Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

I'll be out in garage tomorrow and take some measurements for ya.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Sorry about delay Steve,, I just forgot to do it!!

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psqumtjxj5.jpg

16.5" to top of canopy, depending on how high a load can be heaped up that's the minimum height clearance.
http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...pserkuidtx.jpg

24" wide gives me about 2" clearance on either side for width

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psbftd5juk.jpg

Over all length is 3'. The bed is just under 24" long without canopy. And sharp rocks being dumped in will be good, put some wear scratches in her!!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...pssk58llyc.jpg

Working on hooking up lights to the ex

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psbuj3eald.jpg

And made some line guards for the excavator hydraulics.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Thanks for the measurements. I didn't realize how big that bed was.:eek:
Another size needed is the wheel base and width over the rear tires, also the clearance under the bed lip dumped to ground and to back of tires.
I checked my crusher and there is about 14'' between the flywheels and overall width is 22" x 36" long.
I think I have the same wire cart as you and it's about 17"W x 29"L That I am trying to compare.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

That's a monster of a truck what are you gonna load it with? Are you gonna make a machine for it?

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Hi

Looking very good cannot wait to see some video action of this beast when fully decaled and out on the job .:)

Thanks

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Will get those for you today hopefully.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Thanks, I wanted to build the biggest cat haul truck but size does matter!! This one is the biggest I could make and still be able to load it with the converted 4200 excavator. It may take a while to load but moving and unloading will speed things up!!lol!!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Me too!! Ground is frozen here and temps cold, will be running it at a show in a couple weeks, hopefully I can take some video:)

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

RW, After seeing your measurements, I looked at the specs for the 785D and it appears you have it scaled 1/12. I am guessing your tires are about 17" wide.
I'm going to make the loading ramp above the flywheels and make a bigger hopper on the crusher.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Hi

Those line guards look very good
:):):)

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Wanted to wish everyone a merry christmass and happy holidays!!

It's been a good year and am thankful for all!! Unfortunately we recently had to retire one of the shop helpers:(. He had developed some sort of cancer and was declining very fast so he may be having some wonderful party somewhere but we will miss him!!
http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...pszzaudldk.jpg

RIP, skyler, that's him and his little brother that now has some big shoes to fill and alot of workshop learning to do!!

It's still a good time of year and hope you all appreciate what you all have and when it comes to our hobby enjoy what you have and keep wanting and creating more!!!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Merry Christmas to you to !

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Merry Xmas to you too

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

I'm sorry you had to say goodbye to one of your family members/employees.:(

Merry Christmas to you, the wife and fur babies!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Merry Christmas, sorry to hear you lost your shop foreman, he was a cutie, looks like you found a couple good replacements though.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Never gets any easier saying goodbye, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. :(
I want to say your dumper has come a long ways, you've outdone yourself on this project! It simply looks stunning! Hats off to you sir.

Have a happy new year :)

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Thank you all!!

Well the other night I hauled the haul truck up to friends for them to look at. My buddies children were having a good time testing the abilities of the haul truck. Kid tested and kid approved!! The bed does dump faster and higher but I was going slow as to make sure no fingers or toes got into any pinch points.

http://youtu.be/cYJsKGKfj2w

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Hi Cooper

Great clip puts the dump truck into perspective and show is larger amount of raw power.

Nice job

:):):jaw::jaw:

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Lol,, after cabin fever and some interest in the haul truck I am waiting on a couple big crates from tormach :). Possibly in a week and a half. And that is a bitter sweet issue,, sweet,because I'll have a big new toy , bitter because I have no clue how to use it!! So some serious learning to do!! And I thought partical physics was a hard subject, looking into learning CAD and CAM programs,,,,,, I think I would rather go back to learning molecular genetics!!! Guess I'm going to need to reopen that rolling account at the local beer distributor. !!!! It all makes perfect sense when you are pickled!!! Lol!! Just need to learn to hit the "run program" and run away!!!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

I'm so jealous! There was a used(but nearly brand new) Tormach CNC mill for sale locally about a year ago. The guy had receipts for over $20K worth of goodies and wanted $12500CAD for it. It all looked brand new. Someone told me I should go and buy it but as per usual I didn't have the cash so I didn't. It sold within 2 weeks of being posted. I still don't have the funds but I've kicked my *** for not "finding the money" ever since. You already have some design experience so I'm sure you'll be fine. Part of my hesitation was that I have none at all and would have to start from scratch with the expense hanging over my head. Now being on the wrong side of the fence, I could be out of business very soon anyway thanks to Trump Doggy so then the mill would only be a toy. Everyone knows I just hate having toys.....:rolleyes:

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

You talked about it all weekend and now you "gone and dun it"! Good luck. Of course, when you get fancy tools the expectations go up. After seeing the 785 in person, I'm not sure how much "up" is left!

Ken

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Is it too soon to setup a shop tour schedule and signup sheet?

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Reg, I've been looking for a while and never find any deals like that!! Was going to source parts and try to do a conversion but the lack of my knowledge and limited learning capacity got the better part. Figure if I have to learn how to operate it with the cad and cam software it doesn't leave much room in my head for figuering out how to build one!!

