Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Pictures of your snow weapons

[Sawyer Rob]

When I really need to get-er-done!

SR

 

[4570Man]

My buddy sent me this picture of a cat 950, Word is he was trying to break the frozen crust off the salt pile and it slide down pulling the loader down

At least it’s a solid front axel. It probably would have flipped a tractor.

 

[leonz]

They do flip and there are many MSHA fatalgrams describing front end loader accidents.

I used to work with a bunch of fools like that. With OSHA being the regulator for this operation the stockpile owner being an independent contractor did not even report the incident and the idiot went home with a load in his pants.

What happened was this when he was scooping on the floor of the concrete pad to try and break it up the torque created by the front axle continued to create adhesion with the floor and it over came the weight of the engine compartment and the rear weights and as a result you see the fool in the picture.

He violated a very simple rule; you reclaim the pile from left to right or right to left, never, never, never in the center of the stock pile.

The dry solar salt you see in the picture was not treated with no cake to make it free flowing and they did not bother to have a tracked excavator on the property to break the solid mass of salt that you see in the picture.

They would not hesitate to push the salt up on the stockpile thinking they had to do that(they were not supposed to) they had been doing that for years until they were stopped because they did not know that the loaders could be flipped over simply by the act of raising the center of gravity of the front end loader which would then make it fall over.
This was entirely possible because the "Angle Of Attack" to ascend the pile was too high and as a result the weight of the loader bucket, bogey(solid front end of the loader), planetary axle and pumpkin(differential)and tires and wheels became heavy that the steering cylinders that control the articulating axles could not control the front end loader and it fell to one side or the other.

 

[civilian]

They do flip and there are many MSHA fatalgrams describing front end loader accidents.

I used to work with a bunch of fools like that. With OSHA being the regulator for this operation the stockpile owner being an independent contractor did not even report the incident and the idiot went home with a load in his pants.

What happened was this when he was scooping on the floor of the concrete pad to try and break it up the torque created by the front axle continued to create adhesion with the floor and it over came the weight of the engine compartment and the rear weights and as a result you see the fool in the picture.

He violated a very simple rule; you reclaim the pile from left to right or right to left, never, never, never in the center of the stock pile.

The dry solar salt you see in the picture was not treated with no cake to make it free flowing and they did not bother to have a tracked excavator on the property to break the solid mass of salt that you see in the picture.

They would not hesitate to push the salt up on the stockpile thinking they had to do that(they were not supposed to) they had been doing that for years until they were stopped because they did not know that the loaders could be flipped over simply by the act of raising the center of gravity of the front end loader which would then make it fall over.
This was entirely possible because the "Angle Of Attack" to ascend the pile was too high and as a result the weight of the loader bucket, bogey(solid front end of the loader), planetary axle and pumpkin(differential)and tires and wheels became heavy that the steering cylinders that control the articulating axles could not control the front end loader and it fell to one side or the other.

So the operator had the bucket on the floor, he was driving into the pile, forward movement stopped but he kept trying to fill his bucket. But because the pile would not break apart, the torque on the front axle lifted the back of the machine into the air? Is my thinking/explanation correct? It doesn't look like his bucket is into the pile very far to have much in the bucket. Jon

 

[aczlan]

They do flip and there are many MSHA fatalgrams describing front end loader accidents.
I used to work with a bunch of fools like that. With OSHA being the regulator for this operation the stockpile owner being an independent contractor did not even report the incident and the idiot went home with a load in his pants.
What happened was this when he was scooping on the floor of the concrete pad to try and break it up the torque created by the front axle continued to create adhesion with the floor and it over came the weight of the engine compartment and the rear weights and as a result you see the fool in the picture.
He violated a very simple rule; you reclaim the pile from left to right or right to left, never, never, never in the center of the stock pile.
The dry solar salt you see in the picture was not treated with no cake to make it free flowing and they did not bother to have a tracked excavator on the property to break the solid mass of salt that you see in the picture.
They would not hesitate to push the salt up on the stockpile thinking they had to do that(they were not supposed to) they had been doing that for years until they were stopped because they did not know that the loaders could be flipped over simply by the act of raising the center of gravity of the front end loader which would then make it fall over.
This was entirely possible because the "Angle Of Attack" to ascend the pile was too high and as a result the weight of the loader bucket, bogey(solid front end of the loader), planetary axle and pumpkin(differential)and tires and wheels became heavy that the steering cylinders that control the articulating axles could not control the front end loader and it fell to one side or the other.

You might want to re-read the post again:

My buddy sent me this picture of a cat 950, Word is he was trying to break the frozen crust off the salt pile and it slide down pulling the loader down

ie: The operator had their bucket up knocking off the crust and caused an avalanche of salt which pulled the bucket down
Based on the building and the poster's location, I am going to hazard a guess that its a NYS DOT, NYS Thruway or Municipal tensioned fabric salt barn (most of their salt barns look like that, see: Fabric Covered Buildings - Salt Storage in New York State ) and the driver was a government employee loading salters on their plow trucks.

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

So the operator had the bucket on the floor, he was driving into the pile, forward movement stopped but he kept trying to fill his bucket. But because the pile would not break apart, the torque on the front axle lifted the back of the machine into the air? Is my thinking/explanation correct? It doesn't look like his bucket is into the pile very far to have much in the bucket. Jon

Based on Peter 315's description I am going to go with the operator had the bucket up in the air scraping salt down and they started an avalanche of salt which put the loader on its nose. IMO its not far enough into the pile to have run up on its wheels like leonz is guessing. If that were the case, the bucket would have been buried in the pile, not at the edge of a loose pile of salt.

Aaron Z

 

[Peter 315]

You might want to re-read the post again:

ie: The operator had their bucket up knocking off the crust and caused an avalanche of salt which pulled the bucket down
Based on the building and the poster's location, I am going to hazard a guess that its a NYS DOT, NYS Thruway or Municipal tensioned fabric salt barn (most of their salt barns look like that, see: Fabric Covered Buildings - Salt Storage in New York State ) and the driver was a government employee loading salters on their plow trucks.

Aaron Z

NO a yard that does reloads and sells salt

 

[MossRoad]

So the operator had the bucket on the floor, he was driving into the pile, forward movement stopped but he kept trying to fill his bucket. But because the pile would not break apart, the torque on the front axle lifted the back of the machine into the air? Is my thinking/explanation correct? It doesn't look like his bucket is into the pile very far to have much in the bucket. Jon

That, or he got the FEL stuck under a solid object, went to lift and raised the rear end off the ground with the hydraulics.

 

[MossRoad]

But as the description says, the pile came down, probably overloaded the bucket, and tipped it on its nose.

So why didn't the operator just lower the FEL and set the rear down, regardless of how it happened? Is it stuck in that position, or did they just take a picture for fun?

 

[aczlan]

But as the description says, the pile came down, probably overloaded the bucket, and tipped it on its nose.

So why didn't the operator just lower the FEL and set the rear down, regardless of how it happened? Is it stuck in that position, or did they just take a picture for fun?

My guess is that happened 30 seconds later once the operator got over the shock of flipping up, but someone got a picture first (which they will never be allowed to live down) and possibly (ok, a 70% chance based on the guys I know who do similar work), the operator faceplanted into the windshield or ended up wrapped around the steering wheel because they didn't have their seatbelt on...

Aaron Z