Hey There, While bidding a project recentlyI came across a request for my time to be tracked by a "service meter" or a "hobbs meter" that records the hours a machine is run on a paper disk or some type of tape that is submitted for billing. It seems to me I've seen somthing like this a long time ago on a dump truck, however I havnt been able to find anything like it in my search now. I spoke with the guys at ziegler cat and they had a general idea but said they hadnt seen one in about 25 years and weren't sure who made them. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Bascally a time card machine for a piece of heavy equipment. The bid spec also mentioned a hobbs meter, which from what I can tell just means a hobbs brand hour meter and meter readings, which should be all a guy needs but the contract administrator is hung up on having a disc or tape to verify. If push comes to shove the way it reads I can get by with meter readings, but being its a new contract if I can pasify them on this point I'd rather just go that route. The machines I'd be looking at mounting it in would either be an old Cat 120 60H, or an 80's champion 720. As always any help is greatly appreaciated Thanks!
you could also do satellite tracking that keeps a record of all machine running hours and operational status. I think what your thinking of is a tachograph. I have never seen one for hours only for engine RPM and Vehicle speed.
I used to run service recorder for hourly work, finally gave it up as the expense of keeping the movements in go condition. Gave them all away, there is a pendulum (sp) in the clock that makes a mark on the clock sheet when the machine is in motion so it shows actual running time. I'll find one and take a pic so you can see what they are. Do a search for service recorder
The pendulum makes the red mark, these sheets are 24 hour, we put a day on each side so 2 days per sheet.we used sheets in 10th's of an hour for easy calcing. 8.7 hours etc. It's an honest way to track running time but the movement is like a big wind up watch with gears and spring that give trouble over time. Once very common now they are almost a thing of the past.
Thanks for the Info, I found one on ebay so We'll see how that goes. I have a feeling this will be a hassle but its a substantial contract and they seem to be stuck on the idea so looks like I'll be getting familiar with them. Kind of windering how I could do this economicaly with GPS, Say using a mapping feature and the time/date stamping on the beginning and ending way points or somthing. Any idea where a guy can still get the disks? I'm searching that stuff out now but first hand is always helpful. Thanks for the imput!
Yair . . . They were called Keinzle Recorders over here. I would have thought they were long obselete. They were good while they were going but as mentioned by DPete they couldn't stand up to heavy equipment vibrations and gave a lot of trouble. They gave rise to some unintended consiquences though. I hade a rake tractor getting shifted a couple of hundred miles and it took a lot longer than it should've. I was fed a B/S story about tyre troubles and what all. When I unlocked the recorder to fit a card at the new job I found the vibrations on the float had been enough to lightly print the card that was in it . . . and the white sections coincided with travel times between a couple of pubs. Cheers.
I had some in trucks long ago, the brand name was Sangamo, a division of Wagner IIRC. The descriptive name is Tachograph, if you google that you'll get lots of info. Found a source of charts here - http://www.c-a-i.net/Pages/tachogCharts.htm
Thanks for all the info, ended up buying one on Ebay for $20 and looked in an ex-county gravel truck we had and found another one, just have to order some of the cards and figure out how the rest of it works. Hopefully there isnt much of a learning curve