Crazy idea and curious

[Jerad]

I am about to ask a crazy question I know, but hear me out.

I was driving one day and looked at a site being leveled for a grain bin pad and I saw a 8 yard pull dolly pan scraper being pulled by a front end wheel loader. yes you hear me a wheel loader. It looked like the wheel loader was set up with rear hydraulics. I pulled over to see how this set up worked and I was surprised to see that it actually worked well. Is this something that is feasible. It is the first time I have ever seen a front end loader attached to a pull scraper. So I kind of got to wondering if this setup would work rather than using a tractor. obviously it would only work on short hauls. I always thought a wheel loader was not designed to pull or drive distances. Something regarding the wheel drives and that they differ from tractors.

Anyways, I am mostly curious to hear others input and if someone else has ever seen this. I should have snapped a picture, but it was a busy highway.

I am looking forward to the responses

Jerad

 

[newdanr]

I worked doing railroad removal years ago (actually, its more like decades ago... how did that happen? ha ha)
Anyway; we got to see a few crews using different combinations of machinery. The one crew that I worked with had a contract for ties (rails and steel removed by others). As a first step, they loosened the ties from the rail bed by dragging a large two-toothed frame along the railbed with a Deere 544 loader. They chained this frame to the front end (loader raised) and it was pulled backwards.

As a farm kid, I thought that was a horrible idea. It took a lot of throttle to keep rolling, and it seemed like it had to be tough on the torque converter. But I don't think that they had immediate problems after doing this for dozens of miles.

(btw, the next step was an excavator with a grapple and a modified blade on the chassis. They would drive into the loosened ties, the blade would "roll" the ties into a bundle, and they would load them onto trucks with the grapple).

Oh, and I guess I fibbed a bit. The wheel loader was actually job #2. I was working there part time, and my job started with pounding small cedar sticks into the spike holes on certain ties that the rail line owner had marked to re-use. That was the most ridiculous seeming job I have ever had...pounding little pieces of wood into holes. But it fit around my full time job, and it was actually decent money when you did the hourly equivalent... I can't recall now, I think that plugging the spike holes was either by the hour or by the mile. I know that later, when I was hand-sorting ties in the yard with a partner, we were splitting $0.25 per tie. I think we were averaging $10/hr (Cdn) when minimum wage was about $5.... late 1980s.

Sorry for the tangent
danr

 

[John C.]

The small cedar sticks line brought back memories for me as well. I worked for Weyerhaeuser when I got out of high school in what was called the bull gang. Basically labor that could be sent anywhere and the starting place to find out if you would work. Two of the older guys were ready to retire and they had worked on the rail road tracks for years. The road bed from the mill to town was worn out and ties were sinking and rotting so I got to work with these two replacing busted ties and raising good ties and tamping gravel back underneath them. Lots of times the spikes were loose and letting the rails start to spread apart so when we raised the tie back up and tamped the gravel underneath we wound pull the spikes and put those cedar plugs in the holes and put the spike back in tight. It was a cheap fix but it worked at least till they decommissioned the rail line and tore out the tracks a couple of years later.

 

[bam1968]

This is a new one for me. I have never seen nor heard of a scraper being pulled with a wheel loader. A couple things come to mind..... Unless the loader was already equipped with extra hydraulics, I think they could have pretty much bought an older tractor to pull the scraper for what it cost to add rear hydraulics to the loader. I also think it would be an awfully rough ride. Just my $.02

 

[Delmer]

Agree with Bam, I always thought the idea behind a tractor scraper combination was that it was cheaper than a self propelled scraper. In purchase price, depreciation, maintenance, down time. I guess a wheel loader would be more expensive than a tractor but cheaper than a dozer.

If you already have the wheel loader on site, then a small scraper job like a grain bin makes sense to me. If you're putting up a grain bin the conditions are usually good enough that you don't need tracks.

 

[petepilot]

This is a new one for me. I have never seen nor heard of a scraper being pulled with a wheel loader. A couple things come to mind..... Unless the loader was already equipped with extra hydraulics, I think they could have pretty much bought an older tractor to pull the scraper for what it cost to add rear hydraulics to the loader. I also think it would be an awfully rough ride. Just my $.02

I can`t imagine why a wheel loader would`nt pull an 8 or 9 yard pan if it will push a 4 yard bucket. hyd`s should`nt be any big deal to rig up

 

[petepilot]

heres another earth- snow or whatever ya need to move-grade ` home made and works like a charm i also have a little 4 yard pan i drag around ` control that off the backhoe supply lines (got a double pic,)

 

[bam1968]

I can`t imagine why a wheel loader would`nt pull an 8 or 9 yard pan if it will push a 4 yard bucket. hyd`s should`nt be any big deal to rig up

 

[bam1968]

I can`t imagine why a wheel loader would`nt pull an 8 or 9 yard pan if it will push a 4 yard bucket. hyd`s should`nt be any big deal to rig up[/QU

 

[bam1968]

I can`t imagine why a wheel loader would`nt pull an 8 or 9 yard pan if it will push a 4 yard bucket. hyd`s should`nt be any big deal to rig up

I didn't say it wouldn't be able to pull the pan. Obviously if the loader was big enough it could load and pull the pan. I doubt it would be very efficient though.

 

[petepilot]

was just thinking about seeing two 11 yard pans in tandem being pulled by a fair sized john deere tractor on a stretch of new road in miss.last year

 

[DMiller]

The older pan set ups used rubber tired tractors, why wouldn't a Wheel loader work?

 

[Tinkerer]

I suppose it would depend on the size of the loader. I worked for a contractor that tried pulling a small Rome disk with a rather small Cat wheel loader. The transmission only lasted one day.

 

[DMiller]

Thinking more on the lines of a 900 series CAT or 7/8/900 series Deere

Does look as a waste of machine where a Crawler drag or a self propelled pan, or even going to Large Farm style tractor and hitch pan would be more economical.

 

[cuttin edge]

The small cedar sticks line brought back memories for me as well. I worked for Weyerhaeuser when I got out of high school in what was called the bull gang. Basically labor that could be sent anywhere and the starting place to find out if you would work. Two of the older guys were ready to retire and they had worked on the rail road tracks for years. The road bed from the mill to town was worn out and ties were sinking and rotting so I got to work with these two replacing busted ties and raising good ties and tamping gravel back underneath them. Lots of times the spikes were loose and letting the rails start to spread apart so when we raised the tie back up and tamped the gravel underneath we wound pull the spikes and put those cedar plugs in the holes and put the spike back in tight. It was a cheap fix but it worked at least till they decommissioned the rail line and tore out the tracks a couple of years later.

Weyerhaeuser ran an OSB mill here for a number of years. We did a lot of Earth projects and paving for them. They were safety and environmentally crazy. Truck didn't open his tailgate, and when he put the box down, he lost about a quart of oil out the vent. Had to remove about 20 ton of material to satisfy their guy. I lifted my hearing protection so I could hear him and he wrote me up

 

[John C.]

Their management structure went power mad for a lot of years. Maybe still?

 

[cuttin edge]

They modernized the mill which was built in the 50s I think? Spent boat loads of money. I think we were doing at least a million a year for them. As soon as the price of board dipped down in price a bit they locked the doors. Sat empty for a few years then was bought by Arbec forest products. They use 150 trailer loads of wood every shift. They take anything, hardwood, softwood, 3inchs up to 18. No idea how the forest survives. Every warehouse within 500 miles is full of board I think