New Komatsu Dealer in Alaska

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

Here is a custom PNE WA600-3 Logger splashing a Sealaska bundle for export on Long Island

These were cool machines. Extra counterweight. The main frame had extra steel braces welded on for strength. We also jacked the Main implement gear pumps up to 3200psi with Komatsu America’s blessing. Which was unheard of at the time for a gear pump.

The local producers liked these machines because they could lift the non-standard, extra heavy, export only, log bundles and the 988F-II, at the time, was a little under-powered. The WA-600 was very popular at that particular moment in history.

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

Same Machine as the one above. Good ol’e KL593 of Evergreen Logging Co. August of 96. The noseeums and whitesox were eating me up. Maybe the last WA600 logger ever sold in Alaska. Had very few issues with this machine. I remember some cracking on the Forks that Young’s covered under warranty.

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

On the East side of Prince of Wales Island, Columbia Helicopters was logging a unit at Lymon Anchorage. I probably didn’t spell that correctly. Columbia was flying a Boeing Vertol. They had a pair of Komatsu PC300HD’s w/ Pierce fronts working the landing zone and a orange shovel rented from CMI for clean-up duty only the background.

I was there because a grapple on one of the Komatsu’s was drifting open. A leaking P/O check valve. Swapped grapple cylinders. Those guys could move wood fast. No screwing around when the bird was flying. I had a window during the scant dark hours of August to work.

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

High Tech Komatsu Service Shop
Yeah. “It was a different place and a different time. What they called hard work, now they call a crime”. Can’t imagine a modern dealer allowing a little fella like this in the shop getting er’ done, nowadays. No safety glasses, FR, hard hat, safety toes. But, he has his Ketchikan Sneakers.

This was the Pacific North Equip. KTN Shop. For the most part, it was just storage. The real work got done in the Bush.

BTW, that little feller went into the Airforce when he grew-up. He just graduated from UAA with a EE degree and is keeping the cell phones in Alaska on.

John C. · Apr 16, 2020

I had to go do an after delivery on a 375 working just out of Cordoba one time. There was a couple of feet of snow on the ground and it was about 33F. It was a miserable day and I got stuck there that night. I had the best sea food meal of my life at that motel that night. LP had a bunch of PC400 loggers working at Thorne Bay. Do you have any idea what happened to them?

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

John C.

I forgot about all the LP/KPC gear. I do recall those PC400HD shovels. They were often excessively roaded (sp?) lol. Thus, they were burning through undercarriage in 4000 hours or less. So, Komatsu America and PNE offered some goodwill concessions. I got to fly in the LP helicopter to each PC400HD to measure the U/C. It was fun day. The weather was good and I got dropped off at Tongass Hwy PNE shop LZ at the end of the day.

After the LP auction, I have no idea where those machines went. I might have some sad pictures of the LP iron parked in Thorne Bay consolidated for the auction.

mowingman · Apr 16, 2020

I remember that the one used on the gold mining show, up in the Yukon, was a Komatsu 475. It had a huge blade and a huge ripper on it.

Welder Dave · Apr 16, 2020

A Komatsu D475 is in the Cat D11 size range. Komatsu had a much bigger D575 but they are few and far between and have been discontinued. Keeping spare parts in stock is one of the issues for such a big machine. I had read that the dealer had to have a $1 million in spare parts stocked if a customer purchased a D575 but don't know if that's correct. It would make some sense though. A dozer that size is going to be working around the clock and downtime needs to be at a minimum. Some parts had to be manufactured in Japan and took weeks to get. Still would be cool to see one.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101207065126/http://www.equipmentcentral.com/north_america/data/new_equipment/AESS569-02_D575 New Format.pdf

John C. · Apr 16, 2020

The D575 was a reclaim machine for the most part. As far as I know they weren't used for stripping. Yes, you wouldn't want one down for long, but on the other hand just because it is not operable doesn't mean the mine stops.
Coaldust, did you ever get out to any of the Klukwan machines or maybe any of Gildersleeve's operations?

