Could Have Been A Big Mess.

[BigWheelArchives]

5-18-07

Received a call from one of our customer's stating that one of their loaded tt-units was leaning. When we arrived on the scene, we discovered a 110yd trash trailer weighing in at around 105,000 lb leaning hard to the right side. Apparantly, the driver cut the corner way too short and was luckily held up by a pole, which was supported. This load was going to the top of the dump. We responded with our 60 ton rotator, picked up the back end of the trailer, and placed it onto the roadway below.

Last edited by BigWheelRecovery on 24 May 2007 14:51, edited 1 time in total.

 

Tow1238 said:

what is the underreach chained to the load for? Just wondering, that's a new one to me.

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

The swing motor on the rotator didn't have enough power to swing it over so i used the wheelift to swing it over so there wasn't alot of force put on the swing motor; couldn't get another truck. thanks ERIC

 

JRhd34 said:

I guess that would be a testimate to Miller's Planetary Motor and Ring Gear Strength. Way to be a quick thinker when your wrecker quits on you..... Good job eric. What other options did you have besides using the underlift.

 

LAMB Towing said:

One of the other guys here in town has an older NRC 40 ton rotator. He's had problems on and off with the auto level and anti-twist. A customer of mine called one day & had cut a turn too short with a hydraulic beavertail hauling 3 brand new farm tractors. My boom didn't have enough reach to boom over the tractors & lift, then winch back towards me. So I had him bring out his rotator. These were little 30 h.p. tractors, we're probably talking 50,000 pounds total. He got set up & everything looked great. When he lifted & tried to rotate, the boom kind of went into a freewheel, and the trailer went flying back into the ditch. The winches held and nothing happened, but it scared the hell out of me. He said the rotator has to be perfectly level at all times, or the swing motor won't work properly. Is this true of all rotators?

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

hi guys the tater has alot of power swinging i was on a negitve i dont think any tater would have swung in that situation it was just to much to ask for a swing motor so i used the wheel lift it worked out very well i will tell you the the miller has alot of swing power alot more than the a tac and the nrc . THANKS ERIC

 

JRhd34 said:

Eric.... My tator with the dual motor settup would have swung that load with no problem. Matter of fact come to think i cant remember when my turntable has ever stalled. Fly out and you can play with mine anytime.

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

Jim incase you might of missed the fact that we were dealing with 122000 acording to the weight slip, an we were pushing that load up hill with the brakes locked using the swing motor with the boom extended,that in itself creates a lot of leverage against the turn motor,under those sercumstance I think we were working above the design factors. But anyway we got it done. thanks again BOB

 

JRhd34 said:

Bob i was fully aware of the weights and resistance involved and that would have been no major chore for my truck thats why i am arguing the statement: "i was on a negitve i dont think any tater would have swung in that situation" my rotator would have completed the task and stayed well within my design factor. I was merely trying to convey that i was impressed for Eric's quick thinking when his truck reached it maximum capacity.

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

Well Jr that's interesting,but you never said what type of Tater you have.I know I'm wondering, an I bet a lot of other Tow411 members are on the edge of there seats also, thanks BOB

 

ibuytoys said:

In the crane world you should never swing a load that isn't freely suspended. This also applies to the rotator world.

I believe the NRC would've also done the job, as the mast could've been slid to the rear and the boom left retracted. The load could've been picked up with the boom retracted and then the boom extended, but the slide would've really helped in this situation.

I'm not knocking your job in any way. It came out very well in a tight situation and I love seeing pictures of your beautiful equipment in action.

www.advancedtowinghawaii.com

 

LAMB Towing said:

JR has the orange B&B rotator that is posted on here from time to time. I don't believe it's an 80 ton though. Looks a little smaller,

I was thinking 60 ton with a 2 stage boom? But if Bill Bottoms built it, it will probably perform as well as a 75 ton Century.

JRhd34 said:

Sorry Bob and Eric... I apologize for not explaining. I took for granite that i thought you knew i had an 70ton B&B rotator.

 

wstowing11 said:

It looks like when it wouldn't swing anymore you were off the tailboard pretty much. Probably would have been better if you could have extended the boom at that point to finish it up the road. From what I can tell of the pics . From the pics it looked like you had all the swing out of it to the positive, and swinging anymore you would be trying to swing it downhill . Nice job and nice thought on using the underlift !!

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

We're revising a little bit because it's getting a little involved, we like our truck we didnt want to take a chance on over-straining the swing motors. We knew the motor had a load on it, thats why we used to wheelift. We already know through the criteria that its not recomended that you pull or yank with the swing motors. The crane never stopped but from operating it all the time, we could tell it had a little strain on it, so thats why we used the wheelift. Because when the job is all done, we still need our wrecker, this is the way that we run all of our equipment. We don't overload or put a heavy burdon on any of our equipment. We are fortunate to have other trucks and equipment that if we feel another piece is needed we have it, We know the Century would have spun it but why take a chance of damaging something. That century is one powerful unit. thanks for all the nice comments, BOB

 

wstowing11 said:

I don't blame you at all for assisting the swing gear with another form of equipment. I have talked with and discussed that I will use another pull truck on heavy rotations also. Perfect example is a job we first did with a container over the side. I knew I could rotate it up and around, but why, I had a 50 ton there, let it pull hard and swing easy to rotate it around. Less abuse, longer life !

 

JRhd34 said:

Nothing wrong with that ideology Bob... So in clearification the driver motor never stalled,,,, you just put the underlift on it to help?

 

BigWheelRecovery  said:

JR thats correct, as time goes on an different situations arise we try to ad more tools to our personal experence tool box , that one came from Eric an I know we'll use it again in stead of takeing a chance of abusing our equipment,that being said I hope someone from another recovery co.can benifite as well. thanks again JR,for your replies, BOB

 

John L Hawkins said:

Gentlemen Jim here is the difference in the Miller product there are two Sterling PO check valves, they protect the planatary gear box one for: winch alignment to the pull and two for: overloading the swing control. ALL and I repeat ALL bearing and thus swing motors are designed to work on a level surface. This goes back to the "Establishing your Platform" Your unit has no such protection, and that is up to the manufacture. As far as the battles that come and go about tunnage, we base our ratings on actual documented testing. The same type of testing that we do on attachments and/or performance charts. These rating and performance applications are factual and are critical on determining our design BECAUSE design is how we determine structure and structure determines weight and weight to performance ratio, is our number one goal. Eric's creativity got him over the number one issue that all tow operators face "we do not get to plan" our adventures, "we have to deal with what we have been delt". "Establishing the Platform". Love the web site, just curb the egos, learing is a valuable experience. John