tournapull scraper

[grc61]

hi a friend has a 1946 or 47 Letourneau tournapull scraper. does anybody know any thing about the electronics after it gets good and warm things seem to quit working,steering,can controls any info will help. thanks

[68a]

There's a chap over on HEF forum called Branzie who seems well up on those things.He runs a number of Wabco scrapers too

[davidpozzi]

I drove a Letourneau Westinghouse scraper with Hancock self loading bucket for a few years in the 70's when I was young and did maintenance on the controls. Dirt would get in the relays and cause wear plus you are using the steering relays all the time. Often the problems are related to the contacts not being even, clean or in good enough shape. I spent a lot of time cleaning, dressing, and evening up the contacts which paid off in reliable steering. The steering motor has clutches on top of it and they are controlled by electromagnets. Sometimes one of the magnets would go bad and not help pull up on the clutch.

Rule number one is do not operate the steering or self loader circuits without the engine running near full speed. The relays will chatter if the voltage is too low and cause extra heat and wear on the contacts.
There are lots of connections on the low voltage (24v) control circuits and I've seen terminals melt off due to corrosion/resistance build up.
David

[Jeremy Rowland]

Hi David; thank you for that information and the photo welcome to the site I hope that you enjoy it.

Jeremy

[Mrsmackpaul]

Welcome Dave is the scraper in photo GM powered
Im am always surprised that more of the older operators arent deafer now we never used to worry about hearing protection once
thanks for sharing the photo

Paul

[dpan]

DD 8-71 machine appears to be early version of 222A. 1968 went to all hydraulic except for elevator drive.

[davidpozzi]

Thanks for the welcome!
I joined because I have an Allis Chalmers model B left over from our family farm. I just happened to see this Scraper thread and it jogged my memory.

We had a flood in 1969, my dad bought the Tournapull Scraper to clear 40 acres we had plus another 40 we rented from neighbors. So it was pretty well used equipment in 1970. I recall he paid around $15,000 for it. The engine was pretty worn and would smoke a lot until it warmed up. The next year we ovehauled the engine in our shop with the help of a local mechanic. I was the helper and remember taking several wheelbarrows full of dirt out of the engine compartment. The engine was a Detroit Diesel 2 stroke with supercharger, there were recitfiers in the air cleaner housing. I remember them switching to truck injectors, "Brown Tag" which upped the power a bit. The steering was by toggle switch and it was difficult to keep it going straight in the higher gears.

Trans was an Alison, can't remember if it was 6 or 8 speeds but 6 sounds right. RPM's were pretty low, I think 2200 was the limit. I had to watch downshifts so I didn't over-rev it. It came with an open cab with plywood "roof"/sun shade. My dad found a steel cab for it and put it on the first winter. I could open a floor plate and regulate heat with it. During the summer it was pretty hot inside that cab.

I remember the fuel tank held 135 gallons, it took a grease gun and a half to lube it every day. We broke links on the loader chain because it was very worn. Went through the gearboxes for the loader motors and replaced the steering motor brake discs.

[davidpozzi]

The flood left a layer of sand a foot or two thick, then a layer of muck that was grey, it was like grease and probably contained a lot of organic matter which made it smelly. That was covered by a foot to two feet of top sand. When we ran equipment over the sand & got close to the grey layer, the tractor would break through and get stuck in the wet stuff underneath. We couldn't even run the scraper over the area even with nothing removed. Our solution was to use our D6 with BE-GE grader and "windrow' the sand in long piles. We'd scoop for a hundred feet then dump, keep going scooping again then dumping running back and forth until we had a 4 foot high long pile we could load the scraper out of. When the sand uncovered the muck, we let the sun dry it and eventually were able to remove it all. We also had an ATICO bucket scraper to pull behind the D6.

[Mrsmackpaul]

Mate you have opened a big can of worms with the story the type that I like to read and view
BE GE scraper is that same company in US that made pumps blades ect for Cat machines ?? they no doubt made stuff for other brands as well feel free to share any photo's sounds like an interesting time you lived thru back in the early 70's
thanks for sharing the story

Paul

[davidpozzi]

Mate you have opened a big can of worms with the story the type that I like to read and view
BE GE scraper is that same company in US that made pumps blades ect for Cat machines ?? they no doubt made stuff for other brands as well feel free to share any photo's sounds like an interesting time you lived thru back in the early 70's
thanks for sharing the story

Paul

Thanks Paul, Be-Ge was located about 30 miles away. I'm in Salinas, California, Be-Ge was in Gilroy I think. I'm sounding old now (I'm 64) so here goes... Tractors used to come without hydraulic pumps in the 60's. Be-Ge manufactured a pump with reservoir assembly which bolted onto the back of tractors like our Cat D4 and D6 and it was self contained consisting of a pump, reservoir tank, and two or more spool valves with outlet/inlet fittings to connect to implements. The control levers extended forward on the right hand side so the operator could easily reach them.

Before that, a disc had to be opened by pulling on a rope which released a catch opening the disc to cut. To close the disc you had to back up and it would latch closed. a Scraper had to be operated by cables driven by a rear winch. So adding hydraulics was a big improvement.

Be-Ge also made a box scraper of which there are thousands still in use. Great for road grading. I think they made regular pull scrapers maybe 8 or 9 yard capacity. We had an ATICO scraper and a Be-Ge which we used to level our farm in the mid-fifties. I was only 5 or 6 then so don't recall a lot but I got to run the ATICO scraper in the 70's and did a lot of repair work and catch pond building.