Monumentally stupid design

[JD955SC]

Have a Leeboy paver in the shop now...at some point a cutoff gate was fubar’d, likely due to being open while unloading from a trailer

I thought it was going to be a simple job of pulling a long pin and swapping gates. You know, like a normal person would design it to be.

Oh but no...

The pin is fully welded to the gate. You have to cut off the hinge tubing off of frame of machine, and weld the new gate/hinges on with all the fun of aligning it and welding it.

So far it’s coming out via O/A torch work and mostly in small chunks and slag. Gotta love it.

 

[heymccall]

I have absolutely zero positive things to say about my LeeBoy 8515T paver. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
Who uses fine thread bolts to hold decking together?
Who makes you unbolt and flip the hopper wings and lift the deck to clean underneath at the end of every shift?
Whi designed the wiring, especially power distribution?
Who makes 5/8 bolts hold the hopper wing sections down, only to thread them into 7/8 wide material?
Who makes final drive boxes that bury in material that falls off the rear of the conveyor, and has the drives turned so checking fluid levels, let alone changing them, is nearly impossible?
Who puts an undercarriage on that wears out the rails at 1200 hours?
Who runs conveyor elevator bars back through a sealed cavity to front?
Who uses a single petcock instead of a sight glass for hydraulic fluid level checking?
Who mounts a hydraulic cooler fan horizontally so the fan hub fills with rain water, and subsequently fills the fan motor with water?
Who hides a starter motor like that?
Who doesn't provide a battery disconnect switch, especially with hidden batteries?
Who mounts an air cooled engine so that the heated air blows across the instrument panel and the operator?
I could go on and on, and on.
What a POS. An absolute TURD.

 

[Tags]

You can ALWAYS tell who works on their own equipment and who doesn’t. Don’t you wish you could get an engineer there and have him LEGITIMATELY explain why all those things are the way they are. I’d bet there would a lot of “well, we never thought of that....” I’m convinced that anybody that designs, builds, or engineers equipment, landscape plans or building plans, should spend a minimum of five years in the field working with the equipment, materials, and the people that have to use it, fix it or install it....

 

[kshansen]

You can ALWAYS tell who works on their own equipment and who doesn’t. Don’t you wish you could get an engineer there and have him LEGITIMATELY explain why all those things are the way they are. I’d bet there would a lot of “well, we never thought of that....” I’m convinced that anybody that designs, builds, or engineers equipment, landscape plans or building plans, should spend a minimum of five years in the field working with the equipment, materials, and the people that have to use it, fix it or install it....

Takes me right back to what an engineer said to my brother I believe it was in 1966, "Well it worked on paper!" This was in response to brothers complaint about the spillage at a then brand-new stone plant!

Sometimes the simplest change in the design of a machine could save many hours when it comes time to service or repair it!

One example is just adding a little notch in a plastic snapped together part would make it so easy to disassemble to clean or inspect!

 

[John C.]

It's catalog engineering at its finest. I have X amount of dollars to work with so I'll buy this engine, this hydraulic system, these conveyors, that undercarriage, use this screed set up and I'll modify my frame and operator concept to fit within that amount of dollars. When we get done we will sell a cheap paver that the driveway and small parking lot guys, who shouldn't be in business in the first place, can just barely afford. The thing will be worn out in three or less years and they will have to come back and start over again with another one.

 

[DMiller]

Been MORE than once I wanted the Enganear to be beside me with THEIR hands being shredded or inability to make the ESTIMATED Book time, where I could stuff said POS Up their Third Eye Elimination Point where they could be LESS Short Sighted.

 

[StumpyWally]

Wow, you guys....tell me how you REALLY feel!!

But I totally agree with you!!!

 

[Bls repair]

The one I ran had no way to grease front conveyor bearings.

 

[Vetech63]

I LOVE Leeboy pavers. Everyone absolutely HATES repairing ANYTHING on them. They have made me wealthy over the years.

