Link Belt 98 Cable Hoe

[Northart]

Does anyone, have any, pictures of a Link Belt 98 Cable Hoe ?

Can't find any , HC Price used them on the (TAPS), Trans Alaska Pipeline in the , 1974-'77 time frame.

I worked around them, sturdy old machine, had more digging power in the tough ground, than, the hydraulic excavators, or so said the operators.

Thanks in advance . Northart

 

[Buckethead]

Northart, check this out. http://www.linkbelt.com/lit/archive/LS/LS-98 Pipeliner/ls98plb.pdf

 

[Northart]

Ls 98

Hi Buckethead,

Thanks for the link. Too bad the pictures are so dark.

Seen a Northwest 95 with a hydraulic bucket, never seen a Link Belt with one.

Strange how they just vanished. :beatsme

Maybe someone's got some pipeline pictures .

Later,

 

[stretch]

Hi Buckethead,
Seen a Northwest 95 with a hydraulic bucket, never seen a Link Belt with one.

Strange how they just vanished. :beatsme

Lockheed Shipbuilding & Engineering also had a Lima 2400 set up like that for some dam project. I'd be interested to see a machine like that in action.

 

[John C.]

You see a few heel boom loggers in small towns in the mountains but I have never seen a 98 build up with an excavator boom or a front shovel.

My Dad had a Koering crane with a clam shell he used to clear land with for years. I only saw one other machine set up that way, which was a LS 98. The operator seemed to slam the bucket closed everytime he lowered it to pick up something. I never did figure out why that happened.

My first job out of the service was for a Link-Belt dealer and most of the work was on LS98 highwalkers. I loved working on them but the timber was getting smaller and the hydraulics were taking over big time. I worked on my last 98 when I was working for the Komatsu dealer. This machine came from Oregon and stopped in Seattle for a spruce up before going to the north end of Vancouver Island. Before I was finished with it my hands looked like raw meat out of a grinder. My shoulders and arms ached for days and I was just dead to the world every night. Damn that job was fun!

Thanks for the link to the pamphlet and the post.

 

[willie59]

Wow that is a cool brochure! I have operated the Link Belt LS's from back in the '70s, not the hoe boom, but the cranes, same machine. For machines of that era, they were a pleasure to operate because of the "table top" control lever panel with short levers (as seen in brochure). You could just sit in the seat and rest your forearms on the "table", and simply move your wrists to the levers and gently move them with your fingers, as opposed to machines like the P&H with the long levers which required considerable body movement to operate. The Link Belt "Speed-O-Matic" hyd control system made this design possible. Of course, the ones I operated were powered by Detroit's, right behind you, which might explain why I don't hear my wife too good these days. This sure brings back memories.

 

[Lashlander]

Like this one ATCO?

 

[Northart]

Link Belt Catalogs

Ha, finally found, a source, of Link Belt equipment catalogs. Has the entire line ? of Link Belt. Does not say the years listed.



http://www.hydro-crane.com/link-belt/index.htm

Click on the link above.

Go to the 9th row down, you'll find the LS-98PL .

Click on the picture, it opens the PDF file.

 

[Wheel Trencher]

Cable hoe!!

In 1973 the 98PL came out with hyd. curl on the bucket..
That was the cats meow..
We used them digging shot rock on the pipeline.
A PL model had grousers, two speed travel & a swing lever. you could swing while traveling. The others your travel & swing was on the same control & had to be in travel are swing.
You can tell a 98 that had the hyd. set up looking on the off side the cab had a belly sticking out about 2 feet and about 6 feet wide.
They made a 98PL & a 78Pl
The hyd. hoes then weren't very good. (P&H, high weirner, link belt)

 

[willie59]

Lashlander, that's sweet! I can see you've worn the black decal next to the swing lever by placing the side of your left hand on the table and working the swing lever with your fingers, like I said earlier. I loved the Link belt drum clutches and brakes. These were nice, comfortable machines to operate. If the rest of the machine looks as clean as the inside of the cab, you need to send more pics!
Good work, Northart. That's a fairly large selection of the Link Belt machine, but not all the machines they made. I didn't see an HT200 for example. Nice files.

 

[stretch]

Ha, finally found, a source, of Link Belt equipment catalogs. Has the entire line ? of Link Belt. Does not say the years listed.

Thanks for digging up the link Northart, certainly an interesting find. :usa

 

[wbardo]

Here is one you can buy if interested

http://ithaca.craigslist.org/grd/983456432.html