First generation hydraulic excavators?

[245dlc]

What are you using the old beasts for puffie?

 

[Puffie40]

What are you using the old beasts for puffie?

We hope to do a bit of land clearing and road building with it, and it's lifting capacity will be useful as a crane. the logger will probably wind up as a parts machine.

There's a Drott sitting right beside the Highway just south of Cranbrook, not sure if it's a 40 or a 50

I drive by it every day on the way to school! That one is a 40, and it showed up there about six months ago.

The very attractive thing to us about the 50s is they are only a couple of klicks away from us, so hauling won't be much of an issue.

 

[Jasper]

Some good excavator pics here, this is a snap of our 460 loading an A35.

 

[245dlc]

Yeah that's nice and all Jasper but I was hoping to steer this thread towards first and maybe second generation hydraulic excavators. If you wanted to show off your pictures you can always start your own thread which isn't hard.

 

[spitzair]

Here's a few pictures for you. The Bantam C450 was the first excavator I owned. I got it from a friend for a load of lumber and a few other little itty bits. It wasn't a fully hydraulic machine yet, more of a transitional machine with frictions and clutches for the drive and swing, and a hydraulic arm. It had 3 commercial shearing pumps feeding into a 3 spool valve bank. There was also a hydraulic motor that looked identical to the pumps that drove the drive line to the swing clutches and drive clutches. Very simple, very slow and very strong machine! I still regret selling it! So when I found this Hein Werner C12HD I just had to have it! It's a tad newer than the Bantam in that it is fully Hydraulic, but it still has the flat crane style tracks and chain drive. It also has 3 hydraulic pumps and 3 different valve banks, each fed by one pump. I currently have a grapple on the front but do have two buckets for it as well. I bought it at an estate sale with my 977s and aside from replacing 2 hydraulic hoses I didn't need to do anything to it. I've been using it lately to sort and pile logs. I absolutely love it! It too is simple, reliable, slow and strong! Here comes a deluge of pictures! Enjoy!

 

[spitzair]

And now for the Bantam...

 

[spitzair]

Just a few more.
Puffie, I would agree that for you the 50s would be better, especially having a parts machine! Too bad I'm not in Cranbrook any more, would've loved to go for a coffee...

 

[dayexco]

http://heavyequipmentforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=70052&stc=1&d=1288487083

that...last photo...is ART...it is FREAKIN awesome, beautiful..hope the above link is what i'm talkin about, the one of the koerhing in the woods, kinda dark, detroit smoke in the background...that is AMAZING!!!...care if i blow it up and print it?


photoshopped, isn't it?

 

[spitzair]

http://heavyequipmentforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=70052&stc=1&d=1288487083

that...last photo...is ART...it is FREAKIN awesome, beautiful..hope the above link is what i'm talkin about, the one of the koerhing in the woods, kinda dark, detroit smoke in the background...that is AMAZING!!!...care if i blow it up and print it?


photoshopped, isn't it?

By all means go ahead and print it! I can even send you the original un-resized photo if you PM me your email adress! Nothing is photoshopped. That thing smoked like a mosquito fogger, sounded like it only ran on 3 cylinders... I had fully intended to restore the machine until my ex came along... That was the end of my relationship with that machine :Banghead. Now that I'm single again, naturally I've had to grow my collection back to where it was before, maybe even a bit beyond.:drinkup

 

[245dlc]

Nice little Koehring, looks cool with the exhaust and working inbetween the trees.

 

[sawmilleng]

Whats with the Bantam?

Spitzair,
Do you know the story on the Bantam tracks? It looks like the outer edges were cut off at some time. Maybe to fit within a DOT spec?

Jon.

 

[spitzair]

sawmilleng, the tracks were cast like that as best as I could tell, doesn't look like they were cut off... I guess if a guy wanted a bit more stability he could've turned them around and have the wide side stick out... As worn as they were I never had one come off. As it sat the machine was around 8'6" wide, maybe even a bit narrower. When I sold it I loaded it on a 9 foot wide lowbed and had a few inches of room on either side.

 

[ruralexmech]

I thought the first Excavator Built was a Poclain ????

tctractors

Yumbo excavators manufactured in Italy were the first excavators ever made, the first one was created in 1948 by two brothers from Italy (whose names escape me at the moment). Poclain made its first hydraulic excavator in 1951 i think and that one was called the TU. But of course who actually made the first will always be contested however that is the information i follow.

 

[ruralexmech]

Yeah I've seen a few Case 1085 Cruz-air wheeled excavator's running around the city here with that configuration, the city owned railroad here also has one but it's the older Drott 40 and its got rail wheels instead of tires or tracks. They have a mower attachment for mowing the front slope of the railroad tracks for it too. One of these days I'll go down to they're yard and take some pictures of it.

The Drott excavators are some of my favorites, they are one of the first companies to manufacture their own hydraulic excavators in the US and the almost always had that stick cylinder design. The design itself is commonly called "knuckleboom" and allows the excavator to have stronger forward movement capabilities but is weaker for digging because hydraulic force in backwards movement is lower. But yea, i really like Drott machines and its too bad they arent around anymore, they had some really revolutionary designs at the time. They also were based out of Wausau, WI which i think is cool too since im from WI.

 

[ruralexmech]

Go Koehring!! Out of Milwaukee, WI that's where I'm from!! Its a shame we don't really make anything anymore, but back in the good old days we were never too far behind Chicago in manufacturing!

 

[ruralexmech]

first pic, is a 300 hopto my dad had mounted on ford cabover. 2nd pic is drott 40 mounted on ford cabover. 3rd is when he went to track machine of his drott 50

Do you have any more stories of these machines in the pictures? Those are some really cool vintage machines, i would love to hear more about them. Also, if anyone was curious what HOPTO meant, its an acronym for Hydraulically Operated Power Take Off (gotta give credit to PAMining for that one, he mentioned it in one of his videos).

 

[ruralexmech]

Fantastic pictures spitzair! saying "gotta love the old iron" just doesnt cut it, these machines are something else, truly awesome.

 

[Buckethead]

sawmilleng, the tracks were cast like that as best as I could tell, doesn't look like they were cut off... I guess if a guy wanted a bit more stability he could've turned them around and have the wide side stick out... As worn as they were I never had one come off. As it sat the machine was around 8'6" wide, maybe even a bit narrower. When I sold it I loaded it on a 9 foot wide lowbed and had a few inches of room on either side.

I've seen tracks like that on a Bantam cable machine.

 

[Dr. Ernie]

I am suprised no one has given Link-Belt a mention, they used friction drive and swing, but it was driven via a hydro motor, as the motor only drove a hydro pump.

 

[ruralexmech]

I suppose we will see all of the brands sooner or later. There's plenty left to be seen, Cat's, Link Belt's, American's, etc. We just have to be patient =D besides, there's plenty of great machines that have already been posted All of your pictures are really appreciated guys, keep em coming this is a great thread.