Bad Day

[Impact]

We did a lift Sunday with the 165 ton Grove. Of course Monday, the weather was well, cold. 5 degrees I think. The crane made it back to within 5 miles of the shop without assistance. Here's a link to a video of how it made it the last 5 miles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kNEgwD6W7d4

 

[Impact]

It was so cold Monday, we debated about even bringing the rig in that day or just wait a day or so. We decided if it would crank, and the air would build up, we'd drive it on in. Driver said it downshifted once, and shuttered, then he had no power going to the wheels, and no brakes. Luckily he was able to coast to a stop without problems. Chunk of steel broke off the bell housing. Drive shaft shattered going to the drop box. Evidently whenever the drive line went, it trashed hydraulic and air lines. Right now we're not sure if the tranny went, or the drop box or both. Neither is a cheap fix. I just hope it's one, and not the other.

Before we start ordering parts, I'm going to know exactly what happened. I also want to know how much cold weather had to do with it.

I'll follow up as we know more.

 

[stock]

Kentucky? didn't think you lot in the deep south suffered from oldman winter.................

 

[Impact]

why yes, it gets cold here, not as cold as you guys, but, 0-5 with 25 mph winds is cold..don't care who ya are

 

[td25c]

Hate to hear that Impact. That is odd how it happened, almost like for a moment it was in two gears at the same time locking up & wasting the driveline. Don't Know:beatsme Glad to see you got it home ok. I take it the engine would still run so the crane operator could assist the wrecker steering the crane on the "flat tow". Cold weather can cause trouble in strange ways where it normally would not happen in warm weather. One time we were using the excavator on a job site and the temp was at 0-F . I let it warm up about 30 min then started working and not long after that had oil spraying out of the side of the swing motor. Yep .... The motor housing had busted. Only thing I can think of is due to the cold the relief valve didn't open as it should and spiked out the pressure busting the motor.

 

[ValleyFirewood]

Can't say Ive had anything break at those warmish temps that was because of the cold, but who knows.

Not that working in 5* doesn't suck, but its pretty warm for here!

Kinda weird... 5* out there and it's been in the 30s to nearly 40* here. Snow even melted a bit.

Oh... Do those machines not use spring brakes like on a truck? No air to brakes = brakes engage.

 

[Impact]

Yes the engine would run and the operator steered. Tow truck driver says if he couldn't steer it, he couldnt tow it. It weighs 115,000 pounds.

I talked with a truck mechanic today. He thinks the gear box probably locked up. I hope so. Still think the tranny gotta be pulled to replace the bell housing. Today we got it set up on blocks giving room to drop the box out the bottom.

I agree why would it break at 5 degrees??? Unless maybe it was ready to break anyhow.

 

[qball]

90 wt is like thick syrup at 5 degrees. Even if you warm the engine, that trans and drop box are gonna be real stiff. My guess would be a failure due to lack of lube.

 

[grandpa]

No... I think it was gonna fail anyways.... just picked a bad day to do so.

 

[kshansen]

No... I think it was gonna fail anyways.... just picked a bad day to do so.

Have to agree too. The oil being stiff should not cause a failure that bad. If it was drove out to the job and all but 5 mile back it should have warmed up a little. If it was a lube problemit should be obvious when you tear it down.

 

[ValleyFirewood]

I have pulled diff covers off axles when it was -30* out and the gear oil pretty much doesn't come out. Even still doesn't usually cause issues.

90 wt is like thick syrup at 5 degrees. Even if you warm the engine, that trans and drop box are gonna be real stiff. My guess would be a failure due to lack of lube.

 

[Dualie]

I did some side work for a wrecker company here in town, got a call to tow and old American mechanical conventional. Thankfully it was a mechanically linked twin steer. left it flat on the ground picked up maybe 8-9k max with the wrecker. With the mechanical twin steers the usually follow no problem.

When i got it all hooked up and ready the crane op said ah whats the worst that could happen? i said well for starters we could punch through the street, for second its the fact that the crane out weighs the truck by roughly three times could end up with a couple hundred thousand pounds of iron in a ditch with you and i at the bottom.

 

[Impact]

We've had a Grove Tech guy here helping us for the last two days. Transmission is out and on the ground. It appears the u-joint on the drop box broke and let the drive line whip around and lock up. Whenever it locked up, it broke the bell housing. Looking like we'll have to get a remanufactured transmission. The drive line was a sealed unit, and couldn't be greased due to it's location in a hard to reach area. There was evidence of rust in the old joint. Think we're going to try and go back with a grease-able unit, and make a way to access it.

Remanned tranny is $31,000. Lots of moola geetus just because of a u-joint

 

[Tiny]

The money your spending is horrible , The downtime is a killer . Wilkerson lost 3 transmissions in their machines but none like this .I still think they got close to 30 grand . They were ZF units and the rebuild shop was in Chicago . Tried a local "authorized" shop on the 1st one and got burned

 

[Impact]

If all my jobs were downhill from the shop I could just coast the grove to the site eh?

 

[dbl612]

but the brake wear would be a killer and you could never go home! LOL.

 

[td25c]

That sucks about the u-joint Impact. You would think something like that would break on a muddy jobsite and not while moving on the road. The Grove GMK carrier chassis are pretty cool & agile on jobsites. I'm always amazed how easy they can maneuver in to position for their size. I get a good physical workout cranking the steering wheel to jockey the old TM 250 in position on some sites Snapped a few photos of the underside of a Grove 5240. The first thing Dad and I noticed was they use a lot of u-joints. It also had an electric retarder on the rear axil.

 

[ValleyFirewood]

You'd think on a trans that pricey it would have a bellhousing that is not integrated into the trans.

 

[Impact]

Got the crane put back together last week. Took forever to find the bell housing. Just finished a $10k job yesterday. 5 more jobs like it and I'll be back to even.

 

[td25c]

Glad to hear you got the crane back in action Impact . Oh yeah .... I also know the feeling of counting jobs to get back to "even" after an expensive equipment failure