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Caterpillar 639D - Twin Engine Water Truck

AmerIndependent

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Just got this gem in today. It's the first one I've ever seen. Does anybody out there use these? What are your thoughts of them?
 

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stinkycat

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Oct 19, 2009
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Ohio
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retired, disabled vet
Fab shop had to much free time? But that would work well on a open pit haul road as a back-up water truck, years ago we used 660 Cats for 10,000 gallon tankers
 

AmerIndependent

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You'd think it was another Brent Engineering experiment but this is actually a genuine Cat product. Excellent for sites with steep hills.
 

powerjoke

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Aug 2, 2009
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Missouri
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owner/operator/estimator/mechanic/grunt/ditchdigge
i've never heard of a 639....great find!

how long does it take to fill up with a 5/8" garden hose? lol

Pj
 

tonka

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Jan 14, 2008
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Longview WA
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how long does it take to fill up with a 5/8" garden hose? lol

Pj
:professorwell my 5 gal bucket takes 3 min to fill so 10,000 gal should take 15hrs or so hrs at my house....:falldownlaugh
 

Nothinbetter

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Nov 10, 2008
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Location
Syracuse
:professorwell my 5 gal bucket takes 3 min to fill so 10,000 gal should take 15hrs or so hrs at my house....:falldownlaugh

5 gallons every 3 minutes would be about 100 gallons per hour and take 100 hours to get 10000 gallons. Or just over 4 days.

Now if that were pubic water explain that bill to the wife.
 

WabcoMan

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Apr 15, 2008
Messages
258
Location
New Zealand
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Heavy equipment parts manager
Cat 639D was the biggest elevator scraper that Cat ever built, primarily to compete with the WEabco 333FT & 353FT.
Seems it went the same way as they did as it wasn't in production very long.

Personally I think it's pretty sad to see such a fine & rare machine converted to a water tanker but that's my personal opinion.
Far too often these things are cut up and before you know it they are all gone.
 

Buckethead

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Apr 4, 2007
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Waterfront
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Operator
Cat 639D was the biggest elevator scraper that Cat ever built, primarily to compete with the WEabco 333FT & 353FT.
Seems it went the same way as they did as it wasn't in production very long.

Personally I think it's pretty sad to see such a fine & rare machine converted to a water tanker but that's my personal opinion.
Far too often these things are cut up and before you know it they are all gone.

I think most of those 639s were sent your way-they are even more rare here! I've never seen one, unfortunately.
 

WabcoMan

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New Zealand
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Hi Buckethead,

Yep, a few down in the south pacific, mostly Australia.
I did a half day on one.
Awesome power at your control but not as smooth as a 353FT and the visibility left a bit to be desired to the right hand side.
I guess I missed the sound of those GM's too :D
Nothing wrong with a 3408 but as I've said before a Detroit is the best way to turn fuel into NOISE :cool2
 

JimInOz

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Apr 15, 2008
Messages
508
Location
Victoria, Australia
I took part in building a new town reservoir project in 1992.I think there was one or two 639s there.Loaction was Margaret River,Western Australia.

Jim
 

powerjoke

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Missouri
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I thought the 633 was the big elevator??

Pj
 

WabcoMan

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Apr 15, 2008
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New Zealand
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Hi powerjoke,

The 639D was based on the 633D but with an extra ingine like a 637D.
Same capacity as a 633 however but way more power (obviously), heavier and could handle some of the jobs you would usually stick a TS-24 or 637 on.
Ate rocks for breakfast provided they weren't too big.
 

JTL

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Dec 2, 2008
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Pacific Nortwest U.S.A.
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IUOE Local 302
I saw quite a few 637's converted to water pulls when I was in California. ACI had one on the job I was on, and Independant had at least one on a job I drove by to get to work, or to go home.
 

Gavin84w

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Mar 29, 2007
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554
Location
Australia
90% of the population of these machines are in Western Australia, very popular with all the sand mining that goes on there.
 

Dozerboy

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Jan 18, 2006
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Location
TX
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I want to think we had one on a job we did in El Centro CA. I was never there, but I saw pics of it it had a cutting edge mounted on it too.
 

stangoodman

Active Member
Joined
May 27, 2010
Messages
40
Location
New Zealand
Hi powerjoke,

The 639D was based on the 633D but with an extra ingine like a 637D.
Same capacity as a 633 however but way more power (obviously), heavier and could handle some of the jobs you would usually stick a TS-24 or 637 on.
Ate rocks for breakfast provided they weren't too big.

There is one in NZ that I know of. Hatuma Lime ( Topp Family) brought one in from Aus about 5 years ago to work with a international 444. Both big twin elevators and shifting lime and overburden. they also run some twin powered Michigan scrapers. I think the cat wieghed in at just under 60 tonne according to Goughs.
 

Fork man

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Nov 21, 2010
Messages
1
Location
South West Australia
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HD Mechanic
I think most of the 639D scrapers are owned by the company I work for now. They form part of the 90 scrapers in the fleet. I used to do night shift in them loading a hopper with ore. Most of them are parked up now and only used for top soil removal on new sites.

They also custom made 7 x 651 scrapers fitted with elevators which made them the biggest elevating scrpaer with a 50 tonne payload.

We have 633 and 651 based water carts but why go twin power on a water cart?
 

RDG

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Aug 3, 2007
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Qld Australia
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Multi skilled plant operator for 40+yrs
Hi, Stan do you know any of the history of the 444 at Hatuma lime ? Back in the 70s/80s I worked for G A Renner in Tauranga who bought a 444 new in about 76 , they later sold it to Fentons in Ngatea as far as I was aware it was possibly the only 444 in NZ, there were several 433s around down Wellington way that I knew of, often wondered what happend to the 444 after Fentons sold up. Cheers RDG.
 

shooterm

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Mar 26, 2010
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93
Location
Midwest
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Operator
I'm pretty sure 29 Palms Marine Corp Base still has one of these for its Range Maintence Fleet. Works awesome for long stretches of road getting laided as fast as belly dumps can line up.
 
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