a horse and dray, so when the dray was full they would take it to the nearest stony ridge or fenceline and tip the stones out. There are many stories told how they would pull the dray up and fill it in one spot without moving it. A lot of this stone is till there today and we load it up and cart it to the crusher. All the old homesteads and farm sheds were built out of local limestone. Over the years we have demolished and crushed many of these old buildings. Pic 1 & 2. Old stone shed Pic 3. Stones along a fenceline Pic 4. We often grade the stones from the fenceline Pic 5. Picking the stones up
More Pics From South Australia Pic 1. After the stones have been picked up. This line wasn't graded Pic 2. Stones tipped in the paddock Pic 3. Loading Pics 4 & 5. Tipping at the stockpile which will be crushed later on
that is some interesting stuff you posted! I'd be after those old structures for the rock unless they were historic in nature then it is important to preserve those for the future. So were you all building fire barries last year? I have some friends who sent pictures of the fires down in SA and the sky just glowed orange and the sun didn't shine for a few days due to the smoke.
We did demolish those old walls. When they get to that stage the mortar around the base frets and it is just too expensive to repair them. We didn't have any fires in our area last summer, actually the whole state was fairly quiet, sometimes the smoke drifts accross from the eastern states. I am not sure what fires your friends would be referring to. Sometimes the parks have big fires started by lightning but they are only in mallee country so they keep an eye on them and let them burn. Rn'R.
I understood them to be in Victoria down around Melbourne off the beaten path. I haven't spoken tho them in a while so I could be mistaken.
You are right euclid, there were huge fires in Victoria the summer before last. They were in the mountains north east of Melbourne and burnt for quite a few weeks. You said on another thread that you were in the NT for a while. Where in the NT were you and were you working or holidaying there? Rn'R.
I was in Darwin, I was staying in Fannie Bay and I worked at the RAAF base for a while and then Holiday a few times. I had a lot of fun on walkabout in Kakadu and Berry Springs. Just liked being out side when the weather was right. Last time I was down in Oz was in 1995 it was right before the Monsoon rains came.
Here are some pics of Berry Springs to whet your appetite for your next trip Downunder, euclid. We were there about this time last year and the other one is a Shell road train on the Stuart Highway just south of Darwin. I spent four months last year working on a cattle station in the middle of the Territory, about 50 Km east of Elliot. We were laying 3" poly pipe to take water further out from the bores to the grass. We laid nearly 300 kilometres last year and the programme is continuing this year. I believe they want to lay about 2,000 kilometres of pipe all up. I didn't go up this year because we are too busy here. The last two pics are of the D10N laying the pipe at about 6-700mm and the old Kenworth bringing the pipe along for us. I haven't been to Kakadu yet, but I hope to spend more time travelling through the centre and the top end in the near future. The weather this time of the year is absolutely magnificent and like you said, it is just a great place. Rn'R. Rn'R.
Great pictures! You are right I would so much like to get on a big bird and fly down to Australia. I would like to see the Gold Coast and go back to Darwin and go to Kakadu again. If you remember there was a Aviation Museum outside of town on the Stuart hi-way. Well if you ever go inside they have a reitred B-52 and a pallet of blue bombs (we called them blu-death) because they were inert for training, anyways our unit donated those to the museum back in 1993. I remember those termite mounds and how big they were. Just some interesting stuff in ya'lls country. Cheers.
Not that I think it is going to make any difference to what you continue to do but I would say to you that I have seen many of those old buildings and they do have a historical significance. I am surprised that you would even admit that you have knocked them down, in such a casual fashion. Even Euclid picked up on the issue and he is not even an Aussie. Just goes to show how we Australians respect our heritage and history little of it that there is. That house you showed in the photo was probably built within fifty years of colonisation by some hard working pioneer without the assistance of modern equipment or machinery. Every rock was hand picked with care and skilfully laid. I wonder what the pioneer would think of you coming along with your machine to tear down his only worthwhile possesion which he constructed with much love skill and tenderness. I really don't buy your claim that those buildings are fretting at the base, hence your excuse to tear them down.
Nice opperation you got going. Are you in the sth east?
I did see the B-52 and the bombs in the museum but unfortunately I did not have a lot of time to spend there. It is on my "things to do list". Why would I not admit to having knocked down those old stone walls, Aussie Nick, it is what we do. If we are employed by the land owner to knock down the old ruins and in a lot of cases crush them and spread the gravel on the yard around their sheds and roadways, what would you have us do, say 'Oh no, we can't do that because it is of historical significance', we might as well sell all of our equipment now and apply for the dole. The walls in the pics are of an old shed which has no roof and has collapsed on one end. In most cases the landowners want them removed because they are beyond repair and in todays economic climate they do not have the time or the money to restore them to original condition. As a shed, they are way too small for todays equipment and in a lot of cases they are in the middle of the yard restricting access for the much larger machinery being used now as compared to sixty years ago. As the walls weather they become more unstable and as most properties have young children growing up most of the landowners want them removed to avoid a tragedy. Your insinuation that we use fretting at the base as an excuse to tear them down, well all I can say is, haven't you heard of 'salt damp'. All these old buildings have no foundations and no damp course. I can show you old stone buildings that have holes in the walls up to six feet from the ground where the stones have just turned to powder where the magnesia has come up from the ground and fretted them away. It would cost thousands of dollars to repair this. However, I do agree with you on the manual labour and skill involved in these old buildings. I have hand picked many rocks off the land myself. In many instances these old buildings are still in the same family of the pioneers who built them in the first place. There is one thing for sure 'old mate', if somebody wants to knock down something I have built in eighty odd years time, I will be beyond caring. For all the old buildings that have been demolished in this area, there are many many more that have been restored and will still be here in another hundred years time. In our own situation my son and his fiancee are living in and renovating my grandfather's, his great grandfather's house that was built in the 1920's using local stone and the lime for the mortar was burnt on the property using mallee stumps. The photos are of a friend of ours using a JCB 4CX digging the trenches for the plumbing and backfilling the the soakage pit with our Komatsu. I hope this explains our situation a little, Aussie Nick, whether you agree with it is up to you. Thanks Dogger. No, we are on Yorke Peninsula (the leg).
