On the Road Again

[mitch504]

Wow, PH 2.5, I bet your corrosion problems are bad as mine. The problem I've seen with Rhino lining is that if any corrosion gets behind it, it peels off in sheets. How are they prepping the surface?

 

[Welder Dave]

There is a lot more rust proofing on vehicles today than there used to be. You can get a factory sprayed box liner and there are other options at the dealer level.

 

[petepilot]

I paid 94 bucks for a quart of plain white paint the other day.that may have something to do with it

 

[farmerlund]

Deere offers special paints to sunbelt rentals but they order anywhere from 300 to 600 backhoes a year and they will do a run of at least 20 at a time

Knowing what I know about factory and all the options in a the build book there are to many options now that get screwed up by the time it gets to the customer

But for what iron costs these days you would think you could get any paint you want

All the Bobcats that are not white are painted off site. The sunbelt ones go to a few sandblast and paint shops around the area to get the ugly green paint. My brother ran the paint/ powder coating line at the Bobcat plant in gwiinner for 5-6 years. When they are making 150 machines a day its almost impossible to throw in a few odd colored ones.

 

[John C.]

That's my point. You can get anything you want, it's just that the dealers do it. The factory supplies a base unit. It wasn't too many years ago that no factory built a logging shovel. In 1980 I worked with another guy and installed a thumb and a Link-Belt. Link-Belt probably still doesn't install a thumb on their machines. All Komatsu PC400-3 log loaders were built in Kent, Wa. by McDonald Industries. All the Komatsu WA600 log loaders were built there as well. After that the shovels were built by Pierce Pacific. I worked at a mine that had Haulpak trucks. The front wheels would pack mud onto the front frames where the steering and brake valves were mounted. The factory rep was there on my request of a follow up when the mine manager came over to whine about the mud problem. The looked him straight in the eye and told him,"we sold you a truck, what you want to do with it we have no control over, so we are not obliged to help you abuse the machine." He then told us that another end user hung big mud flaps over the valves to prevent the packing. They knew of the problem but they had to produce the machine for a set price. Here is what you get for this much money, period

Unless and until a manufacturer sees a way to make a profit on an add on, they won't do it.

 

[oarwhat]

Ok guys this is getting way off track. Nige got any more photos???

 

[Nige]

Wow, PH 2.5, I bet your corrosion problems are bad as mine. The problem I've seen with Rhino lining is that if any corrosion gets behind it, it peels off in sheets. How are they prepping the surface?

Agressively sandblasting to bare metal with the largest size grit available. It seems to stick reasonably well but the tanks are pulled off every couple of years and re-coated.

 

[Nige]

Another thing worth pointing out is that these tanks get effectively sandblasted by wet road grit all the time the trucks are running. Roads are watered constantly for dust control purposes so the surface is always wet-ish. That creates an extremely abrasive acidic gunk that the tyres are constantly throwing at the tank. No paint on earth is going to stand up to that for long, the Rhino coating is the best thing we've found to stand up to it.

 

[DMiller]

Photos of the Pit on a Dreary Day??

 

[Nige]

Not exactly recent but gives an idea how miserable it is when it rains. The only upside is that it's not cold - currently 80 and overcast. Lashed it down with rain a couple of hours ago.

 

[Nige]

Taken just now. Note how we are above the clouds.

 

[DMiller]

Can see the Glue Like mud hanging off all the machines, Nasty!!

 

[Nige]

Can see the Glue Like mud hanging off all the machines, Nasty!!

Wanna see one close up.?
This one came off the wash rack at lunchtime, 8 years old, 56k hours. That's as clean as it will ever get. Note the Coke-coloured stains on what's left of the paintwork - oh, and the corrosion. That's the iron in the water and the only way to get those stains off is to shotblast the paint off with them, but if you did that the whole thing would likely fall apart.

 

[Truck Shop]

The only thing worse is equipment used around fertilizer, instant rot from day one, brass air fittings are toast in three years. There is no paint that will stand up to it.
Wrenches and sockets don't bother waste of time on bolts-torch them off.

 

[DMiller]

Been down that road TS and Lime Quarry muck, pH so HIGH it literally lifts paint. I feel for the wrench benders there Nige, has to be tough, gas axe and all. Harder still to weld that powdered iron.

 

[crane operator]

Note how we are above the clouds.

Elevation?

 

[colson04]

The only thing worse is equipment used around fertilizer, instant rot from day one, brass air fittings are toast in three years. There is no paint that will stand up to it.
Wrenches and sockets don't bother waste of time on bolts-torch them off.

I almost bought a skid steer that came out of a fertilizer plant a couple years ago. Looked great driving up to it with the fresh paint job, but tilt the cab and every nut, bolt, fastener, etc was rusted out horribly. Needed new steel hydraulic lines, etc. My grandpa talked some sense into me about it and I walked away. His words were "if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

 

[farmerlund]

ya, I can see why corrosion is a problem Nige. So whats the life expectancy of the loaders and trucks you are assembling now? Do you do a total rebuild once or twice? more?

 

[Nige]

Elevation?

2000ft ASL approx. The "jungle" causes queer weather patterns after it's rained.

ya, I can see why corrosion is a problem Nige. So whats the life expectancy of the loaders and trucks you are assembling now? Do you do a total rebuild once or twice? more?

Total truck life is set at 150,000 hours. That will include a frame refurb at about 80k. Planned component replacement every 18-20k hours based on condition. So planned for seven rebuilds in the total life of the machine. A rebuild comes in at less than half the price of a new truck.

 

[Slidey]

Here in West Aus they use the ground water for wetting the roads and it’s quite saline.
Used to see rubber mats used on some of the tanks, other ones had a second sacrificial metal plate.
On one site the figured out that the down time for all the extras falling off causing breakdowns wasn’t worth is so took everything off. They just replaced the tanks when they rotted out.

On an other site I was on, to make matters worse, the extra filtration they spec’d that went on the inside of the 793f tanks here caused them to crack badly on virtually every one.