They just get bigger and bigger! That's a baby to some of the engines they use in the real big dump trucks. The Cat 793's I drove at Cadia had 85 litre (and that's the second biggest Cat dump truck!) V16 making over 2000hp. Just made me cringe filling one up for fuel the first time. 4000litres for one 12 hour shift pulling out of the pit(half an hour to get to the top) they burnt 350 litres an hour (that was the fuel usage on the Vims computer in the cab).
The biggest engine I had driven was in my Kenworth before I started there, 14 litre Cummins rated at 230hp. The pit dewatering pumps used 500hp Cat C16(I think) motors. 5 worked in stages to lift the water all the way to the top.
You loose touch with reality in mining. It all just looks normal and when you see councils using Cat 12 graders and D7 dozers pushing gravel pits they seem like dinky little toys.
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I can't believe it's hard to find decent machine shops. It's going to be impossible in ten years time.
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