I accept the explanation. It was fair comment both ways and, in my view needed to be the subject matter of some debate. I have been to a town (which shall remain nameless) in South Australia where an ancient Aboriginal burial ground had been knowingly turned into a two bit "golfcourse" where even the poorest golfer would be reluctant to putt a ball. You might be interested to know that world renowned photographer, Australian Peter Lick, has featured one of these SA limestone houses in his Australian album. I guess what this thread raises for me is the issue of "Is there an Excavator's Code Of Conduct?" If there is "What is it?" and if there isn't "What should it be?" I would hate to think that those of us on this forum who classify ourselves as Proffesionals consider that no such code exists.
That was my 2nd guess. There is stone huts every were down Yorkes. I help a guy out once in a while from Edithburgh.
As far as I know there is no code of conduct that you speak of, Aussie Nick. While it may be a nice idea I can not see how it would work and I do not think it should be left to the contractor to make the decision as to what is or is not to be demolished. In our situation we are a small business employed by customers, all of them repeat customers, so if we start to dictate to them what can be demolished or not, we would not have a business. The Government has rules and regulations that apply to heritage and aboriginal sites etc. and that is where it should be sorted out, not left up to the contractor. If a contractor does the wrong thing, whatever that may be, market forces and public opinion through TV etc. these days seems to fix the problem. In all of the towns here 90% of the original homes are built from local limestone and as you would know, Dogger, there used to be kilometres of stone walls around the paddocks all built by hand. A lot of those are gone now, because once again the magnesia fretted them away and they collapsed. Rn'R.
RnR I went back in 1995 while on holiday and saw those bombs and what not and it brought back a lot of memories. Well what you all are doing on the job seems to be a part of life. I don't agree on removing the history of life or families of the Aboriginals that is wrong but such is life to other indigenous cultures as posted by Aussie Nick. Having a code of conduct should be in the operator and the beliefs or morals of mankind IMHO. Not everyone shares that idear and that is ok that is why I reckon checks and balances are there if if they are unspoken. Cheers
G'day Euclid, we have never had any problems at all in regards to Aboriginal heritage, in fact we have done a lot of work for the local Aboriginal community in the past. Where the problems do occur are usually on large projects, a couple of instances here were a housing project located near a burial site and a wind farm. In both cases it finished up before the appropriate minister in the Government and he made the final decision after discussion with all the parties involved. Rn'R.
Wattle Point Wind Farm A couple of years ago we supplied a grader to the Wattle Point Wind Farm project in our area. My son did nearly all grading for the project which involved grading 40km of cable runs between the 54 wind towers being constructed, ready for the rock saws and then backfilled once the cables had been laid and the runs reinstated back to original farm land. He also had to reinstate a large borrow pit and also the work site area after all the transportable buildings had been removed as well as finish off around all the towers and grade the internal roads. Unfortunately he didn't get any photos of the earth works and the 400 tonne crawler crane used to assemble the wind towers. I have no doubt that some of you have worked on wind farms, as they are fairly common around the world and this state has 4 or 5 now with more in the pipeline. Our state government is actively encouraging the consctruction of wind farms which I guess is a good thing and one thing we do have an abundance of, is wind. The first set of pics shows the amount of work that goes in to preparing the base for each tower. I am not quite sure of the specs now but I think approximately 200 cubic metres of concrete went into each one.
The first week he was on the job the main shaft on the circle turn on our grader broke, mainly due to fatigue I think, and we had to hire in a Cat 130. We had that for two days and the studs in the swivel joint on that grader let go. Fortunately he saw it and stopped before it did any major damage and that didn't take long to fix. The last two pics show the blades for the wind towers.
Just a few pics to show how the grader is dwarfed by the wind towers.
These pics are grading up the road base at the work site, finishing off the roads and ready for home.
As some of you probably know, the power units for the wind towers consist of a large generator driven by a huge gearbox which gears the speed up to the generator from the 14rpm which the blades rotate at. These units were transported on wide low loaders (lowboys) and the units themselves weigh approximately 50 tonnes. What they cost, I have no idea. One truck driver came in to the work site and while he was waiting to be told where he had to take the power unit, he unstrapped it on the trailer. As he was taking it out to the required tower, this was the result. Rn'R.
Nice pics of your operation. Interesting to see how others do things in all parts of the world. I agree with you 100% on the taking the old buildings down and such. As long as there is no law or mandate stating you CAN NOT remove this due to historical signifigance or nothing stating you CAN NOT build on a spot of land then I figure if the land owner wants it tore down you might as well do it. Otherwise he will get someone else to do just that. My dad, as well as myself, is an avid outdoors man and over the years we have taken out hundreds of acres of timber. Somtimes it really cleans a place up other times its just for the farmer to gain more field but if we don't do it someone else will. Trbo
Eina. I see you like your Volvo's , Rocks'n Roses.
Interesting thread, thanks for posting those pics Rocksn'Roses. As far as the issue of demo'ing and old building or wall, I think it is more of a landowner right than a contractors code of conduct. As long as there is no law or regualation stating the historical/cultural/environmental aspect of the structure or land, it should be the landowners decision whether or not it should be torn down. At time those houses, sheds and walls were built, pristine countryside was "tarnished" and I am sure someone had something to say about that.
