Looking at buying a pair of 637 scraper's... Wondering what kind of trouble I would get in by driving them home about 600 miles vs hauling them and buying all the permits. I know it's probably a bad idea, but who has done it and how bad can it really be?
I have never done it let alone run a scraper that big but if it was me I wouldn't drive it I would spend the money for permits and haul them it make it easier and safer you would be putting a lot of wear on the tires by driving them not to mention extra wear on the drive train and that's a good size machine going down the road the brakes might not be that good what would you do if you had a tire go out on you going down the road at speeds to me it wouldn't be worth driving them I would haul if it was me if it was only less then 5 miles on a country backroad I would drive it not 600 miles not to mention they would drink a lot of fuel that's my .02 worth
you still have to have permits here unless you are a farmer
Old iron habit drove one home, but it was closer to 5 miles than 600 if I remember right. I've driven some crazy things and 100 miles in state I'd consider it. Not 600 with two.
I think you'd end up in the psych ward for a long time while they tried to figure out what was going on inside your head. 5 miles sure but 600 I think you'd face huge fines and they'd likely impound the scrapers.
Biggest issue would be tires. A close second would be brakes. After that is wear and tear on drivetrain. Time is $, how many days would it take, how much fuel would you burn etc. Anything over about 75 miles isn't worth it.
I used to work with a guy who drove a 637 from the Michigan U.P., across the Mackinac bridge and all the way down I-75 to the Detroit area. I don't think you could do that today.
The axle weight must be 50K per axle or more, If you get caught and weighed with portable scales that's how they would look at it, the fine would be determined from overweight amount. That's what would happen here in Ca. anyway. I never roaded my 623's unless it was within a couple miles and they were 80K lbs, not worth the risk
Your right about that dpete around here sometimes it's a pain for the farmers moving their stuff around about a year my dad had a torque hub break and come completely off the carrot harvester they were roading on a backroad and it sent the duals out into a field those things are 12-14' wide that was a little scary I couldn't imagine losing a tire on a scraper
They used to do it all of the time. When I was a kid you would see a convoy of them fairly often.
I've heard of guys running them a few miles local over the road, and once or twice a guy might run one 15 or 20 miles, but that was in the 80's and 90's. It's pretty hard on the planetary gears and transmissions. They were made for power not high speed. If its cold the tires will bounce you all over the road from where they were parked. If you must drive it, pinch a couple truck tires between the apron and cutting edge to drag if you need to stop suddenly. I have pulled up a chunk of asphalt or two in my day with just a bare cutting edge. And you do know they wont let you on the highway. You wont get far if you try that.
I don't know much about scrapers, but my financial back-of-the-envelope says it might be more expensive just in rubber worn off the tires but here is what I would consider and try to put a dollar figure on: -Tire wear -Risk of blowout from driving so fast so long -Man hours spent driving -Permits and hassle -Angry smokey etc....
I drove my DW-21 home 80 miles. Nice Sunday drive. It had been roaded everywhere it went for the last 10 years it worked. Often around a hundred miles. In about 1977 we roaded everything from DW-20s to 657s and 660s from southern MN to Buelah, ND. It was a distance of 504 miles. As stated you still may need permits unless it for ag. Mine had to build a logging road for myself so it was considered ag. I will get that road built some day. I may drive a DW-10 dump wagon home in the spring just for the adventure, 200 miles or so. After setting for years they sure run good after a good road trip blows the carbon out of them. That being said I do not know if the transmissions on the 737 would heat up or not on the road. Seems I read somewhere once that you had to stop or slowdown for them to cool once in a while. EDIT: I drove mine from Wisconsin to Minnesota. Took backroads but still had to drive thru towns. No hassles at all. Around here the bigger front end loaders are running around all the time with oversized buckets and what not. I have never heard of anyone being hassled.
