K-Tec 1254 ADT http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCQ_Louy8z8
something wrong here. Says link is broken. Any ideas?
Here's the link - YouTube - K Tec 1254 ADT Loading with D10 push Cat
Ok, I'm gonna play devil's advocate here. I get that pull type pans are suppose to be more versatile, less expensive, and cut down on support equipment (ie pushcats). So that being said... how is this any more efficient than a 651? It's still being pushed by a big cat, and has 4 more tires than a self propelled unit. With most tractor pan's you can always mutli task the tractor and switch to a disc or drag box, with the ADT hooked up like a gooseneck I think it would be hard and time consuming to switch it to anything else. Just my opinion, but maybe this model pull pan is too big for it's own good?
I'd also kinda like to play devils advocate. I am by no means a buggy man, but with that KTEC scraper and buying a 740.... aren't you well on the way to buyin a 621?, and if your going to run the pushcat......well there's your 627/37 or whatever you need. I know everyone hates conventional scrapers but there is something kinda sexy about a spread of twin engines.
I think those apron rams might be in harms way on a real job
I'm going to second that thought, just look at the last couple of seconds of the video when the clod of dirt falls off and looks like it hits it. I don't think that would last in rocky applications.
Actually, I kinda like that set-up. Lots of weight & horsepower going for it; to get it loaded anyway. The bad part is that the loaded K-Tec weighs more than the tow vehicle.... ain't no way it's going to pull a steeper, soft grade with that load (whatever they claim... 54 cy?) attached, a conventional tandem scraper of similar capacity would pull the similar payload, no problem, because all of the gross weight is located atop driven wheels... not wheels in tow. Just because the K-Tec is big doesn't negate the laws of physics; it's still got to pull that tremendous payload; and I'd bet that the Artic Truck can't pull it effectively, nor could a farm tractor.... unless the work area was extremely flat and hard; never the conditions here anyway. Besides that, the purchase of such a pricey rig would be certain economic suicide for me.
I think the 740 is superior to a normal scraper for hauling distances in between sites to a confidential scraper. Quicker haul speeds? And if one 740 breaks, just hook up another.
Devil's Advocate I think it would work in the right conditions (soil type, dry soil, solid haul road, long haul, etc.) I think a lot can and will go wrong. I think they are pushing the limits and not using the ADT for what it was designed to do. I would be concern about the transmission and rear ends on the ADT. Just my 2 cents and I am not an expert by any means.
Does anyone else feel like something is off if the ktec is supposed to haul 11 cubic yards MORE than this? That said, I think a Bell scraper tractor with a 30cu yd gooseneck pan would work sweet striping topsoil.
Nope. I feel like you do. The best thing that K-Tec has got going for it is the big push-cat behind it, helping it get a full load. Kinda like trying to "sandpaper a Wildcat's azz".......... Once you get started, whatcha gonna do with it??...... Other than have a miserable day!:beatsme
How is that 740 gonna have the haul speed a big twin engine rig does? That pan is competing with a 657.... Like I have said before I'm not a scraper guy, but when you have 50yds with 415hp from the 740 in front of it.... compared to 1100hp in the 657 what happens when you hit soft ground, a pile....or a brisk wind? I know a 657 is a lot of cash, but are these little wiggle wagons gonna move dirt at the price a twin will? And is that a standard 740?, I can't imagine if your truck breaks down your gonna pull a box off and throw a 5th wheel on and go to town. Someone Educate me lol. I work for a company that just throws twins at everything without question so I would like to learn about the other ways.
You could push it with Deere's high speed dozer then you'd have a whole string of wannabees all working together.
I hear that the transmissions in those trucks aren't a good fit for pull-scrapers either. Geared up too high and not designed for pulling. I guess it doesn't matter because the crawler is doing most of the work in the cut.
Hate to keep pickin on it but why would anybody put small wheels like that on a 50 yd. scraper? Hit a little soft spot with dual small wheels like that and they'll just lock up and stick ya.
