DRAGLINE V LONG REACH EXC

[GOOG]

Has there ever been any conversation on the comparison between a dragline and a long reach excavator for cleaning ponds? I just finished my first pond job with my 30B. I was competing with a guy with a home made long reach. I'm interested to know what some of your opinions are. I tout the huge benefit of the D/L wringing out the water on the way in. I liken the L/R to a soup ladle, unable to keep the water in the pond where it belongs. Also the crane has much larger bucket and work at similar cycle times, thus getting more work done.

Thought.

 

[skyking1]

There's quite a few advantages. I'm guessing you could out-reach the home made LR. If the bucket on the LR had proper drains it would dry out the load too. Did it have drain holes?

 

[Hank R]

My money is on the Dragline.

 

[Shimmy1]

Has there ever been any conversation on the comparison between a dragline and a long reach excavator for cleaning ponds? I just finished my first pond job with my 30B. I was competing with a guy with a home made long reach. I'm interested to know what some of your opinions are. I tout the huge benefit of the D/L wringing out the water on the way in. I liken the L/R to a soup ladle, unable to keep the water in the pond where it belongs. Also the crane has much larger bucket and work at similar cycle times, thus getting more work done.

Thought.

Too bad Scrubpuller isn't around anymore. I've cleaned more than a few ponds with my standard boom 210 hoe. Best thing that can be done is pump it out before you start. Yes, a dragline gets the job done without removing the water, but what else in this day and age is a dragline useful for?? Here's my thread: https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/pond-cleaning-with-excavator.53480/

 

[skyking1]

Take the bucket off, put a ball on it and plop it on a build site?

 

[lantraxco]

A dragline is exactly as useful as it's operator, any monkey can run an excavator to some extent. No, I have never run a dragline myself, but I remember watching an artist or two. And cable heel boom log loaders, where a guy older than my grandpa could retrieve the log he wanted by slinging the grapple several times the length of his boom. Ghosts of the past.

 

[John C.]

I've run the shovel in my avatar as a drag line dipping out coal fines. The machine had a 60' boom and a 3/4 yard bucket with the front edges blunted. No teeth and only the weight of the bucket to dig with. It was basically a twenty two ton machine. To do the same work with a long reach would have required a thirty ton excavator with a minimum forty five foot reach and at least a half yard bucket. In six hours of run time the machine would use between twenty five to thirty gallons of fuel. It didn't use any hydraulic oil. The machine was paid for. A big long reach would have had to have been rented. I don't think that there could have been any cheaper way to clean that pond.
In the hands of a good operator working in soft material, nothing beats a drag line.

 

[Shimmy1]

Let's call a spade a spade, no pun intended. I think everyone can agree that a dragline will win in the pond-cleaning game, but besides that, what are they good for?? Other than large scale overburden removal in a mine setting, I can't think of one other scenario where a dragline would be preferable over a hydraulic excavator. Obviously cable dozers/shovels, surveyor's chains, and liar's levels built this country, but that doesn't mean they're better.

 

[OTG AuGres]

What’s a long reach excavator used for other than cleaning ponds, canals, etc?

 

[John C.]

Both are tools to fit a purpose. The key to using a drag line is the operator. Anyone could get on a juice machine and move dirt. There are few that can even pick up the drag line bucket and hold it in the air.

 

[AzIron]

Drag lines are about only good for cleaning ponds anymore and there is only one guy left that has one and it's been years since I seen gradalls excavator and loaders have taken the place

 

[lantraxco]

In the old days when they were doing lots of dams and such, with canals and spillways, the big draglines were king, hundred foot or more of boom, cast the bucket, make the floor flat, shape the slopes, and spin and cast the spoils maybe to a front shovel for reloading and hauling away. Cover an amazing amount of ground moving just a few feet at a time. Horses for courses.

 

[dirty4fun]

Been quite a few years since I ran a dragline, cleaning ditches. The owner had been doing it for many years, used it to drop a steel hammer to break the concrete from the house he tore down, then dug the basement, and set the all the beams for the church. He loaded lots of dirt into trucks and on other jobs dug peat and loaded scrapers to haul the peat. With a couple good operators you can YoYo a Sauerman bucket across a long wet area to dig a trench for pipeline to go through. They have their place!

 

[Tugger2]

My cranes will run clam buckets,drag buckets,drive pile piles and do hook work. I can put up structural steel , sling a concrete bucket load logs with a grapple. I can dig down 100' in a caison with the clam.Find a juicer that will do all that. The biggest problem is trying to sell old technology . Just got beat out of a barge job with the rock grapple on the 75 ton by a long reach. But they still want me to set up the anchor gear for the barge ,apparently long reach guys dont do that.

 

[skyking1]

now you guys have me looking and I don't even have the property yet.

 

[GOOG]

I appreciate all the input. My first job consisted of cleaning out a small (1/3 acre) irrigation pond for a farmer. I spent two days prepping the area around the pond with a LGP dozer. The job took 5 days with the crane. I really expected my hands and feet to know what to do when i sat in the seat again. Suffice it to say, the first hour was ugly. The second day I was moving material much better. I was actually a little sad when I wrapped it up on the 5th day.
I ran a drag line when I was a kid for a sand washing operation where the pile was the objective, not the shape of the hole. Fast forward 40 years and now I am an excavating contractor (since 1986). A couple years ago I had the idea to buy a crane, and try to cultivate a small dredging segment to the business. Mainly just because I wanted a crane in the fleet.
The farmer was very happy with the job and took me to another guy nearby and I have my second job all lined up.

Sorry for the long rambling post, thanks for the input.

Tom

 

[skyking1]

I'd pay for the opportunity to do that, totally serious here. I have a little conventional time but nothing so artistic as dragline. The most satisfying is putting the hook gently into standing rigging, like a propped up choker on a pile hammer etc.