How Scrapers Move Literal Mountains!

You’ll see this nowhere else in the world. This is why I love Southern Conway Earth moving. Nothing better than this. [Music] Welcome to the Prima Deete landfill in beautiful Orange County, California. Growing neighborhoods mean growing landfills, and growing landfills means serious earth moving, which brings us to the star of today’s program, Sugit Construction. Founded as a local grading company in 1968, Sukit is today one of the finest earthmoving construction and equipment companies I’ve seen anywhere in America. Not only are they good at building stuff, but they also have one of the largest fleets of scrapers anywhere worldwide. And we’re about to tell you everything you need to know about how these monster machines work. So, what do we need to talk about? First, let’s talk landfills. Think of a landfill cell as a room within the greater landfill area. A contractor like Sukit will dig a large hole to form the cell and then stockpile the earth nearby. Once to grade, the cell receives a heavyduty plastic liner. Then, it’s ready for waste. As waste piles in, the landfill operator will pull the previously excavated earth from the stockpile for daily cover until the cell’s airspace is completely occupied. Once full, the cell receives an outer liner and it’s off to the next. To dig this cell, Suka is using the giants of the scraper world. 651 single engine scrapers and 657 twin engine scrapers. Here I am for scale. But before we get to the action, let’s talk about scrapers in general. Scrapers are a mass excavation contractor’s best friend because they perform three functions in one machine. They can load, haul, and spread material all within a few minutes. The two main types of these machines are single engine scrapers and twin engine or pushpole scrapers. There are many other types of scrapers, including paddle wheels, pole scrapers, and tractors and pans, but today we’re focusing on the big guns. Both types of scraper operate similarly. They feature a tractor up front powering the machine, a large cutting edge in the middle to bite into the earth, and a bowl or can to hold the earth as they load and haul. The difference comes in the form of the power units and loading method. The 651s are single engines, meaning they have one large engine at the front powering the front axle. They can load themselves, but for the most efficient loading, they require a push, usually with a large dozer. And in Sukit’s case, they use a few. The 657s are twin engine, meaning they have two enormous power units, one for each axle, both operated independently. And they even have two throttle pedals. While like single engines they can load themselves, they’re most efficient in pushpull configuration. We’ll show this in greater detail later. By using special bales and push blocks, two machines can combine to form one, allowing one to push the other, then vice versa through the cut using the power of all four engines on one cutting edge at a time. With the nuts and bolts covered, let’s get out to the field. All right, we’re going to start with the 651 spread. 651s here are working this entire area behind us down. They still have at the very bottom here 20 ft to go. So up here 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 ft. This is an enormous cut. They’ve started all the way up top this slope. They’re chasing this slope all the way to the bottom to make this new landfill cell happen. They’re building all of this to specific specifications for the landfill. The slope has to be perfect. The scrapers, the bigger dozers can get it close, but it’s down to that D9 slope board and that guy right there, the grade checker to get it completely dialed in. So if you look closely, that D9 there has GPS. So within the cab, he can see where that slope needs to be, how close they are. Then he can use that slope board. He can slide it out beyond his blade there and cut that slope. Right now they’re at a perfect 2:1. That means for every 2T over, they are going 1 ft down. So 2T, 1 ft, 2T, 1 ft. And that grade checker there is using that rover to know exactly where the slope starts. This area here is a little bit of a ledge. So he’s just marking that right now for the dozer. He’s putting those feathers in stakes to say, “Hey, this is the edge of the bench here. Let’s work it down from here. We’re dialed in.” Now, let’s discuss one of my favorite subjects, dirt. The most important ingredient for scrapers is the material. Scrapers do not work well in wet material and in rocky and hard material, but Southern California has this beautiful earth all the way through these hills, which makes it perfect for scrapers, which is why there’s more scrapers here than anywhere else in the world. Let’s talk speed. The faster you can load that scraper and get it on its way to the fill, the better, the more money made, the faster this job comes together. So, while a 651 can load itself with over 500 horsepower up front, typically you put a dozer behind it to push it, but Sugit doesn’t just use one dozer, they use two. Those are both