What equipment do you run?
Nice deal you got going: Rn'R., I need a job... and I just got my passport... I'll grab a flight on Monday and be right over... or under... or where ever... ... Seriously though... sure looks like a nice area to live and work in. I've often thought that having, or even working for, an operation like yours would be a very satisfying endeavor. Judging from the pictures you've posted, and I've been watching from the start, the quality of your workmanship is right at the top too... keep it up... :thumbsup What's the general climate like there... the area sure has a lot of the same characteristics as here in Montana... just wondering how similar the weather is too. What happened to the truck driver that dumped the gearbox and generator on the road?... is he on foot now?... Oh, btw, I really did get a passport... the US has "mutual aid" agreements with other countries for such things as fire fighting... or natural distaters... floods, earth quakes, etc., when more resources might benefit... in fact, I think your Gov. sent some people here to assist California with there fire problems. In our case... we might possibly go north to...:canada... and help KoO and catchick build cat line on a fire. I know they would both need to slow down so I could keep up with our 750c... but at least I could say "Hi" to THE HOOD and see KoO's " area of absence " ( bald spot )... and maybe catch a glimpse of catchick's toe nails, which every one seems to have high interest in...:lmao Untill next time, OCR
Thanks for the comments everyone. I am thoroughly enjoying all of your posts and if I can contribute with a few of our experiences from down here, well that is what the forum is all about. EZ TRBO We have never had any problems removing the old buildings, because they were all in disrepair and the owners wanted them demolished. In this area a large percentage of the remaining houses are all built of stone from the same era as the ones we demolished so the architecture will remain for a long time yet and as you said if we don't, someone else will. CM1995 You are right in what you say, it would be nice to leave the country in it's natural state, but of course when those buildings were constructed the Government of the day was encourageing people to come out and clear the land and make it productive. The unfortunate part about that is the land here was over cleared and left very exposed. These days people are planting a lot more trees and creating shelter belts. Bellboy We do like our Volvos. We run Volvo NL12, F12. N10, Atkinson (old), Komatsu WA 380-3, WA 380-1, Dresser 540, Liebherr 541, Champion 720A and the crushing plant which consists of primary, secondary and closed circuit screening plant. OCR You might change your mind when you get here, we're real mongrels to work for.:wink2 It's not a bad spot but we do get a lot of wind which is a PITA for crushing. We have long hot summers and we can go from November to June with very little or no rain at all. The temerature ranges from 6C (42.8F) in winter to 47C (116F) in summer. The average would be 10C (50F) -34C (93.2F). Our average rainfall is 16 inches received mainly from May to November and this area is a very productive grain growing area. I have no idea what happened to the truck driver but I know what would happen if he was working for me. The Government did send some firies to California last year and I thought I heard that some went again this year. Some of your people came out I reckon when they had the bad fires in Victoria two summers ago. I'm not getting involved in the Catchick/KOO saga but it sure is amusing. I would like to see KOO's country though, that looks really interesting. Cheers Rn'R.
RnR, G'Day M8 wow that was a lot of mud for that base from on the windmill! So where does the energy harvested go? Local town or far away? looks like that may be a steady job eh?
Pics Update Euclid, a belated reply to your post. The towers are 70 metres high and the blades are 40 metres long, so they need a solid base to anchor them to the ground. The power is fed in to the grid so it could finish up anywhere. Unfortunately that job has finished, we were only there during construction of the wind farm. Rn'R. Over the last couple of months we have been reasonably busy stockpiling, doing maintenance and catching up on a few jobs around here. We put up 500 metres of electric fence which was long overdue. Our triaxle pig trailer was due for a brake re-line and new drums, so we did that over a few wet days. The on farm work all but stops while the farmers are seeding, but it will probably pick up from now on. Our F12 Volvo truck started leaking water out one head gasket and that went from a new gasket to a total out of chassis engine rebuild, after they found a cracked piston. That put a nasty hole in the budget, but it has done 1.3 million kilometres, a lot of that is off road short haul and we have done 14,000 hours with it since we have had it. We are constantly bring rocks out of farmers paddocks in to the yard for crushing. Here a few pics.
We cart in a lot of clean white sand which is used for backfilling pipes and we also blend it with the soil which we screen out from the rocks, to make sandy loam for gardens etc. This sand comes from a sand ridge in a farmer's paddock which is virtually useless for growing anything, we take the sand off to the clay and then spread a layer of sand mixed with clay back over the pit and after a while it becomes quite productive. A few pics.
Through the summer months we put the 60mm scalps over a 40mm screen and then a 6mm screen, taking out 60-40mm soakage rock for septics and then screen the soil off the 40-20mm. The soil is mixed with the sand, watered and then stockpiled. The first two pics are mixing and stockpiling and the others show the grader building a small depression in the yard for stockpiling and wetting material so that the water is contained and grading rocks from an old fenceline in a farmers paddock.
RnR, Great post M8! That Volvo dump has a serious Roo guard on the from and the rock shield on the windscreen! Nice operation you al have. Cheers
Thanks Euclid. I guess we pretty much take bull bars for granted. A lot of trucks have them fitted and if you buy a truck secondhand the bull bar comes with it. We don't really have a need for one here, but if you are travelling up north at night, one comes in pretty handy. Mind you, a few years ago two of my blokes, one in the F12 and one in a wheel loader hit head on one morning in a thick fog. It twisted the bull bar but it certainly saved some serious cab damage. They do save a lot of cosmetic damage if you do hit roos and in the Northern Territory where cattle are a problem, but even with a bull bar cattle can still do some damage. A local lad hit a cow with a road train and it did a lot of damage to the side of the truck and fuel tanks. Rn'R.
