My tools ride in style...

Someone let my secret out, and I just can't hide it anymore so I'm coming out of the shop closet. I'm a jackleg mechanic and my favorite tools are vice grips, a cresent wrench, and a BIG hammer. Wether I'm a Jackleg, a jacka$$, or whatever, my tools ride in style. Since everyone is always posting pics of their favorite "toys" I thought I'd take this opportunity to post a pic of the truck I use to keep many of the tractors around me up and running. The truck pic was made about 9 years ago, right after I brought it home, and was made before the logo was put on the door. Since I think the logo really makes the truck I'll include a pic of it too. For those of you not familiar with the older cranes the one on the logo is a 30B Bucyrus Erie. Dad worked for the local A/C and BE Dealer back in the 70's/80's and he and I are about the only ones around here that still mess with the old friction machines so we thought it was a pretty good logo to use. Plus we both always just loved the look of a cable operated front shovel. Their cool to look at and even cooler to watch operate.

Since I get asked all the time "what is that?" by people standing right next to the truck I'll go ahead and explain the layout you can see in the pic. The gray box sitting right behind the cab is a 4 cylinder Hatz engine in their Silent Pac enclosure. It runs a two section pump to supply hydraulics for the 11,000lb capacity Autocrane and it's outriggers as well as a Van-Aire, hydraulic driven, screw compressor supplying 75CFM @ 150psi. The compressor is the white box just above and behind the Hatz and sitting in front of the welder. This was done to save fuel and keep alot of hours of idle time off the main engine caused by running a PTO driven hydraulic pump for everything.

Now that I've figured out how to post pics I'll have to post more often and share some of the other interesting stuff I see out there in the field sometimes.



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WHAT no polished alum buds and no 7 inch chrome stacks . But still a nice set up.

Nice ride, Wayne--always like reading your posts, and by all means post more pictures of the old junk--err--valuable antiques--that you get to work on. What's the welder--a Big 40?

Sweet ride... If someone shows up on my job in a rig like that I can be pretty sure they aren"t just messing around. I"ll bet the Hatz is a fuel sipper too. My vote for the welder identification is a Trailblazer 300.

Any market for those old cable machines ? My uncle has several, but likely in poor shape by now as he hasn't had his gravel pit open for many years now. In OHIO He could really operate one of those and made it look so smooth and easy. I never ran one,but imagine it wasn't as easy as he made it look. Lots of levers and pedals to push and pull.

Nice looking setup, Wayne!

NC Wayne, that's a nice ride... but what interested most was the shovel. I got a job as an oiler on a Bucyrus/Eire back when I first got out of the Navy. Was working for Hoover Construction and it was good duty. I kept it clean as a pin. Never became an operator but could fool around a little. Like tractor vet says...get some alumin wheels for the truck and you'll be sitin' jake.
Don

My momma's folks are from Concord- Vance Street. Know any Barnhardt's?

Nice set up Wayne!

Is that Hatz power pack pricey?

Good idea to save hrs. and fuel on the road engine................

Man, that is a nice rig. A guy like me, who is always tearing something up needs, something like that. That is really sweet. I guess I'll just keep my little Craftsman box with my vice grips channel locks, adjustable wrench and hammer!

I should be as bad of a repairman as you! LOL

Son-in-law is stationed at FT. Bragg. Just got back from Afganistan. Daughter and family is moving down there in next 1-2 months.

Great looking rig. If'n ya want to come to Illinois, I could keep you busy for a while.

You must know what you're doing. There's a few bucks sitting there. It's so much nicer having everything you need to do a job properly. You probably have more tools and equipment on your truck than most people have in their shop. The operating engineers training center is real close to my land and they have an old cable hoe sitting there. Can't remember what make. It's smaller and not a B/E. Dave

To bad it's not on a different chassis, that FL series Freightliner is one of the worst ideas Freightliner had, not saying they had any good ones. Work with a fleet of over a hundred trucks from GM Topkicks, Oshkoshs, L 8000 Fords, Internationals, and Sterlings. And then Sterling makes an Acterra newer version of FL series. Good thing you travel with your tools. chris

What do you do in the mud? My service truck is only worth about 1/3 what that thing is worth but were I am from if you dont have 4x4 you dont get the equipment fixed.

