Caterpillar D6C, talk about a machine hard to operate

[MikeMike]

the thing is difficult, Dozer pic

the thing has 2 levers on your right, which adjust height of the blade, then you have a gear box on your left to shift, you have 2 decelerators one for each track to turn you, and you have a brake which stops both, then you have 2 levers in front of you which adjust the angle the blade is facing. yea, it gets confusing, i just watched though, i get to operate it this sunday.

and yea, its big.

MIKE

 

[gw186]

Sounds like fun..........

 

[Demo24]

I prerequest video of you wrecking into something

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: DEMO24
I prerequest video of you wrecking into something

a large pile of dirt!

the thing will take out just about anything in its path, it wont stop, only loss of traction will stop it.

MIKE

 

[skyking]

the pedal on the floor under your right foot is your friend. that is the decelerator.
set the throttle on the dash to high idle, and push down on the decelerator pedal to slow the engine down to low idle.
Does the one you will operate have a pair of handles coming out of a central console, directly at you? the will slide out quite a ways, with the handle itself projecting upwards off a long rod that slides parallel to the ground.
If so, those are the clutch/brake units. Pull them back part way, and it clutches or release drive to that track. pulling it farther will apply a brake and really turn it.
Don't take it on a hill till you really get the hang of it. If you pull back on the clutch/brake on the side you want to turn to and don't stab it hard, you will initially turn the other way real fast!!!!
That is freewheeling, and one of the more esoteric operating points of the older caterpillar tractors. When you first find out about it, you usually hit something you don't want to, or end up cleaning your drawers out later

 

[sparkyclarky]

That would be a blast for a while, I'd imagine. I'll stick to the Gator at work though.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: skyking
the pedal on the floor under your right foot is your friend. that is the decelerator.
set the throttle on the dash to high idle, and push down on the decelerator pedal to slow the engine down to low idle.
Does the one you will operate have a pair of handles coming out of a central console, directly at you? the will slide out quite a ways, with the handle itself projecting upwards off a long rod that slides parallel to the ground.
If so, those are the clutch/brake units. Pull them back part way, and it clutches or release drive to that track. pulling it farther will apply a brake and really turn it.
Don't take it on a hill till you really get the hang of it. If you pull back on the clutch/brake on the side you want to turn to and don't stab it hard, you will initially turn the other way real fast!!!!
That is freewheeling, and one of the more esoteric operating points of the older caterpillar tractors. When you first find out about it, you usually hit something you don't want to, or end up cleaning your drawers out later

i think it has 2 handles, im not positive, my dads run it, and another D6 so he knows how to run them pretty well, i think ill try and operate it on a small incline, which has only topsoil on it (they make topsoil from it) and just try and push the topsoil around until i get a slight hang of it, and then try to grade it out maybe, it all depends.

my next machine to conquer after i get that is the John Deere 120 hoe. i have the front end loader, skid steer, roller, and tractor (drag box) down pretty well. havent played with the monkey yet. and maybe the 650H (dozer) before the hoes, and then after the 120 try the 200, although there isnt much difference other than size.

lets see how many ppl know what a monkey is in construction terms, skyking do you?

MIKE

 

[skyking]

fine pieces of equipment to get started on.
The company I currently work for has a 120 with several buckets, a brand new 35 with buckets and a hoepack, a 590 case, a 550 dozer, and a dump truck and trailer to move them with.
I usually work for big outfits, and all the stuff has been moved in on lowboys. I really enjoy the mobing in and out, and doing smaller jobs.
The last larger job I worked, I operated these, and loaded them with one of these.
We moved 1 million cubic yards of contaminated topsoil over a period of about 6 months, and I loaded out 186,000 yards of clean topsoil in a 6 week period.
The biggest day I had, we moved 370 30 ton truck loads in 9 hours.

 

[jagec]

Hey, could have been a D9

I understand the principles of driving a bulldozer, I think I could probably manage if I was given some time to practice on an empty field...but I'd never gotten the chance to actually do it

 

[skyking]

the hard pieces of that era and before were the "knuclebuster" series of motorgraders.
They did not have hydraulics, and use a series of driveshafts and gearboxes to raise and lower the moldboard, turn the turntable, tilt the wheels, raise and lower implements.
All the driveshafts lead to this big gearbox in front of you, with steel handles coming off the top. the gears are square cut, and you move each lever in an out smartly and positively. If you try and milk a lever in, the gears throw it back at you and "bust your knuckles", literally!!

 

[MikeMike]

the 200 is the largest they have. they normally do basements, but there was a list of the top like 200 homes in northeastern ohio, and the owner said out of the top 50 they did about 30 of them, so they are a pretty big company. their actual website is www.buckeyeexcavating.com. hell, we just dug a 7500 sq foot house, in ~2 days, less actually, 14 ft into the ground, sandstone and all (overlooks a river that used to be a quarry WAY WAY WAY back when). hauled maybe 12 loads out of that, but it was all topsoil only, the rest went back into holes, and other spots that needed graded out. they only have one quad, the rest are all dumps which they normally put about 20 tons into if they take out a load. the original topo had the house requiring about 150 loads to be moved out, but the topo was incorrect so we only moved about 12, and he cancelled the extra truck he had coming in. backfilling, and putting in downspouts on that house is gunna be fun.

of course i could learn the 650H before the D6, but the 650 is all joysticks, and the D6 is manual basically. front end loader i can do, quickly i cant, im not confident enough yet to load up trucks rapidly with topsoil/mulch, i do that slowly, but i can fill the bucket quickly, its just emptying it into others trucks which slows me down.

i tried the 120 one day when my dad had it here at my house to tear out a beaver dam, and it was hard to get that bucket coming at you in a straight line, not impossible, but difficult.

o well ill try that D6 out see how i can do on that.

MIKE