[I Are Baboon]

So they are in the process of replacing our parking garage at work. Of course, first they have to remove the old garage. Every time I have to use the mens room, I walk by the main lobby where I can see the construction machines at work. I just have to stop and watch for a few minutes.

They've got bulldozers and tractors and dump trucks, but I think the excavator is my favorite (or maybe it's called a wrecker?). And every time it smashes something, the whole building shakes. BOOM!

:dancing:

It's funny to see us men standing at the windows watching, and the women just roll their eyes at us. Why can't they just understand?

 

[JRB]

Julie used to call and tell me about the machinery at the hospital while they were doing dirt work. I love a good D8R at work. Watching them tear stuff up is about 40 million times less entertaining than doing it yourself. I even enjoy watching a plow turn dirt over. It's nice to see immediate progress, or whatever you choose to call it.

 

[TreeSaw]

We used to be entertained by big machines and wrecking balls when I worked at GE. Great fun Personally, Sq-Earl and I would love to get a small excavator to build dirt jumps and stuff in the back yard. Oh the fun we'd have!!!

 

[I Are Baboon]

I think the excavator is my favorite (or maybe it's called a wrecker?).

Correction: Demolition machine. I mean, how could you NOT watch this thing in action?

 

[JRB]

We used to be entertained by big machines and wrecking balls when I worked at GE. Great fun Personally, Sq-Earl and I would love to get a small excavator to build dirt jumps and stuff in the back yard. Oh the fun we'd have!!!

Excavators are good for digging holes. Bobcats kick ass for piling stuff. They are fast too.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Correction: Demolition machine. I mean, how could you NOT watch this thing in action?

My kids got a video from the library with one of those things tearing down an old factory. Those things kick a$$!

 

[Westy]

Just up the road from my house they are building a water tower and doing the old slash and burn to 300 acres. Nothing like sitting out side on a nice spring day to hear loud rumbling and rattling while getting chased back inside by thick clouds of smoke.

 

[Rockland]

Correction: Demolition machine. I mean, how could you NOT watch this thing in action?

I saw a show on t.v. about the people who operate those. They were mentioned as having one of the highest job satifaction rates. Easy to see why.

 

[Da Peach]

I had a workterm in northern Ontario driving a CAT 777C, an 80 ton haul/dump truck. That was sweet. Having the shovel operator "nudge" you to let you know you'd parked to close to load was always an experience...

Then of course there was the time when the loader operator spilled a boulder about the size of a VW onto the canopy covering the operator cab of the truck I was in. I hit the ceiling pretty hard and the windshield exploded! Cool!

And then there was the time where the shovel got stuck in 3 feet of mud and we used our trucks to tow it out. We snapped 3 1" steel rope slings drying to drag the mofo out. Twang!

And of course....the handbrake turns in the mud during night-shift.

My desk is nowhere near as cool.http://cmms.cat.com/cmms/servlet/cat.dcs.cmms.servlet.ImageServlet?imageid=C046094&imageType=1

She was a sweet ride... This one is a 777D but about the same...

 

[stosh]

Isn't that a scene from Office Space?

 

[SilentJ]

I love a good D8R at work.

I almost "looped out" a D8 once.....well, actually it was more like almost endo-ed backwards off a cliff, but basically the same idea.

One time we were on a vacation in the Black Hills in SD and we were checking out this big-ass open pit coal mine. My dad just drove on - totally illegally. We were intercepted by security pretty quickly, but the guy was cool and let us check out some of the parked equipment. They had some tracked bulldozers that made the D11's look like toys. I have a picture of us standing beside the and my dad's head (5'9") is a good foot below the bottom of the drive pulley. I still don't know who made those dozers...who makes or made dozers bigger than D11's? There were also some scrapers there that were ridiculous...dont know who made those either.

 

[H8R]

Correction: Demolition machine. I mean, how could you NOT watch this thing in action?

I watched a guy running one of those who was a stone cold pro - I got to watch it from about 50 feet away. He would bust down a concrete wall, then break it up by picking up a giant wrecking ball with the scoop. Then he would pull all of the rebar out, and crumple it up into huge pile - like enormous steel wool.

Awesome.

 

[JRB]

I almost "looped out" a D8 once.....well, actually it was more like almost endo-ed backwards off a cliff, but basically the same idea.

One time we were on a vacation in the Black Hills in SD and we were checking out this big-ass open pit coal mine. My dad just drove on - totally illegally. We were intercepted by security pretty quickly, but the guy was cool and let us check out some of the parked equipment. They had some tracked bulldozers that made the D11's look like toys. I have a picture of us standing beside the and my dad's head (5'9") is a good foot below the bottom of the drive pulley. I still don't know who made those dozers...who makes or made dozers bigger than D11's? There were also some scrapers there that were ridiculous...dont know who made those either.

Yeah - 11s are huge, so I can't imagine. Yikes.

No offense, but it takes a real dummy to turn an 8 over, and a bigger dummy to get anything with a shovel stuck. I've seen plenty stuck though.

 

[SilentJ]

Yeah - 11s are huge, so I can't imagine. Yikes.

No offense, but it takes a real dummy to turn an 8 over, and a bigger dummy to get anything with a shovel stuck. I've seen plenty stuck though.

None taken - I was taking it up a fairly new road that was cut out of the side of a hill when "road" turned into "air" underneath the entire right side of the machine. No damage was done to anything other than the road and my boxers.

 

[Tenchiro]

Isn't that a scene from Office Space?

Fukkin A

 

[JRB]

None taken - I was taking it up a fairly new road that was cut out of the side of a hill when "road" turned into "air" underneath the entire right side of the machine. No damage was done to anything other than the road and my boxers.