Bloody mess hitting bull! I was first surprised to see cars with roo guards but after I saw Wallibys running about I knew it was for a reason. Up in Darwin they have an old Army fort you can drive around and at night those Walliby's come out to play. If you find any Ukes around post a few for the good times, cheers:drinkup
I have been going to post an update for a while, but by the time I read all the other posts, it is time to turn in. We are still quite busy crushing and stockpiling and delivering material. We have a couple of hundred kilometres of coastline around us, because we are on a peninsular 30-40 kilometres wide and there is quite a bit of development happening in all of the coastal towns, which creates a reasonably constant demand for gravel and garden soil. The on farm work has dropped away because it is nearly harvest time, which will not take long, as we have had hardly any rain since the end of August and some of the crops just died. The yields will be down and there will be a lot of poor quality grain around and with input costs spiralling up and up, things look quite serious for the farmers and it may even effect our business, next year. Here are a few pics of what we have been up to, the first set are clearing trees for new boundary fences, well not the sort of trees that most of you are used to, perhaps scrub would be a better description, mostly mallee, sheoak and ti tree.
Rn'R pulled a clanger Still carting rocks and Rn'R pulled a clanger!
Bugger!
It was our old rock body which was getting pretty tired and I think it decided to have a rest. Rn'R.
I might have some pretty, er, pretty words to describe that, but I don't think they are allowed. Must have been one helluva fright!
Actually, Bellboy, it laid down very gracefully. I was watching it in the mirror and it just started to lean out and before I could get it down, it just kept going. Rn'R.
So now your a "Real Driver".... ....did you get the T shirt???
It's coming, it will have "Steering Wheel Attendant" on it!
Better questions. Is it fixable? Do you want it fixed?...
No, we are not fixing it, Bellboy, it was pretty tired because it has carted rocks all it's life, so we are having another one built. Rn'R.
Update Strewth, I will probably get in to strife for bringing up an old thread. I thought it was time for a bit of an update on what is happening here, if anyone is interested and also my picture supply is building up. There are constant reports of a recession coming and I read where a lot of people on the forum are out of work and have equipment parked up. For us, it is business as usual, there has been no slowing down in this area at all, yet, gravel is moving at about the same rate it normally does and we have quite a lot of contract work for farmers lined up. All of the other contractors in the area are busy, as are the builders and tradesmen, but I'm tipping it could slow down quite dramatically by the middle of the year. Following on from the last posts, we now have our new rock trailer operating, after our old one decided to have a rest and it is working really well, especially the hydraulic lifting tailgate, which I first saw on HEF, it is absolutely magic for our operation. A mate of mine who has an engineering business, built this trailer for us, he has built quite a few semi-tippers over the years, both steel and aluminium. The body is 28' long with 5' sides and has a 6mm floor and 5mm sides to handle the rocks. Here are a couple of shots of the construction, working out the tailgate, the finished product and the maiden voyage. Rn'R.
Nice work RnR. Looks like a good trailer. I hope it stands up to the gibbers Ok.
Thanks Squizzy, it's certainly working well at the moment, it has probably brought in a couple of thousand tonnes of rock already. Rn'R.
You forgot to put some training wheels on it Lol :falldownlaugh:falldownlaugh Ok..sorry, couldn't resist that one.....that Newcastle song just popped into my head... don't you ever let a chance .....
G'day RnR , is that two pieces of channel welded together to make the chassis rails ? Or are they using that as a strongback to stop the welds pulling the inside rail ? Looks like a good trailer .
Nice dumper there RnR. (say that to a woman and get smacked, even if she has a nice truck and dumper (real truck and dumptrailer seriously, not her... um... you know. actually compliment her on the truck ) ) Alaska and Australia are two places i want to spend some time one of these days. It may take awhile to get to either one as I won't fly. Slow boat or a long drive for me.
Alaska and Australia... lets go....FAST Aw, come on bear... we could make it... :lmao Room for two... me and you... :cool2 OCR... lol
Wow! An old Piper Cub. I haven't seen one of those in years!! They were the VW Beetle of planes and my Uncles used to design and build them in LockHaven.
Old Cub: Well, your Uncles just might have done some handy work on the one we have setting in our hanger... :thumbsup Small world isn't it?... :cool2 OCR...
Ok, this is a little off topic but the talk about the cub just brings to mind this guy. Now that I know about the web site I just might buy one of his dvds just because this was such a cool act to see. The Flying Farmer: http://www.theflyingfarmer.com/
Hey there R&R, sorry to see the old trailer, but at least it was a chance to get a new one which looks pretty good. So things are holding up well for you? After getting busy here and going out and getting a new machine things have died, only get a little bit here and there and fighting with some pretty low quotes around the place. Am hoping to get some work just running the truck to get some money coming in.
Back to Pics From South Australia: By the idiot hijacker, OCR. I think I need the training wheels Rn'R. I sure didn't mean to jack your thread... :Banghead... Keep your pictures comming... :thumbsup Wish I had a shop like that too. Again, sorry. OCR...
