Homeowners buying old giant excavators?

[Welder Dave]

That video doesn't do justice to how big they are. Standing under the boom looking up where the hyd. cylinders attach is massive! About 7' wide or wider at the widest part. The cylinders are huge too! The two former Henuset pipelines 1900's both have Esco buckets with 4yd. tags on them. The other thing is they look extra long with all the sheet metal body on them. With the sheet metal removed they actually look fairly compact. Henuset took the sheet metal off and applied lots of yellow paint to protect them from the weather. Apparently it was common to blow hoses and it's not easy trying to bend the large hoses into shape to fit them.

They must have been somewhat popular to stay in production until 1990! Would be interesting to know how many were built. Henuset had 5 they bought at auction from the Alaska pipeline. Would be especially neat if they mounted the custom high walker 1900 up on the pipe supports to raise it another 10' high but I doubt that will happen. That machine was also converted to joystick controls instead of hand levers and pedals. I'd imagine the joystick controls had a long stroke with a lot of slop. The backhoe on my track loader is like that. You get used to it though. A little tricky trying to do precise movements.

 

[Welder Dave]

View attachment 359446

That's too nice to scrap! Maybe it could go to a museum? Could be made to push scrapers if they're still operating.

Clark Michigan were generally well regarded machines. 475's and smaller were fairly common. That's why Clark designed the 675. There was a downturn in the economy when the 675 came out though. It had some issues but that's to be expected with a completely new machine that was twice as big as their largest loader and nothing like it in the industry. Maybe too far ahead of it's time?? The IH 580 Payloader had a similar fate. Still have to give kudos to Clark and IH for designing loaders that were so much bigger than anything else. Same with the Champion 100T grader. If it came 10 years later might have had a better fate.

 

[Deere500a]

After W&S disappeared in 1980 it became Badger 811 as a home owner I'll stick to Koehring 1066 if fuel goes down I'll get a 1466 better parts available then my brigg's lawn mower or Hopto make 2 tracked turns lawn is done

 

[Welder Dave]

I was curious if the 811 was a rebadged 1900. Looks like it has some improvements/changes. Most noticeable is the main boom and cylinders moved outside. Doesn't have the adjustable stick pivot either. I'd guess higher pressure hydraulics so cylinders could be smaller and more efficient. Maybe better cooling?? Have read the 1900's would get very hot. Doesn't look like the 811 has any vents in the side doors.

 

[Deere500a]

90s Wagner made a carry dozer blade & in wood chips carry 100yrds Sad Cat 824 was dropped in the 80s money first customer 2nd

 

[Deere500a]

W&s Badger from the beginning but w&s had the 211 pilot control under the floor after Badger take over they moved the pilot controls wast high & the steel hard lines 16 came up trough the floor to feed the joy sticks boy your leg touch'em you would jump it's only 180* hydraulic oil running trough the machine.70s 211 my Dad's company was a 82 a 10yr old excavator design pushed against Hitich/Komatsu was dominating Im sure a sellman found a VFW said boy do I have a hoe for you or a lot of coke

 

[Deere500a]

No one has said buy Cat buy.90's Farm excavator was American brands if was a Caterpillars it was cheap auction cat junk 313/odd Belgium# or EL no dealer parts abandoned by dealership sold'em new

 

[nicky 68a]

Nicky what does that thing weigh?

I don’t know and don’t really want to know as I’ll then have a true value of from a scrap point of view.
That could go two ways……..

 

[nicky 68a]

Welder Dave,I agree that scrapping it would be dreadful

 

[John C.]

The Wagners were used here as wood chip dozers mostly at pulp plants. I worked for the Wagner dealer who was also the Drott dealer in those days. We only worked on the Wagner dozers because of the transmissions. The rest of the machines were bullet proof. There are still dead Wagner stackers and chip dozers parked in yards all up and down the west coast of the US. I appraised an operational Wagner CHD60 in 2013 with good tires at $17,000. That was also about the price to break it down and move it from Port Angeles to Tukwila.

 

[Deere500a]

Port of Oakland CA had 3 or more Wagner log loaders working I think the logs came in into the port on rail large piles of timber, loaders would grab set # of logs get sideways & wheel loader would shove into 40' cans going overseas. I p&d Hyster 360s couple times & take my 15 watching

 

[Deere500a]

Would be fun zip around with. Past see them sold with a kit qc,hoepak,hoeram & buckets plus a 6 way blade. Aftermarket conversion looks like a 690B early slide boom but a D idk if any Hitich was involved & being ex military for runway repairs have low hrs

 

[Deere500a]

 

[Pony]

Don't know if its still the case now, but years ago you used to see a few cat wheel dozers fitted with big stick rakes used in Western Qld.

Im guessing they were much quicker than a tracked dozer, hence the use with rakes.

 

[Deere500a]

Caddyshack 2 that gopher ain't getting away this time

 

[cuttin edge]

Be ok on hard ground. We had a jersey spreader. Fit over the blade of a tractor. Wheels on the front, truck backed in dumped in the box. Think it had steel rollers on the front like an asphalt spreader so you could push the truck. Be like an extra large box spreader except that it would push the truck. They re worked it to fit a large loader. Worked fine on hard ground, but once the loader was on top of the material it was spreading, it would spin

 

[ianjoub]

I don't know if this qualifies as giant, and not sure if I am considered homeowner as it went to 225 acres, but mine has been a great investment. It still runs perfectly. EC480

 

[CM1995]

Be ok on hard ground. We had a jersey spreader. Fit over the blade of a tractor. Wheels on the front, truck backed in dumped in the box. Think it had steel rollers on the front like an asphalt spreader so you could push the truck. Be like an extra large box spreader except that it would push the truck. They re worked it to fit a large loader. Worked fine on hard ground, but once the loader was on top of the material it was spreading, it would spin

Those used to be pretty popular here however the spreader was in front of a D6D or similar oval track Cat.

 

[BC Placer gold]

That's too nice to scrap! Maybe it could go to a museum? Could be made to push scrapers if they're still operating.

Clark Michigan were generally well regarded machines. 475's and smaller were fairly common. That's why Clark designed the 675. There was a downturn in the economy when the 675 came out though. It had some issues but that's to be expected with a completely new machine that was twice as big as their largest loader and nothing like it in the industry. Maybe too far ahead of it's time?? The IH 580 Payloader had a similar fate. Still have to give kudos to Clark and IH for designing loaders that were so much bigger than anything else. Same with the Champion 100T grader. If it came 10 years later might have had a better fate.

Thanks for the history…really interesting.

 

[cuttin edge]

Those used to be pretty popular here however the spreader was in frond a D6D or similar oval track Cat.

Same here. Ours was made for a d6 sized tractor. The dot changed their specs at one point, and a tracked machine was no longer allowed on the granular materials so they stopped using them. Used to be great for spreading 3 inch. They tried to make it work on the loader for that reason