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How often do you tow half a ship with your HET ?

USAFSS-ColdWarrior

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I was SO RELIEVED to see that the ship was being S T R E T C H E D instead of yet another BOB-JOB on Steel Soldiers' bandwidth.

On another note....

That HET is brute enough to haul boats bigger than Bubba's baby bass boat ! ! !

Great submission to the site.

Carry on.
 

zebedee

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Am wondering if there is a photo of the steel plate you mentioned put onto the 5th wheel. Interested to see how it is attached and whether it is designed to be easily removable. Am still looking into the ballast box concept for better bobtailed traction.
John - my flat bed is done, just need underside painting. Dummy king pin for retention/front support and reverse ramps for rear support. Self loading using winch like M870 hookup. Don't have working camera/smart ph at the moment...
 

USAFSS-ColdWarrior

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Let's remember to do the math on this ship movement.

The reality of it is that the true load is not the weight of the cargo but the FRICTION in the bearings. Overcoming the initial inertia (from stationary to any speed above 0) is the hardest part of the job. Even stopping will eventually happen regardless of braking capacity due to the bearing friction that just CANNOT be eliminated.

Carry on.
 
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Artisan

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I bet ya the truck is not doing the pulling, I bet
ya the main winch is. There are 3 winches on
the rear of a HET yes? The HET is prob
just a mobile winch platform. Pulling all
that w/ driveline will tear up a trans I bet.
 

Jeepsinker

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No it wouldn't necessarily. Temperature is what kills automatic transmissions, and crawling around as slow as it would be, using the truck's gearing, it should pull it fine and not be hurt. When it comes to something like this, either it will pull it, or the clutches in the transmission will slip and it won't move, or the torque converter won't build enough torque to move the truck or spin tires, and it won't go anywhere.
 

Artisan

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I would think that the slowest that truck will go w/
tranny locked up would be way to fast to pull "that"
load. We need more pics! :)
 

Tow4

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I bet ya the truck is not doing the pulling, I bet
ya the main winch is. There are 3 winches on
the rear of a HET yes? The HET is prob
just a mobile winch platform. Pulling all
that w/ driveline will tear up a trans I bet.
Looks like the tires are flattened a little in picture #4. Either the CTIS is set low or there is serious weight on the truck.
 

USAFSS-ColdWarrior

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My father was in the US Army, stationed in the Panama Canal Zone at the close of WWII. He became a avid fan of the engineering of the canal's operational components, including and especially the MULES that are used to pull (and brake) the ships traversing the locks.

As this thread's HET needs low tire pressures to assure traction for this move, the MULES in Panama are essentially a COG RAILWAY - not dependent upon the friction between steel wheels on steel rails, but instead a centerline "rack" (toothed "gear" engaged by the MULES' COG GEAR for "traction".

Check out these pics....
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en....0....0...1ac.1.64.img..3.15.2954.p-7doo8fjps

Carry on.
 

Castle Bravo

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What is the drive train of these trucks?
Detroit 8V92TA 500 hp 1470 lb ft torque engine > Allison CLT-754 5 speed transmission > Oshkosh 55000 2 speed transfer > Rockwell SVI5MR planetary 7.36:1 planetary axles in 8x8 config with 16R20 tires. The final drive ratio in low 1st is around 100:1.
 
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Hobart, WA
Biggest engine I have ever worked with was an inline 8 cylinder DeLaval Enterprise 3050 kW backup diesel generator for nuclear service. It was basically a tugboat engine certified for nuclear use. Not very reliable. One of the Enterprise engines broke a crank somewhere in the U.S., so they derated it from 3500 kW to 3050 kW (if memory is correct). I always climbed on top of the catwalk above the cylinder heads during startup and first running because they were known to sling rods on a few occasions causing multiple fatalities. Think it was 20" bore and 20" stroke. Woodward governor and a butterfly valve on the intake before the massive air/water intercooler in case of a runaway. Only run it an hour per month and 24 hours once a year. Huge turbo on it.

The other 2 backup diesel generators at the same nuclear power plant are EMD V16's, which are basically out of locomotives.
Ha ha - that brings back memories - those are the 8-DMRV5's - they were 17" bore and 20" stroke - the RV-5 killed Enterprise as there were quite a few crankshaft failures...

I still work with the grandfather of that engine - the 12 cyl - RV-3 (serial #1 and 2 from 1962 in the Alaska State Ferry Malaspina) and did a ton of work with the biggest of the big Enterprise machines the 16 DMRV-4 - all had the same bore and stroke - the vee engines used a slave and master rod arrangement that is similar to a GE only supersized...

They were fun to work on mainly because they made mechanical gods out of mortals - you have to put on your old school hat and harden the f up as they were not easy to make sing... 10,000 hp each from the factory and then de-rated to 6400 to keep them from coming from togetherness - I miss those old rock crushers!

Matt
 

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And some main bearing cap removal sequence for an idea of the challenges of servicing these machines - no head room and the cap weighs in at 250 lbs - the end caps had 6 studs and weighed 400lbs...

Creative rigging required and the cap only fit past the crank webs in one particular position - don't even get me started on the tensioning jacks as they were archaic

;)

Matt
 

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I'll try to get some more pics of the ballast plate arrangement but basically it is just sections of 2ft wide by 6ft long plate, maybe 6" thick that are stacked on the frame rails in the back - nothing fancy - each slab was around 4800 to 5000 lbs.

And yes the tires are running reduced pressure for traction, the tow was done directly to the pintle hook rather than the 5th wheel plate - single steel cable to a Y splitter and the first set of ship trucks just have 2" solid stock pegs welded to the frames (sections of trucks are braced to each other and the whole deal sits on timbers just like in a static dry dock arrangement.)

There are probably 80 or 90 wheels under the bow section on heavy rail (probably 120lb or 140lb rail) - it really doesn't take much to get it to move if the tracks are clean...

I am not sure but the ship is overall less than 5500 tons and the bow I would guess is less than 2500 tons...

Still super cool to see the process in action - just keep cutting and welding until it looks like a ship again ;)
 
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