Lowboy for Liebherr 984C Excavator

[rodtg]

They're getting back to me with the final spec on Monday/Tuesday. Some of these ad's on the Chinese trade portals are misleading. They'll offer 120/150 ton trailers and when you look into it properly, the rated payload may only be 50-60 tons. I think they advertise the GVW and not the payload.

From a previous offer they gave, it seems they use mainly 10.00-R20's which would be no good for Africa's glorious roads.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . .

Not really relevant to this discussion but, if you are interested in trailers the video on this link is worth a look, I wouldn't have minded towing one of those . . . rated up to 120 tons.

http://www.draketrailers.com/swingwing


And 'o course if you need a tilt deck



Cheers.

 

[Nige]

Some of these ad's on the Chinese trade portals are misleading. They'll offer 120/150 ton trailers and when you look into it properly, the rated payload may only be 50-60 tons. I think they advertise the GVW and not the payload.

Looking at the diagram above there is no way that 6 x 4 tractor will handle the imposed kingpin load from a 150 ton payload or even 150 ton GTW for that matter.

From a previous offer they gave, it seems they use mainly 10.00-R20's which would be no good for Africa's glorious roads.

With that size of tyre on the back , even 6 axles-worth of them, that ain't a 150 ton trailer sorry ........ maybe 50 if you're generous.

 

[rodtg]

Scrub Puller - Thanks for sharing. Amazing pieces of engineering. I think the price tag on something like that would give me a heart attack though.

 

[rodtg]

I see your point Nige. I looked up the load capacity of a 10.00-R20 just now and it doesn't match up with what they're telling me by a long shot.

That first trailer with the complex hydraulics had a GTW of 135 tons (117.5 tons CAT 3) and for that they recommended an 8x4 if we were hauling that 984 or a D11N etc.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . .

rodtg, Nige

I have been out of the game for so long it hurts but I don't understand this statement . . . .

it seems they use mainly 10.00-R20's which would be no good for Africa's glorious roads.

We thought nothing of putting a fifty plus ton D9g and ten or fifteen tons of chain on a two rows of eight 8.25-16's on the trailer with the standard10.00-20's (not radials of course) on the drive.

Speeds were low due as much to rough gravel roads as much as lack of power . . . maximum speed was 28 or 32mph depending on the truck.

Tyres were never much of a consideration in the rough stuff . . . more so on the black top, a condition I would have maybe applied in Africa today?




Cheers.

 

[rodtg]

Scrub Puller - I'm just going by what I see on the roads. Floats with bigger tyres are pretty much the most popular choice as even the main roads outside the capital are not the greatest. If you're venturing into the bush, the unpaved roads get more and more brutal the deeper you go in. Adding lunatic drivers to the scenario usually doesn't help matters.

I do apologize, but neither me or my old man have ever dealt with transporting anything bigger than a D8N or a Hitachi EX455 - much smaller than what we're looking to transport.

 

[Oxbow]

Yair . . .

Not really relevant to this discussion but, if you are interested in trailers the video on this link is worth a look, I wouldn't have minded towing one of those . . . rated up to 120 tons.

http://www.draketrailers.com/swingwing


And 'o course if you need a tilt deck

View attachment 145182

Cheers.

Those are neat trailers Scrub. The height of the deck would cause problems here with some loads though. If we get over 14' finding a route with high enough clearance can become a problem.

 

[seatwarmer]

Scrub

Problem in Africa is that your Down Under rough gravel roads are smooth compared to african blacktop . Sometimes the potholes cover more square yards than the blacktop. This pic is from the more advanced parts of Africa.

Yair . . . .

rodtg, Nige

I have been out of the game for so long it hurts but I don't understand this statement . . . .



We thought nothing of putting a fifty plus ton D9g and ten or fifteen tons of chain on a two rows of eight 8.25-16's on the trailer with the standard10.00-20's (not radials of course) on the drive.

Speeds were low due as much to rough gravel roads as much as lack of power . . . maximum speed was 28 or 32mph depending on the truck.

Tyres were never much of a consideration in the rough stuff . . . more so on the black top, a condition I would have maybe applied in Africa today?

View attachment 145185


Cheers.

 

[Nige]

Problem in Africa is that your Down Under rough gravel roads are smooth compared to African blacktop . Sometimes the potholes cover more square yards than the blacktop. This pic is from the more advanced parts of Africa.

I'll second that. In the good old days the main road north to the Copperbelt from Lusaka the Zambian capital was affectionately referred to as the "300km pothole", especially in the rainy season. Driving that road was like doing a slalom ski course, you were literally swerving from one side to the other including using the dirt off both edges to try to find a pothole-less route. Happy daze.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . .

seatwarmer.

This pic is from the more advanced parts of Africa.

Point taken but we have some good'uns. The main highway past my gate is a case in point . . . after rain it delights in pulling the front ends out of various vehicles including the almighty Landcruiser.

