Plant - not in Public

[Six-cylinder]

I share this in the hope I might find some friends on here for my interest is plant, If I won the Euro lottery I would buy myself a Cat 11 Bulldozer just to have it to play with.

 

As it is I haven’t, when The Chinnor and Princess Risborough Railway needed a new dumper as there existing one did not have a role bar, they have bought a 1992 Benford 1000 fully serviced from a plant dealer North of Lincoln. All they needed was to sell the existing one and a volunteer to collect the new one. My wife thought another dumper could be useful on our small holding and I like plant what ever shape or size, so the deal was done. I would collect their new dumper and buy the old one.  

 

For those interested in plant I now have a 1980’s Benford TS 25 1 Ton dumper single cylinder diesel. 

 

 

[Danblez]

Fantastic, we used to have a couple of really old dumper trucks on the farm where I grew up. I have fond memories of my grandad cranking the starting handle on a single cylinder diesel whilst I had the important job of flicking some level down at the top, on his shout, before it eventually started up in a massive cloud of grey smoke. Never really thought until now what that lever was, would it have have been a decompression lever?

 

When I was about 3 I thought it was called a dumper because of the noise it made on startup....... dum pah dum pah dum pah!

[Wilko220]

Class - I'd love to rock up to the shops in one of them, dressed in a business suit or something.

 

Quick question 4 U. Whenever I see one of these out on the road, they appear to only have one gear, and roar around at 20mph or so at very high revs. Given that there must be quite frequent cause to travel distances in these (even just from one end of a site to another), do you know if there's any particular reason why they don't equip them with a higher gear?

 

Or is it just that the ones I see are badly driven / broken...

[holbeck]

I'm quite into plant myself, looks like your dumper has a Petter PH1 diesel. A good solid old lump!

[brickwall]

Someone else here is a dumper fancier. If you do win the lottery grab me a D11T as well pls.

[Six-cylinder]

Class - I'd love to rock up to the shops in one of them, dressed in a business suit or something.

 

Quick question 4 U. Whenever I see one of these out on the road, they appear to only have one gear, and roar around at 20mph or so at very high revs. Given that there must be quite frequent cause to travel distances in these (even just from one end of a site to another), do you know if there's any particular reason why they don't equip them with a higher gear?

 

Or is it just that the ones I see are badly driven / broken...

 

I have driven a modern 6 ton and that seemed quite low geared but I guess they need to be geared for max load. My old Benford has 3 forward gears.

[Six-cylinder]

Our other dumper is a Thwaites hydraulic steer in real shiters spec but fully working!

 

[holbeck]

That gearbox would be a Newage 3 speeder. Been in production for years and still available now.

[jonny69]

Why not in public? KILLDOZER!

 

[mat_the_cat]

Quick question 4 U. Whenever I see one of these out on the road, they appear to only have one gear, and roar around at 20mph or so at very high revs. Given that there must be quite frequent cause to travel distances in these (even just from one end of a site to another), do you know if there's any particular reason why they don't equip them with a higher gear?

 

The handful I've used haven't had a gearbox as such, just a hydraulically driven transmission with a ever to flick between forwards and reverse. I like this sort of stuff too, especially the way that things are just kept going regardless of how they look. There's an old CAT excavator in the forest behind us they've left there for the last year or so, so I'll grab a few photos later today. I thought they'd forgotten about it but someone came to start it last month.

 

It's smaller than this one I saw down the road a couple of years ago though (BX estate for scale)...

 

[Six-cylinder]

Why not in public? KILLDOZER!

 

 

I belong to a facebook group that consider an interest in plant is some kind of weird perversion, I was not sure what type of reaction I would get on here introducing the subject.

[explosive-cabbage]

Didn't some freak in America go on a killing spree with an armoured bulldozer a few years ago?

[explosive-cabbage]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlZh9-NQEyI

 

What a hero!

[garethj]

There's no doubt that plant-fancying is very odd indeed.  So odd I bet there's only a million porn sites dedicated to it.

 

I used to work for a company that did cooling systems for off highway vehicles like this.  Some of their diesel engines were almost shaking the radiators to pieces at idle!

[dave21478]

Im more of a digger than a dumper.

 

I posted this on the Blue forum but will put some highlights here.

 

I bought a 5 ton digger a while back that was difficult to start, which got progressively worse until it stopped altogether. Turned out that the injection pump was properly kippered and a replacement or rebuild was going to cost a fucking fortune.

 

I happened to have a crashed Corsa turbo diesel on hand...

 

So I lifted the front up with the tractor and chopped through driveshafts and mounts with grinder/oxy cutter and dropped the motor out.

 

I then made up a load of havy-duty chasss rails to mount the engine on that would pick up the original mountings in the digger engine compartment.

 

A bit of fabrication and faff got it plumbed in and rigged up the main hydraulic pump.

 

It ran fine, but every now and then would pick up a wicked vibration that wouldnt go away so you had to shut it down and re-start each time. 

In the end I got fed up with it so got Diesel Bob to rebuild the original injection pump with one from a burnt out digger and refitted the old engine.

 

 

I flogged it ages ago as it was a bit too big to be moving about on the road and have bought a "spider" digger which doesnt have tracks, but uses four hydraulically operated legs so it can scramble about on really steep surfaces.

A smaller version of this.....

 

 

 

[Cavcraft]

You put the holy grail of diesel engines into a digger then took it out again?   

[oman5]

I like heavy plant stuff. particularly the old Cats with a separate starter donkey engine. 

[Asimo]

 Never really thought until now what that lever was, would it have have been a decompression lever?

 

 

It certainly is a decompressor. Probably a Lister or Petter engine. I used to do the decompressor on our generator (50 odd years ago -  before that MAINS electric come along). 