I once drove a 631b from 184 mile on the MT Newman line back to 7 mile camp at Wickham near Roebourne in Western Australia working for Morrison/knudsen back in the seventies. Also my farther in law who worked for Bob Kieth in the early sixties drove all the old Le Tourneau scrapers / graders /trucks, plus mobile camp from M Melbourne Victoria to Kununurra in Western Australia 3600 miles
If your brakes and flashers and turn signals work and you’re ok with the mileage on them, ask your state road department and see what they say. In Nebraska we can get a trip permit for $100 and it’s no big deal. They route us around a bridge they don’t like but we’ve never had a problem. Took one 150 miles west a couple years ago. My biggest warning to you is about the idiots on the highway. They will pass you like you’re in a half ton pickup and be on their phones, the whole 9 yards. You’re just another tractor on the road to them. I highly recommend you yourself and your most trusted hand help you along with a good set of tools and a beacon escort. Just try to make it look like you really went out of your way to be over prepared if you have a problem and are stuck on the road. Hydraulic oil if you blow a steer hose.
Maybe a set of fuel filters too.
Running scrapers long distances in Africa used to be SOP, not sure now. Longest I ever saw was a fleet of 631Ds that were roaded 1200km (750 miles) from the port to a mine site, and that was back in the days of bias-ply tyres. No major issues other than it took a while. As others have said it might bear some investigation regarding costs of permits/fuel/labour/parts/lubes, etc, etc, vs hauling. Only you can answer that question. A twin engine scraper should road fine on just the front engine IMO.
What did you end up doing on getting those scrapers moved to your shop
Now days I don’t think it would work with traffic. You take life in your hands when you drive a car . What’s going to happen when you throw a 637 into it
People tend to move when they see a scraper coming.
I would look into getting them hauled, 1) the liability falls on the truck line. 2) wear and tear , fuel , time adds up. 3) trying to get a DEAD 637 toed will get $$$ fast. 4) last but not least the road is full of IDIOTS, I move farm equipment and it would scare you what I have seen IDOTS do. --------- just my 2 cents ----------
Yup, I have driven a 657 and a TS-24 in city traffic. They don't cut in front of you like they will do with trucks. I know a guy that roaded a 992B loader 120 miles, he had zero idiot problems. Saved him a couple grand by not having to strip the ROPS to haul it. I'm not sure that Coyote even bought permits
Put a slow moving vehicle sign on it and say you are going to load manure on your farm. Run under AG rules.
when i considered that one time, I thought what if it breaks, what the hell do i do then? where do you stash a big pan on the road because you know if it breaks its going to be a nice flat spot where you can easily go to the ditch!! lol if its rural good chance to pull it off but thats a long way.
On this same subject, can anyone tell me if I can haul a 637 on a lowboy without pulling tires, and stay under height? Granted, it would depend on the trailer... Just trying to get ideas, there are a couple going through Ritchie brothers today, trying to figure what it would cost to get them home. 627s would be a lot better machine for our job, but if the price was right....
No reason to pull tires. Check with John Channel at CMI (951) 943-8782 or Dalton [URL='https://www.google.com/search?q=dalton+trucking&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1#'](909) 823-0663 [/URL]
Remember the old days when we put the DW-20 tractors on the low bed and towed the pan. Seen a 660 go off a job the same way. Worked great with the 4 wheel tractors. We had roaded them in.
Yes sir, You can still use a jeep (front trailer-5th wheel of 7 axle) and dolly combo to move scrapers. There have been a few mishaps; dolly coming out from under the scraper resulting with an overturned scraper on the highways. Local clay mining company still has 3 DW20 coal haulers (stretched cans) last used in 1994; we used drive those down the highway. January 1989 video loading out McCoy 666, Irvine Blvd in Orange County Calif. Painted up moving to another job site. Both individuals loading the scraper have died. Skip video to 15:30, the flying scraper tractor! 9 ACI 660s went bye-bye today @ RB auction; 4 wheel tractors will soon be a part of history.
Trying to remember. Seems to me we build brackets to carry the bowl from the cross arm and then unpinned the bowl lift cylinders to get the top arm low enough to haul. Team Ghillotti in Petaluma, CA has a jeep like that for use with Glen's 660. What did the 660s go for. I would love to road one back to Minnesota and hit the shows all the way. It would be a fun summer. Would have to set the camper in the bowl. EDIT: Just checked out the 660s on RB. Sold from $15,000 to $23,000. All repowered by Detroits 60 series, cat 2s. Around 4,000 hours on most. Good thing I was not there, probably have to live in one for a while at home to.
