Worked for groves in the late 70s triple sixes were used in Dansville Mount Morris Geneseo
Do you have any pictures you can post?
Hi, Busso20.
I don't have any of the S. J. Groves machines but here are some others:
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
That's my backyard. Did they work on the Mt Morris dam and/or 390?
Hi Deas, some good in action pictures there, they remind me of a few I have seen of Bell Brothers building Aloca dams in Yarloop and Pinjarra
Hi, Buss20.
Did you know that Bell Brothers had 2 x Hough D500 rubber-tired dozers and the only DD9G ever to come to Australia on the Pinjarra mud lake project? I 'ackshully' got to see the DD9G in Wigmores in early 1969 just before it was delivered to Bells at Pinjarra.
On another note, Bells were at that time the Michelin distributors for Western Australia. The D500s arrived with GoodYear tires and Bells wouldn't put them to work without 'Michies' on them so had 4 tires FLOWN out from Germany and fitted to the first one while they waited for more tires for the second one.
The first one went down to Pinjarra and started push-loading scrapers. It hadn't been at work very long when a D9G dozer swung around and put a corner tip through a BRAND NEW MICHELIN TIRE, one of ONLY four in the country.
I believe that D9 operator was given a new job - - - - looking for a new job.
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Hi, Folks.
Re 666s in Australia, from what I can gather, only one company ever had 666s in Australia, Hunter Valley Earthmoving, in the Hunter region of New South Wales. I don't know how many they had but I have heard that they were 666As. They also had some 660As.
Hunter Valley Earthmoving also bought the Bells DD9G when Bells retired it. Bell Brothers had a policy of 'retiring' their frnt line machines after 3 years back in those days. HVA apparently eventually split the DD9G into two single machines as I have seen photos of parts of the DD setup laying on the ground on a job site.
Here izza link to an earlier discussion here on the BB;
https://acmoc.org/forum/discussion/deas-plant-666-scraper-info
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Deas,
Thank you for the link and a good read, yes the magic of the corner tip is always profound, My dad was buying tyres from Bell/michelin for trucks, when management decided to sell off the block they had on Kalamunda road (retread shop) the branch manager got a visit from purchaser and dropped the line it will be good in a few weeks time we will be moving in. Up the ladder forgot to pass on the land had been sold, I think it was around the time cat took the dealer ship off Morgan? (bond)