I've got a 1976 model Grove TMS300LP. I bought it two years ago from a guy who doesn't take care of anything. I thought I bought it worth the money. I knew it needed some attention going into it, but, it's been even worse than I anticipated. The first thing that happened was the engine. I won't get into all the details, but I ended up having to replace the engine. After getting the engine replaced, I got a call from the owner of a job we were doing and he told me the crane was trying to crank on it's on, the lights were all flashing as if it had a mind of it's own. Went out at 11:00 at night and disconnected the batteries. Took weeks and weeks to find the problem, but seemed the mechanic smashed a wad of wires between the frame and the radiator shorting everything out. It was a relief to get that fixed. Soon after that, developed a major hydraulic leak inside the boom. Nothing there but the extend cylinders. It was bad enough, it was beyond running. We finally tore it down (3 days work), and discovered one of the cylinder walls splt. $5,500 later, the cylinders were repaired and repacked. Two more days work and it was back together. The mechanism that anchor the jib to the side of the boom was a total mess. Rebuilt all of that. No, on to the swing bearings. I could tell there was soemthing wrong with the swing bearings from the first day I looked at this crane. I anticipated eventually needing to do something to it. With all of the other work I've had to do to it, it seems a minor issue now. There doesn't seem to be slack or movement in the upper. It's just tight, and doesn't free swing very easily. Almost to the point I don't even need the swing brake. Of course, the longer the boom, or the farther the reach, the worse it is. The crane is VERY useable right now. Most of my work isn't production type work. Meaning we don't do a major amount of moving/swinging, like setting trusses etc. Do I replace the bearings or just let it go? Cost of the bearing is $15,000-$17,000 from what I can find out. I'd welcome any input.
find a crane that's being parted out... maybe it will have a good bearing... for the cheap.... throw 17 grand at it... maybe then you have a nice crane... part it out... scrap it... or worse it fails, then you'll end up on You Tube, for millions to watch a crane lay across a house...
HaHaHa..I hope not. You know, as far as scrappng it..parting it out...This crane aggrevates me..I've spent a fortune on it. Then after getting it fixed again...I'll think--THIS time...It's ready to Rock and roll. But driving it??? Just not made for highway speeds compared to the newer ones. You know equipment can be. Once you get so far into it, there's almost no backing up.
And still we plod endlessly onward and upward My understanding is the slew is tight not loose. Have you tried lots and lots of grease while slewing it lots and lots, or is it tight and grumbling
I've greased it LOTS and LOTS. It's tight and grumbling.
Sounds like you have had to do some work on the grove 300.About the swing problem,might check out the swing pinion gear reducer box.It may have a bad bearing or just lack of oil.I dont know how it is set up on the 300 but on my tm250 it's a worm gear type reducer box .Good luck with it.
Thanks 25C..I'll check that out.
make sure the swing brake is releasing fully and not draging
I dug though my "stack of stuff" in the office today and found a grove service manual that covers the 300 lp, & 375 Impact.check the swing brake like mljohn mentioned.They also talk about a relief valve that could be causing the trouble.One thought that might help elliminate the swing bearing is with the boom down & retracted swung out over the side or rear you should be able to grab the end of the boom from the ground by hand and push it to the left & right a little bit due to the backlash in the pinion.I can move my tm250 boom by hand this way maby 3 or 4 inches at the end of the boom and it moves pretty easy.My excavator is the same way.If it wont move at all then Its probably the bearing.Keep us posted on it.
Thanks for all your trouble td25c. It's on a jobsite right now. The next time it's here at the shop, I'll check that out. I'm pretty sure it's in the bearing though. The guy who ran this crane before me had it in a repair shop and told me before I even bought it, it needed the bearing replaced. I'll check what you say though. I'm not even sure how it's made. Is it a series of rollers or actually a bearing? I've enjoyed reading about your Grove by the way. I'll post some photos of a few jobs we've had.
This is a job we did in 2008 at a country grain elevator. This is the 35 ton grove.
This is some of the heaviest lifts I've made, back in 2005. I typically don't lift anything more than 10,000#, at least not vey high. but, we are always needing a lot of reach. This job had a narrow window to install these conveyors so, we fully assembled everything we could on the gound. This first photo is a catwal and belt conveyor weighing about 30,000#. The second photo shows the 150 AT Grove & operator we rented. The oiler on the job had me walk behind the boom to see the arc in it. I know it has to flex, but, still--makes me nervous.
This was the second heavy (ok..at least heavy to me) lift on this project. It weighed upward of 40,000#. Second photo shows the third lift. We got it this close and the operator couldn't boom up, or retract the boom. Winch up and down was all he had. It was just too far away to manage pulling it into place, so, we had to set it back on the ground, he called his service man, and we lifted it easily the next day. Ended up a bad valve I think.
Another job back in 2001. First photo shows a rental crane moving a hopper bottom storage tank. Second photo shows a support tower we shop built. Yea, our building needs to be a little taller. Third photo shows the tower we managed to lift with our rig.