 

Just love that DONK     DONK   DONK DONKDONKDONK as those engines get into their stride. Proper Diesel that is; not a single amp, volt or ohm anywhere!

My Pa used to assemble Dumpers, piece work, for an outfit in Gloucester and I've been a fan ever since

 

Found this on a beach in Hong Kong.

Good job me and the boy couldn't get it going. 'Cause we were well out of it at the time

[dave21478]

You put the holy grail of diesel engines into a digger then took it out again?   

 

Yeah, sorry.

 

Its still lying in the workshop.....God knows what I will ever do with it.

[mat_the_cat]

some kind of weird perversion, I was not sure what type of reaction I would get on here

 

Did you really have to ask?

 

I went for a wander to have a look at the CAT - it's been modified to use as a skyline for logging.

 

 

You can tell it rarely dries out around here!

 

 

Well worn cab:

 

 

High security locks:

 

 

Had to take a peek behind!

 

 

I've done a little bit myself...it was fairly easy to get the hang of and a lot of fun

 

[Ronnie L]

Fantastic, we used to have a couple of really old dumper trucks on the farm where I grew up. I have fond memories of my grandad cranking the starting handle on a single cylinder diesel whilst I had the important job of flicking some level down at the top, on his shout, before it eventually started up in a massive cloud of grey smoke. Never really thought until now what that lever was, would it have have been a decompression lever?

 

When I was about 3 I thought it was called a dumper because of the noise it made on startup....... dum pah dum pah dum pah!

Yes that was a decompression lever. Many of these dumpers were fitted with Petter or Lister hand-cranked diesels. To start them you had to lift a lever mounted on the rocker box, this would partially depress one of the valves (or 2 valves on a twin cylinder engine). You could then turn over the engine easily with the handle as there was no compression. Once you had the thing turning over with some momentum you  (or helper) pushed down the lever, creating compression and hopefully allowing the engine to bump over TDC and fire up. When it did there was usually a blast of black smoke / soot from the exhaust and then the thing would thump into life. In modern terms, a truly shite way to start an engine but in my opinion it was wonderful. and v good exercise.

There was some skill to it too as you had to time the closing of the decompression lever very precisely. If it went down too late you missed the injector firing and had to start again. A truly endearing trick I experienced a few times with Petter diesels was having the piston hit TDC but not go over it and instead 'bounce' back causing the crank to go in reverse with sufficient force to allow it to go over TDC in the wrong direction and start the engine in reverse, ie sucking through the exhaust valves and blowing exhaust through the inlets. This of course turned the inlet manifold into the exhaust and usually blew the air cleaner off (if indeed it had one). You then had to stop the engine with the decompression lever and begin again. Oh the joy. I really miss those old engines. Wish I had a Petter twin I could still play with.

One other interesting fact about the twin cylinder Petters was that both the pistons fired at the same time. This made the engine very 'bumpy' but it produced enormous torque, which was exactly what was needed for a dumper truck.

[wuvvum]

A mate of mine bought a '60s dumper truck a few years back, just for something to play with.  It was only a little thing, with a single-cylinder Petter engine, a manually tipping bucket and a 3-speed manual 'box.  None of us could ever get the fucking thing to start though.

 

There was some skill to it too as you had to time the closing of the decompression lever very precisely. If it went down too late you missed the injector firing and had to start again.

And that's probably why.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

A word of warning about admitting to a fondness for plant.

Be very careful how you explain this in Wales.

[PiperCub]

Dumpers are great but more of a fork-lift chap myself. Dad used to drive/instruct on them so got my paws on one when I was about ten! Used to love driving and operating the big telehandler types best of all, 4WD, 4WS, do 20mph flat out (bouncing merrily). Think we used to have JCB's & Manitou's at the Millenium Dome where I used to work and got to piss about in these toys. (Yes, I was qualified before the H&S Politzei get upset!).

[barefoot]

Many, many years ago my old man bought a 1937 diesel roller for the local cricket club, it cost about thirty pounds, the number plate may have been worth a millionty pounds, but it was the decompression levers that I remembered. If I am not mistaken, it was a vee twin and took one swarthy bloke on the handle and a couple of lightweight helpers to start it.

The throttle was a lever on the right of the seat and there was just one huge cast iron pedal with a B on it.

Forward and reverse gears only, with a huge lever with a trigger thing which I assume operated some sort of clutch. Smoked like a bastard when you fired it up and when you gave it full bollock, as a teenager helping out with cricket pitch maintenance.

It appears to be gone now...

[Cavcraft]

Yeah, sorry.

 

Its still lying in the workshop.....God knows what I will ever do with it.

 

Bring it to Chester and donate it to me.

[Six-cylinder]

I'm quite into plant myself, looks like your dumper has a Petter PH1 diesel. A good solid old lump!

 

I have never been able to find out much about our Thwaites, what model, what year, what engine?

 

[holbeck]

I have never been able to find out much about our Thwaites, what model, what year, what engine?

 

 

A bit of a guess as you cant really see the engine but it could be a Lister TS2. If it is, the engine number should be on the air cowl on the manifold side of the engine.

with Listers you can date the engine by adding 50 to the first 2 digits of the serial number i.e. 37xxxxTS207 would have  been manufactured in 1987.

 

My, that seat looks comfy.

[Six-cylinder]

It will have a look and see if I can find an engine no. for the Thwaites next time I am near it.

 

In the mean time here is our horticultural truck, it is a 1972 Martin truck and my wife called it "Tiddly Truck"

 

[doug]

Just down the road from me.....must resist.....

 

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/lister-single-cylinder-air-cooled-diesel-engine-type-st1/1078781650