I watch the vids on youtube of those cubs with balloon tires on the landing gear,it is incredible to see the places they can land and get out of.We don't think of the cub as a STOL aircraft but don't tell that to those guys!!Ron G
You'll keep. Thanks, Iron Horse. The chassis is the normal fabricated "I" beam and the channel is the beam for the tub. I wanted to it keep a low as possible, because most semi-tippers are way too high. As it will spend nearly all of it's life carting rocks, he has built it so that the cross members for the floor, recess into the main chassis frame. This means that the floor will sit on and be supported by the chassis members, as well as the two channels along the bottom of the tub and hopefully this will help stop the floor from punching out, when being loaded. We would have liked to have used Hardox, but it is heavier and twice the price. Thanks Bear, I reckon you should take up OCR's offer and come on down and look us up. Well 'Smithy' did it, so I don't see why you and Bear couldn't do it, OCR. He had to walk the wings a couple of times, while in the air, to change the oil and tickle the carbys, but he made it. http://www.dinkumaussies.com/AVIATION/Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith.htm By the way, OCR, you didn't hijack the thread, it just makes it more interesting. Rn'R.
The old trailer was on it's last legs, xrlentau6, it just hurried things up a bit. At the moment, things are going OK, but I am expecting them to slow down later on. We operate in a niche market with the gravel and this time of the year, we do a lot of work for farmers, most of which is repeat business. I have heard Adelaide is slowing down and we are starting to hear from salesmen, who we have never heard from before, which usually means things are tightening up. Rn'R.
Oi Rocksn'Roses, Been a while, glad to hear you all are well and I hope business will continue. Keep yer chin up and the dirt moving!
G'day Euclid, I wondered where you had got to, what have you been up to? We are all going OK here, just take it as it comes. Rn'R.
Pics From South Australia: Thanks Rn'R, That really is a nice trailer, and you should be commend for the amount of thought and planning you put into it... :thumbsup This is part of what I mean... Iron Horse has a pretty good head for fab. work too... although, after reading this... He might need to loosen the band on his welding helmet... LOL (no, you can't just chuck it in the lathe, and....)..:lmao (Your head, not the helmet)... :falldownlaugh Glad to see you're hanging in there, Rn'R. OCR...
G'day, I've been up to my **** in work lately and I'm trying to earn my bachelors degree before the summer so I am down hard getting stuff completed. I found an old euclid dump(at least I think it is a uke) and got a few pictures that I plan to post in the future. BTW thanks for the concern, I 'd like to post more but time hasn't freed itself for me as of late. Cheers:drinkup
Ahh , that's better , i wondered what that thumb wheel on the back of my helmet was . Yes , i never even thought of the channel being the spine for the tub . And my Lusty chassis tipper is built like it ointhead . The bin sits on outriggers that the tri axle spring saddles are welded to . I use a strong back like that channel to stop the welds pulling a camber into a rail , it's my only defense .
Wind and Dust I said earlier on, that we are still quite busy at the moment, crushing when the weather allows us. We get a lot of wind here and the material is so dry, it makes it hard for the crusher operator to pick out any wood or tramp steel, which we get a lot of, being rock from farmer's paddocks, so we do have to work with the weather all the time. I would like to have a large scalper, to scalp the dirt from the rock, before it gets to the crusher and this would make life easier, but finances do not permit that yet. Mind you, after saying that, we had 10mm (40 points) of rain here today. Rn'R.
You have got it all wrong... We had not had any proper rain for 92 days.....easy fixed. Squizzman digs a trench and pours 32m of crete footing.....5 minutes after we finished and we got 30mm in the next 12 minutes!. The concrete was OK until the run off from the yard washed it all down the road:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead I told ya...I'm your weatherman
I don't think even I would see the funny side of that. You should let all the "cockies" know when you will be pouring footings again and they will probably start seeding! Rn'R.
I gave the Boral guy an earful as well... I ordered 20/20 you moron...thats 20 Mpa with 20mm aggy...not an inch of bloody rain Never fear....something always goes wrong when we do a pour...it never fails..we have totally given up doing a pour on Fridays:Banghead, tried to sneak this one in a Thursday but the Gods where watching ointhead Did you get a drop?...I think it was just local thunderstorms here. We have gone back to the 32-35 deg C days. I heard one of the local quarries got shut down yesterday because of the dust.
We also do the smelly stuff!!!!!! We have been cleaning out the eco-shelters at a local piggery for a number of years. The pigs are bedded on straw while they are growing out and then the shelters are cleaned out before the next lot are brought in. For a while we did it with our loaders, but it was a bit of a squeeze, so then they did it with a bobcat, pushing the straw outside and we take it out to windrows in the paddock for composting, turning the windrows every now and then. Here is a few pics, shifting the straw, spreading the windrow out so that it is not so compacted, because it caught fire in the middle of summer, last year, causing a few anxious moments and loading the spreader. Rn'R.
looks like a french-made Rolland spreader you have there
I'll have to take your word on that, Richardjw, the spreader was hired in by the farmer. It did a good job, the only problem was that it would break shear pins if they tried to start the choppers when it was full, so they would leave them spinning. I am not sure why they couldn't close the baffle in it, but for some reason they didn't. Actually, on edit, I think I have just worked it out. I think the tractor only had one set of hydrualic outlets and they used them for driving the choppers, which meant they had to leave the door and the baffle open, which wasn't really a problem because they were spreading in the same paddock. Rn'R.
Aussie Nick makes some interesting points about fretting. The same thing goes on here in California---"earthquake damage," whether real or not is the most convenient excuse to destroy some old building. It usually works as an excuse to bring in the demo crew and make way for some new condos.
Wolf, The same thing does not go here!. It is not a convienient truth at all and comparing the two is rather repulsive. Get this through your head. They do not need any excuse to demo these buildings....there is no law unless the building is classified by the the National Trust as having significant Heritage Value.
Sorry, I did not mean to annoy you very nice and smart m8s. I would probably knock those old dumps down too happily, if someone were paying me to do it. Bet they are fun to take down and grind up. I hope you will accept my apology.
:throwup ....