Caterpillar D10Ns over 500 horsepower each. So that’s about 1,500 horsepower on that one cutting edge. And not only are they pushing with two dozers, but they’re also going downhill, leveraging gravity, filling that can in record time. And to illustrate, let’s time the next one and go. [Music] 20 seconds. That’s pretty good. These will be between, depending on where they are, 15 to 30 seconds per scraper. That is as fast as it gets anywhere in the world. And if you’re wondering at home if it’s loud, it’s loud. [Music] What is the white line painted on the tire? That is to manage their wheel spin. You don’t want to be spinning your tires. Tires are expensive. The more you’re spinning them without going anywhere, you’re wearing them unnecessarily. So they use those for somebody on the outside, a foreman, whatever it is, to watch to make sure they’re not spinning. They’re not messing up those tires unnecessarily. The scrapers go where the dozers are. So the dozers just set up. They’re waiting for the next scraper where they want the scraper to pull in from. So the scraper will pull right in front of that first dozer there, and they’ll start working their way down the cut. It’s a incremental approach. So they’ll start up at the top of the cut. They’ll start working the scrapers through the cut all the way down to take a few feet at a time to keep that slope so they can get the scrapers through here as quickly as possible. And then once they’re down at the bottom, they’ll back all the way back up like they just did and start working their way down again, slice by slice by slice, until this entire hillside is out of the way. That’s the way they load. Now let’s talk about the push cats. The dozers here are built to push. A lot of people ask why the blades on these push cats, that’s what they’re called, nicknamed push cats, why the blades on the push cats are so small. It’s because they’re built specifically for pushing, for making contact with that push block on the back of each 651. And then they also have a push block on both tractors. So that blade, it’s called a cushion blade. There’s two springs behind it. It’ll gently or in theory gently make contact with the scraper and then that second 10 will gently make contact with the first 10. Everything pushing in unison. And both machines have push blocks on the back of them so they can switch out as needed. This is a great perspective of the brand new landfill cell. They are working the slope down as we explained over there with the 651s. The 657s are in here, which we’ll get to in a moment. When they’re done, all of this will be down to about the grade where that buggy is right there, that rubber tired dozer. So, they’re going to have it smooth all the way across with those slopes in the back. All of this will then get a HDPE highdensity polyethylene, basically a heavyduty plastic liner. And then this is where they will be dumping waste for the next many years. All of this area will then be filled with waste. This dirt that they’re stockpiling at the fill, we’ll see that later, will be brought in here for daily cover every day. Waste will be placed in here, compacted, covered with dirt. As they build it all the way up, and then they’ll line the outside of it, they’ll cover everything with dirt. And everything they’re removing here will once again be there, but just filled with the waste. Real quick here, we’ve got this dozer preparing the 657 area here. And also just knocking down any piles, moving any rocks out of the way to keep those big hungry 657s that are just picking out right there, moving through here as quickly as possible. Now that we’ve checked out the 651s, let’s head over to the 657s in push pole configuration. Now for the push poles. Every time I’ve posted one of these on the internet, photo, video, everybody asks what the heck’s going on. And that is why we are here to show you all how they work. So we have two 657s coming into the cut right now. They’re E models, older scrapers, few decades old, still hoging dirt, just as good as they did when they were brand new. The first scraper has its cutting edge on the ground and it’s filling up right now. As the first scraper is cutting, the rear scraper is pushing. They’re called push poles for a reason. Now the first 657 is full. He’s picking up his cutting edge. He’s closing the apron to secure that load. And as he’s doing that, the second scraper lowers his cutting edge onto the ground while the first scraper starts to pull with that bail system there. The second scraper through, filling it up nice and fast. It is amazing to watch. It’s much faster than if these scrapers tried to load themselves because you have four engines. They’re twin engines. One engine up front, one engine on the back on one cutting edge. So that’s about 2,000 horsepower on one cutting edge. Filling that and getting those scrapers off to the fill. For you astute observers, you may have seen these guys in the background and thought, “Wow, there’s a flash sale on D11s.” Not exactly. Let’s explain what’s really going on here. While it may appear that