Remote Control Bulldozers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXW9odusKew

https://www.equipmentworld.com/roadbuilding/article/15749814/remotecontrol-cat-dozers-excavator-tackle-landslide-video

You can do a search - Caltrans - Big Sur remote control Bulldozers.

Imagine the impact on operator safety this technology has generated.

For those that are not aware, much of the California Coastal Highway system is always moving, compounded by steep and unstable ground. This is a massive problem to keep a highway open and safe for the public.

I can recall seeing a bulldozer operator on a D4, anchored to a D8 winch line working on a slope so steep he could not reverse direction, was pulled back by the winch line! The term was "yo-yo" if I recall correctly. That was on US101 south of Crescent City, Ca, an area that is constantly slipping to the ocean.

cts

cts

Hi, CTS.

Some of the mines DowNunda have been using RC 'dozers since the early 2000s. The last 'Kummagutsa' D575A dozer ever built was assembled from the factory spare parts inventory after actual production had ceased specifically for RC control for Alcoa Aluminum at a bauxite mine in Western Australia in 2012.

Komatsu received ZERO orders for any of these machines after 2007 until Alcoa asked for their machine in late 2011 -delivered and assembled on site in 2012.

There are several mines using RC D11s or D475s in Australia. Many of these machines are used for reclamation/restoration work as mining operations move from one section to another.

With all of that said, I still think there is NOTHING to beat having one's own personal gluteus maximus muscles firmly planted on a patch of vinyl in control of these machines.

Just my 0.02.

Hi Deas, we had a D11T at Boddington set up to go full remote, it was used to clear the edges of pit during cut backs to get the remote drills in to start the next blast hole drilling, the machine had plenty of work required due to no operator no feeling of what the machine felt, more like self destruction to the machine.

Hi, Busso.

I have never been a fan of remote control for the reasons that you have just listed plus there is no operator with their favourite rump steak IN THE SEAT listening to and feeling the machine, part of which comes under your comment about feeling what the machine feels.

The 'ex-spurts' try to tell us that it is all about operator safety. I spent 58 years operating MANY different types of heavy equipment, much of it on bulldozers, only EVER wore a seat belt on ONE particular job on ONE machine, and never had an accident or lost time injury - or caused any - and never even gave myself a good fright. Not too many can match that record.

Azza side note, the ONLY reason that I wore the seat belt on that one machine on that one job was that it was a non-standard air ride seat which left the seat cushion almost the same height as the arm rests - nothing left to hold me in the seat while side cutting 1.5 in 1 batters. The view was GREAT though. And the machine was VERY stable too, a wide gauge Cat D5B with ROPS and rippers - wunna the nicest trimming machines I have operated - for a dozer.

Safety is NOT justa set of 'rools' or fancy gadgetry. The basic fundamental of ALL safety is 'ATTI-TOOD'. A good safety attitude involves awareness - knowing where you are and what you are doing and knowing where anybody else working close to you is and what they are doing - thinking about possible consequences of what you plan on doing and how to avoid the 'disastrous' ones, KNOWING your equipment's capabilities and limitations AND your own and sticking within them - and doing all of these things 'on the fly'.

Just my 0.02.

Very well said Deas! But it takes years of that rump steak in the seat. The big time companies want that new green kid, cause he show at least a few days for less money.

I don't think I was in danger, but then again. But they happen so fast no time to think. The last one climbing steep slope in a walnut orchard. A quartering direction up, the dang rows never stay with the contours of the hills. Top track hits a big piece of limestone no traction on the top track. The bottom one in nice loam. I grab hydraulic control close that disc up. Then I have engine oil poring out the breather, only took a few revolution of the bottom track to dig a big hole. It is time to stop and back out of that hole. An old D6 9u is about as stable as your going to find. But your laying over pretty far to get oil out of the running out of the breather. Yes it took about a gal of oil to get the crankcase back to full.

No need to worry the walnuts are long gone. We have more wine grapes that nobody knows what to do with.