Caterpillar 5230 Ramping Down

A 1998 Caterpillar 5230 hydraulic front shovel digging down into a shot. Before anyone jumps to criticize the operator or machine's speed, keep in mind the shovel is sitting on a 10% grade; cutting the haul road down into the new shot. Because of this (and also due to the machines age), the shovel is having a hard time building up enough momentum to swing uphill at full speed with a full bucket to load the trucks.
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[@PAmining]

There's nothing wrong with the setup, I've seen many shovel's and hoe's dig down haul roads before. Caterpillar's match for a 5230 was the 785. And keep in mind, because he's digging on a steep grade he has to sacrifice full buckets for swing power.

[@PAmining]

Also keep in mind, what you see here is a project that took about a day to complete. Once the shovel dug the haul road down further to the bottom of the shot, he leveled out again. Normally you want a perfect setup, but in mining things arn't always under ideal conditions.

[@PAmining]

That’s because the trucks are climbing a steep grade and that’s also why the shovel is taking half buckets because it’s hard on the swing motor to swing the shovel with a full bucket uphill. Overloading the trucks in this case would hurt production because: 1)It's harder on them, 2)it would take them longer to climb the grade which means they wouldn't be able to get back to the shovel as fast, and 3)on a grade this steep, material would be falling out the back of the box all over the haul road.

[@007TruthSeeker]

Thanks for posting this video. I would have "liked" it, since I have worked with heavy equipment (dad & his bros had the Allis-Chalmers dealership & machine shop in town). That 5230 has had a serious career, with so many broken track ends from working in rock, but it's still breaking up rock with the big dogs! May your equipment always work.

[@Builder99]

His tracks look like they have taken a beating...

[@FordGuy61]

To think, that was once done with shovels and human backs...One machine to do the work of countless men, awesome display of power and human ingenuity!

[@JimBruce42]

For a 15 year old machine, it looks like its still in really good shape. Thanks for sharing.

[@spechtmeise9185]

Cant get enough of this stuff.

[@PAmining]

+Specht Meise Mining's the way to go!

[@007TruthSeeker]

I couldn't have put it better, myself. Maintenance is the key to long machine service life.

[@mbrsart]

That shovel's a beautiful machine. Thanks for posting.

[@PAmining]

Did you not read the description? It's all explained there. He is facing downhill on a 15% grade, which makes in very hard on the swing motors to swing the shovel uphill at that steep angle with a full heavy bucket. To help the shovel swing faster, he had to reduce the amount of material in the bucket. There were a few times with a full bucket where he had to swing the right and then back to the left to build up power.

[@localcrew]

I thought he was moving sort of slowly there. Thanks for the explanation. I didn't figure that you guys would turn a lousy operator loose with a huge piece of equipment like this. Great vid!

[@jetspaul]

Great video, I was watching are RH400's doin the same thing at work the other day, he was doin great until one of the 797's back dulies went off the edge of his cut, they had to fill the cut back in for the safety of the haul truck before using two D11's to cable it out.

[@mojostevo]

To be fair, all they really did (in regards to their biggest mining equipment) was buy out Bucyrus. The way I understood it, all they did was transfer the company over and basically re-badge everything as Cat. Maybe I misunderstood how the acquisition went down. If you look at the photos on the website, a lot of the equipment in the promo photos is Bucyrus stuff that's been Photoshopped Cat yellow.

[@stevesmothers6827]

PBS Coal wasn't known for taking care of its iron. I was in sales at the Cat dealer that handled them and all their iron was run beyond service intervals.

[@328DLCR]

Awesome view! Love the new HD quality

[@KohalaIronWorksCase]

I was just asking myself about speed till I read your description fully. Hard to tell how steep that ramp is from the camera angle...but I've been on enough truck/loader crews to know what machines go through...makes me miss excavating BIG TIME!!!!!

[@PAmining]

@cat325ccr Thanks! Hows the sound quality?

[@asmaquinaspesadas]

Very good! Amazing Cat 5230.

[@canvids1]

Thanks Justin a awesome digger so much power there looks like a great machine to operate. I would love to operate it for a day what a thrill that would be wow.

[@56pw]

Great video! We all know that these Cat 5000 series excavators were far from the industry standard ie: The Demag & O&Ks, Hitachis etc. Thats why cat withdrew them from the market as they could not compete with the REAL shovels in the heavy weight classes. Now Cat is doing what has always done & bought the technology as in the Bucyrus/terex deal. What else is new Caterpillar??? Thanks for the great video PA & keep them coming

[@tutekohe1361]

Thats a well used shovel, but it still seems to lift and slew alright. Good filming. Nice video.

[@Theonetwo48]

@PAmining Do you have any more vids of any working O&k's?

[@PAmining]

@canvids1 Thanks. Any operator I ever talked too who runs a 52/5130 loves the operating environment inside the machine

[@Heavytruckphotos]

Awesome video! Looks great in HD

[@Phantompain7]

great vid ,whats the yards size of that bucket ?

[@theslinx]

How many yards those dump truck can carry?

[@geraldlrstubbs]

Yes, I understand your reply perfectly, thank you for your time. I just had not appreciated that they were working a steep grade from the video. However, "ramping down" should have given me a clue ! I drove heavy plant for 30 years, hence the interest...

[@HaqQalandar11]

Great video !!

[@alco424]

@jetspaul Where was this?

[@balacau]

Fantastic vantage point you found there! Never seen any of the CAT 5000-series before but was lucky enough to get a look at a CAT 6030 which as I understand it replaces the O&K/Terex/Bucyrus RH120-series of machines. What truck size is the 5230 designed to work with?

[@darkstarcren293]

I operated Bucyrus Erie 71 and 88-Bs. North west 180, 190-Ds. I would LOVE to learn on one of these. