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1466 Koehring

Lee (MN)

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
HE Mechanic
Hello, This is my first post on this forum, I have looked at it on from time to time and find it most interesting, but the 1466 has made me bite and join, I work for a contractor in Minnesota for nearly 29 years in field service. I started there working on 1066C, 1066D, and two 1266D's. the operating weight of a 1266D (long) is around 264,000 lbs., as time went on the C and D model 10's were replaced with 4 20,000 series 1066 and one 20,000 series 1166. also the 1266's were replaced with 1466's. of all of the machines I have worked on the 1266 was the most interesting, A gentle Giant, an awesome sewer digger and a very well balanced machine on a barge. The 1466 was a hydraulic nightmare in my opinion, Koehrings were either a love it or hate it machine for operators and as the good Koehring guys retired it became increasingly more difficult to keep them running as the younger guys are more into creature comfort than maintenance, LOL, I think I still have a spec book around if anyone wants to know specific weights. The Koehring community is getting smaller every year, those who run them around the country usually know one another, it's fun to see the names like Dorfman and Hatchett, people who still see value in the orange giant, LOL. Our fleet has either been scrapped or sold off and replaced with Hitachi machines, Thank you all for this thread, and happy Thanksgiving.

Lee (MN);)
 

Lee (MN)

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
HE Mechanic
Is your 666 all hyd, or air over, I have never seen one, LOL, There was a 1466 here in the twin cities for years that had long pilot levers, may have been s/n 1, powered with twin 8V92'S, not sure of what happened to it, Hayden Murphy had it for sale for years, a real oddball. The machine was purchased new by a contractor here, with a long and a short front.

Lee;)
 

HATCHEQUIP

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2011
Messages
1,182
Location
VILLANOW GEORGIA
Mostly hydraulic but the travel still uses air tredal valves over hyd. for finals. My dad back in the 70s was the daddy rabbit of the big long reach koehrings he engineered and built the first ones ever. That was back in the Preston Carroll construction company days they were using and renting them all over the us and canada
 

stuart olson

Active Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
40
Location
MN
G.L. contracting out of Medina MN had a big koehring back in the 90's. they bought it to replace a bucyrus erie super B and a link belt dragline for sewer work . my old man told me how they would move it with one R mack lowboy under each track and an operator in the cab to keep the boom from hitting the ground. the same machine usually caused the local cops to be waiting on the job site to enforce the noise ordanance at 7 and 7.
 

Lee (MN)

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
HE Mechanic
Stuart, very interesting, I did not know G&L had a Koehring, if so it had to be in the 70's, the two Macks you speak of date your story, that was called a double move, The state would not permit them in the 90's, the practice ended for the most part in the mid 80's, I am also willing to bet the two Macks were Lametti trucks, they were famous for the double move in the twin cities and did it for many contractors, I knew the drivers very well, great people. Koehring had a very good market in Minnesota, Borchert Ingersoll was the dealer, and sold many 1066 and 1266 machines. Lametti & sons purchased the first 1266D made, it was used on a project in St. Cloud MN. the local papers claimed it to be the largest hydraulic excavator in the world!, Ironically Barbarossa a competitor purchased the last 1266D made.

Lee;)
 

stuart olson

Active Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2010
Messages
40
Location
MN
maybe so. i know for a fact that G.L. (stands for General Leasing... whitch they dont do anymore but the name remains) had the two macks when i was a kid i remember rideing around in the blue one whitch was a twin stick with a gullwing hood and a red one that was unishift with a fiberglass hood. were replaced in the late 90's with a freightliner. these days G.L. is pretty small and runs mostly volvos only got rid of the last 1986 L-70 1 year ago.
 

Lee (MN)

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Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
HE Mechanic
Stuart, The Lametti trucks were standard Mack green R models, Detroit powered, twin stick as well, thanks for the post as it reminded me of dear friends, to watch a driver shift these trucks up through the gears and back down repeatidly, while smoking and eating a sandwitch was a sight to behold, and they never missed a gear, LOL.

Lee;)
 

old-iron-habit

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
4,233
Location
Moose Lake, MN
Occupation
Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
Hi Stuart and Lee,
You guys bring up old memories. My brother was on on a 1066 if as an oiler out in Buelah, ND in the later 70s. We both worked for Johnson Bros. out of Litchfield. I think it was Lametti that hauled the 1066 to ND. I remember it being brothers in the trucks. We also took out some 657 scrapers that way. I drove an old worn out company truck as a follow up pace car once and could not keep up on the interstate between Fargo and Jamestown. Brought the 100 ton class cranes out the same way.
Thanks for the memories,
Roger
 

Lee (MN)

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Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
HE Mechanic
I hate to pirate this thread, But old Iron has made me think once again, Johnson Bros. was another koehring user, several 1066,1266 and I believe they owned the first 1466. The two drivers (if it was Lametti) were not brothers, but looked very much alike, LOL.

Lee;)
 

bunkclimber

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 29, 2009
Messages
116
Location
MD
You could probably buy an excavator for what it would cost to MOVE one of these giants..with rigging,crane time and trucking,permits,pilot escort cars,etc-and then put it all back together again...or just move it in one piece on a Sunday morning LOL
 
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Lee (MN)

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2013
Messages
53
Location
Minnesota
Occupation
HE Mechanic
Actually, if it had c/w removal a Koehring is very simple to move, unless the boom needs to come off, here in MN you can scale a 1466 with the boom, minus the track frames, a 1266 with two piece counterweights can be handled with a large front end loader or two smaller ones. To the credit of the engineers at Koehring, they thought this out well. One must also keep in mind if you have a backhoe this big, the equipment that works with it was also large, and can be used to tear down and setup the hoe. I have done this many many times. One advantage of the Koehring over other big hoes I have worked with is the range of motion between the boom and stick, the dipper curled in will lay flat on the ground, no ladder work (not on a 1066C), A 7400 Link Belt is not to bad to move, thank god they went away a long time ago, LOL, A Hitachi, you better have a ladder, A 750/800 moves well, a 1200 is a pia. Cost to move a 1266 locally used to be around $10K one way (1990's) with breakdown hrs., a 1066D or newer $2-3K locally. Any large Hoe moved distance is very expensive, Hitachi 750's we have brought in from the west coast have cost in the high $20K range.

Lee;)
 

245dlc

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2010
Messages
1,228
Location
Canada
Occupation
Heavy Equipment Operator
Does anybody have any pictures of the 1266's or 1466's at work? I have seen an 866 at work in the early 2000's and I know where there is a 1066 that is still running and part of a historical construction equipment museum. But the 1266's and 1466's are a bit of a rare animal these days. I saw a long reach 12 or 1466 parked several years ago from a distance but didn't get to see it up close sadly.
 

tx123

Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Messages
6
Location
Houston, TX
whats your email address? I have photos and videos of these bad boys working on our site the past couple of days here recently (9/2/15) or how do I post a video to this thread?
 
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