Work pics from the "Rock" show

[JimBruce42]

As I previously said, I've recently been given a new assignment for .... a while:beatsme Working in our rock quarry in Elk Mills, MD. This is our largest of the 5 quarries we own and has probably the most room for expansion... I think.

Friday was the first day back there for me (I spend 8 months of '07 there). Most of the morning was task training/refreshing on a 980H, don't have any photos from then, it was the first time I've been in a wheel loader in over a year and I was a little over my head at the time mixing 2A and loading trucks (at least two came back light:Banghead).

Around 10 one of the other 980's went down for repairs, so I got booted and task trained on the 775F trucks. I must say they are vastly better than their E predecessors. The visibility from the new cabs is amazing and everything is located for ease of reach. :usa:notworthy

Pic#1 and 2: View from a 775f cab
Pic#3: another 775
Pic#4: 775 on the 3rd bench being loaded by one 990
Pic#5: 775 from pic 3 being loaded by the other 990 loader

enjoy

 

[bigcatpip]

yeah when I was there they put a shot off that made nothing but tractor-trailer size rock, 2 345 hammers 1 350 hammer and a 330 hammer just to get that bench open up. took 2 months to get it done....hey jim is the 2nd 990 still down?

 

[JimBruce42]

yeah when I was there they put a shot off that made nothing but tractor-trailer size rock, 2 345 hammers 1 350 hammer and a 330 hammer just to get that bench open up. took 2 months to get it done....hey jim is the 2nd 990 still down?

Sounds like the shot that went off when I got shipped out of there last year. The face had cracks like 20 feet back into the highwall and the drillers couldn't get to the edge of the shot. So when they did shoot it it pretty much gave them 35-40'x20' chunks of granite. I can believe it took that much iron pecking away.

Nope, both 990's are running now:drinkup:usa, though they have two Volvo L330's sitting up top as fill in loaders for either the pit or the yard or something:beatsme They look like Cedar Hill's loaders, do you know if they got new loaders?

 

[N.CarolinaDozer]

Nice pics, looks like a playground for any operator!

 

[bigcatpip]

I know that one of the 330 Volvo is tamlage's. They ship it down to E.M. 3 weeks ago to cover when the 990 when down with a engine swap..I will get some pic of tamlage Monday.

 

[registered user]

Nice pictures, keep them coming.

 

[Mass-X]

Are you guys experiencing any problems with the 775F's or other F series rigid frame trucks?

 

[JimBruce42]

Are you guys experiencing any problems with the 775F's or other F series rigid frame trucks?

Short answer is no,

Long answers is not really. I'm not sure about the other two trucks, but the one I ran, the scales in it are not very reliable. Sometimes it doesn't registart the first bucket and other times it doesn't calcuate the last one. It's bad with the truck is visibly full and the scales say you've only got 58 tons in it:beatsme That's a minor issue though, I think there were a few bugs in that particular truck's transmission too, but they seem to have ironed it out.

I have a couple photos from last week I need to load off my camera. Spent most of the week in the yard on a 980h with 3100 hours on it.:usa Fortunately, no one lost any sideboards:drinkup

 

[Mass-X]

That kinda mirrors what I'm seeing. Faulty sensors confusing ET programs and technicians. Extremely hot exhaust temperatures (over 1400 degrees F). Seems the F's still have a few bugs to get worked out before they reach the level of availability of their predecessors.

 

[JimBruce42]

pics today

As said, here are some photos

#1 and 2: Cat 980h, operator will be back from vacation this week, so who knows what I'll be doing.:beatsme

#3: Thunderstorm was rolling in and the blaster wasn't finished loading the shot so everyone had to leave the pit until the storm blew through

#4: The 330 we borrowed from our Talmage quarry all set to get sent back this coming week

#5: One of our trailer dump trucks dumping it's load of 8's back off (I think 8's are the same as 1b)

 

[dirt digger]

i dont know why but that type of dump trailer has always scared me

 

[Bob Horrell]

I know why it scares you. Same for me. One time I watched a guy dumping a load of wet dirt in a frameless like that. The dirt was slow to come out. One of the inside rear tires was real low, and when all the weight ended up on the rear 4 wheels, the tire next to the low one blew causing the whole rig to lay over on it's side.

 

[JimBruce42]

not to mention the higher the bed gets, the higher the center of gravity and the shorter the overal wheel base gets, since the rear tires tend to put in towards the tractor.

 

[Grader4me]

Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen something like that. Anybody here ever use one of these? Looks like it wouldn't be very stable. Have to be perfect conditions to dump. I would be scared to dump if there was a slight breeze blowing. Great pictures!

 

[JimBruce42]

Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen something like that. Anybody here ever use one of these? Looks like it wouldn't be very stable. Have to be perfect conditions to dump. I would be scared to dump if there was a slight breeze blowing. Great pictures!

I'm with ya there, but we primarily use these trucks to transport stone from our quarries to our asphalt plants. So hopefully their stone bids are pretty level.

 

[knucklehead98]

i dont know why but that type of dump trailer has always scared me

And if you knew what I know about Alumatech trailers you would RUN away from any of them that you see.

I worked for a company that I believe had some special interest in Alumatech. So all we had was Alumatech dumps. Well one of my job titles was Welder. Well I had to fix every one of them in the same places every time. We even had one come in new from the factory, ran it one day, the next day I started the repair welds on it.

I made a few changes in the welds on them and I could usually get 2 weeks out of them.

 

[JDMGrading]

I've had great luck with East trailers.

 

[JimBruce42]

So, still here at the quarry, because of how abrasive and "gets everywhere" the dust is I've stopped taking my camera.:bash I still have my phone though, so I get the occasional picture. Spend the last few weeks up top running trucks out from under the bins of the tertiary plant (Euc R-50:Banghead, Cat 775e/f, Volvo A30c and now A40d), gives me some time to catch the occasional neat thing.

In this case:
#1: One of our Roadtec milling machines on an AI-MD lowboy
#2: There's that rolloff again, with a 72" (?) bucket and 345 ct/w on it
#3: Lowboy again, this time with one of our (myers) 345b's on it...
#4: A wrecker:beatsme
#5: The two 990's getting fuel. We usually have a fuel truck, but it's out then next few weeks for a rebuild on the engine.

 

[fensoncont.]

Those AI lowboys are awesome, very cool color scheme. Thanks for sharing.

 

[dirt digger]

you guys short on drivers down there Jim?

i was supposed to get 4 loads delivered to my job at 1pm on Friday from your quarry to my job in Oxford...first 2 loads came at 12:30...then the one driver made 2 more trips so i didn't get my last load until 3:30pm...i had to wait 2 hours because i couldn't do anything until i got all my stone there...kinda torqued me off and the boss didn't like that i had to work OT that day when i really shouldn't have..haha