Single Engine Scraper Action, Push Loading v Self Loading

We love a bit of scraper action here on the Digger Man Blog, and judging by the collective stats surrounding last week’s Sydney airport post, so does our audience, as it’s gone off the scale! So, with that kind of appetite for the topic, today we bring you another feast of scraper action, this time from our good friend Pushysix aka Scott Colclough.

Scott has been out on a project in Calgary with long established local business Kidco Construction, with whom Scott used to work for in the past. On this particular job Kidco have deployed a number of their 44 cubic yard, 651E single engine motor scrapers, essentially like the largest model in the Cat range the 657 but without the rear engine.

In this video’s opening scenes, we see the traditional way for single engine scrapers to be loaded, in this instance assisted by a Cat D11R with cushion blade arrangement.

In the video notes Scott talks about the fact that contrary to popular opinion, single engine scrapers can actually self-load without a pusher, it’s just that it’s a super slow way of doing things. But if the conditions are right and the dozer is down for a bit, these giant machines can keep some form of production going, until the pusher is back in play again.

Scott also points out that self-loading requires very experienced operators in the seat, as its essential to avoid wheel spinning, which can be extremely costly in terms of premature tyre wear.

This is a fantastic bit of footage, and its great to see a female scraper operator doing a fantastic job on these amazing machines.

Thanks for the share Scott!