Yair . . . Just a little story of one mans vision and failure that may be of interest. Out on the highway today is a pot-hole repair crew with a mini-ex, a skid, a broom, a small roller, various trucks with whackers and hand tools, and a truck with aggregate and a small asphalt spray rig . . . as well as the normal army of traffic control folks. They are repairing random pavement failures (most less in area than a couple of square meters) on the major highway up the east coast of Australia . . . pavement that was reconstructed less than two years ago. Now I'll get to my story . . . . In about 1983 I got to know a bloke in Cairns who was working on a machine to do small asphalt repair jobs and in fact I was able to assist him with construction of the prototype. In affect the whole rig was self contained and could be mounted on any ten ton truck chassis. It comprised of a series of hydraulic arms. The first was furnished with a hydraulic driven tungsten cutter . . . think twelve inch diameter dove-tail wood router bit. That thing was mean and would mill six to ten inches deep in one pass into asphalt and road base. It worked within a shroud and the cuttings were directed onto a six inch conveyor that took them to a hopper on the truck. There was a vacuum tube for final clean up and it only took a few minutes to mill out a perfect excavation with undercut edges to what ever depth required. There were other hoppers on the truck that could be stocked with suitable aggregates, a water tank and a second arm with a delivery conveyor and a hydraulic compaction plate of his own design. The last feature was the "cooker" as he called it for conditioning and placing hot mix with its own conveyor and a smooth drum roller that was worked by another arm. It was relatively simple, using off the shelf components, operated by a 30hp air cooled Lister and I reckoned it was a winner. He demoed it around North Queensland and created a lot of interest but ended dying of a heart attack . . . but not before he was warned to cool it because his machine would do folks out of jobs. Back to my lead in to the story. When I see the bull$hit, necessary bull$hit required to fix little potholes and failures I just wonder why some one else has not come up with such a system. He was way before his time in his thinking as it would only taken a two or three man (person) crew plus traffic control to do the job out on the highway. Hope I didn't bore you and Cheers.
A man who worked for me for years tried working for the highway dept first. He hated it because they constantly fussed at him for getting the work done too fast, they wanted him to hide to make the jobs last longer. The state hwy dept here has a rule that you can only work 20 minutes out of every hour in the summer time, thus they use 9 men to do a 3 man job.
Today that is called "Home Land Security" a bunch of government workers standing around accomplishing nothing.
Interesting story & machine Scrub. Only drawback I could see with something like that is the cost of the unit and it would only work for one procedure ..Fixing pot holes.But it would be very efficient at that. Any idea what happend to the prototype that you helped him with?
Doesn't Bobcat make something like that.
http://www.durapatcher.com/ one version of many
Yair . . . Thanks for interest and replies . . . I can't get the durapatcher video to work on my connection. It looks like a similar idea but the machine I speak of could remove a couple of feet of road base if needs be and compact fresh material into the hole before putting on the new seal. The rig was mounted on an old two stick Acco and sat in a yard near Cairns for a couple of years tied up in inheritance legislation. I probably went for scrap. Cheers. Cheers.
bobcat has a i think 3 man reconstruction set up consists of a heating set (carry and place with large skid) a combination mill and spreading blade a man to rejuvenate the mix (add new asphalt and tar) and a roller to follow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yESfW1da4K0&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL556363041F05C43D
A few of the cities in my area have units like these to fix potholes. Never seen one in operation.
Scrub Puller, Another story of innovation that never got anywhere. Sometimes it feels like Aussies have a monopoly on it but it happens to forward thinking people all around the world. Not everyone can have a "Bobcat" story. It's a shame your Mate didn't come across the owner at the time of Northern Engine Reconditioning Company, who may have helped him get it off the ground, as he did an infield 'cane transporter that I worked on the prototype of in Cairns. You only touched on it, but our friends may be interested to know that our Nth/Sth highway is a discrace with patches on patches. Repairs and new construction never seem to get ahead of the game, with massive increases in the volume of heavy traffic. How long have you been in Gladstone? I had a hydraulics business there in the late 1970's-early '80's and now live in Hervey Bay. Cheers. Maurie.
Yair . . . Guday stondad . We came down here from Karumba in 1985 . . . little place just south of Gladstone actually . . . spent my last working years looking after the local golf course. Cheers.
Hey Mate. Just finished running my mower over the yard to pick up dead leaves. Fuel for fire. Gotta get ready now for early start in timber jinker. Three days at least Mt. Perry to Howard. I'll PM you so we can catch up. Cheers. M.