California big dirt scraper operators

[Buckethead]

Great thread with lots of terrific photos! Sure does make me jealous of you guys out in California though. I'm stuck here in boring old New Jersey and can't even remember the last time I saw a decent dirt moving job. There's very little in the way of open land around here and what there is will probably never be developed. About the only scraper action out here is when I stumble across an old 621 rotting away in the back of some guy's yard. Haven't gotten to see any pans in action for ten years or more, and never anything bigger than a '37. So please keep the great pictures coming, guys. And do your best to stay away from New Jersey!

Hoppy that's not completely true. Vollers Excavating still has 20 some 637s, Caruso has some 627s including some G models, Pillari Bros have 6 or so 627s, Sambol has some 627s, 615s and 613s, a company from Freehold whose name I cant remember now has 2 627s a 633 and a 623, down South Jersey, Richard Pierson has 637s and some self loaders. There are a lot of small housing contractors who still have a few self loaders like 613s and 615s around. How much any scrapers will be working around here with the economy slowing down is anybody's guess, though.

 

[stretch]

Hey Hoppy, come up north, we still got some running around too! Mather Corp. of Bloomfield, CT has some 631C's, Borggaard Construction of N. Grafton, MA has 4 631's and 6 637's, Spazzarini Construction and Simscroft-Echo Farms also got some Cat pans running around (631's I think), and S. Carpenter Construction of Bristol, CT and the QVEA in Colchester, CT both have Clark elevators. Nothing comparable to CA, but that's good enough for me!

 

[Hoppy]

Buckethead - Vollers has always been one of my favorites, but I haven't stumbled across any of their projects for quite a while. Ten years or so ago, they had a big spread of their 637's grading out the old Lockheed site on Route 22 in Watchung for a new mall, but except for a couple of really small jobs I haven't seen them around since. I'm not familiar with any of the other contractors you mentioned. The outfit from Freehold that you couldn't remember may have been Hess Brothers. They had a number of 633's and these were the only self-loaders I've ever seen in action. Self-loaders aren't a good choice for my part of the state - too much rock!

 

[tdozer]

NJ Pans

When Hess bros. went out, we(HAAS Exc.) bought a bunch of iron from them. We bought two 633D's, a 623B, two D8K's, B-E 61B dragline and an old FWD Co. water truck. All the hess iron is still working for us except the water truck, which the blue smoke wrench got to, and one of the 633's. We were stripping topsoil for a housing development in hammonton NJ. when she blew a hyd. line, and sprayed on the turbo. The Foreman and opperator just about had the fire out using dirt and fire extingushers when all H#&^ broke loose. The NJ Forest Fire Service Noticed the smoke and deployed one of there water drop helicopters to investigate. I know when i was in elementary school, i learned that water makes a grease fire spread. So that 633 sits in our yard for parts. She was the better of the two 633's too.We also have a 613 and six 627's.
If i can find my camera i will get some pics.

 

[Burnout]

Well I guess I can give the Northern AB update for Scrapers. Waiward has 10 627's kickin around, 2 E's, 6 F's and 2 G's. and then there is the big dawg in scraper power. Sureway still has a fleet of around 60-70 627's, most range from B's to some E's, 3 F's, and at least 25-40 G's. As for their 657 fleet, it's gotta be around 85-90 by now. It's a cross between all E's and G's.

 

[Buckethead]

Hoppy, it's not Hess Bros. they were from the Parlin section of Sayreville. They were huge at one time but as Tdozer said they sold most of their equipment. They have an office next door to their old yard but I don't think they have much equipment left. Like you said you're in a rocky area, that's why you don't see many pans at all, much less self loaders, by you. Tdozer does Haas still use the 61B? It's not every day you see a dragline anymore.

 

[tdozer]

Draglines

As with most of the big iron we have, most of it sat idle this year. The 61B was used to strip the clay overburden in two of our sand pits for years. This past year it was cheaper to uncover small sections with a hoe and endumps as needed. hopefully the economy will turn around so i can have a chance at running one of our draglines. we also have a northwest drag thats a little bigger than the 61B. I cant find a model # anywhere on it. But that big old murphy diesel does have an amazing sound. Ill get pics of that too if i can find my darn camera.

 

[Dug Overburden]

Cobra Equipment Rental


Alan,

Cobra Eq had a fleet of about 20 657's. Cobra Eq rental was formed in the mid 1990's after Willie Rasmussen & his brother spilt up Pacific Tractor and Equipment of Colton Ca. (known as PTE)

They has about (40) 657's 20 "B" & 20 "E" each taking about 20 machines each plus support equipment. One company is called Cobra Equipment Rental and the other was Pacific Independant. P.I. sold off thier scrapers a few years ago & now have a fleet of cat D350E's & 735's. Cobra Eq rental had a complete dispersal sale with Ritchie Bros about 1-2 years ago. If I am off on this company history,some one free to correct me.

