My friend Don hauling a ??? truck from the factory to Northern Alberta. Dec 19. 2019
Looks like a big Cat off-road truck.
No it ain't. At least it's not like any Cat chassis I've ever seen. Those two links at the front RH corner make me think it could be a Unit-Rig MT4400 because that model of truck has a single-beam front axle, not independent nitrogen-over-oil struts like most mining trucks. (Pic of Unit-Rig chassis below). If it is a Unit-Rig it will be painted the same Cat yellow as Cat's own line of trucks.
Hey, it was yellow! LOL
My Friend Dennis D went over to Siberia to help with a mine start up and send this picture to me in the late 80' ??
Ah, but it is. That’s a 798 frame on its way to the oil sands.
You're right. it seems that Cat have adopted the Unit-Rig beam axle design for the front suspension of the 798. I wonder why.?
I don’t know why, as the rough ride is the only thing I can really pick at on those trucks. They’re absolute beasts.
I had dealings with the older range of Unit-Rigs in Chile about 20 years ago and by ***k they were crude. They also rode like a brick..... From further delving it appears as though the 794, 796, & 798 all share that same front suspension design using a beam axle. How positively 19th Century.
Maybe less machined parts ?
In my view - why change a design that has worked successfully for the past 50 years and is synonymous with good ride quality by sticking a beam axle under the front of the truck..? It makes no sense.
Maybe to the beancounters it makes sense.
That would be one explanation.
Everything old is new again. Some young engineer thinks he is being clever?
I was wondering whether the Unit-Rig side of the Cat haul truck operation is being given the responsibility for design of the new range of electric-drive range trucks (794, 796, & 798) and the Cat side is concentrating on the mechanical-drive trucks.? If that's the case I wonder where that leaves the 795AC.?
I've just has a quick look at the 798 in SIS and to say that it is a new design is giving it a bit too much credit. From what I can see it is the bones of a Unit Rig/Bucyrus truck with a lot of input from the corporate parts bin.
From what I can see the 794 & 796 appear to have come from the same gene pool as the 798.