Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[aczlan]

Or put the bucket onto the shore and transfer the weight onto the shore until the tracks are past the midline.

Aaron Z

 

[farmer2009]

Or put the bucket onto the shore and transfer the weight onto the shore until the tracks are past the midline. Aaron Z

What I was going to say. There was a point I actually thought ok now swing around put bucket on shore, pickup a bit and finish walking on. This would have moved the weight more to the center of the boat faster.

 

[GLyford]

I'm still not convinced the boat had enough buoyancy to keep both gunwales out of the water even if they had done it exactly right...or stability to keep it there once perched and hit the least ripple or disturbance.

My suspicion is that that everyone had done this before, with smaller machines on the boat and bigger boats under the machine, just not that machine on that boat...?

 

[IslandTractor]

I'm still not convinced the boat had enough buoyancy to keep both gunwales out of the water even if they had done it exactly right...or stability to keep it there once perched and hit the least ripple or disturbance.

My suspicion is that that everyone had done this before, with smaller machines on the boat and bigger boats under the machine, just not that machine on that boat...?

OK, now someone needs to find a YouTube of this procedure done properly and successfully!

 

[California]

I'm still not convinced the boat had enough buoyancy to keep both gunwales out of the water even if they had done it exactly right...or stability to keep it there once perched and hit the least ripple or disturbance.

My suspicion is that that everyone had done this before, with smaller machines on the boat and bigger boats under the machine, just not that machine on that boat...?

That's my impression looking at it. Like that truck that wouldn't fit under the 6 ton bridge, they may have had no idea how big (heavy in this case) an excavator is. Just because they delivered a Toyota pickup last trip up the river ....

 

[IslandTractor]

That's my impression looking at it. Like that truck that wouldn't fit under the 6 ton bridge, they may have had no idea how big (heavy in this case) an excavator is. Just because they delivered a Toyota pickup last trip up the river ....

Actually that is a pretty big river barge maybe 45-50 ft x 12-15 ft wide and it seems the deck is about 4 feet or so from the water. If those guesstimates on dimensions are close then displacing 40x12x2 cubic feet of water would take 60,000 lbs or thirty tons. And that would leave two feet of freeboard which seems safe given the calm inland waterway. I'm no expert on excavators but do you think the one in the video is more than 30 tons?

 

[California]

Your analysis sounds good, you understand the physics far better than I do. But just intuitively that excavator seems too heavy to load from one side. Or maybe the case is borderline and they had done it before from a stable pier. Then this time the collapse of the pier ( temporary, loose, earthworks?) doomed them.

Does a barge like that rest on oil drums or something sealed, or is it an open boat that can be swamped?

 

[IslandTractor]

I just looked at the video again. I think what happened is that the dirt ramp they constructed was too soft and the excavator sunk backwards into the ramp just as it was trying to cross onto the barge. That started the disaster. The excavator wasn't powerful enough to drive up the slope created when the rear of the excavator started to sink backwards. It also pushed the barge away from the shore and they had not sufficiently tied the barge close to the shore. As the barge moved away from the shore it dragged the excavator with it. The weight of the excavator on one side then allowed water to come over the gunwale and sink the boat.

Those barges are just built like huge rowboats. No watertight compartments. They are used largely for transporting sand and construction materials and I would guess they often have excavators sitting amidships to unload and load the barge.

If they had built a pier out of rock or gravel it wouldn't have sunk under the weight of the excavator and the outcome would likely have been quite different.

I hope the guy driving the excavator had the sense to shut the engine off before it sank. If so there would be a mess to clean up but both barge and excavator could have been salvaged and returned to service.

 

[George2615]

The way the video shows it looks like they built a ramp out of fill close to the height of the ship but it started giving way as the EX was started to get on the boat. As the EX reached the boat the back end started sinking as the fill gave way bringing that side of the boat down with it..

 

[IslandTractor]

The way the video shows it looks like they built a ramp out of fill close to the height of the ship but it started giving way as the EX was started to get on the boat. As the EX reached the boat the back end started sinking as the fill gave way bringing that side of the boat down with it..

Exactly.