WHAT?? ......... Y'all didn't hear?? .............. all of those farm-tractor/ artic truck towed pull pans haul over 50 cubic yards/ cycle!!!!:Banghead ......... and go places that a conventional twin-scraper never dare!
Farm tractors and pans are cheap to buy and oporate but only designed to pull farm impliments not pans, thats why you see 5000hr tractor combo's all around the net for sale because the tractors are punched out and beat. A scraper is more money because they get the 30 000 hr life span with minimal repair. K teck has a good system for the tractors because they don't put tongue weight on the hitches which reduces stress on the fragile tractor. But you are pulling 50 cubes of dead weight with no weight on the tractor so you weight the crap out of the tractor for the traction, leaves you with more fuel consumption and more weight. I have thought about the adt setup and I think that it can be handy but when you look at spending that much money on a adt and a pan i think you would be better off to go to rb auction and buy a 37. When i was working with richardson bro's const they demo'd some of the k tec stuff and the sales man said that the adt conversion would only take half a day to swap between the box and the pan. Another thing that i couldnt justify this for is the fact that if you are going to be using a pan to haul behind a truck why not just use a truck or a scraper, sompthing designed better for it,not some half breed idea. I would like to see a adt with a box on it and a hitch type pan to pull behind so you have weight on the truck and you could haul double the load by toploading bolth the truck and scraper with an excavator, and when the job is nearly finnished you can use just the pan to cut and fill. To me I just cant see that this will become economical .
:BangheadDon't know if i made much sense but it sure sounded better in my head !:beatsme
I myself grew up with twin engine scrapers, they actually require a fair amount of skill compared to the monkeyseat operations today. especially push pulling , im my experience in the right conditions. nothing , and i mean nothin hauls dirt the way a couple of push pull scrapers W/nonidiot Operators can. i just posted this, because people in the upper midwest are headed this way w/ ktec type scrapers. a 34yd ktec costs @+$130000 now to me thas alot of money for somethin without a engine. Just my Two Cents.
Deere makes a beefed up tractor especially for pull-type scraper applications. It can handle the tongue weight and rides smoothe as glass compared to a cat scraper. It has nowhere near the longevity of a cat scraper, but you can put a fair amount of hours on it, swap it out and still come out cheaper than buying a new cat. Pull-types are bar none, the cheapest way to move dirt and work in more conditions than alot of people think. I think much of the misconceptions come when you see a pan skimming 4 inches next to a cat cutting twice as deep per pass. However, at the end of the day, when you look at the haul and the money spent, the pull pans almost always win. That said, the K-Tec concept, to me is not going to make sense over a cat once the dollars are counted. It treads too close to that cat niche market. If your going to run pull-type scrapers, you are almost always going to be better off running smaller tandems or even triples and letting the cats do what they do.
K i dunno if this is gonna work er not if it doesne some one please pm me and show me how to post youtube vidios. But you cant tell me you can run a 27 and an 8 for what these guys are doing any cheaper or more efficiently http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5xq8jOObJY&feature=related#watch-main-area
Ok... this is where the whole pull scraper vs. twin engine gets fuzzy. Your K-tec scraper is 130k? Whats an ADT worth? And the push cat? Look on the RB website. Last Nov. 5 Cat 657E scrapers went for 62 500, 67 500 and 92 500 (3)......so. For 92 500 for a 657E that can load itself and whail across a jobsite.... can you buy a Ktec pan, tractor/ADT and push cat for that kinda money? Everyone compares to new scrapers, but who needs new scrapers? Twins are flyin out of california right now, B models are on the EPA's hit list. Whats a 627/37/57B worth?
worlds largest pull type, and Deeretime's vid: I thought it was gonna work, but I got the "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" page... You might have too many http//'s in there... This might work... we'll give it a try, any way. YouTube - K-TEC Earthmovers push loading Hope that's the one you wanted, if not... well, you know... OCR PS: Maybe this was a issue for one of the Mods. to handle... hope I wasn't out'a line here. If I was... Delete!
