Industrial History: Truck Loaders before Hydraulics and MoW: Front (Wheeled) Loaders

Mining Mayhem posted
Over-head loader/Dozer!
Warren Johnson: Called an overloader.
Zell Hamilcar: It’s called an overshot. ["Overshot" got two more votes.]
Chuck Margelot: I use to load trucks with a crawler loader. This would be much easier just back and forth not much turning.
Jimmy Shaffer: That’s one way to save on steering clutches!
Erik Finkelson: How do you see when moving forward?
Pat Glover: Erik Finkelson that's a good question. You can't see too good in reverse either.
It looks the maybe the dump chute hinges upwards leaving a gap to see through when you lower the bucket.
Clive Jones: 🤔 That's got to be a pain in the neck for the operator.
Lorne Middleton: I remember sometime during the 1950s they used to load the trucks by building a ramp and the dozer used to push the dirt up the ramp into the truck.
Garry Stephenson: Those.overloaders we.reasonably quick for those days and much easier than the banjo [So now I wonder what a banjo was.]
Doug Halloran: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/da-fuck-i-aint-never-seen-one-of-these.html

Note that the overloader doesn't have any hydraulic rams. I highlighted with a red rectangle one of the cables that is used to raise the bucket. (The other cable is hidden by the bucket support.) I highlighted in blue the two sheave that are used to guide the cable when the bucket is down in the digging position.

Post plus Paint

After hydraulic rams were developed, loaders were still on dozers, but with a front end similar to this backhoe.

20140811 0469, cropped

It evidently took a while before it occurred to people that they could park the truck near the dig site rather than behind the loader to avoid a lot of turning around. Or maybe it took a while to realize that they could add a second pair of hydraulic rams to dump the bucket.

John Peel commented on the Mining Mayhem's post

Mining Mayhem posted
Old school!
Mark Stockman: Rocker shovel, smooth tracks- odds are it came out of a mine.
[Other comments concur that this was an overshot loader used in mining. In fact, some call it a "Eimco rocker shovel." It ran on compressed air and was used to dig tunnels as well as underground mines.]
Terry Lee Chase: it had to run to get there is not overgrown with weeds.

Wheeled front loaders helping to replace a railroad crossing

Today, most truck loading is done by wheeled (articulated-steer) front loaders. As an example, here is one removing the ballast from the Main Street crossing in Downers Grove when BNSF replaced the crossing.

20180908 4941

Modern front loaders can lift more than dirt. I'm going to experiment with videos on the blog because YouTube now adds advertisements to "free" channels. Here we see a CAT 972M lifting the old rails on the Main Street crossing to pop them out of the anchors.

And then the 972M pulls the rails away.

Here we see the rear of the 972M on the left that is pulling the rails into the easement while two CAT 950Ks are on the track ready to pull the newly assembled track panels into place.

After the 972M dug out the old ties and ballast, the two 950Ks moved the new track into the hole. I have two videos of that operation, but Blogger says both files are too big. So I'll use just a screenshot. I could see the headlights of BNSF trains in both directions waiting for this operation to finish.

Front Loaders in General

I believe Hough invented the wheeled front loader and Payloader is their trademark.

Machinery Planet posted

1956 Hough HAH Payloader

Havy Duty Machines15 posted
[Cat 988K]

To support mining operations, they have grown to be huge.

5:57 video @ 4:18 via Dennis DeBruler

Because of the mining industry, they can get big. Once they invented the big tires for haul trucks, they took advantage of them for loading.

Dirty Machines posted, cropped
Dirty Machines
[Actually, it looks rather clean :-)]

Machinery Equipment posted
Ken Butcher: 2350 LeTourneau, the best!!
[Another comment calls this the world's largest loader.]
Dick Koop: I have operated Cat loaders like this in rock quarries. Those tire treads are covered in "chain mail" (mats) to protect the tires from sharp rocks.

Quinn Lickman posted two photos with the comment: "LeTourneau L1400 in the Powder River Basin in the 1990’s. Photos by Michael Hubert."

Aaron Thurman: Pretty sure they came with a 28 yard bucket but they probably had a 40 yd combo bucket on it. Nice photo.

Quinn Lickman: Aaron Thurman it probably did double duty loading coal.

Dennis Bertoncelj: Looks like a black thunder loader #

Comments on Quinn's post

1 of 9 photos posted by PAmining
Big old LeTourneau L1100 undergoing some maintenance!!

Best Machines posted

Construction Machines posted

Caloto posted
[After they posed this photo, I wonder where they really dropped that load.]

Best Machines posted

One normally doesn't see the rear end of a 994K.

