Gidday scrub puller
ya last post gave me abit of a chuckle, about the man pole vaulting over his own blade. Had heard of a similar story here about a guy sliding downhill on greasy clay on a string blade D7 and he tried dropping the blade to stop him 3 times [first 2 blade never bit in the clay] 3rd time it bit alright. String snapped and he did a pole vault too. Was a little bit skepticall about it, but after reading your story, must be possible. Bet both men had eyes the size of saucers after it happened :beatsme
The idea of rear rippers on a c frame would be a good idea; esp if you can pin it up and just use it as a drawbar for the scoop when not ripping. Means you just have to change one string,
One other unmentioned thing about all those machines of stevies in the pic about 1958, is that alot of those girls where still working up until about 30 years later in 1988, around when kopuku closed. They,d all been rebuilt umteen times, but they still kept on going. Testament to a good design; along with fastidious maintence, and good operators.
Is even a pic of stevies new D9L pushloading a DW20 around 1985 !
merv