how would you move this? abandoned dragline content.

[purplebargeken]

^^ then burning it. This is the standard AS problem solving technique.

[castros_bro]

That's been designed to sit outside so slap some either/oil/plusgas/diesel/paraffin/Theakstons Old Peculier on the non-moving moving bits and get it clanking again, you know it'll be so useful* when some parts are randomly working. It need to be saved as in an almost doomed pointless defiance to the modern "throwaway" society.

 

Here's my "finger to modern manufacturing.  Soviet flathead (Sidevalve) with starting handle truck fitted with a mast and tractor engine on the back started with a single cylinder donkey engine.

 

 

[John F]

Taff, on 02 Mar 2015 - 10:07 PM, said:

In an attempt to make the least helpful post on the thread, I have a Wily Coyote tattoo.

 

No, don't thank me, the pleasure is all mine.

 

We had that one on page 2...

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

"Yah, so, Dave, could you have a look at that old digger at the bottom of the valley and see about getting rid of it?"

 

"err...ok?"

 

 

This thing has been sitting for decades. At a conservative estimate, I would say it weighs 5 tons or so. How the actual fuck am I supposed to move it? Access is via a narrow track so no chance of getting a heavy truck near it. I would guess when it was brought in it was dropped off at the roadside and driven down the track. Obviously its not driving anywhere in a hurry now.

 

IMG_20150226_130057 (Medium).jpg

 

 

 

Scrapping that would be like stamping on a puppy. Look at it. 

[smellmycheese]

You need to hire a bigger machine and driver for the day. Take it down the same route and drag it out with nothing but brute force. Or get a quote for the above, present it to the owner who will inevitably shit his self, and machine will be left to rust in peace.

[UltraWomble]

I think I'd try the eBay route, make sure you put some detail in the listing about access to the site, start it at say scrap value (which should put off the chancers wanting a quick quid scrapping it) and see what happens. 

 

Wih luck some enthusiast will win it and have the equioment to drag it out of there.

[Timewaster]

You need to hire a smaller machine and driver for the day. Take it down the same route and hammer it over the rusty digger.

Fixed

[fred]

In an attempt to make the least helpful post on the thread, I have a Wily Coyote tattoo.

 

No, don't thank me, the pleasure is all mine.

And heres me thinking I was the only one with a Wile E Coyote tatt

Hey Ho wrong again

[Forty-two]

Sorry to add another comment where no practical advice is offered, but I am interested in knowing the outcome to this. Will be left to nature or an attempt to rescue it be made?

[dave21478]

We are still at the "standing near it discussing options" stage, with occasional "prodding with boot".

 

Yes, it is half way down a valley. While the access to this point is not particularly steep, its still steep enough to make things harder with the final 50 yards up to the road being particularly tricky. Nothing big enough to carry it will ever fit down the track, so it will either need cut up or pulled out in one piece.

 

Will keep you all updated once something occurs - whatever it may be.

[Bren]

Never mind trying to shift yours -

 

 

I dont think four blokes and some scaffolding planks will shift this bastard.

 

You think you've got problems?

[explosive-cabbage]

I think the only realistic way forward by the sounds of it is to get in touch with the steam traction lads or some collector with something large and tracked to drag it out with, in exchange for keeping it for nowt.

 

Your not going to have fun cutting it up.

 

You are going to have a couple fairly interesting days watching them shift it, and possibly make some new friends or get some of that bunch onto Autoshite with their excellent stories.

 

Why make trouble for yourself?

[DeeJay]

Instead of going up and over, dig a tunnel and go through.

[steve_earwig]

Can't you just dig a big hole next to it and push it in?

[Bren]

He could shift it. [

 

 

attachment=30651:image.jpg]

[scruff]

I think the only realistic way forward by the sounds of it is to get in touch with the steam traction lads or some collector with something large and tracked to drag it out with, in exchange for keeping it for nowt.

 

 

I would really love to do this extraction job with one of the engines, it would be FRICKIN MEGA, the cost is the killer though with two low loaders needed plus the ferries. I could get the second lorry but it would be difficult to justify the freight and the diesel. A pipe dream really but god it would be fun. Plus I don't really want an RB and I doubt my mate/boss does either. Maybe if it was in England.... 

 

 

Having said all that, SE Davis at Astwood Bank in Worcs are mega serious collectors of old and vintage plant, and I mean serious. It would be worth contacting them for advice if nothing else.

 

http://www.sedavis.co.uk/

[Junkman]

[Parky]

There is a standard textbook available on dealing with this particular situation:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Yellow-Digger-Reading-Series/dp/1869432126

 

The answer to everything is get a bigger digger - there, I have just saved you the purchase price!