Ahh your awesome I thought this was kinda cool. not as productive as a 57 but i dont need 88wheels to move it either i can leagaly drive it down the road FARMER STYLE
worlds largest pull type: Yup... OCR...
I guess it all depends, but I think you might be assuming that this 53 yard pull pan can direct load in a number of conditions and I'm hearing it can't. A friend of mine saw it run and said it'll never sniff 50 yards. That isn't a regular ADT that's pulling it either, its a Volvo scraper tractor so its not like you can slap that thing behind any old artic truck and go. Its a specialty setup from nose to tail and it ain't cheap. I'm going to do a little more research on this one. You got me thinking. Your video link is of their 30 yard scrapers in tandem, so its not comparing apples and apples. I would much rather those tandem 30's than the one big one -- more versatile. I don't know about pushing them with a farm tractor though. Once you have to put that pusher behing these things, it takes away a big part of the value that they provide over cats. I like the smaller ones because you can direct load them fuller and easier without a push crawler.
Maybe thinking its a Cat 740 not a Volvo A40?
You're right. The video is probably a 740. They were doing a demo up and down the west coast last year with that rig behind a Volvo t450d scraper truck. Brain fart.:Banghead
And its most likely stock truck because cat only sells the 740 as a frame or with a box .
In the first video posted there is a cat 740 pulling the pan. Unless I'm missing something, there isn't any scraper over 45 cu yds that can consistently self-load. Push-pull doesn't count. The largest self-loading scrapers i know of would be the D11's with towed 51 pans. I think tractor-scraper combinations have there applications, just like the cat-scrapers, but neither will ever replace push-pull or 51's being push loaded. Trying to do so is nothing more than folly. Motor Scrapers can load faster and more densely than pullpans and travel faster and more efficiently than cats That said, there is a place for scraper tractors and pull pans. They get used by a few smaller contractors; they can't afford to have a push-pull spread sitting so long between jobs. Hamm uses them to strip quarries and saves the push-pull spreads for road jobs. On a side note John Deere has the Scraper Special, but Challenger 900's where designed with scraper use as a primary application. They have the some of the beefiest components around. Not really sure about CNH or anybody else.
Yes, its a 740. I corrected myself in the previous post. I agree with you that if it cannot consistently direct load, the rig costs almost as much as a cat, and you cant get through the rocks, is it worth running over a cat? I would argue no, but that's just my opinion. Like I said, I believe that pull scrapers should stay smaller and just run tandem or triple to get the big loads. You do everything you can with pans, and let the cats do the rest. The Challenger has a slightly bigger top spec engine and bigger axles, but it will guzzle the fuel and the additional power does not provide a noticeable advantage. I've run em and they burn a ton more fuel per hour and have slow hydraulics. There is just no real productivity advantage for the additional cost. I guess this is why most serious pull pan guys are running the Deere.
I know a contractor who is running 3 - K-Tec 1254 ADT's. He has a fleet of 627's and 631's. He says that the 1254 is consistently 30% more cost effective/productive then his 631's. He says the 1254 cycle times are the same as the 631 in hard, dry conditions. When conditions turn soft and wet, the 1254 will out cycle the 631. Says the reason is that the 1254 has more flotation. As for lack of HP, he has chipped his CAT 740's which increases the HP by 40%. The 1254 is still putting about 53,000 lbs onto the 740, so traction is not to bad. Fully loaded, he says he can reach 30 MPH. I have heard new pricing around the $750,000 for the whole unit. To switch the 740 from a scraper power unit, back to a material hauler only takes a couple of hours. So very versatile there. So thats the other side of the coin. Bottom line, this is just a new concept, which will be accepted with in a couple of years.
