Athey Force Feed Loader.

[LowBoy]

Seen one of these recently? Not too common these days.

 

[wrenchbender]

May not be a common thing in some parts, but SCDOT is still useing them around here. ...............I know I know they still have to pipe sunshine in here also.lol

 

[LowBoy]

May not be a common thing in some parts, but SCDOT is still useing them around here. ...............I know I know they still have to pipe sunshine in here also.lol

Don't feel alone, wrench 'ol buddy...Little Rock, Arkansas took delivery of this gem, so them boys are still fond of these things too, I guess.

I can see they'd still be handy in some instances. Before asphalt millers were conveying their own material into the trucks, this 'ol gal used to load from behind, so it's got some potential still in that arena.

 

[Lashlander]

A couple of big paving companies on the mainland use them to feed their paving machine. They haul from the plant with belly dumps. It saves them from having to have another fleet of trucks to feed the laydown machine.

 

[LowBoy]

A couple of big paving companies on the mainland use them to feed their paving machine. They haul from the plant with belly dumps. It saves them from having to have another fleet of trucks to feed the laydown machine.

What do they do...dump the mix on the ground and leave for another load, and the Athey picks it up and conveys it into the paver? The way I see it working is the paddles bring it in to the belt while driving forward, and feeding a hopper, but that doesn't add up because the Athey has to be going forward to accept material, while the paver would have to be in REVERSE?:beatsme
Unless...the conveyed is modified to be exta long to reach over top of the paver, but that doesn't compute either...I guess I need simplifying for my feable brain, Lashlander.

 

[Lashlander]

The paver lays the mix down behind it. The hopper is in the front. They hook the loader to the front of the paver and push it along with the paver. They start the windrow on the ground where they want to start paving. Then they push the loader up with the paver and it fills the laydown machines hopper. When the paver gets to the start line they start laying it down. It takes a little coordination with the trucks to dump where the loader needs the material so not to run short or over fill the hopper on the paver.

 

[greywynd]

Friend of mine had one that he sold last year, he had taken the paddles off the front and built a hopper, it was then used as a stacker for his topsoil screening plant. The Athey stacked the stones etc, and a set of hydraulic lines ran to another hydraulic conveyor that stacked the topsoil.

Worked well, and was just sitting there at a fast idle, so was fairly easy on fuel too.

 

[RDG]

Old Iron

I think you might find that is an Adams Travel Loader, I used to operate one in NZ in the late 80s early 90s, used it to pick up windrows after the grader had been along deepening the water tables on the sides of the road. In good going it would load a 10m3 tipper in about 3mins as it backed along under the conveyor belt. It was a bit hard to get parts for and we ended up converting the front feed and conveyor to Hydraulic drive and did away with the worm gears and drive shafts, had an over centre foot operated clutch not the sort of thing you could do a racing change on. My son found an original sales brochure which he bought on Ebay which shows it came out with a GM 3-53 or an IH gas engine originally. The Athey belt loaders that I have seen had the operator sitting over to one side above the wheel. As far as I know the one we had was last being used to turn compost and mulch piles somewhere in NZ.

 

[telescooper]

They ( TWP's and state maintenance) use them for shoulder cutting. A grader pulls out the shoulder into a wind row and the belt loader conveys it up to a dump truck. The truck follows the loader down the road in reverse. It is a pretty fast moving operation and a lot of mileage can be done in a day. These are fairly common machines around here.:usa

 

[SouthOnBeach]

NCDOT seems to love them around here also.

 

[JonesBros]

They ( TWP's and state maintenance) use them for shoulder cutting. A grader pulls out the shoulder into a wind row and the belt loader conveys it up to a dump truck. The truck follows the loader down the road in reverse. It is a pretty fast moving operation and a lot of mileage can be done in a day. These are fairly common machines around here.:usa

Yes sir, Ditch pulling has pretty much been our main source of income for the past 3 years now. We currently have a 95 Athey 7-12, a 87 backup Athey 7-12 and a 96 LeeBoy force feed loader. We're currently running two crews for VDOT doing nothing but pulling ditches. By the time you add the force feed loaders, 2 graders, 6 trucks, 6 laborers, 2 broom tractors, and 2 small D4 sized 6 way blade dozers in the pit you've got yourself quite the operation :cool2

Honeysuckle and any other vine is your biggest enemy in that game. Whether your running the grader and it gets hung at the end of the blade in the ditch when your told to "wipe it out" or in an athey having a hard time picking it up, or even in a dump truck when the operator loads you a little to heavy and it gets hung over the tail gate.. :Banghead

 

[rino]

Toothless milling machine?!?!

:my2c This machine looks like a prehistoric version of milling machine that just "loads"! I would think any where a flow-boy would be preferred, one of these loader could pick up overburden, or hot mix, and efficiently load a truck or paver! It could follow behind a grader, dozer, or loader and load overburden, It could be used to load hot mix in tree covered streets, multi bridge underpass, or even tunnel work! Any place where height is a minimum, and load out capacity is the maximum. Any place where loading is the main function, not milling!
:exactly :yup

 

[Steve Frazier]

One of the local paving companies has one and used to use it to load millings as has been described. I haven't seen it used for that in a long time though, now it loads sidewalk snow in the winter months.

 

[JonesBros]

Only real downside is that they are a high maintenance very temperamental machine. I havn't seen anything quite this bad since we use to operate Case 1085B's & Drott 40 Cruiz-Air's. Replacement chains can run up to $5K and have be replaced around every 1500 hours. You constantly have to check the air filters and clean the pre-cleaners. Under the belt by the rollers needs to be cleaned constantly or dirt will build up and cause the rollers not to roll causing the conveyor to turn slower and also causing the belt to rub holes in the rollers.

But damn it sure beats the heck out of loading windrows w/ a backhoe or rubber tire loader after you cut a ditch

 

[rino]

Asphalt Transfer Vehicle

Here in the colder states, they have a machine that heats, mixes, and stores asphalt, has a minimum height requirement, and can be moved to access a load of ashpahlt from a truck. It then feeds the paver, then gets get another load.



This might be the after thought of your machine! Not to diss your equipment, but asphalt in colder weather would end up a blob on the highway without maintaining its heat!:notworthy:exactly:jawdrop

 

[cat69]

sorry, but the roadtec shuttle buggy dose not HEAT the mix, you have to dump the first couple of loads in slow so not plug up the machine

 

[dayexco]

here, they use them for snow removal in the downtown areas where the snow has to be hauled away.....motorgraders windrow all the snow to the center of the street, and the force feed loads the trucks

 

[proteksandblast]

those Athey machines are used for snow removal. just refinished one for local contractor. they can barely handle snow pretty much doubt it can move asphalt. they are six cyl gasser hyd drive and can be bought for about $2500

 

[Taylortractornu]

I wished I ad one for turning my compost windrows. It would mix oxegen with them better.

 

[mitch504]

those Athey machines are used for snow removal. just refinished one for local contractor. they can barely handle snow pretty much doubt it can move asphalt. they are six cyl gasser hyd drive and can be bought for about $2500

As a lot of people have noted here, they'll handle a lot more than snow; The newer ones have Deere diesels. The one you tried must have been a dog.