The pictures that were posted in another thread with Beaumont Ca scraper spreads on two sides of the freeway were Cobras. They were the older ones & the newer spread with all 657E's was Pinnick Inc.

657B's above; Cobra Eq Rental on a Mesa Contacting job
657E's below; Pinnick Inc job

Dug

In my post with the california scraper pictures, several of them had COBRA decals on the sides. Is this a company or a rental/lease company? Just curious,
alan627b

 

[alan627b]

Those 2 jobs on opposite sides of the highway are sort of like my own job back here in Nebraska...I get to run the old junk, work union and make about $22 per hour...our competitors have all the new stuff, are non-union and their new hires start at app. $15 per hour.
It's also interesting how many of our competitors, with the new machinery, have gone belly up over the years, and these guys are still here...they've been going out of business for 40 years!
That being said, I hope to get to run some of the newer machinery before too much more time goes by! That old stuff is starting to hurt me.
Dug, thanks for the information!
Alan627b

 

[992G]

A shot of Independent Construction's job at Bee Canyon --651's and 657's

 

[Kenny R]

Damn that's a lot of scrapers 992G!!!!:dizzy

 

[buddy605]

wow that must be a nightmare to keep moving. I had 11 on a road job once and that was headache enough

 

[992G]

Damn that's a lot of scrapers 992G!!!!:dizzy

Hey Kenny R,
Looks like you had some real good connections to get in there while they were running. Must of been great!!!!!

 

[idk]

Damn that's a lot of scrapers 992G!!!!:dizzy

Wow that looks like a job that I ran a push cat for sukut on 2 years ago.
Roger

 

[idk]

At thier peak Ebenstiner Co. had over One Hundred (100) Cat 651-B scrapers, allong with a large amount of support equipment. They had many large projects with large amounts of rental machines,sometimes running over 200 scrapers on all combined jobs. Paul Ebenstiener passed away in 2001 and his wife continued the company for a while. Stephen Passy & Assoc auctioneers bought all the equipment outright and sold off quite a few pieces in private sales. I saw a few machines on Sukut Jobs with Ebenstiner decals & Sukut Equipment numbers.The rest of the equipment was sold at auction in April 2004 & by that time they listed (46) 651B's at a Stephen Passy & assoc auction in Riverside CA. (I still have the color brochure)

Here is Pauls Obituarary:usa
Paul Ebensteiner, 69, wealthy engineering contractor and philanthropist who aided hospices. Ebensteiner, born in Cold Spring, Minn., served in the Marines during the Korean War. He earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart for delivering supplies to front-line troops despite severe wounds from enemy fire and a land mine. Settling in Southern California after the war, he worked 20 years for contractor J.A. Thompson Co., rising to general manager. In 1971, Ebensteiner formed Ebensteiner Co., which prepared sites for several Southern California freeways, golf courses and the Getty Center, among other projects. He was named contractor of the year in 1999 by the Southern California Contractors Assn. Ebensteiner was a lifetime governor of the National Hospice Foundation, and worked extensively with the June Ebensteiner Hospice Foundation established by his wife in Calabasas. Ebensteiner was a major contributor to the building fund for the Catholic cathedral of Los Angeles. On Sunday in Los Angeles.

Ebensteiner was a great company to work for till the old man pased away. This is a nice obituarary but he made his way to the top by more companys than Thompson. I think he was the head estimator for Fulmer & Petty then it became Fulmer then Fulmer & Ebensteiner then finaly Ebensteiner with the help of his wifes money.
Roger

 

[pactractor]

Dug, That was a pretty accurate descrption of Pacific Tractor, Cobra, and Pacific Independent Equipment. I will post some pics of P.I. repowering a Cat 657E and a
Cat D350 E as soon as I figure out how.

 

[pactractor]

Here are the pics I promised....

 

[657bsplitter]

cobra equipment rental

yup good old dale rasmussen and jim atkinson i was on those jobs with pinnick and mesa in beaumont ca and grand terrace

 

[Dug Overburden]

Peed equipment rental

992G,

From your question on 2-4-2008.

I have not talked with David Peed latley, last I did they had about 2 dozen 657E's & 10 651B's all the 651B's are tier III and most of the 657E's are also tier III. Had some D10N push cats, D9N's also. Peed maintains thier equipment very well. If you look on socal earthmovers web site, remember seeing some photos of Peeds Scrapers, know the 651B's had red decals. They are one of the sierial number is the equipment number companies.

With things so bad here in California lets hope they make it through, they are a good outfit.
Here's one of thier D10N's (2YD1144)

Dug

Do you know how big of a Rental fleet does Peed Equipment Co. has?

 

[pactractor]

Peed sold all of their 651's and dozers all they run know are 657E's, they have somewhere around 26 I believe. And yes they do keep their scrapers in top shape and most or all of them are re powered to tier 111