New Toys

[Nige]

I thought I'd start a new thread for this. Our new fleet of Cat 789D trucks. We have 15 coming over the next 3 months. First to arrive - the bodies, well 5 of them anyway. 15 flat decks needed to haul them up from the port. We're building them in our new Truck Shop despite the fact it's not completely finished yet. The last lot we built out in the open.


Check out the armed motorcycle cops doing escort duty ..........


Getting them through some of the villages between the main highway and the mine is a challenge.........

 

[Huntoon]

That is really cool. Thanks for sharing.

 

[d9gdon]

Does Caterpillar put them together for the mine on site for Quality Control purposes? I can see where the mine would be capable of doing it on their own, but I'd think Cat would do it for warranty and customer satisfaction.

 

[Nige]

I wouldn't let the local dealer near them as regards assembly TBH. They did our very first machines back in 2008 and made a not-very-good job of them. Sloppy work and took far too long. Since them we have done them ourselves at less than half the price the dealer charged us for the first lot. The dealer tech rep comes to site and a joint team from both customer & dealer do the commissioning together at which point we both sign off on them from Cat & customer standpoint. Assembly quality is far better and we get the job done faster. I may have failed to mention that I worked for Cat dealers for 20+ years before I came here and have probably assembled in excess of 200 large mining trucks in that time, that's about 194 more than the dealer here has ever assembled............

 

[Nige]

You may not be aware that paying approx. $3 million per truck doesn't get you a fully assembled truck, just the component parts. The customer then has to pay extra to have it put together on site, which is rubbing salt into the wound a bit IMHO.

Another thought - the best way to train mechanics is to have them build the equipment.

 

[blitz138]

Pretty neat! Did they have to take down any power lines? The one picture looks like it would be a helluva headache. I would imagine you guys are sticking with hydraulic shovels down there, hows the build on those?

 

[d9gdon]

Yeah, that's what I was asking; I figured Cat would only sell it fully assembled on their terms no matter what the mine's credentials were. Seems like you could do a Cat Certified Rebuild then from what you're saying on your existing equipment(789 trucks only). Just get the dealer tech rep on your site to bless it with a new serial number after inspection along the way to finished product. What about you guys doing your own Certified Rebuilds on your graders, loaders, etc.?

Or is Cat letting you finish the build on the new trucks because you've done it specifically in the past?

 

[Dualie]

that trailer dosent look very happy with that load on it.


Be sure to take some assembly pics, always fun to see big iron going together.

 

[Nige]

No power lines were harmed in the making of this epic ............. well no legal connections anyway. The problem here is people connecting illegally and those connections tend to be smaller and hang lower than the legal ones. We have a bucket truck accompany a convoy like that to make sure all the major lines get lifted if necessary. Each high load has a "pole guy" as shown in this photo to lift the smaller lines up out of the way.

I'll find some photos of our Hitachi shovel assembly & post them. I think I have the process all the way from coming off the ship to fully assembled

Don, believe it or not the only condition from the factory is that if you want their warranty on a new machine the dealer has to commission it. They don't care who builds it. I'd love to be in a position to do Certified Rebuilds but despite that impressive shop in the photos above we really don't have the facilities.

Dualie. Believe it or not the load on that trailer is only 17 tons total. The centre section weighs a bit over 13, the canopy just over 3. It's the size that makes it awkward.

 

[CM1995]

Neat pics Nige, thanks for posting. The guy with the pole reminds me of my time in Costa Rica watching the rice combines come through town. There would be 1-2 guys with forked sticks sitting on top of the combine to raise the wires up. Things are just done differently in less "developed" countries...

I was at the local Cat dealer the other day and the parts manager showed us the web cam from one of the local coal mines where they are putting together 797's, I think there are 15 total. The dealer has a satellite yard in the mine to put the trucks together. Quite amazing, I would like to see it in person.

 

[Nige]

I tried to convince the transporters to simply string a couple of maybe 15-20ft sections of something like 2" dia. plastic pipe over the load in a front-to-rear fashion with a rope through the centre of each one. When you pull the rope tight the pipe assumes a bow shape that is ideal to act as a catcher for low overhead cables. The cable comes into contact with the pipes, slides up them, over the top of the load, and down the other side again - untouched by human hand ................ I'll have another bash at that idea with the next group of bodies.

 

[tireman]

Note the age of the motorcycle the cop is riding.Gotta be early '80's at the newest, with those drum brakes. Hey Nige, how about including a few photo's of the tires being mounted and hung for the old tireman? Until I'm in a position to do it myself again, a few pics(or even video?) will due to scratch my itch.Thanks.

 

[Per Eriksson]

At mines like this, how much of the personell is local and how much is recruited abroad from europe and north america?
Always seems like all the management isn't local?

 

[markshr151]

It looks like Haiti, am I close?

 

[Nige]

Note the age of the motorcycle the cop is riding.Gotta be early '80's at the newest, with those drum brakes.

It's probably no more than a year old & Chinese if my guess is correct. Millions of those things kicking around the streets here.

Per, we have 10 expats in the Maintenance Department and about 300 locals. Reason there is no local management is simple, there is no history of large-scale mining in this country prior to this project opening, so no relevant skills available. Just to give you an idea, we skills-tested both theory & practical (Google "recognition for prior learning" or RPL Test) over 500 applicants who claimed they were "heavy equipment mechanics". Out of that number no more than 50 scored highly enough to warrant bringing in for interview. Of those we hired just over half ............ so less than 30 out of 500. Tell you something..?

Mark - you're close enough. Next door country actually. Haiti is just on the point of opening up because the same range of hills stretches from the DR right over the border into Haiti and contains similar mineralization. It begs the question though as to who would have the cojones to invest billions of dollars in a country that right now does not have a functional government outside the capital.

 

[CM1995]

It's probably no more than a year old & Chinese if my guess is correct. Millions of those things kicking around the streets here.

You beat me to it. The Chinese produce these "mopeds" for the third world market, there not much in North American or European standards but sure as hell beats the bicycle which is their alternative. Central America is full of them as well. Ride through town on a BMW and you instantly become a rock star.

What does the mine produce? I would assume all the material is exported due to the small economy on the island?

There are two places in my life's travels that I got deathly sick, Kenya and the Dominican Republic - OK not really deathly but felt like I wanted to die .

 

[Dualie]

Good thoughts with the PVC pipes thats they way its been done for years. Im amazed they haven't figured it out the world over?

 

[Nige]

Now it gets exciting ............. over she goes.

 

[Nige]

By this time my heart was back to beating at normal speed ............. it was kind of exciting for a while. This was Monday.

 

[Nige]

Yesterday the 2nd one went over (LH photo). Today the headache rack went on the first one (RH photo). The internal welding on the centre seams on the 1st one are almost completed already and tomorrow I hope the liner plates will go in the floor and fingers crossed by the weekend it should be ready for painting. Then we get the parts of another one into the shop and do the same thing all over again .............