Photo shows lifting the top section with a 90 ton rental unit. I omitted the first try. We lacked 12" having enough stick w/o the job.
Setting the leg sections over in the tower
Finished structure
The harleys...OOOPPS..how'd they get in here?
Gotta love the deflection ..Had a signal guy stop a pick at about 80% of the load on a 400t Liebherr ...and ask if everything was OK ..because the head of the boom was looking back at him ..LOL...nope thats the way she does it ...almost 12ft of deflection before it got clear of the ground .. The good signal guys always watch the boom alignment over the load and not the load on a hydraulic ..espicially on long boom .. Interesting pic's ..Ive done a few of those ..dont mind the "dry run" before the jib ..been there done that ... The grain elevator's ..for some reason just dont look that high ..untill you try to reach it ..
""The good signal guys always watch the boom alignment over the load and not the load on a hydraulic ..espicially on long boom .."" or Especially taking something down. They let the boom deflect, radius increases, then..They cut it loose on ya. It's what we call in the south..Swarming yer ...buttocks. But the good ones, will watch that. We built some tanks 105' in diameter. Peak height was only 100' or so. Load is only 5,000 pounds. Amazing how large a crane it takes sometimes.
Indeed ... We sat up a 600T hydro to put an air unit in over this place ..main and full luffer ..for one air unit ..that showed up on a GMC TopKick...We were substantially less than a helicopter to do the same lift ..8 hr's to set up 7 to break it all down ..the lift took less than 20minutes ..
I just had a thought Impact .. You got a "port-a-power" hydrualic jack unit .. If you made a fitting and hooked it up and pumped transmission oil ,or fuel oil in the bearing ..It has alot of detergent,It would help clean out the crud .....Some decent EP1 or 2 what ever your weather is doing ,after to slick it all back up ..
I know stuff bends.. I was told years ago, it's just a big fishing pole... the more weight the more bend... I've picked stuff up.. and thought it would never stop running away from the crane.. but it was only about 3000 lbs valve.... but with somewhere around 200' of boom... and half of that was lattice... it was about 20 to 30 ft from where it started.... we were on a job that a helicopter did... I have pics... If I can get my scanner to work... I'll post them... probably 20 lifts ... a St Louis company..... Had to move because the super said I couldn't take pics.... The main reason was the Home Depot truck setting at the doors of a new Lowes... I wish I had got a pic of that... well I guess I will look at scanner
Cool job pictures Impact.We get in on alot of grain handling systems & elevator work to.always interesting.
Christ !! I knew they bent, but nooooooooooooot that faaaaarrr
Keep going back and reading this post... THAT might work.
Never Know ...Hardenend grease may be sticking the balls..Any luck after a week of running and pumping ..you may score a little for the home team ...
Ya they do ..Found these ..they aint mine ..but its a load test on a lil'Liebherr
Good gawd!
Bends like a fishing rod with a large mouth bass attached to the other end!
Impact- something else you may try. Boom down over the side like 25 said and try to push it. Then back off or pull the little pucks on the swing brake and try it again. Replace the brake and then pull the hyd motor on the top of the swing box and try it again. If you notice a big difference between motor and no motor you may have the wrong hyd motor installed, one that will not let it free swing/ bypass through. The crane is designed so that it should free swing. If you've got 80' of stick out at 45deg. you should be able to set up level, swing over the rear (do this in a wide open area) jack up the outriggers all the way on the left or right side and the crane should take off swinging. Sometimes the swing motor gets replaced when it loses a seal, instead of buying the right high $ one, the owner buys a cheap replacement and suprise no free swing. The bearing itself is essentially two bolt together halves with bearing balls inbetween. What leiberr is getting at is putting a thin detergent type oil in (Diesel / atf) to remove old dried hard grease/dirt thats packed in the bearing. New grease is not going to help that problem. Also as you're rotating and greasing/ is there grease showing below or above at the seal point? Some models of these have a water drain on the bottom that becomes packed with dirt/ old grease and water stays trapped in the bearing. Take a piece of wire and scratch the hole open underneath (be ready for a bath) I've seen 10 gal of water come out.
Have you stopped the growling yet. hope the pump to clean works. Sounds like a good idea. messy but if that the fixes the problem. it's more money in your pocket. Here's a chopper, the last only close up before the super said NO
Cool picture of the old Sikorsky chopper heavylift.