OCR sounds like a good plan. my biggest problem I think is I have some sever trust issues about anything I'm not driving/steering or otherwise in control of . I very seriously doubt I coulld ever bring myself to fly on a commercial air line, and the reasons for that are long and complicated. For some reason I am uncomfortable in a plane that is landing. That could possibly be I've jumped out of them more often than landed in them . That's kind of messed up when I think about it. Jumping out of 30-40 year old military aircraft with equipment made by the lowest bidder is safer to me than riding an airline... Should I be seeing a shrink guys? Of course whenever we did jump we smuggled fruit injected with large amounts of alcohol into them too... Never fly sober that may be the ticket for me :drinkup Seriously I don't think ther is enough rum to get me on a plane.
My how things change, now it's mud! It must be nearly time for an update. Things have changed quite a bit since I last posted. We have gone from some of the driest conditions I have ever experienced, to some of the wettest conditions we have had for a long time. It creates quite a few problems for us, because we handle a lot of dirt, which turns to mud and we can’t get out in to the paddocks to bring the rocks in for crushing. Fortunately we have caught up on most of our contract work, but we are way behind with the crushing. We have had a very busy first half of the year and we have enough work in the pipeline to keep us going into next year, so we certainly are not complaining, especially when I read that a lot of Forum members are looking for work. Wet weather also means time to catch up on some long overdue maintenance, the problem is every time we do maintenance, we always seem to find more than we bargained for. In this instance we drained the oil in the rear diff on our Volvo F12 and found the rollers from the inner pinion bearing. There was no indication it had let go and we caught it before any major damage had been done. It has done 1.3 million kilometres, a lot of that off road, and never been touched, that I know of. Rn’R.
oi, Moi likes the Holden ute! Nice to hear you all have gotten that much needed rain and no more fires are burning. I've been pretty busy with a newer job doing the same work and graduating from college. Now that I have been reformed and have documentation to prove it I hope it will allow for more money for my hard work. Reckon I better get on and earn my keep. Nice to hear from you again and keep'm turning and stay safe, Cheers:waving
Nice lookin loader Roses...
G'day Euclid, you bobbed up out of nowhere, haven't seen you here for ages. Congratulations on graduating from college, all the best for the future with your new qualifications. The Holden ute is a little Isuzu marketed under the Holden banner, we have a couple of them, they just keep on going and run on the smell of an oily rag. That one is getting on a bit,now. Thanks, MrKomatsu, we have two of them, a -1 & a -3 and they just work every day, with no problems at all, touch wood. Rn'R.
Hmmm...I just got back from down the farm...we had 2" last night....and I need a Dozer with a really really long snig chain to get one of the tractors back. :Banghead
Welcome back. I thought you must have gone missing in action, sounds like you were. So who is getting the tractor out? The rain is going to hit here tomorrow, they are talking 30mm for us, with showers all next week.:cussing It just started to dry out today, but you can't wipe the smiles off the cockie's faces, which in the long term is good for us.:woohoo We shouldn't complain, it was so dry for so long, it is nice to see everything wet again. The paddocks are just starting to lay water, which means the moisture has gone right down to the subsoil and if the season does finish early, the crops will have half a chance of finishing. Rn'R.
They offered me a shovel ..so I left and headed back to Perth. Flash new 4x4 tractors get bogged just the same as the old ones did My brother has ordered up an excavator for tomorrow to get the creek running back where its supposed to....not down the road to the farmhouse. Its a good drop for sure....but if you look at the averages we are so far behind its not funny.
Yes sir funny how we whine about it being too hot, cold, dry or wet but we need to remembering the good times because being too wet does stink, but burningup is scary. Those utes must run those isuzu diesels and yes they can take a beating and keep on trucking. Yes I hope I'l be useful out inthe world with my degree. Reckon 42 ain't so old to have finished my degree. I still miss my days running equipment because I learned heaps and for that I'll never forget. And when the chance comes up I'll jump in the seat and give it a go.:scool
A Sweet Little Job. Sometimes a little job comes a long where everything actually goes to plan and I had one of these about four weeks ago. Apart from a couple of hiccups with rain, the job went really well. A small winery near us has recently changed hands and the new owners are very good customers of ours. When the cellar door and function centre was built, it was placed on the side of a hill, with no landscaping or customer parking as such and there were a few water drainage issues. This was fine at the time, but the new owners want to hold more functions and generally spruce the place up a bit, so it was my job to build the front of the centre up level and then tapering down to the road, for parking. I also had to cut back in to the hill on the other side, to provide level parking for cars and coaches and have all the storm water draining to one point and out on to the road. The digging was really good and the fill settled down tight, until 20mm of rain one afternoon and then it went a bit soft, so I counteracted that by placing a layer of 20mm Quarry Rubble, which we produce, over the fill and topped it with 10mm Crusher Run, to make it nice to drive and walk on. There was a little bit of pressure, because their annual Gourmet Food and Wine Fair was being held on July 5th, so I had to be finished by then. Here are a few pics. Rn'R.
A Little Blatant Advertising. This winery is a small boutique winery, which the original owner started about twenty years ago with a few vines, slowly expanding to the point where the wine is now made on the property. It is called the Barley Stacks Winery, because the vines are planted adjacent to one of the original barley stacking sites in our area. Barley, which ironically is grown for the production of beer, is one of the main crops grown in our area, and before bulk handling was introduced, the bags of barley were stacked at sites close to where it was grown and then later transported to the ports. A local chap who has worked in wineries in the Barossa Valley and overseas for many years, is the winemaker and although he does not have a lot of lines, he is improving on them all the time and he is also producing a few niche lines which the large wineries do not do. They do export a small amount of wine, so if you ever happen to see this label, this is where it comes from and if you ever visit South Australia, look them up and if you are that close, look me up too. http://www.barleystackswines.com/ Rn’R.
