New Cab Riser for 320D Excavator

Macauley Metals of Lower Hutt, has taken delivery of a new Caterpillar 320D Hydraulic Excavator fitted with a Goughs Engineering 2 metre cab riser and walkways.

The primary role for the 320D is to feed a bailer Macauley’s has on site. As the bailer is 3 metres high, this presents a problem for a standard excavator operator to view the work area.

Goughs Engineering worked with Macauleys to design a cab riser with walkways that would provide the 320D operator with excellent visibility of the feeding process for the bailer. The operator can then organise the feeding better and be more productive.

The unit has the advantage of being a tilt riser, with walkways that unbolt to enable easy transport without a pilot. Another advantage of the cab riser is that it enables the 320D to load out trucks with ease.

Goughs Caterpillar Wheel Loaders' customers have a major advantage - they can specify a custom-designed bucket that suits their application.

The addition of a new 950G for Solid Energy's Ohai mine for a load and carry operation called for a coal bucket that would maximise the coal handling function to keep the crushing plants full.

The customised 950G coal bucket designed and built by Gough Engineering has solved the problem and will allow for future increases in output.

The bucket is designed to have a shallow angle on the sidebars when in the carry position. This means the angle of the heap is also shallow so the load is not prone to falling off the bucket while travelling.

The 950G replaced a 938G with a similar size bucket but using the larger machine has improved cycle times, reduced fuel usage and for the operator is an easier machine to handle.

The current output from the crusher is about 170,000 tonne a year, which is used mainly in coal fired boilers. Antony Stodart, Processing Plant Manager, was impressed with the design of the bucket, its capabilities and the support that he received on the upgrade project from Goughs staff.

Customer Profile
Five Star Beef

Five Star Beef Ltd operates a beef feedlot at Wakanui, near Ashburton. The feedlot produces high quality beef for supply to the upper end of the table meat market, in essence Japan and Asia.
The cattle are fed a ration of up to 70% cereal grains, while the remaining ingredients include molasses, maize silage, protein meals (such as soya bean or canola), lucerne and straw. By controlling the diet they are able to produce beef that consistently meets the expectations of their customers, specifically with respect to marbling, meat and fat colour.
Feedlot statistics:

• Employs 26 staff
• Feedlot capacity - 19,500 head (currently just over 17,000 head)
• Cattle turnover - 30,000 head pa
• Feeding approx 250 tonne per day, approx 90-100,000 MT per year

Each ingredient is added to the feed trucks individually, with up to 90% of a batch being loaded by a single CAT 924Gz wheel loader. Because each batch is made to a specific recipe (by weight), the loader controls need to be responsive enough to provide the operator with a certain level of accuracy when adding each ingredient. Needless to say, because of the working environment, and because they operate 365 day a year, reliability, servicing and support are also critical.

The feedlot has a history with Caterpillar loaders stretching back to when the feedlot was first built. Since day one a CAT loader has been in use in the feedshed.

The new 924Gz arrived in late February 2006. Five Star Beef talked early on with Marc McSkimming about how big they could go with the bucket capacity to improve efficiency. Marc in turn asked Andrew Gallington, of Gough Engineering, to design something specifically for their operation. The result is they have a loader that provides more efficient handling and loading of ingredients.

The new bucket setup is also safer to operate at the silage bunk due to the increase in dump clearance at maximum lift. The superior clearance means that a ramp that they had to use with the old loader/bucket combo is now redundant. They have also found the Groenveld greasing system to be superior to the unit installed on the previous 924Gz.

Pictured from left to right; Jamie Skinner; Tony Nelson; George Keith; Stu Rattray.