Becket Dump Ropes Change out on Dragline

Cool I was part of the Engineering team at P&H, Pauline and Harnishfeger, in Milwaukee Wisconsin. We redesigned the arch, teeth, shrouds on the bucket and a guide of the foot on the house. As the foot moves backward it picks up the house just enough to clear the ground the foot lifts moves backward, the guide keeps it from wobbling, then drops down and the cycle starts again. The deadline walks kinda like a turtle. One of the best jobs I had around 1995 to 2000. The machine took 3 years to design and 3 years to build. It went to Australia.

Dang... when that bucket got lifted, it really did look like a monster came to life.

Hi. Brings back memories as Over 20 years ago I was a Fitter at Ulan out from Mudgee in The NSW Coalfields in Australia & on many occassions worked on The Marion about The Same Size. We Changed everthing from Buckets to Drag Ropes, Chains,The Head Pulley at The top Of The Boom ,IBS Ropes & used a D 11 as well as a 20 & 40 Ton Grove Crane however we also used mainly Land Cruisers except when it was really wet & The Job was Urgent then we used A Nissan to tow our work Trailers as they were much better in the wet. Also we used to Weld all The Links together to make Drag Chains which we called "The Jewellery".

Some people just like to complain. I’m happy that someone took the time and effort to post this. It’s something that very few people will ever get to see in person. Look at the links on the bucket chain. Bet just one link weighs 200+ pounds.

Man, thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together and share it. My father sold conveyer belt and belt cleaning equipment/products. He was centered out of Paducah Kentucky at the time. He took me to a couple of mines but I didn’t see anything like this. Wholly wowzers.

Dad worked on the maintenance of Draglines in South Africa in the 80's early 90's . I knew from his description they were big but my god to see it with men and machines by it to get a scale of thing WOW just WOW 👍👍👍

Top wire ropes off the end of the boom for the "Hoist" motion. Orients the bucket and either raises or lowers the bucket. Called "dump" here. The lower ropes are for the "Drag" motion. Pulled toward the machine to fill the bucket. Both are spooled on huge drums inside the machine just like a winch on your vehicle etc. but BIG!!😏 They are payed in or out simultaneously or individually by the operator to either fill or dump the bucket. The turning of the machine is referred to as the "Swing" motion. The machine moves itself with the "Propel" motion. Large electrical conductors are referred to as "Cables." "Wire Ropes" are used to support a load. These machines use huge electrical motors to run them. They remove the overburden/soil to expose the coal that goes to the power plant and produces the power for our lives. The machine actually digs to power itself...and us!!⚡⚡ Thank you miners! Be safe! Thank you power producers. Be safe! Go Wyoming Coal!!! Edited to say....Go Aussie miners and miners worldwide!!! Be safe! Good on ya!!👈💪🔥⚡

Ive seen plenty of these drag lines from a distance when i was working on the mines but to see one up this close-WOW those buckets are massive,way bigger than i thought.

I've seen these things on tv for years but never really knew how big they were until you put a D10 next to the bucket.

Interesting mate! I’m a mine boily and we look after 3 draglines and the way we do dump ropes it similar but a different to what’s in this video. Depends on weather it’s a broken dump rope or just replacing a worn one is to how low we have the sheaves. For a dump ropes that aren’t broken we set the sheaves about 5m of the ground to avoid tangles. All we use the oxy for is to cut out the retaining pins and to pull the becketed end out we use a 1 tonne sling fed up though the dump rope socket. We then pin the new dump rope at one end and then hook it up to the old one with a short chain and pull it though the sheaves. For broken ropes we lower the sheaves so we can get a 3tonne sling though and then feed the new ropes though that way. It’s interesting seeing how different sites go about there dragline rigging though

That's just a small machine. When I was a young boy I had a dragline that moved massive amounts of overburden. It was built by Tonka. I liked it so much I had those guys build me a stripping shovel, haul truck, road grader, and dozer. The dozer was the biggest unit ever built at that time. It was the same size as the haul truck!

Favorite part is when that bucket gets picked up!

I live in the "coal region " in PA. When the surface mine closed they abandoned these machines right where they sat. The largest was about the size of the one in the video. It sat mostly instact until about 20 years ago when steel prices jumped and it was worth scrapping. There were several of the drag line buckets that sat in locl scrap yards for years until steel prices rose enough to make it worth cutting them up into shippable sized pieces. The biggest drag line was known simply as "the crane" and if I remember correctly was manufactured by Bucyrus

Having done this procedure multiple times myself on a lot smaller draglines (Bucyrus Erie 15-B, 38-B, & P & H 1055), I think that it would have been nice to have some narration about the process and why it needed to be done for those not familiar with machines like this. That cutting torch is interesting.

Every one of those men seem to know exactly what’s necessary. Seems easy enough . That digger is a beast.

Wow. It's hard to imagine how large that bucket truly is until you see a D10 parked up against it on a ramp and the D10 looks small.

Great video. Finally saw how a spreader works

Amazing. There’s no other word for it. Amazing

Must be so fun to work around those huge machines.

From someone who has done this job countless times on a Marion 8900 155 cubic yard dragline, this job can be done a lot easier and faster. 1. Have one end of the dump ropes (the arch end) already socketed. 2. Set the bucket down on the arch and replace the dump ropes, sockets and all. And this is important because you don't want to put on a new rope on with a worn out socket and bushings. These sockets carry a lot of weight so the bushings wear really fast. 3. Let the bucket back down and lower the dump sheaves one at a time over the side of the bucket to feed the new dump ropes through the dump sheaves. 4. Then pull each dump rope up to the other sockets.