the largest crawler loaders in comparison caterpillar 983, komatsu D155S strengths defects character

[Welder Dave]

Thanks for sharing that Willis. Running a track loader in a steel mill application is someone you don't run into every day. Fascinating and terrifying all at the same time.

As far as track loader manufacturer's go:

Komatsu - made a front and rear engine Cat copy
JCB - made a rear engine machine
Hanomag - front engine machine
Massey Ferguson - front engine machine
Dresser - front engine
International - front engine

Now most of the above list is the same engineering/design when each company was bought or absorbed through merger.

Probably one of the rarest track loaders. JCB rear engine. The machine was really ahead of it's time with a 1971 release date.

View attachment 240231

I think the JCB was hydrostatic too but had some issues. JD came out with their hydrostats in 1976. Case had some hydrostat dozers but not sure about loaders. Cat were kind of late with hydro's but still have a big market share for track loaders. I think they're very versatile machines.

 

[CM1995]

I think the JCB was hydrostatic too but had some issues. JD came out with their hydrostats in 1976. Case had some hydrostat dozers but not sure about loaders. Cat were kind of late with hydro's but still have a big market share for track loaders. I think they're very versatile machines.

As far as I know the JCB was hydrostatic. What really impresses me about the machine is for 1971 design and engineering JCB basically made what the rear engine track loader is today in concept.

 

[Welder Dave]

It had great visibility. A lot of machines were ahead of their time and never took off. Then years later something similar comes along and it's a big success. Terex Titan, O&K RH300, Michigan 675, etc.

 

[CM1995]

Curious question - were there any other hydrostatic track loaders or dozers for that matter in 1971?

 

[skyking1]

It seems like the John Deeres were the first ones in '76. Of course not counting your example.

 

[Welder Dave]

Not that I've ever come across and I've read several books on heavy equipment. Thomas claims to have had the 1st. hydrostatic skid steer in 1969. Bobcat had the M970 in 1970 that was their biggest machine and also hydrostatic.

 

[trombeur]

thank you for your precious historical testimonies that are not present in any book, on these old finds of industrial archeology, it would be necessary to create a virtual museum with technological evolution and innovations. acquaintance told me that benati, poclain eo & k had made machinery to be used in the steel mill for slag and slag, I believe benati had made a machine called "ponies that lowered into the crucible of the surrounding area to clean it of slag and slag, but not I find toto or historical references unfortunately.

https://www.bauforum24.biz/forums/topic/61084-arbeiten-im-fegefeuer-cat-laderaupen-973d-im-einsatz/

 

[Willis Hodgkinson]

Very interesting indeed. Have heard of Tig welders in confined spaces having to stand on their head to let the argon flow out of them. Your boss must not have put much emphasis on employee safety. I would think a lot of operators would refuse to do the the job without automatic fire suppression on the machine. If the company made money, what caused it to close down?

The steelworks is still open, they moved the melting to another plant and mixed the melting shop workers from both plants. The amalgamated melting facility
only used to produce leaded steels for automotive body work, top quality engineering steels require a specialist set of skills and the failure rate during the testing of the steels were very high. I believe the management were trying to close the plant I worked at, they spent £90million on a rolling mill at the other plant but it would not roll round material for some reason, so the rolling came back to the old plant. at this present time the company is owned by an Indian company and is up for sale due to the financial backer of the Indian company going broke. I suppose this is a similar story worldwide fixing things which aint broke!

 

[Willis Hodgkinson]

Thanks for sharing that Willis. Running a track loader in a steel mill application is someone you don't run into every day. Fascinating and terrifying all at the same time.

As far as track loader manufacturer's go:

Komatsu - made a front and rear engine Cat copy
JCB - made a rear engine machine
Hanomag - front engine machine
Massey Ferguson - front engine machine
Dresser - front engine
International - front engine

Now most of the above list is the same engineering/design when each company was bought or absorbed through merger.

Probably one of the rarest track loaders. JCB rear engine. The machine was really ahead of it's time with a 1971 release date.

View attachment 240231

CM1995, I almost bought a JCB 110B track loader as a none runner in the late 1980's from a guy near me, it was hard to establish what was wrong with it, I think there was a weakness with the final drive on that model, any way he was asking too much for it to take a risk

 

[trombeur]

JCB 110

JCB 110 Front End Loader, built in 1971

A tracked loading shovel, the first of its type to feature a hydrostatic transmission and twin tiller loader controls. The machine was the first to be awarded with a Design Council Award in 1972. The crawler loader would continue to be developed, with the 112 and 114 models.

https://en.wheelsage.org/category/wheel-loaders?page=8

 

[Welder Dave]

Great pics. you posted. Curious why they have the sides tilted in. You would think having a larger cab would be better.

 

[skyking1]

It's a very advanced machine, and tilting the sides in would make the rollover protection stronger. That could be one reason ?
You being a welder could see how rolling that dozer over on the box it would resist folding better than a square one.

 

[Welder Dave]

ROPS could be designed either way. Smaller foot print on top could make it roll completely over instead of just on its side. Cab looks like it would be quite noisy with no sound insulation. Wonder if JCB sold the rights or just figured it wasn't a good enough seller and dropped it? Rear engine is nothing new though. Hough had a rear engine track loader (model 12) in 1955! It was way ahead of its time.

1956 Hough loader - Tractors and Equipment - BigMackTrucks.com

 

[CM1995]

ROPS could be designed either way. Smaller foot print on top could make it roll completely over instead of just on its side. Cab looks like it would be quite noisy with no sound insulation. Wonder if JCB sold the rights or just figured it wasn't a good enough seller and dropped it? Rear engine is nothing new though. Hough had a rear engine track loader (model 12) in 1955! It was way ahead of its time.

1956 Hough loader - Tractors and Equipment - BigMackTrucks.com

Did that 1956 Hough have a hydrostatic trans?

 

[JimInOz]

That's a nice restored H12.
Eimco also made a few rear engine Loaders,including a Steel Mill version.
Some of their stuff is interesting to look at.

 

[CM1995]

That's a nice restored H12.
Eimco also made a few rear engine Loaders,including a Steel Mill version.
Some of their stuff is interesting to look at.

Jim never heard of the brand before. Thanks for sharing.

Found this website with some neat pics - https://classicdozers.wordpress.com/dozer-gallery/eimco/

 

[JimInOz]

Eimco made Overshot Loaders & even a fairly standard Wheel Loader,plus their underground mining gear.
Some of that 50s/60s thinking & design is interesting.
I wonder what an RG Letourneau Crawler Loader might have looked like...

 

[CM1995]

Just imagine pushing the loader into a pile filling the bucket then back up to the truck and bring the bucket over your head. We're not real operators..

 

[skyking1]

Take note that the truck is a Koehring Dumptor!

 

[Welder Dave]

The H12 wasn't hydrostatic. A Letourneau would have never worked as RG didn't like hydraulics but preferred rack and pinion. Look at the early Letourneau wheel loader with rack and pinion for the bucket.