No, haven't stopped the growling yet. It's been on a job site almost constantly since starting this thread. I've been busier than a one arm paper hanger lately. Been working on bidding a new project and just got the nod to proceed. Biggest project I've done to date. The schedule is tight and there's some unique things I've never dealt with before. The soil conditions aren't suitable to support the storage tanks we proposed. Two sets of engineers been looking at it and both recommend auger casts. From what I've learned, 18" diameter holes are dug, and grout injected into the hole. There's a grid of these auger casts on 7-8' centers. Total of like 700 of them. After enough are in place for one structure, I'll pour a 2' thick pad of concrete over the top as a base to start work. It'll be a clean place to work, once that pad is in place. It'll be a total mud hole BEFORE it's in place. 700 Cubic yards in one pour. Right now we're demolishing a 22,000 SF grain storage building. Massive steel compared to what I normally do. We have two telehandlers, two cranes, a boom lift, and four cutting/welding rigs on site. Visited the site yesterday and will probably end up with two more telehandlers there. They are all working great, except the brand new Pettibone. It's not charging. Oh, I had a Gehl 883 in the shop the last few weeks. Had just installed a new engine in it, and we finally decided to repack all the hydraulic cylinders. While it was apart, decided to clean it up and paint it. Was going to hire someone, but decided to do it ourselves. $8,000 in the engine, $3,500 in the cylinders, paint, etc etc, wasn't going to buy the decal kit for $700. But, after it was painted looked so good, ordered the decals. Looks like a BRAND new machine after four new tires. Spent a total of about $15,000 on it. I figure if it were to sell, it'd bring about $9,000. LOL But, that doesn't matter, I'm not selling it.
X2 on the orbit motor and swing brake. I had an RT65S a few years back and that mechanical disc can be a real pain in the arse. Same can be said with the swing motors. It's rather doubtful the swing bearing is at fault here.
This is normal deflection on these cranes - with the boom unloaded it may even have some backward chamber. In regard to the bearing have you measured the play by using a dial indicator - just curious what you might find. Most bearing are a roller type or a double roller type bearing but there are some others.
auger cast can be a total mess if the auger cast company is left to clean their spoils... put it this way they don't....they will push the center clean..dump the bucket.... dip it... then drop the cage in it... the job is a huge mess... we had one project that the auger cast said they would clean..nope I always clean as they drill... this is usually good dirt... it's the dirt after they grout is started that is quite messy... then by the time they pull out .... there is very little spoil left on the ground.. all the spoil is hauled off the pad or a dump truck is setting on site to be loaded.. this all depends on the area and space available for spoils... we tried a small 2' tall roll off but after the first load they refuse to bring it back... even with a layer of sand in the bottom ..it wouldn't slide out... Hint they need picked up daily... then they will jump all over the site because of the piles being too close.... can't drill within 5' or whatever of a pile for a few days.... some piles caps areas may take 2 weeks to finish the 5 pile set.. They are still drilling but that cap will set a couple days before they come back to it.. I've done projects with up to 2000 piles... and at less than forty a day well.... BORING... it had over 7000 yards of concrete in the foundation.. that set on the piles...they divided it into four pours.. All the piles are below grade so after they top them off, I would fill them with sand, later..that did 2 things closed a hazard, plus made digging easier... because you can get grout pushed into an open hole... then the hand work is harder... Below grade is easier on everyone... we have left the foundation holes 2' high on purpose...so the auger cast equipment can move around the site.... with out driving thru a forest of re-bar
I appreciate the input heavylift. About the same information I've been hearing about auger casts. It'll be my responsibility to clean away the spoils. I expect it to be utter chaos. We're pouring about 3500 yards in the auger casts. Then there's over 2,000 yards just in the footings. Lotsa mud.
The more you get cleaned while they are drilling down is the best way to go.... Things get a little hectic when it starts out of the hole.... I always help them a little.... like dragging a hose or whatever... a couple of times a foreman had to come by at the start to tell them this is how it's going to work...... The best machine for the job... well the one I like the best ... was a 247 Cat ... they glide right over the top of 3" or 4" hoses.... wheeled skids for the most part it's a bronc ride all day long... if you cross a hose a 1000 times a day... The grout isn't a problem on the boogies or tracks.... they can be cleaned if needed just about every hole It's the bucket that gets the worst end of the deal Also you need to build a really small pond... they will prime the hose with grout.. some times the 1st truck... is just for that... better in a small pond.... end of day is the same way.... they will pump water thru the hose and augers to clean... I usually try to find out where they will drill last... sometimes they will walk to an area to clean.. but I always have a spot for them to start and stop .. I then mix it with dry spoils.. The grout pump.... well that's usually cleaned the next morning after the grout has set... It's usually not on the pad...
247 cat...Is that a track loader?
It's a compact track loader .... this is just a photo off the internet.. the one I used was a 247. I had a different bucket .... plus a enclosed cab... no A/C but still nice year round... The plus is they tear up less ground when turning The thing is the driller may want to work after a days rain.... his grout pump may be set to where trucks can get to it... the 247 will tear up less than a wheeled skid if it can move.... another thing is the pins set for the piles. they are usually a few inches under the dirt and marked with a flag... but if it's wet enough you could puncture a tire.... the same could be said of a track... but unlikely that you would tear a track Be prepared for some long days Looks real good on payday I have been one site that the pile company was union... they had to have a seperate crane to set cages... they couldn't use the 3rd line to set cages...:beatsme
I was already planning on a tracj loader Got one eyed. $15 K range. low hours. Some odd name I've never heard of. I know the guy who owns it, and I sorta owe him a favor anyhow.