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

Thorne Bay October of 96. The last months of the largest logging camp in North America. All the iron was being parked for the Louisiana-Pacific Ketchikan Pulp Company auction.

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

John C.

I worked for Klukwan Forest Products as a mechanic assigned to Hobart Bay and a short stint at their Long Island camp before going to work for PNE.

Gildersleeve had some pretty good mechanics, so the only work I did for them was mostly their PNE rental gear. I visited all their camps and got to meet Keaton and Richard.

John C. · Apr 16, 2020

I love the photo but hate to hit the like on the post. A lot of people lost jobs up there when the Tongass was shut down. As I recall the super up there had a nickname of Buttcut. Does that sound right? He told me they used the Komatsu loggers because they could walk the shovels up and down the lines and the machines would not veer off to one side when they operated the boom or the stick. He said he was glad they didn't have odometers installed as the undercarriages would have been out of warranty in a year.

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

Buttcutt. I was trying to recall his name. He was the Shop Forman/Fleet Manager for the Thorne Bay Shop. I was a young guy and had a huge amount of respect for him. Super-sharp Dude. Those guys don’t exist anymore.

in 98, I was traveling through Centralia and stopped by that machine shop on Lum Road that specialized in towers and yarder repair and he was working there. I can’t remember the name of that Shop.

Yeah, It was a terrible thing to see & experience the dismantling of the SE AK timber industry and all the families that got hurt.

Coaldust · Apr 16, 2020

Welder Dave said:
A Komatsu D475 is in the Cat D11 size range. Komatsu had a much bigger D575 but they are few and far between and have been discontinued. Keeping spare parts in stock is one of the issues for such a big machine. I had read that the dealer had to have a $1 million in spare parts stocked if a customer purchased a D575 but don't know if that's correct.

I attended a Komatsu training class in Torrance, CA in 97. The Instructor said there was a 575A in Las Vegas at the time. It was set up as a ripper machine and was proving useful for breaking up the hard pan caliche rock. He showed us a video of it in operation.

John C. · Apr 16, 2020

When I left PNE I was pretty good friends with the Komatsu rep. He asked me if I would be interested in going down there to baby sit a D575 down there. He told me it was a development machine that was being tested. I had two kids still in high school and was tired of the travel at that point so politely declined.

Welder Dave · Apr 16, 2020

From what I could find it looks like about 20 production 575's were built. Mine wouldn't shut down but a D475 or D11 would have much better parts support and less downtime. Here's a used D575 that looks like the undercarriage is on it's last legs. I'm not sure who buy it, maybe an outfit that already has one for parts? The undercarriage is probably worth more than the machine is. The other machine I would have liked to have seen a video of working was the Acco Dozer which was even bigger with twin engines and transmissions but never put to work.

https://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/construction-equipment/for-sale/192561721/komatsu-d575a

alco · Apr 17, 2020

The records out there say there were 53 575s built in different configurations. They have been used quite extensively as a stripping machine in mountain top removal mining, so there is a chance their being down could affect a mine's operations.

A bunch of 575s from around the world were recently bought up for a large project in China, where blasting was not an option, so ripping was the way they had to go.

Welder Dave · Apr 17, 2020

This is what I saw but couldn't find anything else regarding production numbers.

The D575A is primarily used in surface mines in West Virginia, mostly operating on Alpha Natural Resources sites in Appalachia. To date, 17 D575A's are in service in the West Virginia Coal Fields. There is one super ripper that operates in Las Vegas, and another 2 operating on New Zealand's South Island in the Stockton mine.

Birken Vogt · Apr 17, 2020

The one in this video

Seems to have a CARB sticker on the side that would tend to indicate it operates or operated in California. Plus the name of the channel that posted it. But it was posted a very long time ago. Is it the Vegas one?

John C. · Apr 17, 2020

I don't know. It is nice to see someone pull the ripper tooth at the right angle so it doesn't blunt the tooth.

New Komatsu Dealer in Alaska

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