Out and about in Mrs Mack

[mrsmackpaul]

 

Playing in the mud

 

 

Heading up the Newell Hwy NSW 

 

Paul

[Swishy]

gr8 pix Mrs

R U sure U aint part Abbo

U seem 2 go walkerbout alot n live a nomad life style

LOL

Keep @ it

cya

[mrsmackpaul]

More gypsy Swishman 😉

[mrsmackpaul]

Well it's on like Donkey Kong now

It's begun Mecho

So we don't have flash rotator jiggers but rather we have what have at hand 

So we grab Mals Traxcavator, Case 1150

Lifts heaps

First said gudday to Opera , aka "the black bitch"

Mal bunged the tipper back on her in recent times

Chucked the Traxcavator on and run it up to the unload site

Then drop it off

 

And head for home

 

Phase one complete

This trailer is bigger than Ben Hur I am gunna shift

Or at least try and shift, it will be the second biggest size thing I have ever shifted

Widest was 24 feet x 50 or 55 feet 

Will see what happens, might end up a complete cluster 

 

Paul

 

[mrsmackpaul]

Load number two

Sitting in a paddock waiting 

It really is 17 feet wide and at least 60 feet long

It isn't as big or even close to as big as the trailer attached to the big Mack 

 

Two normal bogie axle assemblies underneath, side by side

 

Farmer reckons he has a loader than might sort of lift one end

The rest is blocks of wood and jacks and winching

I'll be living the dream, I  really will

As a apprentice there was a sign in the work shop that read something like this

"We the unwilling have been doing the unbelievable with so little for so long we now attempt to do the impossible with nothing 

Kinda how I do everything, get into it and have a crack, I can only make a mess or succeed 

 

Paul 

 

[mechohaulic]

if my bad eye sight is correct; the dumper "opera" aka the black bitch is a short wheel-based R-700. sure would be great to see more pictures and specs on the "black bitch " always for me mind -boggling the major differences in equipment from U SA and the wonderful "land down under." 

[mrsmackpaul]

Yes Mech, the trucks look similar at first glance but after a few moments thats about all our trucks have in common with American trucks

 

600, 320  coolpower with a 12 speed and 44s in the rear

It's a lot lighter duty than my truck, chassis rails are shallower and so on

But is still a good performer

 

From many moons ago

 

Paul

[Swishy]

Mrs

Gudday m8

Gr8 project

bit hard 4 me to give advice not see n wotz go n on etc

fold the float down with the back bumper @ the end of the lump of trailer to haul

back the R model all the way up the float till the rear roller of the Mack is just over the RSend of the float

dangle the rope down and winch it up ........ then drive forward till it's @ the disired position ..  dump it down lift the float up

n all over red rover LOL

Either the mack will lift th@ end ....... or go back to plan A

cya

[mrsmackpaul]

Will take all advise and ideas Swishman 

Tah muchly, I'll report back tomorrow night 

 

Paul 

[Mark T]

I'm like'n the 1150 TC. They were quite the piece of equipment for their time. Rare sight here now.

[70mackMB]

Paul, What was the trailer your moving used for when it was new?    .....Hippy  

[mechohaulic]

4 hours ago, Swishy said:

Mrs

Gudday m8

Gr8 project

bit hard 4 me to give advice not see n wotz go n on etc

fold the float down with the back bumper @ the end of the lump of trailer to haul

back the R model all the way up the float till the rear roller of the Mack is just over the RSend of the float

dangle the rope down and winch it up ........ then drive forward till it's @ the disired position ..  dump it down lift the float up

n all over red rover LOL

Either the mack will lift th@ end ....... or go back to plan A

cya

say what ??? 😁

[mrsmackpaul]

5 hours ago, 70mackMB said:

Paul, What was the trailer your moving used for when it was new?    .....Hippy  

That I don't know

I feel it was a off highway trailer built for transporting big things around a construction site