Had a great time talking with you ken!! Wish we talked a little more, always have my head in a swivel at the shows!! Lots going on!! At least this time I remembered to eat, at least Friday and Saturday:)

Any time you are over my neighborhood Jim just let me know and I'll cut the grass in the field!! Perfect landing strip, well couple groundhog communities might pose a problem!! But if you are ever over here and have the time/room I would love to ride along!! Just something about flying that I enjoy!! I thought you flew in commercial to the area, I didn't realize that you actually flew yourself , damm cool!!!!!

Anytime anyone is around here just get ahold of me , welcome to stop by!! I'll let the little dogs out and keep the big guy in fence, when I can put my whole head inside his mouth he gets a little more respect!! And he is super protective of my wife, not a bad thing, never worry about her when she is walking two 160-180 pound doggies!!

Haha, bigger expectations?,, naaa. I'll just be able to make a better square block and cost a lot more to do!!!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psy8imzd5w.jpg

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psrkvhp1lc.jpg

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4ivkcqjp.jpg

Had such a good time at the show the boss at Great Dane construction company decided we need to expand the fleet!! In process of making three new sissor neck trailers:). Good project for the new metal cutter coming. And also get to tig some steel!! Have been looking forward to working on some steel with the tig torch after all that alum!!!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

any chance u going to sell these trailers

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

I had a look back through some stuff and it was $12400USD OBO he wanted for it all. He had the 4th axis and a lot of tooling. Probably would have served me well now but hindsight is....:mad: Anyway, Looks like you have some projects going. I've had a number of people ask me about building that sort of thing lately. I have said no every time because I don't have the tooling or the time to start from scratch on that. Should I point them in your direction???? I would be happy to do so:D. Get ready for the tire kicking to begin!:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

hey thanks for your interest, ill send you a message :)

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

with all that, that would have been a good deal!! door is always open for tire kicking!!! just not sure how much air is in um!!! lol!! ill have to shoot you an email, haven't busted you nutt eater in a while!!!:lol::lol::lol:

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Ha! Be careful what you wish for.lol Lots of people on Facebook that will kick and deflate your tires. Very few will inflate your bank account. The forum here has been much more productive for me. Not everyone buys but the ratio of serious modellers to looky loos here is great. Almost everyone here that has contacted me about a project has eventually had me do a build even if it wasn't what we originally talked about. This is a great spot to get the ball rolling! I wish you luck and I'll be waiting for the ball busting email...

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Welcome to the dark side ..lol ..Once you get the hang of it you will be thinking why didnt i start this a long time ago ..Cant wait to see what comes out of the shop a year from now ..What software do you plan on using ..Myself I am using Bobcad . .not that impressed and they bug the crap out of you to upgrade ..hobby use was around $600 if i remember correctly .One good thing that I like is to simulate the tool path before I start the program ..good habit to get into and start with slow feed speeds so you can stop if need be .If you can get your hands on solidworks go for it ..There is a bit of free stuff available like fusion 360..i have been dabbling in it for my 3D printer ..Congrats buddy and if you have any questions feel free to ask ..I am no expert tho lol .. good luck RW

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

http://youtu.be/oTcXiPWJxP4

This is the only video I have of that trailer working.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

I've been using fusion 360 for making parts to 3d print. Far from efficient at it, but slowly getting down the learning part of designing the part. I've messed around with setting up parts for milling in the cam part of it. That's where I need to do a lot of learning. I may even take a couple day class. If closer to home I already would have but closest classes are 3 hour drive. Anything local is basically enrollment for a semester. And if I compare that time to me playing with it I'll probably figure it out befor class would be over. And only thing I hate about taking classes is they are usually targeted to a broad understanding and not as point specific as my learning needs to be. Nice thing about learning stuff in the computer world is you can always hit undo/delete!! And yes I do believe the simulate tool path is something I will always watch and detail.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Don't feel bad Reg, I bought multiple mills, shaper, lathe, and a tig welder last year.
No power in the garage yet! Must have patience!
Cheers!

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Can't wait to see what you'll be making with your new tools. As for software, you should also check out Vectric. Vectric Aspire should meet your needs.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Got a new toy for the shop,,

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7rdjkerk.jpg

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...ps44vr9xue.jpg

A spot welder!! I don't know how I didn't get one of these before!! 22g steel and I can't rip them apart the metal will rip before weld lets loose.

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

What make of spot welder is that?

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

Hi Cooper

Please show us a pic of the welder the out put looks great.

:)

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psi6lmfnya.jpg

http://i1357.photobucket.com/albums/...psyuqzjitm.jpg

The spot welder was from harbor freight. I got the 110 version but the 220v version was same price. Figure for what I'm using it's simple to just plug in wall outlet. The 110v states 1/8" capacity for welding and the 220 was 3/16 or something. 50% duty cycle. But the spots take about half second or less so more time positioning than welding. I know a guy that made one from a microwave transformer pretty simple but I would rather trust something factory made even from harborfright tools!! Works better than I thought! I can't pull, pry, or twist welds apart before the parent material would deform or rip. For my uses I don't mind getting the cheeper stuff for light or occasional use. Time will tell :)

Re: Great Dane excavating co.
 

I envy your shop you have quite the collection of tools :D Spot welder definitely could come in handy to have. Going to keep up with your lowboy trailer build I like the og one :cool: