Re: I've got truck envy

Posted by NCWayne on December 30, 2013 at 22:44:19 from (173.188.169.54):

In Reply to: Re: I've got truck envy posted by Stick welding on December 30, 2013 at 22:14:37:

I know exactly what you mean since I go off road a lot. The only place I can see a truck that size really being practical would be in a quarry where there would always be a relatively hard surfaced to drive on, and plenty of room to turn around. I know mine weights in around 32,000 lbs like it sits, and hard surface or not, I can get stuck in an inch of red mud, even if it's laying on top of solid rock. Give me several hundred yards of nothing but freshly rained on (monsooned on to be more exact) red mud, and it takes awhile to get across......something like 2 hours trying to do it all myself (everyone else left at 4) with a D-5 that, thankfully, was on sight that Friday afternoon.

That said, I've been in places over the years where I had to have a D7 pull me both in and out because of the mud. Then there was the time where we used another dozer to drag me around 180 degrees, on a pipeline right of way, and then pulled me back to the closest hard surface which was several hundred yards away. I was really thankful for them taking the time to turn me around as it would have been a really long way back out, in reverse, through an area that was carved straight through the trees, was curvy as heck, and barely as wide as my mirrors in most places.

I'd hate to even begin to try to do any of the stuff I've had to do with a truck that large. Heck the one time I even came close to high centering and clipped the tank mount on the drivers side, this truck wouldn't have even had a chance. With his wheelbase he'd have had a hard time even getting up the speed to get over the hump I had to jump to get back on the road, much less actually get over it.

Now talking about straight lube trucks, I've seen a few pretty good sized ones myself. No tri -axels that I can remember, but by the time they bolt on all the waste and good oil tanks, the can get pretty sizble. Thing is they are rarely expected to actually venture far enough onto the site to have any problems. On the other hand what machine breakd down in the staging area, and doesn't wait until it's on the backs side of nowhere to break down. It's easier to count the machines I've worked on in a good place than to even begin to think about the ones that break down in the worst place they could possibly be...

In the end, it is a really nice truck, and any mechanic would be proud to own it.... but you'd better know exactly what your doing or the size is going to work against you just as much as it works for you.

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