Good looking truck!Nothing wrong with Freightliner either.

When I got out of High School, I worked a a quarry that used a North West #45 shovel to load trucks. Got to try it out but operator didn't want to many guys to know how to run it. Brother just bought a Koehring 304 dragline for his gravel pit last year. I get to try it out now and then. Mechanic we get has a Freightliner about like yours but he has to use the truck engine for air and hyd. All you need is a sleeper on it.

Some days i wish i had a service truck like that, right now my service truck is an 1981 Ford F-350 flatbed. My toolbox stays on the truck, but if i need anything else, I have to get it out and set it on the truck. I really should get a better setup now that I am operating heavy equipment full time.

Nice ride, anyhow. Freightshaker sure does build a good fleet truck.

Suprisingly enough in the time I've been running this truck I've only had to be pulled 4 times that I can remember that it wasn't planned, and there have also been several times when I was pulled in and out on purpose. That's one of the reasons I carry a 12" piece of 1" cable with two loops and a couple of 10'long, 4"wide, 4 ply straps with me all the time, along with a ring of keys to fit just about anything that moves. If there is a running machine on site big enough to tow 32,000lbs I'll never be stuck for long.

I had been told to steer clear of the Freightliners when I started looking for a truck and had initially gone with a 4900 series International with a 210HP DT466. When it got stolen before we even took possession of the completed vehicle I started looking again. This is a FL106 that has a double frame of a higher tensile strength than the usual business class trucks. It's also got a 275HP Detroit Series 50 engine instead of the underpowered 5.9 Cummins that were so problimatic in these trucks. I figure since the series 60's are one of the longest lived engines on the road today the 50 ought to be pretty good since it's basically identical except for cutting out two cylinders. Back that up with a MD3060P Allison and she runs like a dream and gets pretty good fuel mileage too for a 30,000lb plus truck.

NAH, I stay way to busy to have to take time to polish them...Heck I even have to put mother nature to work just to get her washed. I tried to keep it clean in the beginning but it was a lost cause. All it takes is about 10 seconds beside of a rock drill and you feel like you've wasted the hour it took attempting to get it clean.

The market pretty much depends on the size and age of the machine. There is a small market for the older machines with manual controls with guys that like to collect and play with them and/or use them for small personal jobs. There is a bit bigger market for the same machines that are a little newer and have air controls among the same crowd. There is a market for the larger air controled machines to be used as draglines or for dropballing but it's small and around here still shrinking. Seems you can't find operators for them because they want cabs with A/C and just want to move a joystick, or they'd rather run a long stick trackhoe for the same reason. A "lever puller" can run a trackhoe but it takes a real operator to run a dragline. Then they get knowked out of dropballing for the same reason with the operators as well as because of the big hydraulic hammers they have nowdays. If you want to sell some of the old equipment try looking somewhere like the HCEA site, or IBDozing, or one of the other sittes more related to heavy equipment. I'm sure someone can use the machines you've got either as a play toy or for parts.

I think the price for a new 4 cyl HATZ when the truck was setup was in the $15,000 neighborhood. The first truck had a 3 cyl bought from the Surplus Center for about $3000 but it got stolen with the truck. I found this one used, online, for about $3000 and spent maybe $2000 getting the starter and alternator rebuilt, changing the injectors and dry rotted lines, replacing the seals in the shutdown mechanism, and getting a OEM control panel for it.

I love the old NW machines. Dad and I have done more on them nowdays than on the BE's, particularly the 80D's, 95's and 9570's. We've got one customer with an 80D with a front shovel attachment and he recently bought a 190D for draglining that he's gonna have us get going for him as soon as he can get his money right. Still alot of the old machines around if you just know where to look, and even thenthere's alot more than that you'll never see unless you get the call to fix it.

I know where Vance street is and I've heard the Barnhardt name around the area but don't know that I know any of them personally. If you ever get down to visit look me up.