|
Billy NY
01-16-2004 10:15:44
|
|
Re: Re: Cable dozers??? in reply to Deas Plant., 01-16-2004 04:19:09
|
|
| |
I think Deas Plant covered it, I have 2 with cable control units both are LeT power control units made by LeTourneau, which are based on a simple principal, but require some tinkering, tweaking, adjusting, and maintaining. You have to read the manuals to get an understanding of it to keep this Mfr.'s product in working order. I'm sure parts can be found for LeTourneau Power Control Units, but I think the tapered driving clutch cone/driven clutch cone's may be difficult to find or have re-lined. Overall, if you were to go through one of these LeT, Mfr'd. units, address all of its needs, adjust it up properly, it will perform good for quite some time, the U.S. government specified them for all the tractors fitted with bulldozers until at least the middle to late 1940's. These were on most of the CAT D-7's in both theaters of war, building airfields, clearing jungle, pushing/pulling convoys through muck etc. + other big civil projects like the AL-CAN highway, to give some scale of how many were in use and what they did. Some tractors were fitted with hydraulic dozers as well and as Deas Plant described. Caterpillar most likely built their cable control units based on the principal of LeTourneau's design, but improved it from what I understand. There are other Mfr's like LaPlante-Choate who made cable controls, but the most prolific ones are LeT and Caterpillar. Dozers were an aftermarket item, as Caterpillar track type tractors were initially built for Agriculture, R.G. LeTourneau was responsible for creating cable controls and lots of other earthmoving equipment, like scrapers. If you are going to tackle a lot of work and are contemplating a cable controlled dozer, I would recommend a CAT cable control unit, I understand that they require less tinkering, and more parts are still available, more reliable and so on. The old LeTourneau units are good, but if not taken care of, probably more tinkering than most would want to deal with, on mine I'm always tightening the brake band and re-adjusting the clutch after, which is easy, but bearing adjustments and other items may be more of a headache for most. For either, boneyards and dismantling yards may be a good source of parts. When operating you may find the following helpful: 1. Make quick changes with the control lever, don't stay half engaged, other wise you will slip the clutch's and eventually cause premature wear, or glaze them over etc. 2. Keep all of your sheave block assemblies properly greased, I'm not sure what parts are still available. Keep em greased and they should last a long time 4. Use the correct cable usually 1/2" dia. langlay construction , improved plow steel, right lay, 6x19 it's in the manual, sometimes elevator companies have servicable wire rope available as another source besides new. I believe you can coat the cable, but not near the control unit, you don't want any oil or grease to get into the clutch's, best to ask the wire rope supplier if you need to for corrosion resistance or other reasons. 5. When in heavy use,I understand you will wear the cable in the same area, I'm not sure exactly if this is right, or if this is how they do it, but if you keep enough on the spool, you can let more out, coil it up, tie it off on the end, not sure what direction, to keep from wearing the same area. Kind of like rotating your tires, you'll get more service life out of it. 5. When raising the blade, do not bang the sheave blocks together, it's the fastest way to snap one, always leave space, don't raise to max height. Same goes for lowering, nice and easy. 6. If you see that the cable is wearing and you are concerened about it breaking, I am also under the impression you can somehow pull new cable through with the old cable before it snaps, saving you time by not having to re-thread by hand. You would need to ask an experienced person about this. It's probably more for scrapers, on the dozer you will see the front sheave block is a 4 part or 6 part block, (D-8's & D-9's may be bigger) it then follows the sheaves to the cable control unit. I'm sure if you found an old timer who has experience on these, it might be helpful to ask, although cable threading on a dozer looks fairly easy, compared to a scraper, even if you snap one and have to do it by hand, just take your time and use heavy gloves ! I have not snapped one on mine yet, but give it time, it's due to be changed ! 7. Safety, always remember to lower the blade to the ground when shutting down. Do not try to adjust the cable control unit while the tractor is running if possible, you certainly do not want to get caught in any of the works on one of these,or get pinned by the blade like on a front mounted cable control unit. You have to be careful if you have to adjust one while running,( I forget but, there may be a reason you have to leave it running on some of these )Just use common sense and seek out an old timer or someone with experience to give you some tips, read the manuals even more importantly. Just my basic understanding of the subject, I think the cable operated dozers are good for clearing, grading loose fill, you certainly can do some digging with them, it all depends on the soil conditions. They also work well for snow removal if need be. The blades raise up fast on them. People who have a lot of experience with them are probably becoming hard to find, as not a lot of them are in commercial use, but with these discussion boards you never know. As usual I got carried away, real cold out today, not a lot going on today !!
|
|
|
