Pushing dump trucks with mini ex

[MrChuckles]

I should be taking delivery of a new KX040-4 mini excavator next week. I was wondering if it has enough weight and traction to push empty dump trucks up our hill. We've had about half the trucks able to make it and half needed to be pushed with a dozer because they would lose traction and start hopping when they spun. I know I shouldn't have, but I tried pulling one truck with my L3301 and it didn't work - not enough traction/weight.

Anyone experienced anything like this with a mini ex? If it doesn't work, I'll have to get a dozer for the duration of our construction project. The drive down to the lake is a steep quarter mile.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I highly doubt that that little mini will do it, and even if it did how much damage will or could it do to it.

Put a 1500lb weight on the three point of the l3301 and then it should pull it.

 

[BAP]

Same thoughts as Wolfman, not big enough machine for pushing a dump truck. If you try again with your tractor, hook on at the bottom of the hill and have the truck driver put it in low gear and pull with the tractor all the way from the bottom to top and you will have a better chance. I have driven dump truck for years and you have less chance of power hoping if you lock up the differential, put in low gear, and crawl out at about 1/4-1/3 throttle. Most guys want to mat it in as high of gear as they can, and all they do is spin out.

 

[RCW]

I’ve pulled stuck empty concrete trucks with a 1953 Minneapolis Moline. Only 30 hp, but about 5,500 lbs without the blade on.

Also pulled a single axle dump truck with a JD 450 Tracked TLB on equipment trailer with a Jeep CJ-7....

I’d be more apt to pull than push.....

Like Wolfman and BAP said, the trucks need a little help....I’d look to the tractor to pull first...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MrChuckles]

I had the backhoe on when I tried pulling. In general I was trying to avoid pulling them because I didn't want to be attached to a 20,000 lb truck with a potential bad driver.

 

[troverman]

The KX040 weighs about 10klbs. A 3301 weighs a lot less than that. You might be better to just attach a chain from the KX's undercarriage to the dump truck's bumper and just creep up the hill, especially if you have a steel-tracked KX. Frankly, a 4x4 pickup is going to have more pulling power than a 3301.

 

[mikester]

Update your life insurance first. You must really hate that brand new KX040-4 by wanting to use it as dump truck wheel chocks.

I bet the guys getting their trucks stuck have bald highway tires and/or don't like low range and/or don't know how to turn on their locking diffs.

 

[troverman]

One other option would be to have one of these 10 wheelers drop a layer of gravel on the road on the way down...

 

[mbu]

One other option would be to have one of these 10 wheelers drop a layer of gravel on the road on the way down...

Depends...

The gravel may be the cause of the trucks spinning. If his roadway is graveled he might push it aside while the trucks are hauling. From the OP it doesn't appear the trucks are spinning from mud or snow.

 

[Flienlow]

The only real way to know is to try. The rest is speculation. I would not gamble that it would though.

 

[lugbolt]

Define "hill".

Mountain? Sheer cliff? Gentle knoll? Reason for asking, had a guy call me a while back says his L4701 won't climb the hill going to his house from the pasture. I figured HST problem. Get there with the trailer and knocked on the door, wife comes to the door, says he's out on the tractor feeding cows. I said how do I get there? She says look down there. Hill my foot. That thing was pack mule territory. I am not even sure I'd ride an ATV on it. At that point I realized that he's just asking too much of his tractor.

Remember....rubber crawlers aren't nearly as strong as steel ones, and that's gonna be your weak link. They're pretty stout but they aren't bulletproof. That little excavator is a stout machine but it's not stout enough to be pushing trucks around on a daily basis. All it'd take it one truck to get into the mini-ex the wrong way to make for a very bad day.