they’re having a flash sale today with D11s and D10s, that’s not what’s happening. Those wacky wavy inflatable arm flailing tube men, wacky waving inflatable arm are to scare the birds away. Cuz if the birds go and nest in the machines, which they do, they cannot move those machines. Real quick here, here’s another parked up push cat that they’re not using today. They’ll be using it tomorrow. This is the block. Behind underneath the block, you’ll see two springs. So, as a second push cat comes up here and pushes against this block, it’ll compress, cushioning that push, not jolting the machine as much, not putting all of that force through the second tractor as fast. And then here we have the blade. This blade is specifically built to push scrapers. It is a push blade, cushion blade. Behind the blade, we also have a spring setup. So, as the blade makes contact, those springs will absorb some of the impact. Again, cushioning everything, making things a little bit more comfortable. And then we also have a cutting edge on this blade so that the tractor, if there aren’t scrapers there, can smooth the cutout push material as needed. Let’s head to the layown yard to see these machines a little closer. Walking around the twin engine 657 scraper. We’re at the rear of the machine. This is the push block. This is where that second machine can push up against. They grease it just for wear along this since it’s steel on steel. Here’s the stinger. This is where the bail of that second scraper hooks onto to enable the pushing and pulling. Uh, and speaking of pulling, let’s go to the front of the machine where you have the bail that’s down right now. Typically, when the scraper is driving, it’s up and then it’s down to hook onto that front scraper. And then here is the push block at the front of the scraper that you can push the front scraper with. It’s also greased up there. That’s what pushes against that push block. And behind it, you have some springs, some cushion so that as the scraper goes into that other one, it’s not banging into one another. And this is the other scraper on site, the 651. You have the same style push block on the back. The difference is it’s single engine, which means there’s nothing back here driving this rear axle. And then when you go to the front, you’ll notice no bail. It’s not pushing and pulling. It’s just getting pushed in the back. It can also pull if really needed. It can pull a 57. And then right beneath that great there, radiator engine driving the machine itself. All right, we’ve learned a ton about scrapers. Now, let’s head over to the mechanics to see how they keep these machines running. All right, this many machines, this many old scrapers on site. You definitely need some mechanics. Sukit has an amazing equipment program. So, we’re here checking out this 651 right now that’s under the knife. They’ve got three mechanics, three trucks swapping out the hitch. The hitch is what connects the scraper part to the tractor part. It’s very important because if you don’t have a working hitch, it makes for a really rough ride. Over here, they have the new hitch. So, this is what they pulled off here, and this is what they’re putting on. Sugit has an incredible equipment program. They do all of this themselves. They build all of this at their equipment shop and then they have amazing technicians here. There’s three guys, three trucks working on this project out in the field making it happen. All right, while we drive to the fill, let’s cover some site facts. Total yardage on this project is 9 million cubic yards of earth that Sukit is moving. The scraper spread daily moves about 18,000 yards of material every single day. The scrapers, the 651s, the 657s are both rated for about 28 yards per pass. So 28 yards of material every time they go through the cut. And then total area once this landfill is completed about 69 acres of total surface area will be lined with about 40 acres of floor area will be lined as well. It’s really hard to talk facts while I’m driving on a not very straight road. We saw part one. That was the cut. The scrapers have driven the hall road to the fill. See those 651s right there? They’re coming up over that burm, opening their apron, dumping off the edge there to build up this next lift. You have that guy there with the flag showing them where to dump the next load. And then you have that wheeled dozer there babysitting everything to make sure the piles are knocked down, everything is nice and tidy. This would look different if this was an engineered fill, but this is all temporary because the landfill will be pulling from this material for that daily cover as they begin filling the new cell. So, the name of the game is to get it in here as quickly as possible, get the scrapers back on the way to the cut. Thank you so much to Sukit for having us out here in Southern California. I know you’ll be hardressed to find a better earthmoving operation than that one. That’s why we came here to show you all everything about scrapers. I hope you enjoyed it. We’ll see you next time. Stay dirty.