This is really true of any pull-type concept over Cats. When the conditions are right, you can't move dirt cheaper. The problem with these K-Tec's in my opinion is that they are too big. You lose many of the advantages to pull type when you try to run one, huge scraper. For example, you will need a push Cat much of the time with that rig. Second, the converted ADT's are really not designed properly for this application and the K-tec's excessive tongue weight is murdering that truck. This machine will be parked along side the Cat's when the ground is wet while the tandem trains are still running. Lastly, you will never sniff 53 cubic yards direct loading with that K-tec so the size is a little misleading. You can get a Deere 9630 with tandem 2112E's for under $600,000 and have a much better overall system that you can actually trade for a decent value when you are done with it.
I could see the value in the Ag tractor/pull pan set up if you don't turn alot of earth moving work all the time. The off road truck rig and the monster pan....well, I guess it works for them but I don't see it. We don't get into alot of heavy earth moving operation like the old days but like most contractors around these parts, we tend to do alot of farming and ranching on the side. Pull the tractor off the ranch and hook a buggy to it and away you go when you get that type of operation. In theory. We have one earth moving job that's about done with that phase and threw come 615C's at it. We keep a pair of those and an old open bowl 621 around and rent all else we need when it comes up.
ointheadJohn Deere smooth as glass?:falldownlaugh They are the roughest thing ever to be produced to pull pans! I've ran them all quads, challengers 875 or the 975 series, the 9630 scraper special deere, and one of the view to sit on the 9630T scraper edition that is not yet released. Also spent time on 627's, 651, 631, 623, and by far the 9630 scraper special with tires is the most worthless thing out there! Down time we have 10 and there hasn't been a day yet all of them ran non stop! You say smooth, where are they smooth? Running down the highway they are rough! The hitch being tough enough all right I'll give you that but the tractor itself NO! Go through turbos more then cutting edges, transmissions and drivelines go left and right. We have even pulled one completly in half! It broke in the middle. Also bent the frame in another. They are junk!
Deere makes the three top spec 4X4's in a scraper version; and have for the last few years. You won't put 10,000 hours on them, but even if you turn them over every few years, you still come out cheaper than a CAT. Their pans, IMO, are the best out there. They buried Reynolds over the years and let the bad economy take care of what was left. They will last forever if properly maintained. Kman, I'm not sure if you were addressing me, or if I even said that 9630 was smooth, but if you would rather run a CAT self-propelled over an articulated tractor with a fully active seat -- be my guest. I don't know anyone who would take that deal. If you are going to scrape, it doesn't get much better than a 4x4 tractor.
Kman - i dont understand your thoughts on the john deere tractors, seems like you have been on a different breed of tractor from what i grew up on. As far as a scraper tractor personally their is no better. I grew up in south Louisisana in rice feilds with deere and they are the best far durability, cost is different- but you get what you pay for. I have been running these w/deere pans and numerous others brand pans for 14 years doing lazer work and now heavy construction and wouldnt trade for anything else. The one thing you have to consider is you need someone behind the steering that can use common sense, the type repairs or break downs you mentioned sounds 100% operator / lake of operator. We just finished a site in N. Georgia which included little over 50,000 yards of rock and dirt mix and had no problems, now these are not made for rock jobs , but if you use a little common sense they will do more than most people think. On this job we had bets against us that i would never complete this project and when all was said and done we completed it $ 40,000 under what the closest other grader quoted, goes to show that Cat pans are not the most cost effective sometimes or maybe its because the Deere's just ran right over the Cats?????
How do you figure that 26.5 tons on a 40 ton truck is excessive weight?
Its not the ability to carry the weight over the axle that hurts the truck; that's what ADT's are designed for. What ADT's are NOT designed to do is TOW 80 tons of dead weight in addition to 26 tons at the hitch. This doesn't even take into account the massive shock loads created once that 12 foot blade enters the ground. These axles, transmissions, and frames are not designed for this application.
