On the Road Again

If you could do CCR’s for 60% dealers would be doing them left right and center. Only way to get it to 60% or less nowadays is mass scale and set up for specific models like what Empire is doing. Rule of thumb for Cat Certified Rebuild eligible models is 80% plus for a CCR and 60% for a CPT.

Also to be noted you can do unlimited CPT, CMCR, CCH but only 1 CCR on a machine in its lifetime (not sure if mining has an exemption on that rule)

Nige, thank you for all the great pictures and the narrative.
So many things to address, hijack alert
The transport carriage, that was brilliant.
The sliding trucks and things, I was always aware of the costs of rubber so I was careful, but the 6 wheel articulating trucks are easy to get into a situation. One day I met a fellow operator in the JD400 on a reverse camber corner with a skiff of snow on it, and I knew he was losing it. I got over and stopped and watched him slide by out of control with big eyes and a worried expression. He got out of the 400 after lunch and it was given over to me for the next few months.
The only time I intentionally got squirrely on a rubber tired machine was a 980. We were capping a landfill with clay. It poured that morning and the haul trucks could not get in from the highway and the offroad trucks could not climb up on the dome that is a landfill. The wet clay made for one good doughnut, then park it and go home.
The Liebherrs and the drive motors, brought me back to a dam job in 1992 with one of those with the drive motors just hanging out there to get knocked off. It happened. Also had a 245 long stick that broke a boom at the lift cylinders and dumped the whole works in the back of a terex.
/hijack.
PS hablo espanol

Nige said:

I pity anyone who ever has to change a cooler on this once it's installed up to the rear frame firewall ......

Click to expand...

Remember this comment.? Here's the pic to go with it. Well the factory-installed hardware on the cooler marked in blue came loose. To get to it required first the removal of the afterooler that is directly above it, the A/C condenser, and the cooler to the right of it before the boys could even get at the hardware they needed to get at. Basically when installing that line of 5 coolers in the bottom row (with the cooling pack installed on the machine) you have to start from the centre one and work outwards.

Lots of wailing & gnashing of teeth .........

Nige, are you going to get the holidays off and be back home? Looks like they keep bringing you more things to assemble, and then I suppose that they want everything to operate correctly, which could take a while when assembling equipment of that size, to get the bugs out!

dirty4fun said:

Nige, are you going to get the holidays off and be back home? Looks like they keep bringing you more things to assemble.

Click to expand...

The fleet hasn't changed in size - 14 machines total. What has changed is the arrival date on site of the last few machines compared to the ETA that was originally given to us by Logistics. All of which is down to delays with shipping companies that has put back arrival by anything from 7-10 days in the cases of the last 3 trucks, to 2 weeks for the big shovel, and 4 weeks for the last two 345s. The original plan was to have everything up & running by well before the end of the year. We can still make the 31st on all bar the last truck. Currently we have 5 machines on the go, 2 trucks, the shovel, & two 345s. The last truck is waiting on manpower that we don't have right now. I'm going to be here over Christmas then I'll bail close to the New Year which wasn't in the original plan but I'm not going to leave the customer in the lurch with the job half done. At that time it should be down to just that last truck and the boys can finish that on their own.

I have nothing to do with them once they start loading/hauling dirt. That is the responsibility of the respective dealers and the on-site Maintenance Department.

Boom up day on the shovel. Not the easiest thing in the world to line up both foot pins up when the ground the shovel sits on was sloping to one side. It was a toss-up when we prepared the area. Put a slope on it to drain rainwater away and accept that we'd have to get inventive with slinging components to get them lined up, or work in a swamp that the water wouldn't drain from. We chose the former. With only 3 lifting points on the boom we ended up with one crane hooked to the LH front point and the rear one, and the second crane to the RH front so that we could tilt the assembly to line up the pins.

Just as we were doing final alignment before starting to push the pins in it started raining just to add insult to injury.........

Appears to have gone smooth as glass.

Nige said:

Boom up day on the shovel. Not the easiest thing in the world to line up both foot pins up when the ground the shovel sits on was sloping to one side. It was a toss-up when we prepared the area. Put a slope on it to drain rainwater away and accept that we'd have to get inventive with slinging components to get them lined up, or work in a swamp that the water wouldn't drain from. We chose the former. With only 3 lifting points on the boom we ended up with one crane hooked to the LH front point and the rear one, and the second crane to the RH front so that we could tilt the assembly to line up the pins.

Just as we were doing final alignment before starting to push the pins in it started raining just to add insult to injury.........

View attachment 230394
View attachment 230395
View attachment 230396
View attachment 230397

Click to expand...

Big Projects out in God's garage! You are a warrior Nige!

Boom on & cribbed ready to install the hydraulic hoses & pin the boom cylinders at the bottom end.

DMiller said:

Appears to have gone smooth as glass.

Click to expand...

Oh it wasn't I assure you......!!
I was down in the "hoile" between the cab riser and the LH pin mounting lining up that pin while my mate was doing the same from the shelter of the inside of the hydraulic cooler module on the RH side. He had a roof over his head, I had rain dripping off the catwalk above down the back of my neck. It was lashing it down but with the boom suspended up in the air what do you do.? Not funny..........

And the boys across the way busting butt on the Truck.

Might I ask how are those boom pins are retained ? Also it appears there are bushings in the bosses where it mounts or is it the camera angle ?

Ooh look. A spaceship. 30 mins later. Rear tyres on & not a spaceship. Don't need jacks when you have a crane. four tyres on & torqued in 90 minutes.
Between the two photos it's easy to see just how quickly the weather turns here. The rain that came in the 2nd photo can be seen as clouds above the cab of the furthest crane in the 1st photo.

Nige said:

Ooh look. A spaceship. 30 mins later. Rear tyres on & not a spaceship. Don't need jacks when you have a crane. four tyres on & torqued in 90 minutes.
Between the two photos it's easy to see just how quickly the weather turns here.

View attachment 230401
View attachment 230402

Click to expand...

The in-residence 789 operator thinks these are pretty cool images!

DB2 said:

Might I ask how are those boom pins are retained ? Also it appears there are bushings in the bosses where it mounts or is it the camera angle ?

Click to expand...

The pin has a lip on the inside end so it can't go right through.
Cover plates like the one seen below both inside & out. Pins can somewhat float sideways and are not restrained at all from rotating, that's why there are bushes in the machine frame bosses as you spotted.

Thanks! Love to work on some big stuff one day.

DMiller said:

And the boys across the way busting butt on the Truck.

Click to expand...

That's the same truck you see getting tyres on it in post #473 above.

Next truck chassis being offloaded between the shovel and the one seen above getting tyres installed.
Nice Scania R500 V8-powered 8x4 tractor unit. The driver remembered me from 10+ years ago when he was working for the same haulage company delivering components for the first mining fleet that was built here. With I-shift and the capability to turn on a sixpence with the steerable Broshuis trailer he reckons it's like driving a Lexus compared to the Mack he had before.

First engine start at the same time as the next chassis was being offloaded alongside it.

Getting the shovel arm on. A 2nd sky hook is handy to handle the 200kg pins. Another grey sky but this time it didn't rain except for a few drops for which we were truly thankful.
Once lined up the pins are pushed into place using the forks on an IT. They are the same design as the boom foot pins, fully-floating with a lip on one end and bolted cover plates inside & out.