Shaun Hall has once again delivered some fantastic photos for us all to enjoy here at Digger.
One of the most impressive pieces of equipment is the Le Tourneau L2350 wheeled loader which is currently working at Cape Preston in Western Australia.
Designed to center-load haul trucks with capacities of up to 400 tons, the L-2350 provides an operating payload of 160,000 pounds, a 24-foot lift height, and an 11.5-foot reach.
In this photo the L2350 is covered in a cloud of dust as it discharges the contents from its 53 cubic yard shovel into the waiting MT4400 AC electric drive Terex dumptruck!
The loader has a massive and powerful 2,300 horsepower Detroit Diesel or Cummins engine and this power is needed when you consider the amount of aggregate that the loader will shovel and lift to deposit into a mining lorry.
In this photo we see the L2350's smaller sister the L950 loading a MT3300 dump truck.
In this photo we see Shaun stood by the front wheel to get some scale of the size of these machines! Le Tourneau and Firestone claim it is the largest tyre in the world situated on the world's largest loader. The tyre, fitted on a Titan rim, has an overall diameter of 4 m (13 ft), a width of 1.78 m (5.83 ft), and a total mass of nearly 7.3 t (8 tons).
The L-2350 can actually load a four hundred ton truck in just 5 passes or a 320 ton truck in only 4 passes and at this rate mining productivity is very fast, an 80 ton truck of course is filled in just 1 pass.
Shaun is seen here stood in the 53 cubic yard bucket of the L2350 which weighs 65 tons empty!
Comments (1)
Jeez, I'd give a weeks wages for an hour on this ride!
Posted by Slewring | September 19, 2009 3:05 PM
Posted on September 19, 2009 15:05