One reason they have actice seat is because they are so rough. The guys from Moline said the seat just takes a guess on the bounce and wear out faster then a normal seat. As for a Cat? I am guessing you mean Challenger? They don't have active seats ecause you never know which way they are gonna bounce. You ever been in a 9630T? No active seat? One of the main engineers from Moline rode with me and I asked why no active seat, his response was "you never know which way its gonna bounce and the 9630's with tires were so rough they needed something". Thats their engineer, they know they ride rough. As for in the mud your saying a tired tractor does better then a track tractor? I'll take 4wd on tracks over tires anyday. As for the pans yeah the Deere pans are pretty sweet no arguement there but their tractors are junk. As for more expensive thats a no as well. Over all 4wd tractors Deere's are the cheapest. They are practically giving them away to some contractors. As for breakdowns being operators fault highly doubt it. Maybe a few things but a turbo failing after 500 hours? Deere no they have a problem with turbos as well as drivelines and trannies. Can't even run them in top gear on a long haul because they eat through trannies.
Let me guess. You are a young operator. Am I right? Based on your post, I'd bet you are at least old enough to drink. I wouldn't mind having a swig of that, myself.:drinkup When I say CAT self-propelled, I mean CAT self propelled, not an AGCO tractor. You claimed that these machines run smoother than a tractor. Darn near everyone on this board knows better -- active seat or no active seat. Scraping is rough in general; I will give you that; but ask a 45 year old operator whose been around which machine he'd rather climb into for 10 hours. I'm not sure where I said tires were better in mud than tracks, but if I did, I either misspoke or was speaking conditionally. In certain wet conditions, the big duals could work better. More experienced guys understand this. Deere doesn't even make a scraper tractor in a track version, but you absolutely can get an active seat in a 9030T ag. Now as for the tractors, a few things: To say that Deere is the cheapest tractor out there shows how much you know. They are consistently more expensive on a per horsepower basis. As for calling them junk, I'll just say this: If a John Deere tractor is junk, than all tractors are junk. Newsflash: these are not Johnny Poppers. The tractors have sophisticated features like variable turbos. If you try to run a tractor and pan like a 30 year old CAT scraper, you will go through turbos like tissue. You cannot lug these machines down to low RPM in the cut. If your blowing turbos, its your fault and it would happen in any newer tractor. If you split a 9630 in half as you've claimed earlier, than you did something mind-numbingly wrong. 9630 has the best center section out there. If it came apart, its due to operator abuse. Trannys are the same. These power shifters are self clutching and don't reach peak horsepower until the mid gears, so if you are running too slow or consistently shifting in the cut, guess what happens? You should also not be trying to run in 18th gear with full tandem pans. No wonder you are tearing up transmissions. The fact that you are complaining about how rough these machines ride alone leads me to believe that you are one of these cowboy operators who push the limits of the equipment. If you take care of your equipment, you would have none of these problems and you wouldn't have cost your boss tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars in parts and service.
LOL dont run in 18th gear??? You wouldnt last a day for a major dirt movin contractor, if you arent running in top gear on are haul road, loaded or unloaded the first time is a warning, second time is termination. You sound more like a guy thats worked on 50,000 yard jobs here and there, never been on 2,000,000 yard jobs, we are working in Ida LA and have 12 9630's and all have had there problems, and yes they are my far the roughest riding scraper on the market. As for 9630T scraper special yes they do have them there are currentley 5 right now in the united states being demoed, i have been on it, it will proably be released soon. As for the john deere that split in half, the pins that hold the trator together came loose causing the tractor to split, how is that the operator's fault??? Also i dont think you have ever ran a 627's or know how much more dirt you can move when you have a pair of talented operators in the seats. And yes i am a young operator that proably know's more then you do, i am 24 years old and last year i was made superintendant over a 1.6 million yard railroad spur that was put in for a coal mine, had 6 777's a 5230 loading them and 5 john deere 9630's. Push the limits of the equipment, this is another statement that makes me assume you have never worked for a major dirt moving contractor, a good operator is always pushing the limits of his machine, ill bet that i have ran a slope on a 627 that you would be afraid to get on in a dozer. But yeah you keep talking like you know it all i have met the engineers of the 9630's and the engineers of the john deere pans, and i am telling you what they have told me, i cant make that any clearer to you
We all understand your comments now - 24 yrs old - that explaines everything. Come back after you have some more time and experiance and then the comments will be different. Time and experiance make a operator not books and hear say !!!!!!!!!!
