Deas Plant,

It was great to meet the crowd from down under. I had so much fun seeing the old iron running. I was impressed by the good working order the 660 was in. It sure is more than yard art! Might have to find a good job for her now. You can come work for me any time.-glen

I must have missed that load Dp, most of the pushes I saw, the scrapers were stopped waiting for the push cat and then when loaded the pushcat stopped and let the loaded scrapers fend for them selves instead of pushing them outa the pit on the run.

Hi, Aaron.
Then I'd reckon you missed a few 'cos I only left a scraper twice, both times when they were still cutting when they should had oughta bin spreadin'. I also saw several of the other dozer operators giving their scrapers a boost out of the cut. I personally loaded Claney on the D6 9U and can probably 1/2 a dozen times in the way I described above and I shovelled a fair few loads on the 660 over the 3 days too, boosting it out of the cut each time.

Mind you, that D9G and the 660 were fairly easy to miss - - - if you were both blind and deaf. They were mostly moving targets too. LOL.

Just a note based on my own experience and that of a lot of other GOOD push cat operators - it is quicker, smoother and easier to pick up a scraper that is stopped than one on the move if you are using a semi-U blade. The trick is to have the scraper pull past the corner tip of the dozer by about a dozer length. As soon as the scraper is past the corner tip, the dozer can start moving across the rear of the can, slewing into the push block with the cutting edge at the same height as the bottom of the push block. When this is timed right, it can be done in second gear without throttling down and NO bump. It is rather dangerous for the scraper's rear tires trying this with an angle blade or a U-blade, but it works very nicely with a semi-U blade, thank you.

It is also more profitable/less costly to have the push cat(s) waiting for scrapers that to have scrapers waiting for a push cat.

BTW, my thanks to the owner of the D9G, whom I never did get to meet, at least not to know that he or she was the owner of the D9G. It is a good machine, handles well and has pretty fair 'grunt' too. Thanks again.

Hi, Glen.
Thank you. I'd like that. I also think that I may be over your way again when I can swing it. And I agree - that 660 is too good a rig to spend the rest of its life fenced in by petunias. What's more, the price sounds pretty right too.

It was a great show that really did live up to its name and I could not have wished for a better reception in a foreign country that very quickly felt like home. Thanks to all who contributed to that feeling.

The 3 x 660B's that I mentioned above were part of a sale lot of 5 - purchase price - $200,000 - - - for all five of them, $40,000 each, back in 1995-6. (Your STEAL beats that by a good country mile. LOL.) They were the survivors of an original order of 6 which, as I understand it, were the only 660B's to be imported into Australia new. One was totalled in a prang some years before that sale. They originally belonged to an Australian company called Thiess Contractors.

Deas,
Nice to meet you in Woodland and thanks for the tips/advice on dirt moving. Are you home yet or are you still wandering around the US?
Biggastractor

Hey Deas,

If you come back over the pond again, look me up. We will go have some fun.
I need to get Ed Akins 17-a hooked up to my 70 scraper. The first week end in August, Ed Ponte is having a play day. Might have to dig some holes:p . Might need you on a push cat again. Thanks for letting me get the chance to meet you Mate. -glen

Hi, Glen,
I'd love to be there for the play day but I think my bank expects me work for a bit to put some more cash into my account before I go tripping off across the puddle again. Also, we've got a 'little bitty' (by comparison) weekend coming up the last weekend in July about four miles down the road from home. Having said that, I doubt you've seen the last of me over there. I would really like to get back and have a bit more time to get around and meet more people and see more of your country. I'll certainly take you up on your offer too.

That D7 of Ed's is a sweet old girl. I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of hours that I had on it on the Friday afternoon. It pushes well too. The #70 pan will make it work but I think it'll handle it O.K..

Have fun for me too.

Hi, Biggastractor.
It was nice to meet you too and you are most welcome to the tips and tricks. It's just a pity there wasn't more dirt left to play with at the time. C'est la vie.

Yes, I'm back home now - in the 'real' world, back at work, etc., but I have a stack of memories and a stack of photos that I wouldn't have missed for millions.

Hi, Glen.
Are you going to try to get back to your post of the 660 at YouTube and change the name to Cat 660 scraper? Can't have all this misinformation going round. LOL.