Cheers.

 

[seatwarmer]

Yair . . . .

seatwarmer.



Point taken but we have some good'uns. The main highway past my gate is a case in point . . . after rain it delights in pulling the front ends out of various vehicles including the almighty Landcruiser.

Cheers.

And how would you move the Liebherr on a road like yours ? I'm talking old school ways. The modern stuff tend to break down at the sight of potholes with pieces of road around them. It took me more than 4 weeks awhile ago to move 5 tons of sensitive electronic equipment +- 1700 km to a mine in Mozambique. Even the setup in your photo is doable because
1) spares for that will more readily available than fancy new gear.
2) It will fit in with the Africa timekeeping
3) Going faster than the speed you can stop in 15 meters is suicide (the other road users that do not believe in pshysics)

 

[rodtg]

Not to mention pedestrians with zero road sense that just appear out of nowhere. I've lost count of how many close calls we've had even in a 4x4....

 

[seatwarmer]

Not to mention pedestrians with zero road sense that just appear out of nowhere. I've lost count of how many close calls we've had even in a 4x4....

Yeah Rod
After 38 years of driving on African roads every day has a new surprise
What is the distance you plan to move the Liebherr ?

 

[rodtg]

The distance could vary from a few miles to a thousand miles. It's intended for hire/contract work and not to be transported to one destination and left there for an indefinite period of time. So it could very well end up being moved about a good few times in it working career with us.

There's plenty of monster kit (D11's, 100 ton + haul trucks and 100 ton + excavators) that mostly looks in straight enough condition at knock down prices and I'm just doing the exercise to see if we could make it work. Locally theres no one geared up for serious earthmoving. The mentality is currently to invade a project with a large amount of smaller equipment and the operation becomes grossly inefficient.

We're also looking to try and serve places like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger which has more solid demand for this kind of equipment. Hence having our own rig to haul the stuff about would pay for itself fairly swiftly. The biggest rig locally can take a 100 ton payload and the last time we used it to transport a 50 ton excavator, it worked out at $23 a mile. So if we were doing work in these destinations, the investment for our own rig would be easily justified.

 

[seatwarmer]

The distance could vary from a few miles to a thousand miles. It's intended for hire/contract work and not to be transported to one destination and left there for an indefinite period of time. So it could very well end up being moved about a good few times in it working career with us.

There's plenty of monster kit (D11's, 100 ton + haul trucks and 100 ton + excavators) that mostly looks in straight enough condition at knock down prices and I'm just doing the exercise to see if we could make it work. Locally theres no one geared up for serious earthmoving. The mentality is currently to invade a project with a large amount of smaller equipment and the operation becomes grossly inefficient.

We're also looking to try and serve places like Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger which has more solid demand for this kind of equipment. Hence having our own rig to haul the stuff about would pay for itself fairly swiftly. The biggest rig locally can take a 100 ton payload and the last time we used it to transport a 50 ton excavator, it worked out at $23 a mile. So if we were doing work in these destinations, the investment for our own rig would be easily justified.

look at south africa to supply to grunt work at the current exchange rates u will get what u need at next to nothing

 

[rodtg]

If we were paying in Rand, it would make sense at the moment as the West African Franc (XOF) is quite strong against the Rand.

 

[gwhammy]

Ever see the youtube video where they had a set of cradles made to run the tracks up in on the excavator. Then he stuck the bucket in a haul truck, picked the front up and away they went. Pretty neat idea. I'm guessing a haul truck would be a little big on a highway thou.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . .

rodtg

The mentality is currently to invade a project with a large amount of smaller equipment and the operation becomes grossly inefficient.

Dunno mate its horses for courses and if you have a big digger you need to have big trucks . . . how much is the dirt worth?

I have always found a tightly run operation running smaller gear is the go in remote areas.

If the big digger has a hiccup the whole operation stops, for cash flow and progress payments I would be more comfortable with multiple smaller units . . . you obviously don't have to pay mine rates for operators.

Not being negative, just standing back and looking at the big picture.

I remember a job where we were pulling the tops off a couple of hills with scrapers and got well and truly beaten in cost per yard by a couple of cat loaders, a grader and fleet of hired in road trucks . . . big is not necessarily better.

Cheers.

 

[rodtg]

Scrub Puller - Yeah more smaller equipment does offer greater redundancy, I totally agree there.

It would take several excavators in the 40-45 ton bracket to keep up with the 984 and I'm just looking at the economics of one larger machine vs probably 4 smaller machines in terms of cost per cubic metre.

There are advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.

As for the dirt, this project is still in the very early stages. It's a lake to be constructed on the outskirts of the capital that needs some 750,000 cubic metres excavated and hauled away. We're trying to propose a fixed price per cubic metre to do the excavating using two of these 984's. One working and one as a standby machine.