One of those days,.....

And i bet hurst never let's another guy drive equipment up. It's best to load these yourself. Too many halfass equipment operators freeze up.

That 963 is just a newer slightly larger version of the 951 i got. Back when my dad actually used our equipment for work we moved it on an old 40 inch height stepdeck with a home made 3 ft dovetail and 4 ft steel ramps. A MUCH steeper incline than you got with those ramps and lower deck. If you got scared and let off the throttle at the top it would start to slide and rotate all the way down. It's definitely a nerve wracking feeling when you get close to the fulcrum point and the front half of the machine is sticking straight out several feet in the air. But you gotta stay with it till it drops down or bad things happen.

Also, you may want to start carrying a couple 2x12 boards to put on the new ramps to add in some traction for those steel tracks.

 

Just insist you load it yourself. Don't let them talk you out of it. If you haven't ran a lot of tracked equipment you are welcome to come down and play on mine for an afternoon to get a feel for it.

 

I had a Ravens 48 foot covered wagon on it's aluminum twin frame under the wood/aluminum deck. I distinctly recall the manual that came with the brand new trailer that was going to be mine for 7 months more or less. Inside that manual stated very clearly that I could put 52,000 pounds of Steel coil over 20 feet but not less than 20 feet of length anywhere on that deck.

Since I had in mind to have it belly loaded just so centered on the center marker side lights it needed to be perfect. Broke out the big measuring tape for this one. 10 feet this way and ten feet and change that way. Now you tell me how delicate that large 30 ton forklift was able to do nudge that coil to 10 feet and smaller change on both ends when I asked him to.

20 4 inch straps and 20 Chains later I had me a load to be scared of. The pressure flattened out the deck Usually it had a curve in it. This was one of the few times it completely flattened the deck out.

I had memories of a steel fontaine that failed in Jane Lew West Virginia to a O/O running a B Model Sleeper Mack under loadings that were way above 80K and over size, over length to boot. If you can understand what it takes for frame rails about yea thick and so high to fail below the deck, you can maybe understand the pressures it requires.

Scaled perfect at 80K on half tanks of fuel and 400 miles to go from Gary Indiana.

I won't be doing that again, Normal 30 mph flyover ramps 100 feet above the earth required a walking speed below 4 mph to ease it around to prevent tipping over.

 

At least it was an even break and the machine didn't shift and slide off. Insurance is getting your tailer fixed, you have another and are rolling. Sounds lucky to me.

 

For the ramps,i wouldn't use wood for traction but long rubber mats