A Bitta hist'ry.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Folks.
Here is a photo that I took on Tuesday right here in the fair city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, The company that owns these two jiggers has 4 x Cat 660 scrapers running and working locally, with a very nice Cat D10 84W series dozer providing the 'OOOMPH'.

More to come as I re-size them. Enjoy! That's an order. LOL.

[Steve Frazier]

Thanks Deas! Just a note, we've added an auto resizer to the Board, you shouldn't need to resize the pics, just upload what you have.

[DPete]

Hi Deas, do you get to play with those toys?

[stock]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkLC2mj5wvE

[Northart]

I always thought the Cat 660 and 657 scrapers were the ultimate in earthmoving. :):usa

Sure liked the 660 for the smooth ride. :)

Too bad Cat quit making them.

[WabcoMan]

Thanks Deas,

The WabcoMan REALLY likes pic's of scrapers - be they conventional, towed or elevating :notworthy

[surfer-joe]

I have spent a lot of time personally fixing things betwixt the frame rails or otherwise inside something on 84W's. Have also spent a ton of money on the dern things. They are getting pretty long in the tooth to still be working. Course, those 660's are even older.

[Gavin84w]

Hah!! Great stuff Deas, those contacts must have worked out ok hey!

I was coming up the Hume highway at Coolac yesterday and one of my customers 84W D10,s was ripping sandstone right next to the road on the new alignment so a few minutes was spent listening to the sweet sound of the D348!! I know some on here will laugh at me for that statement but IMO the best tractor Cat have produced and seeing one as a 10 year old in 1977 sure left a mark!

Woops, did i just give away something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Deas Plant]

Cop These.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Gavin84W.
Yep, those contacts worked just fine. I didn't catch up with Roy 'cos he was away in the office but I have to go up there again on Tuesday and again in about a month so maybe on one of those trips.

Thanks for the info. Enjoy the photos.

[surfer-joe]

Oh man! Hard hitches! My back hurts just looking at the pictures. Even these 6 wheel monsters get a serious case of buckin bronco on a bad bit of ground. They do look to be well maintained and kept up though. Much better than the ones I saw here last summer.

[Northart]

Hi SurferJoe,

I run the Cat 660's quite a bit , when I was young. Never had a problem with the ride. They were stiff necks at that ! Our Lingo .

They had the air valve on the right so you could jack up the front and literally steer with the steering brakes , using it like a 2 wheeler. I never had any trouble pulling in front of the push Cat, or wandering around the borrow pit, to the Pusher.

They rode just as good as the cushion rides in my book. Of course the double enders could go where I couldn't.

They were a very good scraper . :usa

[trackfanatic]

deas,
i wanna come play in your sandpit...

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Trackfanatic.
Sorry. Not MY sand pit. I know the bloke who owns them and worked for him a couple of times 10 or so years ago. He was running Thiess's old 660's in those days and had all 5 of them. Two of those have been sold off, one burnt out and he now has 2 of Hunter Valley Excavations' 660's, making a total of 4 that he owns. He also 'acquired' one of HVE's foremen who has been working with 660's and 666's for a LOTTA years now. I just dropped in there to get a few photos for you bunch of 'photo piranhas' - - - - - - and to tease you a bit. Just try not to drool too much over your keyboard. LOL.

[RolyD8k]

Hi Deas,Great photos ,keep em coming.

[Kenny R]

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet pics Deas Plant!!!!!:notworthy Don't stop now- Keep em' coming!:drinkup

Ken

[Dug Overburden]

Deas, these 660's look like they were 666's converted to single engine, you can still see the planetary hubs on the scraper. A pretty common thing years ago. Ebenstiener Co. in southern Ca use to have quite a few of these, last of saw of them was in the mid to late 80's Cop These.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Dug Overburden.
Welkum too ther 4um. Yes, the 2 machines in those photos are ex-666 bowls, You can also see where the engines once were. There are bars over the openings now. The other 2 machines that the same company is running are original 660B's, part of an order of 6 that Thiess Contracting brought into the country back when 660B's were the latest thing in big scraper iron.

Here are 3 more photos for you photo piranhas.

[alan627b]

Thanks Deas, we can never get enough of these vanishing behemoths!
We want more! We want more! MORE MORE MORE!!!!
he he he.
Alan627B

[FatCatGotHot]

Hi Deas, regarding the hubs of the 660s rear wheels, they don't look like they supposed to be. Looks like they're ballasted in any form.

Great pikkies, by the way!

[Dug Overburden]

These are 666B's with the rear engines removed. The rear planatery's stay & the openings where the engine and drive train were located are closed off. On the really clean conversions you can not tell the differnce other than the hubs.

The machine when running a sinlge engine is now considered a 660. Easy to tell a singled out twin engine is the rear hubs, the factory built singles had a deep dish rear wheel vs the flush axle on a twin machine. Same goes for 657 to be called a 651, 637 to be called a 631, 627 to be called a 621

I ran a Terex S24 that was a singled out TS24 & it still had the longer rear push block(Euclid/Terex TS24 becomes an S24)

Hope this helps
Dug
Hi Deas, regarding the hubs of the 660s rear wheels, they don't look like they supposed to be. Looks like they're ballasted in any form.

Great pikkies, by the way!

[Gavin84w]

Dug is correct, the tractor is s/n 58K which can also be a 650B. In the case of those bowls and especially the rear hubs, it stands out a bit more on these old girls as during the conversion they have also had some work done to accomadate a different and more readily available size tyre. They have been converted from 37.5 x 51 to 33.00 x 51 as these tyres are everywhere for 150 ton size trucks.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, FatCatGotHot.
Sheesh! And all the time I thought you were over there in the corner asleep. Good point. Dug Overburden is right. Those two bowls once were 666B bowls but have had the rear engines removed and covers placed over the inboard ends of the axle quills to keep oil in them to lubricate the bearings, etc..

The other two machines that the same company has are both original 660B's, not converted 666's.

[FatCatGotHot]

Hi Deas, no, wasn't asleep. I was working so hard to get the money for a flight to Down Under to see the last 660ers running. LOL Now I've read the whole thread.

Dug, thank you for the good explanation.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, FCGH.
I don't wish to discourage tourism to our fair land DownUnder but there are still some 660's and 666's in the U.S.. I think the 4 here in Brisbane are in pretty much permanent work though, which some of the U.S. machines might not be.

[gkprice]

I know there were 660's working in California less than a year ago.