Best Machines posted

Machinery Planet posted
[This looks like a static display. That has to be a rather expensive lawn ornament.]
Raffaele Iollo: CAT 994
Garry Klein: When did CAT change from hello [yellow] to white, and why?
Maximilian Martini: Garry Klein white is mining and yellow is construction.
[I find it hard to believe that all of the yellow 994K's in these notes are used in construction instead of quarrying or mining. How would you transport it to each of your construction sites? My assumption is that it is white because a customer wanted that color.]
Mike Maney: There's only like two in the united states that I know of but that's the biggest loader that caterpillar makes.
[The top two 944K photos appear to be of the same machine, but I think there are more than two machines pictured here. Maybe some of these photos are overseas.]

"The ranking of the most powerful, dangerous and interesting machines (Spanish)" (source)
[Why do people photoshop nonsense. I'm not even going to look to see how many other machines they lie about.]

Here is another example of a "mining white" 994F.

Legendary Machinery posted
Shayne Burdine: 994F
Richard Bland: Never park a service vehicle out of view of the operators and to close to the machine under maintenance. [That would explain why the pickup in the Machinery Planet post above has a flag on top of a tall post.]

A Cat 992G can fill a truck with just one bucket load when handling coal and the trucks are small. I believe coal is lighter than rock and thus a bigger bucket can be used.

7:02 video
Vince Mulvena: More efficient with a 988, they are also faster.
Jim Trunk: Like, 30 cubic yards in one bucket!
Rudy Richard: a lot of spinning tires
Clifford Moroz: pretty hard on rubber

John Barrs commented on the above video
[I see the number "800" on the loader in the background. But I don't know who makes that.]

Lucibello Heavy Equipment photography posted three photos with the comment: "The first Cat 992NG in New England! I didn’t have to travel very far to see this machine it resides in my home town. The local Tilcon quarry has been running the same 992G all the way back to when I was a kid in elementary school. We just so happened to go on a field trip to this same quarry back in I believe the third grade."

Eddie Florindo: its nice to see cat come to its senses with the loader frame i never was a fan of that big ass boom in the middle the new looks badass.

Brandon Gray: Local quarry has 1 6mo.old down for an injector. 2000 on back order. None in the USA.

FJ Englert: Brandon Gray mine was dwn for a month due to a leaking parking brake module..part came from Russia.

Brandon Gray: FJ Englert every quarry in north west indiana has issues w them. The deere and Komatsu keep the open.

Paula Cartier: Oh tilcon Cranston?

Zak Schrenker: Paula Cartier Tilcon north Branford ct.

Paula Cartier: Zak Schrenker ten four.lot if rock has come out of that quarry.i like the twin boom.i had a 92k in Pacolet, SC and it had some twist.super tight digging.hardest digging quarry Vulcan owns.depth was 700 feet

3
[A comment pointed out that the old one is in the background.]

FJ Englert commented on the above post
I'm sure they'll like it...I'm enjoying the one I'm on, just clicked 800hrs on the meter.

Mega Machines Channel posted four photos with the comment: "Caterpillar 777F Dumper and 995K Wheel Loader Team Up for Performance!"

Brad Andes: That’s far from a 995.

Graeme Ward: It’s a Cat 992K. From 993K up they have twin bucket crowd cylinders.

Best Machines posted
Rick Webster: This is that new 998 100yrds [an order of magnitude too high] at a time.
Brent Leanne Harvey: Rick Webster 994k
[I had never noticed the big dual exhausts before.]

Since Rick's comment indicates Cat is up to a 988, I checked it out.

cat
988K: 541hp with a bucket capacity of 4.7-13 m3 (6.2-17 yd3)

They also have a 990.

cat_990, cropped
990K: 699hp with a bucket capacity of 7,4-14,9 m³ (9,7-19,5 yd³)
The C27 engine has 12 cylinders.

Steering and Transmission Integrated Control System (stic™):

cat_990, cropped

998 dimensions:

teknoxgroup, p4

Big Machine posted
Interesting! Two buckets 😳

Roger Thieling: It was a Caterpillar test bed for developing many different things. This picture came from The Caterpillar Chronicles, the Cat history book. It has an article on it. A great read.

Big Machine posted
Great! MICHIGAN 675 LOADER 💪👌

Clark Michigan was bought by Volvo in 1985. [Volvo_history]

Volvo_L350H, cropped

In addition to Volvo and Caterpillar, John Deere and Komatsu also make big loaders. [Volvo_comparison]

Big Machine posted
Nice! Volvo loader

Jeppe Isaksen: Volvo 350

This confirms my theory that it was the big tires developed for haul trucks that make these big wheeled loaders possible.

Best Machines posted, cropped
Micheal Griffiths: Another Komatsu getting pushed back to the workshop.

This was a bulldozer instead of a front loader, but the basic design is more like a front loader than a bulldozer.

Jason Jones posted
The blue goose Central Ohio coal Cumberland Ohio I think it had a90 yard blade.
[Many of the comments are interesting. Since it is a public group, I'll let you read them on Facebook.]