question, its not my first time seeing this ,but seeing how i've never ran one or asked before. whats the purpose , pros and cons? http://www.machinerytrader.com/list...5753355&guid=54A6F2C2B52342F7B911A5FC3F893AC0 http://www.machinerytrader.com/list...5800415&guid=54A6F2C2B52342F7B911A5FC3F893AC0
Quite a few of the townships/municipalities around here have gotten them, they use them because they can road them a few miles to a site rather than floating them. They also seem to like to mount them with brush cutters for cutting back brush along the sides of the roads. If they have a culvert to replace, then can use it for excavating, more reach than a backhoe. I haven't ran one myself, but have seen a few of them up close. Actually, I saw one last year with a second set of wheels, set up for running the train tracks. Guessing it would be for brushing/maintenance work along the railroad as well. Mark
I've seen them too. Pros: Travel at 20 to 30 mph No damage to pavement Cons: Less stable than a tracked machine on rough terrain. Every time I've seen them used, it has been on pavement. They are quicker to move around a job and won't damage the pavement like steel tracks do.
I have a few hours on a Cat M322C. If you have run an excavator before it is relatively the same in terms of boom/stick/bucket/swing control. The major differences in operation are moving the machine and stability. For traveling, you have a forward/reverse pedal, brake pedal, and a steering wheel. Like an excavator you can travel in forward or reverse, but unlike an excavator where you can counter-rotate the tracks to turn, you have to use the steering wheel. The steering wheel functions like any normal one would going forward, but going in reverse it takes a little getting used to because you have to turn the wheel in the opposite direction that you want to go (can get a little hairy in tight situations when you are still getting used to the difference ) The other major difference is the bounciness of the machine. Since you are on tires (essentially four bouncy balls under the corners of your machine), you have so major stability issues. The machine I ran had four stabilizers just like a backhoe, and I would lower them and lift the machine off the ground like you would in a backhoe. Once you are "stabilized", if feels and acts like a normal excavator, if not even a bit more stable. However, without the stabilizers, you have a severely limited lifting capacity and a diminshed ability to fine grade since the machine bounces with the tiniest of movement. Other than those two differences, the only other thing I can think of is your ability to hydraulically manipulate the boom with another foot pedal to increase your reach or if you need to work close in to the machine you can crowd the boom in. That's all I can think of, sorry for the long post! Andrew
Oh, as a side note, don't try to take a wheeled excavator up a narrow, muddy ramp, with big drop offs on either side. They don't like the dirt as much as they like the pavement!
sorry :Banghead i meant the two piece boom (va boom). i've ran a older rubber tired excavator (cat 214). i know how to run one , i've just never ran one with that two piece main boom before. what the purpose of the two piece boom
Well when I had to run the machine I used the va boom to increase my reach by "straightening out" the boom. You can also use the ability to crowd the boom in (or bend it more) to increase the lifiting capacity over what you would have with a normal excavator boom. Also, having the boom crowded in allows you to reach your max dig depth much closer to the machine.
thanks ARPlante, thats kinda what i was thinking :beatsme
The two piece boom also makes grading easier as your pulling the stick in and booming up with the lever you can go down on the pedal so that you don't have to worry about getting to that one point in the boom where you need to start booming down like on a traditional excavator. if that makes sense
Also stabilizers are too slow only the amateures use them