24 years old ran 627's, 631, 623, 651, dozers D3, D6N, D6R, D6T, D7, D8N, D8R, D10N, D10R, D11R. Motor graders 12g, 14g, 14h, 16g, 14m and currently running the 14M with millimeter system cutting mainline grading because the older guys are to slow and cant work the M blade. Ag tractors 9630T Scraper Special (One of the very limited people that have even seen it), 9630, Case IH STX 450 Quad trac, Agco Challenger 875 and 975, track hoes I have very little experience on. If you think That a 9630 rides smoother then a 651 thats well over the weight of a 9630 you don't know what your talking about. On another fact of not running the 9630 in 18th gear. Why would John Deere Market a tractor that run 26mph then tell you that you can't use it. i guarantee you that the Challenger and Case don't have near as many problems these Deere have. You talk about my experience what do you have? I have personally sat side by side in the machine with the guys that developed the 30 series tractors. also they have top horspower in 6th gear and above. then if I remember correctly drop 50hp per gear down to 1st. Also if you've ever tried loading these tractors with 3 pans I'd like to see you load it in 6th gear and target 1900 Rpm's like they say. Also you can downshift in them all you have to do is push the automatic button and it does the shifting for you. Even with the auto load feature the machine will up shift and down shift so . When our company bought these tractors from Deere they said they would blow everything out of the water that we had. We i guess they have with all the parts they scatter but John Deere's main office in Moline WARRANTIES everything that happens. Even when the windows shatter because they are so rough or cab mounts go out. Also john Deere will admit they have 3 problems. their crappy VGT turbo, axles blowing out, and tranny over heating. They said they are working on getting the tranny fixed with and aftermarket tranny cooler.
heres some pictures
more
even more
2 more also got plenty more if you want.
Swamp rat, I know who this guy works for and I can tell you that the owner of his company does not share his opinions of Deere. They are operating a large fleet of scrapers in extreme conditions with a bunch of experimental stuff that Deere is closely monitoring. His observations are based on testing outside of normal operating parameters so take his comments with a huge grain of salt. Maybe Kman thinks its just a bunch of equipment operators who post on this board.
Really know who i work for please enlighten me? The equipment only says the name on the side of it. If your talking about TJ Lambrecht you know the owner huh? He died a few years ago in a car crash. If your talking about Dave Kolb grading, then you are talking about Jeff Kolb. Well Actually his mother owns it after his father passed away a few years ago of a Heart condition. If your talking about Kolb Grading LLC since they recently changed the name tell Jeff i said high. he know me and my brother very well. Also tell you he loves the John Deeres. Thats why john Deere warranties all their machines. if you are talking about TJ Lambrecht only been working there awhile and don't know the main guys in charger. I know Jerr Thompson is one of them. I am assuming you are talking about the Kolb Grading LLC but I know Jeff loves him. By the way that is his track design on those John deeres that no one else can run. thats the reason he works so closely with John Deere. Also a few other reasons... If your in lousiana feel free to come by the job and watch a full day of work. even come see the 2 wee have broke down at various parts of the job. One the Engine fan just fell off. Yeah opertaors fault!
But your post said it is the excessive tongue weight that is murdering these trucks, not the towed weight. That's the point I was addressing.
From reading his posts, it's clear he was one of the fortunate ones who was born with 25 years of experience.
You sayin he doesn't know his stuff? C'mon everyone knows John Deere is one of those fly by night companies when it comes to tractors. I mean they have only been doin it what? 3-4 years? I have been around some 30 series tractors, I've found them to ride quite nicely, and they are tough.
