Temporary solution needed - cleaning under screen plant

[Coal Boss]

Our old 966F took the kiss of death today, it's primary purpose is cleaning under our screen plant after loading rail cars. Looking for ideas on a cost effective temporary cleaning solution. Our skid steer isn't effective, and doesn't have enough counterweight to support the scraper from the 966. Spraying water isn't an option as we've had monsoon rainfalls as of late and our holding pond is continuously full. To complicate things further we are looking at a hard freeze later this week. It's going to take at least a week to get approval from corporate or bring equipment from one of our other terminals.

 

[Welder Dave]

Looks like it would be pretty easy to make a shorter version push bar for a skid steer. I would guess the beam is that long so the operator can see what it is doing. A skid steer could drive right up to the side because of the visibility. You might even find a commercially made push bar for a skid steer. They use them to push material under decks when landscaping. I think a skid steer could be a better option all around and a lot faster due to its maneuverability and visibility.

 

[Coal Boss]

That's what we concluded. Found a blade for the Case to mount the pusher to . It's going to need to be 8-9 feet long, now we're designing the pusher that's light and strong enough for the Case . It'll be a fair amount of fabricating .

 

[hosspuller]

Build your extended pusher with skid/s or caster wheel/s so the Case doesn't have to lift the whole blade from one end.

If you build the pusher with a quick-tach, you could switch between clearing the screener and stock piling the screenings with a bucket.

 

[Welder Dave]

Why would there be a lot of fabrication? I don't think you'd want a full size blade sticking 8 to 9 ft. out on a skid steer. I think a push bar about 5 ft. wide would work good and not put too much strain on a lighter weight beam. You want to be able to see over top of the blade. Here's one I found in a quick search.

http://www.conterraindustries.com/graders_push_bar.html

 

[grandpa]

I use pieces of sheel piling welded to a back plate. A little bracing and your in business. Cut a hole in the piling back by the back plate , then you don't have to raise it to dump, just roll her back and lift and the dirt will shoot out the bottom.