Thanks for the nice comments about the excavator.
It's a 1991 RB Industries. Ruston-Bucyrus got in Financial trouble and was bought out by there employees. So yes it was a Ruston-Bucyrus but it was made after the buyout so it is badged a RB.
They were made in England and have a Turbo Charged Perkins Engine like in a 1135 Massy Tractor. Very few come to the US. They were pretty popular in South America and the Middle East. These machines were used a lot after the first Gulf War putting out Oil Well fires in Kuwait.
Although the cables throw everyone for a loop it operates just like a Cat Excavator. The only real difference is the swing speed is 5 revolutions a minute vs 10 or 11 for a standard excavator.
The idea with the drag winch is you have 18,000 lbs of breakout force no matter where the bucket is. It's hard to get any leverage to the edge of the bucket on a long reach. The drag winch takes care of that problem.
The boom extends back in the machine where the counterweight is on a normal excavator. The stick cylinder works the counterweight which pulls the cables on the boom which kicks the stick out. This way the farther the bucket is from the machine the farther down the boom the counterweight is. This keeps the machine in "equilibrium". It really works. I was loading some concrete pillars the other day swinging at 55 or 60 feet. No problem, even over the side.
That's a neet machine roddyo.I thought it was a Ruston Bucyrus design.It's like a crawler crane married an excavator and they named the baby Ruston Bucyrus.It has the the pull of a drag line and the speed of an excavator.Cool pics!