Nice to see ol excavator

[Deere500a]

Checking map nice to she's still around 1982 Badger 211 Hopto,boom sitting in her cradle trailer ready to go. Dad past 5yrs ago property was sold cleared off. Truck has Triple nickel Cummins 13spd top drop axles & Badger 211 453 Detroit she floats down the hwy like a 30 ton Cadillac with 3 flat tires.

 

[Deere500a]

 

[dayexco]

my dad had a hopto 300 mounted on a ford cabover truck. made a bracket where the room rode forward over the truck cab.

 

[Deere500a]

Long stick have to have the dipper straight out to keep the bucket from hitting ground in the truck cradle but the upper was setup for that bucket against bumper with extra pair of tail lights above the counterweight but out gate it was to big of excavator weight wise need permit & the trailer carries the boom in float keep from overloading steer axle

 

[Deere500a]

03 My ride was better but not as fun on ol' man's property. Hopto was flat a ground machine it had remote drive from upper & to move first it releases spring brakes before ingauging transmission drive let go stick had wait seconds for air to dump reapply brakes so get to where need to be plant bucket before stop crawling & summer hard clay time couldn't get the smooth bucket to bite it would free wheel 6ft til brake set 30ton on grade that's fast she ever moved. Property ol dozer road 2/3 way up to house was over 20%grade new owner us per city had to cut down under 17% with Hopto & dump got done. 8' wide truck with big honey on top was fun experience off-road

 

[Deere500a]

 

[Deere500a]

Company had a 4' extension built & added on to the dipper if truck needed any more weight carry

 

[dayexco]

i neve

Company had a 4' extension built & added on to the dipper if truck needed any more weight carry
View attachment 359456

i never made it to their factory in Winona, but my dad and older brothers were there many times. picking up new machines, parts. My dad owned 3 different truck mount 200's..and one truck mount 300. then he switched to Drott. a 40 he had mounted on a twin screw ford truck, and a 50 that was on tracks.

 

[Deere500a]

211 couple yrs ago word was she was going to work at a scrap yard to failure & (my odds it would not make it to first break) cut up there but so far best I know she still sitting .Odd 200s still around I know of 3 long parked but excavators 300,500 disappeared by 80s SF bay area only seen 2 Hopto 550s after in the 90s 1 in a field other was painted gray working digging out a waste oil tank. Back 83/84 Dad had a job offer with Badger as traveling a sales demonstration operator for em but damn kids/wife 20yrs later he was telling me I told him I would've understand if went out for cigarettes not come back;-) Dayexco you grew up in a fun time equipment wise I was 20yrs late. Google search pic still see your ol' man's machine & couple of my mine I've posted in past

 

[Deere500a]

Drott 80 would have been fun to see

 

[Deere500a]

I remember specs for & why boom design it was built to stay under 12' tall for transport

 

[John C.]

We had many 80's in the woods. I worked for the dealer of them from 1979 to 1981. They used them for cleanup on the logging roads and working under the yarders. There were at least a half a dozen of them working all over western Washington. The swivels were the components that gave the most trouble.

 

[Deere500a]

Make sense the 80s I see are in the woods was thinking Canada not much of a southern west coast machine

 

[Truck Shop]

here were at least a half a dozen of them working all over western Washington.

Kittitas County had a Drott 80, used it for several years. A county shop mechanic I knew
IIRC they never really had any issues with it, but it probably didn't run that much.

 

[Deere500a]

Madonna in the seat stick holder. Hopto survival was the operator it's a road truck with excavator on top It's mess with your neck hairs bouncing around but it's controlled ol'man would get insulted on jobs because truck was bouncing-outsiders look at Johnny's pc300 crawler how smooth he no clue ol'man would get pulled to dig with pc300 around utilities safe get swap back to Hopto . After while he quit owner at our house begging without my dad hoe was quite divorce debt forced him to go back. Truck has 30k mi & over 16k hours greased it was cared for by operator. The pc300 were clapped out half time

 

[dayexco]

i've been to the case/drott proving grounds at tomahawk, wisconsin. pretty neat place.

 

[Deere500a]

Past Cali pertrolum work was a specialized field hand full of companies built gas stations. Truck mounted excavators were getting dwarf scale of modern stations bigger companies had dozen Hoptos 550 & crawler 900s some had 1900 or Koehrings don't remember model 1050? but it had triple boom lift cylinders long boom & stick to reach opposite side before fiberglass tanks it was all steel & tanks gone the hole had to be hog out chasing contaminated dirt/gravel the lot would be 2/3 dirt stock piled off gas til inspection ok it for off haul small area for excavator to work ol days Dad's 211 would be horse shoed in 3 sides dirt piled 20' high

 

[Deere500a]

211 was a country club flex 200 was small for the work my dad in time need 6' more reach a corner would have a trench plate welded to bucket scrape it closer most holes 20' deep square x' x x". Some stations change hands tank got bigger unknown tanks would be found next to em filled with a slurry mix ol'man have to rip the rusty steel tank apart in the hole. Late 90s digging out stations was gone replaced all fiberglass piping/tanks & wells installed pull vapor & burner on site similar landfill. Random pics

 

[Deere500a]

Rare but not uncommon to ramp down to dig it deeper with a crawler loader or backhoe digging far side with excavator

 

[Truck Shop]

Construction company I worked for, removing old leaking fuel tanks was the mainstay
for several years. I hauled lot's and lots of crapped out tanks. Then I moved here and
worked as a welder/fabricator refurbishing for airport deicing fluid storage. Arco made
huge profits off deicing fluid, company here had the supply contract for 11 western
states.