Great pictures.
what he said ^ good job
do you find it difficult to grade with the wheel loader? i've used a backhoe to finish grade a few yards and can't say it was the best choice.
Thanks for the kind comments, euclid and ocindahouse. Not really, bigblueox, the wheel loader probably has a wider bucket than a backhoe, which makes it a bit more controllable when cutting and backblading, plus they are very manoeuvrable in confined areas. It is a case of making do with what you have and we run wheel loaders, so I guess over the years we have become fairly proficient at cutting and levelling with them. On larger jobs we may use a grader but often there is not enough room to work one and it is just as quick to do it all with the the loader. If you were doing a job like that, or anyone else reading this, what equipment would you use? Rn'R.
Pics From South Australia: Same as you, Rn'R... looks good, don't see it being better with something else, especially with the amount of experience you have... :thumbsup OCR
Thank you, OCR. Rn'R.
Pics From South Australia: Yes sir, you're welcome. OCR
Dam there is another bit of Aussie plonk that I have to find and sample .....O! I feel a hang over coming on OOOOOOO! nice job that, I must say that I am envious of you R n' R but I suppose I should be thankful,the temptation to be paid in kind may be overwheleming and that wouldn't pay the bills now would it;but on the up side I go broke happy.
Pics From South Australia: Careful there, stock... ... :lmao OCR... Man, I had to dig way back for that... 1 year and 8 days ago... lol
Originally Posted by Rocksn'Roses OCR You might change your mind when you get here, we're real mongrels to work for Rn'R. OOOOboy do I know! still got the marks from the fleas from 20 yrs ago, if I ever return I bringing a flea collar with me,the wife still wakes up at night if she thinks she hears the sound of a mozzie ,and we do not have them cussed items here thankfully OO! the mental scars even the Auzzie plonk hasn't dulled those memories.(note to self DRINK MORE ozzie wine TO FORGET)
Thanks Stock and it is quit a nice drop too, but I did excercise extreme self control, plus I do need the money. Where were you in Aus when the mozzies took a liking to you? Well OCR, if you want to head on down, I guess we could give you a try out, we are actually pretty easy to get on with. Rn'R.
Spent my time in Syd NSW and around them parts,used to visit a place by the name of Tipperary outside a lovely Quaint village by the name of Barradine http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....941507,149.067006&spn=0.028784,0.038581&z=15 Had some good friends there but we lost track with the years so if anyone is from that neck of the woods or Austinville in the north of NSW, pm me if you can help track them down.
Great to see things are keeping busy for you R&R I have followed this thread from the first post you made but cant believe I have not commented ( this ensures updates hit my UserCP) its very intresting to see how other parts of the world operate. As for your question on what would somebody else have used to do the job that you did so well with a wheeled loader.:notworthy Me, I'd have used a duck but only because thats what I have
G'day Rob, welcome to our little corner of the world and feel free to comment anytime. Thanks for the compliment, I had never given much thought to using ducks, probably because there are none here, but after seeing what you do with yours, I often think that one would be a very versatile piece of equipment to have. Rn'R.
Anyone can drive a digger,your born to drive a duck.
Amen! Preach it brother! And he's dang good at it.
What??...you mean there is other ways??
It's quite suprising how machines and their usage varies around the world. I have commented before that the Aussie engineers I have worked with over here are suprised at our lack of utilisation of loading shovels on general construction sites. I like that line stock, :scool Steady now there son. Next thing is I'll have it upside down or trying to see if it can swim You know the bestest way Squiz master, use what you got and boy didnt he do it well :notworthy
G'day there RandR , I am a local Sth Australian working in the civil game, and i am very pleased to be part of this site. My question to you is 1) I see you have a dresser pay loader what made you opt to buy such a machine, as i have never seen any late model pay loaders in sth australia.2) Can you possibly share some specs on the machine, 3) have all pay loaders got cabs mounted on the front end loader frame? Do you prefer your cab mounted on engine frame of the loader? is there a difference as i have never operated a machine with a cab mounted on the front end loader. only seen many old case w series with this configaration. 4) have you had any problems and is there a reliable parts sorce in Adelaide let alone Australia. Please get back to me as i am very curious on your pay loader thanks.
Welcome to the forum, Machine head, I am sure you will enjoy your time here and Squizzy will be pleased that another Croweater has joined up. (1) The Dresser just happend to be for sale in Adelaide when we were looking for another loader, we had a 530 previously and I do not mind them, they are a simple old loaders and it really has not caused us any major problems. (2) This one is a 540 and as far as I know was built around 1990, it has a Cummins D505T engine, 205 hp, weighs about 20 tonnes and has a 5 cubic yard (3.8 c/m) bucket. (3) All of the Payloaders did have the cabs mounted on the front, but these days all of the wheel loaders have the cabs mounted on the rear. I do not have a real problem with front mount cabs, only because we have had loaders with them, but my preference is for rear mount cabs, where you have better control of the machine. With the cab on the front, it is very easy to lose the back end of the machine. (4) Parts are a problem. There is a supposed Dresser guru in Adelaide, but he could not find a crown and pinion set for our front diff, where our local mechanic found a set sitting on a shelf in Sydney, because he remembered that some Kenworth trucks used the same ones. There are a couple of places in the eastern states that advertise Dresser and Hough parts, but I have not needed to use them. Parts will be a problem, because they have been out of production for so long and Dresser cease to exist. I hope this helps. Rn'R.
Thanks for the response RandR, much apreciated. I think i know the parts man in question. normally the little mans pretty good and goes out of his way (from what i have seen). Good luck with the marketing, is it a good drop? cheers
It's not too bad, I haven't tried all of their wines, but they make a very nice White Port. Rn'R.
now that is just mean havent been able to it yet..
