The Classic Machinery Network

Saw these on the net.They are custom built about 7 Cat 651E's and 2 Cat 651B's.They use Cat D4H trackchaines as elevator chains!

Built by Piacentini and son from Bunbury in the southwest of Western Australia.A lot of sand in west aus,Piacentini used to do alot of mineral sands mining,although those photo,s their in the Pilbara I think stripping top soil off for a new mine.The first of their own inventions was called a wabcat I think it was ,a cat front end and a wabco arse end with elevators and another motor,which basically was what a 659 would have been had it gone into production.Piacentini,s are clever people,if they need something they will often build it themselves,not wait for one of the major manufacture company,s.Piacentini the last I heard are the biggest privately owned earthmoving contractors in the southern hemisphere.Their website,s worth a look amongst lots of other gear they've got 80+ scrapers,from 633s to 657s,actually lot,s of 57,s.

Was the largest Wabco elevator the 353FT?
Dave

I don't know what the biggest wabco was Dave.Piacentini,s was a 651B front end with a 353 back end.They replaced the motors with big Cummins which is something they used to do a lot apparently,preferring them to cat motors.

Thanks Don - never seen one but the 353's seem pretty big machines.

I wonder how the size compares with the 657?

Dave

As far as i know there are only 2 scraper,s bigger than the 57 and they are both Cat,the 660 and 666.Could be wrong don,t know much about Wabco,s i know there were some really big machine,s in the 60,s and 70,s unfortunatly i did,nt see many of them.

Elfonz wrote:As far as i know there are only 2 scraper,s bigger than the 57 and they are both Cat,the 660 and 666.Could be wrong don,t know much about Wabco,s i know there were some really big machine,s in the 60,s and 70,s unfortunatly i did,nt see many of them.

There was the triple 657 but not for long!

Imagine that 3 of the big girls joined together.I think that was made by pederson or something like that.Another man with the funny name that starts L made a triple that was powered by electric motors which of course were powered up by a couple of diesel,s.Some very clever men in the earthmoving game

Piacentini also use D4 dozer chains on their 633D & 639D scoops.. they run a fixed lower idler and a pivoting arm with roller to get the adjustment, I asked one of their leading hands how long they get outta the D4 chains compared to the standard chains, his answer was they haven't worn any out yet!