631E's in Castle Rock, Colorado

[gd10r]

Contractor R.E. Monks is working on a bypass around Castle Rock Colorado, I think that there is 800,000 CY to move, probally the biggest dirt job in the state right now, there are entire fleets parked up. They have five 631E's 16K hour units, two 623's, a D10T pushing and a D8T as a utility machine, there is a D8L for ripping or backup, nice spread. Kinda sad to see everybody else is parked up. Monk's estimators have been pretty HOT lately, they got the Telluride Airport, 1MM CY of rock, and the new Broomfield reservior, 8MM CY total, with 3MM CY exported uphill a mile or so from the bottom of the future reservoir. These are the projects that I will be taking photos of in the future. Graham

[DPete]

I always liked the square nose of the E's in fact I bought a 623E from Denver that belonged to Fiore & sons you probably know of them.

[9420pullpan]

New D10T, they must have some osrt of work to justify buying that...

[MAC-EX]

I worked for Monk's in the 90's. Boy, they sure have nice stuff these days

[redrock]

Good to here Monks is doing good up there. Thev've had a hell of a time getting road jobs in Arizona, there is so much competition.

[surfer-joe]

Right on redrock. Monks doesn't have enough work in Arizona to stick in a cocked hat. I live a couple of miles from their home office.

[redrock]

Ya I stopped in once to apply but they didnt have anything going on. Closest job is in Utah. Its unfortunate

[surfer-joe]

Yeah, Thevor ought to be about done with that Utah job. He may be in Colorado already. Looks cold up there though.

[Jck64]

They also have the reclamation of the old rocky mountain arsenal. 4 million yards to move there. 10 773 cats and 6 605 komatsu's along with a pair of 385's. Bill Obenchain is their best super, he is the reason why they have become what they are. The rest of their bosses are hard to work for. That 10T has a lot of issues, runs like **** most of the time. They have GPS on most of their blades and dozers. I used to run an 8T for them

[MAC-EX]

JCK64, that is why I left the last time. Bosses where hard to work for. They were always bickering back and forth. Taking each other's equipment just because they could like little kids. Did you know John Vandeusen in Co Springs?

[Copenhagen]

New D10T, they must have some osrt of work to justify buying that...

I watched them deliver the D10 when they started the Woodmen and Powers interchange last year. They also took delivery of a new 345D and 324D as well as a few new 623G's.

[JD DURFEY]

When is Monks gonna replace those 631s with 637s? I realize that times are tough to be out buying new scrappers, but why buy a new D10T pushcat when they could have bought a couple of 637s and not had to push them?

[Tigerotor77W]

Does Cat do the push tractor blade outfit themselves, or is that custom shop?

[redrock]

Monks runs both 631s and 637s.

[992G]

Does Cat do the push tractor blade outfit themselves, or is that custom shop?

I believe the C-Blades are made by Balderson, which is a company owned by Caterpillar.

[Gavin84w]

Do those spill deflector guards really need to be that high at the front?

They certainly take away from the look of the machine and i always question what sort of life machines have had when you can jam 5 ton plus more in them on every occasion, what is the life cycle reduction on components,chassis etc.

[surfer-joe]

Took me a bit to realize what you meant by "spill deflector guards" Gavin. We call them side boards here. Yes, they cause a lot of extra stress to draft arms, hoist cylinders, goosenecks and tractor frames and mounts by increasing the load capacity quite a bit as you mention. This also increases overall scraper weight, which takes it's own toll on tire life, brakes, and lower fuel economy. Not to mention increased haul road maintenance, which has to be figured in.

Some folks figure it's worth the extra cost to move material faster, but I'm not so sure myself, having spent a lot of my career around scraper spreads in maintenance and repair. Newer Cats take the increased weight much better than the early models I started with. Back in those days we saw a lot of stuff busted by trying to load past the factory recommended level. Oh sure, you could get away with it for a while, but sooner or later the machine and your pocketbook will suffer.

One thing you can bet the farm on, is that if you install side boards to contain spills, the operators will just continue to load till the muck slides off no matter how high you build the dern things. That leads to slower cycle times and just ticks off the pushcat guy something fierce because he has to stay behind the scraper longer.

I've taken more side boards off than I ever put on as machines came in from other jobs. Often it was too late as my job got saddled with the higher maintenance cost of repairs that came with them. Were it up to me, I'd never put them on, but production people generally rule you know.

[DonZX14]

Have to agree with you Joe...if they were ment to have sideboards they would have come with them from the factory . And when it starts to spill over the sides..pick her up and go.

[JD DURFEY]

I was on a job in AZ where we were over loading 657's and 637's all day long with farm field dirt. The job was going great and the bosses were loving all the production until a draft arm on a 657 was broken. They put a stop to the overloading after that.

[dgouty14]

Not everyone in colorado is parked. I run a 631e for rice and rice down in pueblo colorado and havent had a saturday off in over a year.

[d9ripper]

All i can say is what a Beautifull D10 Nice nice nice!!

[fiat41b]

how much fuel do those 31 use in 10 hrs will they load topsoil without a push cat
what about mud or soft ground just wondering im looking at some terex that are ts14g models or some older ts18's that are in very good conditionlooking for lowest cost per cubic yard about 1/2 mile haul to the stock pile and about 10,000 per day needs moved
200,000 per mth

[JTL]

I cant rightly remember the fuel comsumption on 631, but I would say somewhere between 10 to 15 gallons an hour.
As far as self loading top soil, or any material for that matter- unless you have down hill grade of about 8% or more, forget about getting a full load without a push cat. Sure you can get a half or less load with desent underfoot conditions, and a slight downhill, but throw in a little mud or soft ground, or a bit of a uphill, singles are useless without the help of a pusher.
A good rule of thumb for scrapper, or even truck production is 10 loads per hour. A 631 hauls 24 yards per trip (our companys estimate). Thats 2400 yards per hour. You would need 5 scrappers to meet your estimate, and work 10 hours a day minimum. With a 1 mile round trip, 10 is a very concervitive estimate. You also have to factor in haul road conditions, operator skill, push cat hook-up time and so on.
Hope this helps a little, Jason

[gd10r]

Here are some more photos, they have added some "G" series to the mix, a long uphill haul from the deepest cut on the job.

[redrock]

Neat stuff. They should be kickin off that Telluride airport job soon. They should have some big Iron on that.