CAT 320C burst hose and fire

[Gary Layton]

That gives me the shivers...can't hardly wrap my head around how big of a job that had to be.

 

[Coaldust]

It was ugly. Now the boom is cracked in half.
Has your boom cracked, yet?

 

[Gary Layton]

Cracked??? As in I should expect it to? Is that a thing?

If so, where do I watch for trouble?

 

[Nige]

Both the boom and the stick should be inspected regularly for signs of cracking. The stick particularly around the pivot pin between it and the boom. The boom both at the nose end where it pins to the stick, at the foot pins, and around the boom cylinder rod-end pin area.

 

[Coaldust]

The inner structure breaks first and then the shell cracks. You see on this boom where someone thought they fixed it, but it just keeps cracking. Cat has a procedure for repair. There are numerous threads on the HEF in regards. Something to watch for like Nige says.

 

[Nige]

The problem is that everyone tries to repairs cracks only working from the outside. When a structure is, as Coaldust says, cracked on the inside then repairing only the visible cracks is no solution. You have to cut holes in the structure and get inside and fix the root cause of the failure.

 

[jook24]

Mine was welded like this when I bought it I'm thinking it had a hammer on it as it has extra piping up front.i mounted my fire extinguisher behind the cab I bought a big one only place I could fit it I do have cat walks on the side.

 

[92U 3406]

Glad you are back in operation again.
This insurance job I did last year on a 320 crispy critter wasn’t so easy.

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Well over 10 years back I helped a bit with a rebuild on a ZX850 Hitachi. Everything from the rotec up was burnt. Only the undercarriage, main frame and boom/stick were reused. Entire machine was rebuilt from the rotec up. Massive job, I think I have pictures of it somewhere.