 

[DMiller]

Job Security.

 

[Tags]

I LOVE Leeboy pavers. Everyone absolutely HATES repairing ANYTHING on them. They have made me wealthy over the years.

When I had a 6.0 diesel Ford F550 the mechanic I used to go to to constantly work on it, the mechanic would meet me with a shitty grin, and simply say that he was going to live a nice retirement because of the 6.0 engines...nothing like rubbing salt into a wound..

 

[sfrs4]

You can ALWAYS tell who works on their own equipment and who doesn’t. Don’t you wish you could get an engineer there and have him LEGITIMATELY explain why all those things are the way they are. I’d bet there would a lot of “well, we never thought of that....” I’m convinced that anybody that designs, builds, or engineers equipment, landscape plans or building plans, should spend a minimum of five years in the field working with the equipment, materials, and the people that have to use it, fix it or install it....

Many years ago when I worked fitting passenger lifts (elevators) into buildings, we had the pleasure of fitting the first "new generation" lifts, basically the company was put under pressure to make the lift shaft smaller to free up "valuable floor space" for the builders.
So the new lift came out to site and we couldn't fit the switches or hand rails to the side of the car, used to be a good 12" gap round the car or more, now 3-4" at best no where near enough room to get anything down the side to twist turn or tighten, so we called the manufacturers and had a few words, to be told we were doing it wrong and obviously need to see how to do it....... yeah ok! So off me and my apprentice go to the factory to their "test and evaluation center" a single story warehouse? Once in there it got better, the Lift shaft was four steel posts with wire mesh round it (think concrete reinforcing mesh stood up) the designer and company CEO were both there and asked their test engineer to demonstrate the method of fixing these parts, he then proceeded to fit parts by placing his hands through the mesh to hold/ twist/ tighten up the components! I kid you not they all stood there with stupid grin's on their face's looking all pleased about how easy it was and I must be stupid for not figuring it out. I walked across the factory to where they boxed up the product and grabbed a sheet of chip board, placed it where the engineer had just put his hands and VERY POLITELY asked him to try that again, suffice to say he didn't get it, but his boss did, apologies were made and I left with the biggest sh!teating grin on my face.

 

[JD955SC]

I have absolutely zero positive things to say about my LeeBoy 8515T paver. Nada. Zilch. Nothing.
Who uses fine thread bolts to hold decking together?
Who makes you unbolt and flip the hopper wings and lift the deck to clean underneath at the end of every shift?
Whi designed the wiring, especially power distribution?
Who makes 5/8 bolts hold the hopper wing sections down, only to thread them into 7/8 wide material?
Who makes final drive boxes that bury in material that falls off the rear of the conveyor, and has the drives turned so checking fluid levels, let alone changing them, is nearly impossible?
Who puts an undercarriage on that wears out the rails at 1200 hours?
Who runs conveyor elevator bars back through a sealed cavity to front?
Who uses a single petcock instead of a sight glass for hydraulic fluid level checking?
Who mounts a hydraulic cooler fan horizontally so the fan hub fills with rain water, and subsequently fills the fan motor with water?
Who hides a starter motor like that?
Who doesn't provide a battery disconnect switch, especially with hidden batteries?
Who mounts an air cooled engine so that the heated air blows across the instrument panel and the operator?
I could go on and on, and on.
What a POS. An absolute TURD.

I have never enjoyed working on them...

Oh it gets better. We got the door situated. Now, as I am putting the screed back on I go to test the electric screed heat. Does it come on? No of course not. Are the wiring diagrams usable? Not in the least. Do I have a clue where all the wiring goes? Nope. It’s gonna be a fun day of tracing tomorrow. I narrowed it down to the wire going into the heater control box to the on/off toggle switch doesn’t have power and looks like fault is on machine side. Generator does not come on nor is commanded to come on. Great. It doesn’t want to go to its home, which I keep telling it is NOT my bay.