Maybe as components were built up on some industrial construction site and then shifted into place

The blokes farm it is on feels it was built by Telecom (Australias telecommunications company) for shifting towers or big exchanges once they were built 

I think we are just guessing at the moment 

 

Paul 

[70mackMB]

Thanks Paul,  l was thinking pre-fab/modular home transport.    .....Hippy

[mrsmackpaul]

Hippy when I first saw the trailer I mentioned to the bloke Im shifting it for, "I know this trailer" 

"I reckon it was from when we built Loy Yang power station"

The bloke buying said it was a Telecom trailer for shifting something 

Anyway the blokes farm its on rolled past as we were loading and it is one of the trailers I thought it was for building Loy Yang power station, apparently it collected a bridge on the way up to the Riverina and stuffed the bridge and damaged the trailer

Anyway we loaded the trailer, the loader on the farm can lift a corner at a time

This trailer really is massive

The beams are huge and theres 4 of them 

There's a lot of pudding on the ass end of the float, the tyres have a wee bulge 

But it's on

So we hooked the loader on lifted a as much as it could, lift to the limit with crowd all the way back, the crowd forward, the lift a bit more, then crowd back 

The front tyres were a tad bulging 

Then back the float under a bit until a beam was catching on the float by about 6 inches

Then out with jacks and blocks of wood 

Jacked up until it was clear, then sat that trailer on blocks just above the front of the axles 

Then winched it and pulled it forward of the blocks of wood

 

Then more winching, then winching and pushing from the back until the front of the trailer was near the rear of the goose neck

Then I unlocked the goose neck and left it attached to the prime mover, trailer brakes on ans pulled forward until the goose neck was stretched out flat, then winched about 3 or 4 feet more until the Mack started vibrating abd jumping about and the winch stopped

So Mal took the loader around the back to give it a shove while I winched 

We pushed the Mack and float but the trailer in the back wouldn't budge

I studied hard what was happening and noticed the king had put a sizable dent in the goose neck with weight of it, so we lift the front of the trailer and chucked a couple of 4 x 4 bits of wood under the grease plate and winched it on

Then folded the goose neck up and locked it in

Chained it down and pulled the back axles off the trailer so the front axle can pulled to give us clearance 

Called to see if the pilot vehicles can come today, 7.00 am the next morning 

Thats fine

Chucked the other axles on top 

Dunno how heavy it is but its bloody heavy

So with the tyres off we are just over 5 meters not saying how much over but from hub to hub we are about 17 feet

Guessing its 55 - 60 feet long and weight is at a guess, between 15 - 20 ton or 33,000 lbs - 44000 lbs, our ton is different than a U.S. ton

Anyway Mrs Mack is tucked up away for the night

Shift it about 60 mile in the morning

 

 

Paul

 

 

[Swishy]

Welldun Mrs

nothing like a bit of

Push Shove Grunt n Groan

LOL

cya

[mrsmackpaul]

Well woke up all bright eyed and bushy tailed

Headed on over to kick Mrs Mack in the guts 

Rolled out onto the road to await the pilot vehicles 

Put air into the float tyres and checked lights and flags and normal stuff

The pilots arrived, we had a quick yack, then launched it

Then 30 km of gravel and dirt

Then stopped to check chains etc for hitting the main road

And into it Pauly boy, roal that coal !!