@ $15K you can purchase the 660s for used tires. Calif Ban on adding Tier 2s – Beginning January 1, 2018, for large and medium fleets (over 5K Hp combined), and January 1, 2023, for small fleets, a fleet may not add a vehicle with a Tier 2 engine. The engine Tier of any vehicle added to a fleet must be Tier 3 or higher. Maybe those 660s will show up @ the badlands job; 35million yards stretched from 3.5yrs to 5yrs. Moved in Cat scrapers usually have the door (apron) unpinned to keep the banjo height under legal limit for height. Bit of a stretch to work the controls and hook up and re-pin solo; climb around like monkey all day wrenching on scrapers!
I know that you,s blokes do alot of things differently over there but surely youre not allowed to drive any big gear not just 37s down the roads and 600 ks or miles?Never known it being done before so shouldnt really comment on it but i,d be working out exactly how far you could go before you had to stop and how long you had to stop for to let the tyres and everything else cool down.Reckon it would be a certainty that one or more of those 4 big black round things would explode taking out anything close by if you dont. Read about a 651 tyre going off a few years ago up north.It was a long haul and the company didnt want to bring dumpers in the 51s had done another job and were there so why not.It was the front left tyre and the floor,seat and poor bloke in the seat were near blown through the roof of the cab which was near separeted from the machine.It was said that it looked like a bomb had gone off and then a mines inspector explained why it was so bad.Gases,and alot of them and of course heat build up inside the tyre and unfortunately for the poor bloke who was killed people found out what happens.
Still a bit 'open country'; farmers do what they do. That 660 is the 'old' type with 90 degree D346 V8 and 9 speed torque convertor transmission. The small door in the hood for changing out the fuel filters. Wheels, liquid cooled with anti-freeze to prevent overheating issues.
See my post #17 on Page 1. Obviously you have to take care of tyre temps but apart from that there is no technical reason why it can't be done so long as controls are in place. Obviously it helps if your route is well away from urban areas.
Nige, did you forgetting something? 2-3 miles okay, but greater distance (600 miles) with the rear trans neutralized >> transmission's lube system is non-operative. Transmission damage will occur if the wheel planetary sun gears are not removed. Potential Trans Damage was 1 reason equip transporters quit moving twin engine scrapers with the scraper axle-tires on the road surface. Customers could claim that load-and-tow transport caused trans failure 1 day to 6 months later. 2 reason: Requirement to by-pass the scraper steering system using jumper lines so the scraper would freely turn and follow the truck-trailer. Truck drivers and their helpers (even myself) are not careful about spilling oil on the ground; BIG no-no now-days.
Example of Load & Tow 1973
What kind of speed, distance would be done with that kind of set up I imagine the rear tires were a limiting factor
Correct speed was limited by the rear tires. Average speed 25-30mph; most loads were county-city road permitted. Distance 150 miles no problem. 150 mile radius from equip yard (65 miles east of downtown L.A) in S. Cal covers enough area that a person could spend 30-50 years working on equipment, seldom leaving the area. Getting rear tires off the ground to increase highway speeds req'd using a stinger or basket dolly. Example of 'basket dolly' Marco Transport.
I heard a story years ago about a contractor in Dawson Creek B.C. that bought 2 621's at an auction in Whitehorse Yukon. He couldn't find anyone there to haul them home so he welded a hitch on one for his pickup and him and his WIFE drove them home down the Alaska highway. That was in the 6o's. It is approximately 900 miles. They don't build wife's like that anymore LOL.
I know that stretch of road and the goof under the hat. Ran it myself in that very machine. Glad someone took a video
You give credence to IT'S A SMALL WORLD Wheelie 660, awesome...your photo would be cool on T-shirts >idea> make a few bucks. We're you using steering assist hydra-lift?