OzDozer
Senior Member
All Australian bullbars have a heavy section of steel bolted between the frames with a central tow point, that is supposed to be completely adequate for virtually all towing purposes.
However, as the old saying goes, they make bigger and better idiots all the time. In the early 1990's, a local haulage company rolled up to the Northern Goldfields of W.A. to haul a huge excavator away from a finished job.
They brought a large platform trailer behind a nearly new V8 Mack to haul the excavator, which was well over 150 tonnes (330,000lbs).
For some reason unknown to me, they built a ramp to load the machine onto the trailer - and when they did this, the D10 operator dug a depression in the ground to construct the ramp.
As you might expect for guys working hard without thinking - after they loaded up, the Mack couldn't pull the loaded platform trailer out of the depression in the ground, it lost traction.
So, with a whole lot more of "not thinking", these clueless but enthusiastic operators hooked the D10 to the central tow point of the Mack to give it the necessary assist out of the hole!
Someone stood back and videoed the whole operation, as the D10 walked away with the entire front end out of the Mack! - the bullbar, the front chassis cross-member, tow hitch, radiator and grille assembly all just fell on the ground! - and the Mack and trailer stayed right where they were!
The D10 pull simply sheared every rivet and bolt holding every part of the front end on the Mack!
I had numerous similar problems with operators doing damage to my machines with clueless chain attachment, when pulling them out of bogs - to the point I had some decals made up, fitted to the windscreen of every vehicle, reading, "THIS VEHICLE IS NOT TO BE CHAINED TO ANY MACHINE FOR TOWING PURPOSES, UNLESS TWO CHAINS ARE ATTACHED EVENLY TO THE FRONT SPRING PERCHES OF BOTH CHASSIS RAILS!"
I can recall seeing more than one front axle beam from others trucks, where clueless workers had slung a chain around the centre of the beam, and upon heavy pulling, had bowed the axle beam into a neat curved shape!
However, as the old saying goes, they make bigger and better idiots all the time. In the early 1990's, a local haulage company rolled up to the Northern Goldfields of W.A. to haul a huge excavator away from a finished job.
They brought a large platform trailer behind a nearly new V8 Mack to haul the excavator, which was well over 150 tonnes (330,000lbs).
For some reason unknown to me, they built a ramp to load the machine onto the trailer - and when they did this, the D10 operator dug a depression in the ground to construct the ramp.
As you might expect for guys working hard without thinking - after they loaded up, the Mack couldn't pull the loaded platform trailer out of the depression in the ground, it lost traction.
So, with a whole lot more of "not thinking", these clueless but enthusiastic operators hooked the D10 to the central tow point of the Mack to give it the necessary assist out of the hole!
Someone stood back and videoed the whole operation, as the D10 walked away with the entire front end out of the Mack! - the bullbar, the front chassis cross-member, tow hitch, radiator and grille assembly all just fell on the ground! - and the Mack and trailer stayed right where they were!
The D10 pull simply sheared every rivet and bolt holding every part of the front end on the Mack!
I had numerous similar problems with operators doing damage to my machines with clueless chain attachment, when pulling them out of bogs - to the point I had some decals made up, fitted to the windscreen of every vehicle, reading, "THIS VEHICLE IS NOT TO BE CHAINED TO ANY MACHINE FOR TOWING PURPOSES, UNLESS TWO CHAINS ARE ATTACHED EVENLY TO THE FRONT SPRING PERCHES OF BOTH CHASSIS RAILS!"
I can recall seeing more than one front axle beam from others trucks, where clueless workers had slung a chain around the centre of the beam, and upon heavy pulling, had bowed the axle beam into a neat curved shape!