Is this excavator toast??

old-iron-habit · Feb 16, 2021

I think that machine could be moved with 500 or 1000 ft of cable, enough sheaves to rig about a 12 part line and start connecting to them bigger trees. A good log skidder backed against one of them trees and geared down with the multipart line would slowly winch that right up out of there. I would hook thru both tracks if I couldn't get to a better hook point and just slide it. It would not have to move far before the back came up enough to run it. The boom cylinders oil pressure could be relieved to allow it to float out straight and drag as needed. Still expensive but doable. What do you all think.

hosspuller · Feb 16, 2021

RE: the crawler crane ... My heart sank like those counter weights when they first let go of the crane. Didn't think they were gonna stop sinking... they went down so fast.

Looks like they had mats but the crawler weight was too much for them. There were a lot of timbers & splinters laying around. A thumb would have helped shift them around quicker.

92U 3406 · Feb 16, 2021

Good wash/detail job and maybe they won't notice?

*sarcasm

JLarson · Feb 16, 2021

More then likely someone (hopefully someone had insurance) is buying the rental house a new machine and that one is gonna get totaled out and find its way to the ol'Ritchie Brothers eventually like all other "gems".

Delmer · Feb 16, 2021

old-iron-habit said:
I think that machine could be moved with 500 or 1000 ft of cable, enough sheaves to rig about a 12 part line and start connecting to them bigger trees...

Yes, that would do it. Might have to put some logs under the front to keep it rising.

If you could get the water pumped out and start it up, I'd think a few strong guys and a chainsaw could get it out as quick as anything. Of course if he had stopped halfway to getting it stuck that far, then a lot fewer logs would have gotten him out of trouble.

skyking1 · Feb 16, 2021

knowing when to stop struggling is difficult for some. Just letting the engine idle can run it in deeper once you break into a layer of the bad stuff.
I was splitting a settling pond with a rocky dam once. The offoad trucks would dump at the edge and I'd shove it out with the 6. back off it quick and repeat. Just let it idle and the whole thing would settle under you.
After it set up we dug a trench across it with the hoe and poured a concrete core in it.

John C. · Feb 16, 2021

I had to go witness a PC400-3 log loader sunk in a log lay down area down at the Port of Olympia a bunch of years ago. It had sunk and then turned on it's side where the only thing you could see was the top of the cab and the end of the stick. Standing at ground level a hundred foot back from the machine, all you could make out was a couple of pieces of yellow looking like they were sitting on flat ground. I was there to decide on the pick points for the 300 ton crane that was coming down to lift it out of the muck. The port is on Puget Sound for those who don't know the area and the water coming up and down with the tide was the salted variety. This was one of those swing by and check out the situation on Friday on your way home from a weeks work at the Bay City shop in Aberdeen. I didn't carry a camera in those days but would have loved that photo. One of our other wrenches went down on Saturday and helped get it out and started the dry out process. He drained the engine oil, swing drive oil and checked the hydraulic and final drives. They wash the machine out from a fire hydrant. I went down after he was done to troubleshoot and change the computer and the machine worked for years more.

old-iron-habit · Feb 17, 2021

John C. said:
I had to go witness a PC400-3 log loader sunk in a log lay down area down at the Port of Olympia a bunch of years ago. It had sunk and then turned on it's side where the only thing you could see was the top of the cab and the end of the stick. Standing at ground level a hundred foot back from the machine, all you could make out was a couple of pieces of yellow looking like they were sitting on flat ground. I was there to decide on the pick points for the 300 ton crane that was coming down to lift it out of the muck. The port is on Puget Sound for those who don't know the area and the water coming up and down with the tide was the salted variety. This was one of those swing by and check out the situation on Friday on your way home from a weeks work at the Bay City shop in Aberdeen. I didn't carry a camera in those days but would have loved that photo. One of our other wrenches went down on Saturday and helped get it out and started the dry out process. He drained the engine oil, swing drive oil and checked the hydraulic and final drives. They wash the machine out from a fire hydrant. I went down after he was done to troubleshoot and change the computer and the machine worked for years more.

I recovered a large vertical door Knakbox from a Pensacola, Florida project I was on after Hurricane Ivan flooded Pennsacola a few years back. The subcontractor had insurance and gave me the box when they said the "loss" disposal was not covered. I washed it with a pressure washer a half dozen times and now 15 years or so later, the piano hinges, which have been oiled a few hundred times still get sticky if I dont open the doors for a couple weeks. It has a nice rust hue to it also even after only a few days in the saltwater before it got the first pressure washing.

terex herder · Feb 17, 2021

You can't believe how fast something can go down until it actually happens to you. I took my hoe out into what I thought was a firm field to recover a sprayer (and a tractor, and a loader backhoe). I pushed a little dirt around, dug a little over there, and next thing I know I'm bulldozing dirt into the cab when I swing the house. I stopped right there and started calling to find crane mats. This is dry country, not many around here. Next morning with waffle mats the hoe came out easy on its own. The sprayer not so easy, but no damage done.

skyking1 · Feb 17, 2021

I have not had a hoe down, but we had a large one go in backwards in the Orting valley one time. That was a terrible place to build houses. You'd dig down 7~8' and the once-firm ground became a milkshake. It was mud from Mt. Rainer's several lahars over the millenia, just waiting to be disturbed again. We had a crew of 6 and would get in about two sticks of sewer main a day. Dig down to the soup, drop some 20' steel sheets on end and tamp them down gently, and bail out mud. Get enough mud out and add 4~8" spalls till it felt solid, then set a trench box and add pea gravel to bed the pipe.
I was digging co-trench and had to dig through 4' cedar trees that had been underground 500 years or more, still fresh as the day they rode the wave. We had to leave them in place as there were already curbs and gutters and pavement over them, so you sliced through with the teeth very carefully.
I cannot imagine it will be fun when the next big earthquake hits the area, that valley will be like riding a wave.

DMiller · Feb 18, 2021

Watched as a old Cable 8 dragging a pan went down to belly pans almost instantly. Was NO moisture indicating a problem, general area clay, dragging off hilltop for a subdivision, damp sandy earth covered the rebound shield, idler was in half way and was high centered. Had been cutting across that spot in August for two days where finally enough moisture loosened up a sand boil, and on TOP of a small hill. According to engineer as to geology was a remnant of the 1812-14 New Madrid events but in St. Charles MO. Hill overlooked river bottoms. Took two MORE 8s pulling will winches and a old rubber tire push dozer to get it out, was like quicksand and had a hard suction on machine.

JD955SC · Feb 18, 2021

DMiller said:
Watched as a old Cable 8 dragging a pan went down to belly pans almost instantly. Was NO moisture indicating a problem, general area clay, dragging off hilltop for a subdivision, damp sandy earth covered the rebound shield, idler was in half way and was high centered. Had been cutting across that spot in August for two days where finally enough moisture loosened up a sand boil, and on TOP of a small hill. According to engineer as to geology was a remnant of the 1812-14 New Madrid events but in St. Charles MO. Hill overlooked river bottoms. Took two MORE 8s pulling will winches and a old rubber tire push dozer to get it out, was like quicksand and had a hard suction on machine.

my father always told me a track machine would go farther than a wheeled machine but the trade off was that when it did get stuck it was going to be a lot worse to get out.

Crummy · Feb 18, 2021

skyking1 said:
I was digging co-trench and had to dig through 4' cedar trees that had been underground 500 years or more, still fresh as the day they rode the wave.

High Cedars golf course? I remember some specialty wood outfit from back east wanting to buy everything that could be dug up.

Crummy · Feb 18, 2021

I had a friend that was regional sales guy for UR he had a wall of pictures like that.

skyking1 · Feb 18, 2021

Crummy said:
High Cedars golf course? I remember some specialty wood outfit from back east wanting to buy everything that could be dug up.

Yep the high cedars job with Olson Brothers.

Is this excavator toast??

old-iron-habit

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hosspuller

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92U 3406

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JLarson

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Delmer

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skyking1

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John C.

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old-iron-habit

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terex herder

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skyking1

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DMiller

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JD955SC

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Crummy

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Crummy

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skyking1

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