bsmith
Member
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2006
- Messages
- 21
- Location
- College Station, TX
- Occupation
- Engineering software developer
I have an old (circa 1990) Condor 68 boom lift 2wd with a two cylinder air cooled Deutz diesel engine that I use on my ranch for various tasks. Here is a picture of a lift like mine http://www.machinerytrader.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=7748885&
My lift has been modified over the years such that the main control cable and hydraulic lines that control the platform rotate and tilt functions are draped in a sliding "festoon" fashion alongside the telescoping boom sections on separate telescoping supports. The cable and hydraulic lines are exposed yet stay out of the way fairly well.
The problem I have is that the control cable has been damaged (before I bought it) and thus shortened and spliced over the years. Thus I can't extend the boom out to its maximum length and several minor functions like the platform rotate and the high speed travel don't operate. I want to replace the control cable with a proper length one and restore all functions.
Condor is out of business and http://www.minnpar.com/ has taken over the parts supply for Condor. When I contacted Minnpar and gave them the serial number of my lift, they came back with a quote of $2,300 for an original 78' replacement cable. That price was quite a shock and when I asked them for some specifications on the cable, they refused to give that to me. They specifically said that they did not want to aid me in buying a generic replacement cable. Even with that uncooperative attitude, I ended up buying a service manual from them for the lift and even though it is quite large and comprehensive with wiring diagrams there was still no details on the cable such as number of conductors and sizes of the wires.
I then examined the control cable on the lift and it has a 7/8" outer diameter black rubber jacket like an SO cord. I carefully counted 40 conductors with the sizes and colors below.
1 yellow wire 12 gauge
12 white wires 12 gauge
27 white wires 18 gauge
--
40 conductors
The conductors are numbered or lettered, but not in a 1-40 fashion as you might expect. The wires are numbered almost randomly. There are wires labeled for example 1, 3, 4, 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 48, 57, 67, 101, 60A, 57A, 57D, 67, 67A, 67C, 101, H, E, etc. Most wires have the number printed on the wire and they all have a little white tag on the wire with these ID codes. From the wiring diagram I did correlate these wire ID numbers with the manual and further confirmed the 40 conductor count of the main control cable.
I am confident that I could replace this cable with an appropriate generic 40 conductor numbered cable as I could map the original ID wire numbers to a new set of cable numbers.
Given the way the cable is now routed on the machine, I don't have space issues and do not have to use the same original combination of #12 and #18 gauge wire sizes. A new cable could be 40 conductors in all 12 gauge for example.
Can someone recommend an appropriate cable type and source where I can buy 78' of new control cable suitable for use on this boom lift?
My lift has been modified over the years such that the main control cable and hydraulic lines that control the platform rotate and tilt functions are draped in a sliding "festoon" fashion alongside the telescoping boom sections on separate telescoping supports. The cable and hydraulic lines are exposed yet stay out of the way fairly well.
The problem I have is that the control cable has been damaged (before I bought it) and thus shortened and spliced over the years. Thus I can't extend the boom out to its maximum length and several minor functions like the platform rotate and the high speed travel don't operate. I want to replace the control cable with a proper length one and restore all functions.
Condor is out of business and http://www.minnpar.com/ has taken over the parts supply for Condor. When I contacted Minnpar and gave them the serial number of my lift, they came back with a quote of $2,300 for an original 78' replacement cable. That price was quite a shock and when I asked them for some specifications on the cable, they refused to give that to me. They specifically said that they did not want to aid me in buying a generic replacement cable. Even with that uncooperative attitude, I ended up buying a service manual from them for the lift and even though it is quite large and comprehensive with wiring diagrams there was still no details on the cable such as number of conductors and sizes of the wires.
I then examined the control cable on the lift and it has a 7/8" outer diameter black rubber jacket like an SO cord. I carefully counted 40 conductors with the sizes and colors below.
1 yellow wire 12 gauge
12 white wires 12 gauge
27 white wires 18 gauge
--
40 conductors
The conductors are numbered or lettered, but not in a 1-40 fashion as you might expect. The wires are numbered almost randomly. There are wires labeled for example 1, 3, 4, 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 48, 57, 67, 101, 60A, 57A, 57D, 67, 67A, 67C, 101, H, E, etc. Most wires have the number printed on the wire and they all have a little white tag on the wire with these ID codes. From the wiring diagram I did correlate these wire ID numbers with the manual and further confirmed the 40 conductor count of the main control cable.
I am confident that I could replace this cable with an appropriate generic 40 conductor numbered cable as I could map the original ID wire numbers to a new set of cable numbers.
Given the way the cable is now routed on the machine, I don't have space issues and do not have to use the same original combination of #12 and #18 gauge wire sizes. A new cable could be 40 conductors in all 12 gauge for example.
Can someone recommend an appropriate cable type and source where I can buy 78' of new control cable suitable for use on this boom lift?
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Tires would turn at approx. 2 RPM.