We have showed you several videos highlighting some of the awesome equipment and methods employed to move said stuff in the mining business this year and we’re going to say that this is the best one yet. We’re making that claim mainly on the grounds that it seems like the whole operation is heading for disaster but in reality, it all works out perfectly and this is obviously something that they have done a time or three hundred at this facility. All this being said, we’d not want to be the dozer operator sitting all the way up there in the sky and bouncing on down the road in the back of the haul truck.
The only real question we have about this whole thing regards the level of grip that the steel tracks on the dozer have on the steel bed of the haul truck. We’d have thought that it would take far less of an angle to actually slide the bulldozer out of the truck. The bed is coming up on vertical before the big guy starts to slide. Is this just a function of the massive weight of the machine or are there other gription related forces at work? We know at least one of you is in the mining business out there so let us know.
Oh, and the accents/language we hear the people in the video speaking with pretty much indicate that this was not filmed in the USA. We’re also going out on limb to suggest that if it were, the government/OSHA/whatever organization is in charge of mines would be up the keister of the operators of this place that they’d be locked down in a New York minute. Don’t try this at home with your own mining equipment, kids!
PRESS PLAY BELOW AND WHILE YOU’LL WANT TO CRINGE, THE OUTCOME IS SMOOTH AS GLASS –
The copper open pit mine I worked in this was common practice of moving the large dozers from one side of the mine to the other
The key appears to be, jamming the dozer blade into that pile of dirt they aimed at. It’s good when you can trust your co-workers… Loading our own small 4×4 tractor into our dump trailer is similar but less extreme and a one-man job, still kinda gives you the willies when you crawl on and off with the thing tilted.
MSHA is the agency, and there is a bucket or two of dirt in the bed of the truck before the dozer is placed inside. I kinda wonder how they got the dozer in there?
We’ve transported dozers and drills in the back of haul trucks, but we built loading docks (out of dirt and old haul truck tires) to drive them into and out of the beds. Always had a bucket or two of dirt in the bed and never let the operator ride in the dozer or drill during transport. We did one time have a dozer roll off the back though. Flat drop of like 15 feet when the ripper hit the ground and the blade was still up in the truck bed. Amazingly didn’t damage a single thing!
Now you know why countries like the USA and Australia cant compete with these guys .It would take us 2 days just to do the risk assessment just to load the sucker let alone move it !!!
I have seen lots of excavation companies haul their dozers (up to D5 or D6) and mini excavators on the highways in the backs of their dump trucks…same concept…just larger scale. If it fits, it’s good to go