Some more secluded back roads but all bitumen

 

Then a very very, hang on capital letters VERY NARROW BRIDGE

ultra tight, tight as fishes ass, pilot vehicles and Mal were bloody brilliant 

"Back up, 2 inches to the left" 

"Pull right"

"STOP"

"Back up again"

 

Anyway you get the drift

The armco railing was squealing and kissing the load at times but we made it

Mal snapped this as I was exiting the bridge, Mal reckons there was a bit going on amd he was a tad busy to take happy snaps

Damage to the load

 

 

 

 

[mrsmackpaul]

Next was crossing state borders

Another bridge, fairly tight, mqybe 8 inches each side 

then rolled thru town thru the back door and back onto a main HWY in Australia before turning left, a really really sharp left

Pilot vehicles blocke the HWY and 3 or 5 point turn was done

Then a very tight drive

And breath in some more

Some helpers arrived in all shapes and sizes 

So we shift stuff about to make things a bit easier to get in

Then continue on

things are getting really really tight and all I have to do is back it maybe a few hundred feet, no room to swing so it takes a few goes

then this happens 

Mrs Mack finds a set of diamond harrows lying in the grass 

BUGGER ME

 

So I now have a flat tyre 

Not to worry, we quickly change the flat

[mrsmackpaul]

Dunno how much of this dribble you wanna see

So I back it in, Mal jumps on the Traxcavator 

I unchain the load and chain it onto the Traxcavator 

Mal has his grandchildren as helpers 

We then drag the trailer back so George can put wheels and axles on it over the coming week

For me, doing this stuff is fantastic fun, could of done with out the flat tyre though

But helping out good people with good mate Mal, life really doesn't get much better

Will report more in a week or so

 

Happy days everyone 

 

Paul 

[70mackMB]

Excellent job Paul, well done! The second narrow bridge you passed thru was that some type of a draw/lift bridge? And what is he going to do with the trailer on the farm? Thank you for the videos and ride along.    .....Hippy 

[mowerman]

Yeah, that was excellent. Thank you for that. 

[mrsmackpaul]

4 hours ago, 70mackMB said:

Excellent job Paul, well done! The second narrow bridge you passed thru was that some type of a draw/lift bridge? And what is he going to do with the trailer on the farm? Thank you for the videos and ride along.    .....Hippy 

That second bridge is a lifting bridge to fit paddle steamers under on the Murray river

 

 

The trailer is going to have a house put on it 

This area floods every so often (10 - 20 years or so) and as such the local governments are making it hard for people to build houses

So this will allow a house to be there that can be towed out of the way in floods

Over the coming weeks I'll get the house on the trailer, get the trailer roughly were they want it and that's the end of my involvement 

Paul 

[mrsmackpaul]

Oh and the video's all got a bit mucked up

 

Seeyah 

 

Paul 

 

[mechohaulic]

13 hours ago, mrsmackpaul said:

Dunno how much of this dribble you wanna see

So I back it in, Mal jumps on the Traxcavator 

I unchain the load and chain it onto the Traxcavator 

Mal has his grandchildren as helpers 

We then drag the trailer back so George can put wheels and axles on it over the coming week

For me, doing this stuff is fantastic fun, could of done with out the flat tyre though

But helping out good people with good mate Mal, life really doesn't get much better

Will report more in a week or so

 

Happy days everyone 

 

Paul 

I'm sure I speak for many here on BMT;;  enjoy watching EVERY bit of this move . and also my "hats off" to YOU as one heck of  a professional driver. we all know the move was much easier due to fact it was done by a MACK LOL

[mrsmackpaul]

Mecho I was thinking yesterday as U was toodling along in my old bucket of bolts

Just how impressive this really is, a truck nearly 45 years young, the float 55 years young, doing a job no one else would even do

Apparently a lot of people have looked at shifting this trailer but it is all to hard

The people I shifted for I have known since they were children, of known the lady that I delivered it for, for even longer, she was our vet on our dairy farm

All of them good people, we aren't rich, we aren't flash, we are just the average Joe trying to get along in life

The couple approached me last November about this, 

"So do you think yah can do it"

My answer, "sure, piece of cake"

No idea if I could but thought, why not ?

But a truck nearly 45 years old doing a difficult job that no one else would even attempt 

That to me is pretty impressive 

She's a good old bucket of bolts that proves that these Macks in my slightly biased and uneducated opinion are the very best of the best ever made, hands down without a doubt, they really are that good 

 

Paul