[Parky]

Never mind trying to shift yours -

image.jpg

I dont think four blokes and some scaffolding planks will shift this bastard.

You think you've got problems?

What the actual fuck is that thing? Looks like some sort of mutant hedge trimmer

[Richard]

It's a massive coal cutter I think.

[steve_earwig]

What the actual fuck is that thing? Looks like some sort of mutant hedge trimmer

Wot, like this?

[Junkman]

It's a massive coal cutter I think.

 

That's exactly what it is. Brown coal open cast mining.

 

 

The one in Bren's pic was moved (i.e. it actually drove) 20km from one site to another, thereby even crossing an Autobahn.

 

 

It was considered epic enough an endeavour, that German telly made a program about it and it was in the news.

 

Those are electrically powered and they had to lay a power line all along the way. The excavator had a 1200m power lead, so every 2.4 km they had to unplug it,

transport the end of the lead to the next connector by Unimog and plug it back in.

[dave21478]

Wot, like this?

You are shitting me!

 

That is AWESOME.

 

Kinda dangerous, but meh...you cant have everything.

[dave21478]

Regarding the coal cutter, this might give another idea of scale...

 

 

Yeah, it scooped a bulldozer by accident.

[KruJoe]

I feel a bit pathetic now, I cut my hedge with an angle grinder.

 

 

 

Cock and bollocks. You'll just have to tilt your head.

[michael1703]

Wot, like this?

 

I'd love to see a zombie film with that thing in!

[Taff]

And heres me thinking I was the only one with a Wile E Coyote tatt

Hey Ho wrong again

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HillmanImp]

[dave21478]

An update for anyone who gives a rats chuff.

 

A few days ago, a farmer I know kindly loaned me a mega New Holland tractor.....remember when driving a tractor meant literally sitting on the gearbox with some levers sticking up between your legs with black bakelite knobs on the ends to prevent you stabbing yourself in the nads when bumping over ruts? Yeah....farming has changed somewhat. Now its all flappy paddle gearboxes and touch-screens for the digital climate control.

 

After a crash-course lesson on how to drive the fucker, I shifted into high range, set the cruise control, adjusted the climate to 21degrees and turned up the USB stereo as I trundled over to the valley where the old digger lay.

I hooked up some sturdy towing chains and went at it but it wouldnt free-wheel even with the diggers drive chains cut.....the idlers and track guides were all jammed solid. Ultra-low ratio with various diffs locked meant the tractor could drag it despite this, but at the cost of ruining the surface of the road. Also as I approached the first corner the digger started to slide down the camber of the track towards the ditch. If it went into the ditch it would be game over so I gave up, but was now left with the digger blocking the track. I didnt want to risk blocking it with the digger half in the bloody ditch and didnt want to rip the surface up too much either as there is something important down this track that needs easy access so I unhooked and trundled the long way round the valley and up the track from the other end, which meant going through some fields, and dragged the digger the few meters back to where I started from.

 

I called my semi-tame pikey and asked if he wanted 10 tons of scrap metal. He was all over it like flies on an Ethiopian child.

Today he turned up with two other pikies in an old Saviem tipper, towing......I dont even know what. Some kind of agricultural trailer chassis. No suspension, two axles with massive balloon tyres, no lights etc obviously.....probably used to be a silage trailer of some kind. I left them to it, assuming they would spend the day chopping it up. Turned out they only chopped the boom off, the rest they loaded intact. Apparently they would jack it up at the front with two huge bottle jacks then use a hand winch (!) to pull it forwards till the jacks tipped over, gaining about 4 inches each time. They got some steel plates under the back ends of the tracks to help it slide easier. They repeated this process God-knows how many times to lift/winch it up onto their trailer, strapped it down and off they went in a could of clutch smoke.

Unsurprisingly, towing over ten tons with a wee truck didnt work so well up the track, so I got a loan of another tractor to drag them up to the road. Their trailer thing was a bit too wide for the track and while it had come down the hill ok while unladen, going back up was a challenge to keep it out the ditch. We had to chop some over-hanging tree branches too.

Once onto the tarmac main road, off they went. Slowly.

He called me this evening to say it took them four hours to get down to the town where the scrap dealer is.....they never got it above second gear!

Typical pikey luck....zero problems for them, but any time I am even slightly outwith the law I get into shit for it.

 

No pics as I am back to using an old telephone whos camera has the resolution of a Rubiks cube.

 

Shame I suppose. Some guy signed up to this forum just to message me during the week asking if he could buy it for decent money. However I dont think he realised it was in France!

Sorry man, its on its way to China now to be turned into ventilation ducting in a hastily built skyscraper.

[DSdriver]

Epic!