It's OK Stock, they haven't stopped making it, I will get them to hold a bottle back for you. Rn'R.
Never a dull moment at Rn'R's. We had another little mishap today. A local truckie was tipping a load of wet rock and clay off in our yard this afternoon and we are not sure what really happened, the trailer was reasonably level, whether the load stuck on one side, but anyway, I will let the pics tell the story. The big rocks were already there. Rn'R.
A few pics for OCR. I was working on a job the other day and a chap I know was spraying the paddocks around the yard where I was working. He is a bit of a character and just loves sneaking up on you when you are not looking and will do a low pass over the top, scaring the living daylights out of you. I was spreading gravel on his airstrip a couple of years ago and when I got there, the plane was gone. I asked his offsider where he was and he said, no, you've got no worries, he's way down south, spraying. I spread the gravel along the strip and then started to turn the truck around. Next thing, the young lad with me yelled out and dropped to the floor, I looked out the passenger side window and all I could see was the propellor of an Air Tractor coming straight for us, then it just veered slightly and slipped up over the tailgate of the truck. Here's a few pics. Rn'R.
As always you provide some great shots! Local driver keep his job or just a minor mishap anyone could of made?
Thanks Euclid, his boss said that is what you have insurance for. It was just one of those things, the load was fairly dense and sticky, maybe it might have been loaded a bit to one side, there was nothing obvious that we could see that would have caused it, it just might have been a combination of factors. Rn'R.
I have seen and heard of a few tip over axle tippers going over but usually the chassis tippers are more stable.
Main thing is that nobody got hurt, which reminds me of the other day when I was dismantling a 5x7m shed, we got three sides down but couldn't get the sheets off one side because it was right next to the fence, so we propped it up with some 4x2 but did a crap job and the prop feel down and next thing the shed side falls down and luckily the bloke who was standing next to it moved 30 seconds before it came down.
That's right Hendrik, we were trying to work out what happened this morning, when I carted the rest of the material away with our truck and pig. The rock had been hammered out of a soakage and had big rocks and dirt and it was quite wet as well. I find that this sort of material is very dense and does not flow well. He used a backhoe loader to load it and while he said that it seemed to be loaded reasonably central, I think that because of the lack of reach, it landed a bit to one side and compacted more with the rest of the rock and dirt landing on it, because the trailer went over on the side that he loaded from. That is about the only thing that we can come up with, because it was hard and reasonably level where he was tipping. I guess the sheets were real easy to get off, after the wall fell down, things do not always go to plan. Rn'R.
Pics From South Australia: A few pics for OCR. Thanks a lot, Rn'R... :thumbsup Good pictures... I do indeed, like those Air Tractors. OCR
Pics From South Australia: and just one for Rn'R... lol I like these planes too, Rn'R... but if I was going to get out, I'd rather climb down the normal way, if I could... lol There's a decent video of this incident floating around somewhere, might be in my computer... lol If I happen to find it, I'll post the link. Here's the story: OCR...
That looks a bit scary to me, OCR. The same chap flying the Air Tractor, had another one come down a few years a go. He was taking off and I am not sure what happened, but I think it virtually fell back to the ground. There was some talk of the plane hitting an air pocket, but he was OK apart from some bruises. They reckon the cockpit has a steel cage around it, which I guess helped. I am not heavy into flying, although I have flown quite a bit in the big ones over the years. Rn'R.
Well the plan was to lower the wall and remove the sheets, so it sorta went to plan, just a bit quicker than planned. I should have taken some pics of the roller door, used the KX41 to lift it down and the motor wheelbarrow to shift it up the hill to it's new location. Did you have look in the tipper bin to see what was in there? I would think if sticky material up the top and on the side was the proplem, it would still be there after it had a lie down.
and cutters on the undercarriage to take care of those pesky fences.
Oh yes, it was still in there, four of us spent an hour digging it out with the help of a loader and a bobcat. Rn'R.
Hi Rocksn'Roses, Great stuff here, I think you are doing a service to yourself and the ranchers in your area by gathering up all the rocks that have been piled up or used for building material and turning them into a useful product.
Thanks Dave, we have cleaned up a lot of country and a lot of eyesores over the years, which in itself is becoming a problem, because the leads for bringing the rock back to our depot are getting longer and this in turn is putting up our costs. Where the rock was within 5-10km of our depot we are now having to go out 20-25km, because we have cleaned everthing up in between. Rn'R.
Hey RnR, I paid $50 a tonne for limestone spalls last week 100 to 300mm...:Banghead:Banghead ...and I can 75mm crushed for $7/tonne in the quarry...same quarry as the rubble...work that one out ointhead But I got me own back....I kept their handheld UHF (got some nasty phone messages though:cool2)
That makes no sense at all, Squizzy, did you query it? I would like to hear the explanation, because 300mm probably hasn't even seen a crusher. How come you got the UHF? Our prices range from $12-$20 + GST. Rn'R.
I've even got the latest price list mate...queried it...there's a ding in the roof of my truck when I got the weighbridge docket!. Remember that, I think, in your operation, you are reclaiming gibbers, these guys a drilling and ripping 20 metres down with some big gear. My UHF was on the blink...No radio = No entry, the lady at the gate gave me a handheld but I forgot and drove off with it.
That will be the age thing, dont let it worry you none, it gets us all in the end
Sounds like the voice of experience Rob.... I got a phone call one night about 7.30 pm from the client who's property I had been working at that day...he wanted to know when I was coming to pick up my dog cause he was out the roadway watching all the trucks go past...