I always said that those guys that cut roads in the mountains have to have huge balls.

 

[Toshi]

good timing on this thread. i went to pick up my car this morning from a shop in the port district here in seattle, and was marveling at the machinery there. there were two locomotives moving around boxcars (with a loaded weight of 300 tons!) and they accelerate quite quickly even with 3 or 4 of those cars hitched up...

 

[bjanga]

When I was little my dad used to take me to construction sites. Now, I ride through them en route to local trails. Bikes and machines in one afternoon!

 

[bikenweed]

In high school, we used to get really stoned and just watch the workers demolish the old gym, swimming pool, and locker rooms. It wasn't much, but the operators didn't really know what they were doing, so it took forever. It might have been two acres worth of shtuff to demolish and it took about four months. I'd spend about half an hour daily just staring at the destruction instead of delivering the attendance sheets during Office Assistent. Usually the retarded kids do that job, but I had a hole in my schedule. Or they haven't told me something yet...



Even as a MTBing college student, driving one of those machines seems like the most awesome job possible. There's great benefits, too!

 

[Wumpus]

Yeah - 11s are huge, so I can't imagine. Yikes.

No offense, but it takes a real dummy to turn an 8 over, and a bigger dummy to get anything with a shovel stuck. I've seen plenty stuck though.

Komatsu D575A

 

[JRB]

Komatsu D575A

I'm not sure that that thing's blade is as big as an 11's.

I read a little bit, and it is bigger.

 

[SilentJ]

Komatsu D575A

....

Thats big. The ones that I'm talking about had a wedge track design like the cats. The exhaust stack was so big that a 5 gallon pail would JUST fit over it to keep the rain out.

Here's some cool truck porn:
http://www.hankstruckpictures.com/extreme_heavy_hauling.htm
http://www.pbase.com/darby2/oil_patch

 

[SilentJ]

I'm not sure that that thing's blade is as big as an 11's.

Apparently it's a fair bit bigger...2' wider, 30 yards more capacity, couple hundred more ponies....you'd be able to build a pretty sweet 24x track with either one.

 

[JRB]

Apparently it's a fair bit bigger...2' wider, 30 yards more capacity, couple hundred more ponies....you'd be able to build a pretty sweet 24x track with either one.

Yeah - I was amazed when I read the specs.

 

[Secret Squirrel]

Apparently it's a fair bit bigger...2' wider, 30 yards more capacity, couple hundred more ponies....you'd be able to build a pretty sweet 24x track with either one.

No kidding....maybe even a 36x track!!!

 

[Potroast88]

good timing on this thread. i went to pick up my car this morning from a shop in the port district here in seattle, and was marveling at the machinery there. there were two locomotives moving around boxcars (with a loaded weight of 300 tons!) and they accelerate quite quickly even with 3 or 4 of those cars hitched up...

Those were just switch engines, too. They are smaller than the big motors that actually pull full trains. On loaded coal trains there is usually 4-5 motors pulling and 1-2 on the rear of the train pushing. I've even seen trains with engines in the middle.

 

[H8R]

Those were just switch engines, too. They are smaller than the big motors that actually pull full trains. On loaded coal trains there is usually 4-5 motors pulling and 1-2 on the rear of the train pushing. I've even seen trains with engines in the middle.

The big engines use electric drive motors for the most part, right? Most of the thing is just a giant diesel generator.

 

[Wumpus]

The big engines use electric drive motors for the most part, right? Most of the thing is just a giant diesel generator.

Yepper.

 

[I Are Baboon]

So today they have this huge cement pumper out there with five cement mixing trucks at work too.

 

[Barbaton]

Correction: Demolition machine. I mean, how could you NOT watch this thing in action?

Is that the new panty debuncher?

 

[JRB]

So today they have this huge cement pumper out there with five cement mixing trucks at work too.

In '95 I got hit with the hose on one of those and knocked down. It hurt bad.

I thought of this today. They are building road in Temple and have moved so much dirt. I wished that I had taken before pics. I may sneak some to add to the thread this weekend.

 

[I Are Baboon]

In '95 I got hit with the hose on one of those and knocked down. It hurt bad.

I thought of this today. They are building road in Temple and have moved so much dirt. I wished that I had taken before pics. I may sneak some to add to the thread this weekend.

Can you snap some pics of a cement pumper knocking you on your ass and post those?

 

[Cooter Brown]

what a kick ass thread, and I thought driving a backhoe and bobcat was kewl shiz, which it is, but................well, not like effin some earth up with one of these bad boys

 

[narlus]

silentj, what size was that vessel? damn that thing is huge!

would it have been easier to just build it at the site?

 

[MMike]

I've got a helicopter hovering 5 feet off the ground right outside the window here. A 407....it's pretty cool watching they flight test these things. Crazy fast take-offs..... but the hover tests, are cool....just floating around the tarmac....slowly rotating one way, then the other.... helicopters are cool......

 

[MMike]

Da Peach still has you all beat though.....

 

[maxyedor]

I've got a helicopter hovering 5 feet off the ground right outside the window here. A 407....it's pretty cool watching they flight test these things. Crazy fast take-offs..... but the hover tests, are cool....just floating around the tarmac....slowly rotating one way, then the other.... helicopters are cool......

Meh, I live down the street from a hospital, and one with a great trauma center at that, so helicopter buzzing my roof is a bi-hourly occourance.

I do love me some big machines though, a couple days ago I got a tour of freight ship, it was pretty fcuking amazing to see how those things work.

 

[JRB]

Can you snap some pics of a cement pumper knocking you on your ass and post those?

Yeah - I'll just warp my ass back and do that.

I move pretty slow, and could be considered as backing up, but I can't move that slow.