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Ground-Driven Earthmover
Used and surplus parts can be made into self-loading, ground-driven earthmovers. Mine is built simpler and loads faster than anything on the market yet cost less than $10,000 to build. I've used it on a variety of jobs including roads, dams, golf courses, building foundations, terraces, etc.
Starting with an old
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Ground-Driven Earthmover MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Earth Movers 19-4-36 Used and surplus parts can be made into self-loading, ground-driven earthmovers. Mine is built simpler and loads faster than anything on the market yet cost less than $10,000 to build. I've used it on a variety of jobs including roads, dams, golf courses, buiding foundations, terraces, etc.
Starting with an old pull-type land leveler, I removed the front axle and replaced it with a 2-wheeled tractor drive unit. Power is supplied by a Chrysler 440 Hemi V-8 gas engine driving an automatic transmission. It's coupled to a Pettibone 2-speed rear end - salvaged from a logging skidder - that's equipped with planetary reduction gears in the wheel hubs. There are six forward speeds. An air conditioning radiator off an old Ford car is used to cool the automatic transmission. A big Vickers hydraulic pump, belt-driven off the engine crankshaft, is used to power the cylinders that raise and dump the load and the cylinders that are used for articulated steering. The engine radiator came off a Mack semi truck.
It does a great job and paid for itself in the first six months of use. The beauty of the machine is its simplicity. The land leveler is equipped with paddle wheels that work similar to the paddle wheels on old river steam boats. It's ground-driven with no hydraulic motors to maintain and no chains or links to wear out. I had been renting a tractor to move and level dirt for $1,000 a week. I didn't want to spend the money for comparable commercial earthmovers which can cost up to $75,000. The articulated tractor is built similar to the Caterpillar 613 self-loading scraper pan. However, it works three times as fast and has only four bearings to wear out.
It'll haul up to seven yards of dirt. I can load dirt at 5 to 10 mph and dump it at 10 mph. Top speed is about 25 mph. I plan to build another earthmover so I'm willing to sell this one at cost. (R.C. Crews, 501 W.
Martin St., Folkston, Ga. 31537 (ph 912 496-7835)
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