I never said he doesn't know his stuff, but it sure appears he feels he's been everywhere and done everything.
Hello Vacherie, looking at those pictures tells a lot, plus the comments tell the rest.
So what does it tell you? I by no means know it all but for being a 24 year old I seem to have my stuff down pat. So much that They wil put me and my twin brother in charge of jobs while there are some guys there that have been doing this stuff for 30 years. I have also seen guys that have been around this business for 20 years and know no more now then the day they started. I'm really curious what the pictures tell? just showing proof os some of the equipment i've been around? Speaking of which some of you all that have so much experience please post some? I would really like to hear your experience between the Deere, Agco, and Case tractors. As well if you have any experience on a Cat twin engine scraper. Also one that compares to a new ag tractor not a B model 627 that the cushion hitch is broke and you say it rides rough. Vacherie you sound like you work for john Deere. or just a salesman?
I will say their new high speed dozer is pretty nice. Doesn't quite have the pushing power as a modern dozer but when it come to finishing it is very sweet. Aslo on big highway jobs like we have if you 5miles down on the other end of the job it makes the trip alot quicker.
John Deere Ag and Deere Industrial are different companies. Still the same big company, but John Deere ag has been around the block a few more times. So you want pics of new scrapers? You mean like these ones?
Kman years Boy, I can't stay quite any longer. I guess I'm minus 36 in Kman years. Since I don't run stuff that just came off the line, you mean I don't know how to shift a little dirt? 2 million yards? Come on down to Texas and move a couple million yards of rock before you start the topsoil spreading you've got going there. Do you do any consulting?
Man your taking this the wrong way. I'm speaking to valcherie saying i don't know what I am talking about with the Deere tractors. I've spent alot of time between the Deere, Case, and Challenger tractors. Saying I have no idea what I'm talking about with the Deere tractors I know quite a bit about them. As for that 657 would love to run one of them ove the deere. I love rwin engine scrapers. As for Rock why do you think those deere have metal tracks on them. Rock jobs I actually like doing more rain or shine you work. In Louisana we don't have much rock in missouri we do. never said I know more than everyone here but like I said for 24 I'm on my game. I've got alot to learn but as for the Deere tractors I know alot about just for the fact that almost everyone at Deere has come out to watch these tractors in production.
I am sorry if I came off like I know everything. I very well do not but I am a very easy learner. When it comes to a specific tractor I know alot about the John Deere, and Ag tractors in general since the companies I have worked for are very big into them. Saying they are the most durable tractor out there and its the opertors fault they break down is simply coming from someone that hasn't spent 1000 hours on one. All the Deere I have been around have less then 1500 hours on them and just about everyone has been down for serious work. John Deere recalled all their axles and one by one ours went back to the dealer for work. One machine has 700 hours on it and has been broke down for about 5 days now since the engine fan fell off.
Figured I'd share some more photos. We have decided to stick a D8T behind them so they can get better loads. As for the John Deere we started the Job with 10 and are down to 9. One went back to John Deere with tranny failure at 1200 hours. Hasn't ben a day yet where all of them have run non stop.
That's some nice red sandy clay you're running in. I'd love to get some of my old 627 PP's in that. I'd get that 8 to spreadin'. Wait a minute, mine don't have AC. I bet they're not allowed on that Wal Mart site. Why's the D8 got his ripper down when he's push loading? Nice looking rigs...weather looks like it's cooperating for Lowsy-anna. I heard the Gulf was 4 degrees hotter than normal, supposed to be a helluva hurricane season.
Yeah 627's would eat this cut up! It's real good clay but it's coming out of the ground at like 45 percent moisture so have to disc it in the fill. The Deere just lack the traction to load it well. The D8 with the rippers down well pretty much because he can. Those D8T's have enough power to push the scraper and drag the rippers about 6 inches in the ground. I got on it the other day and it's a power house.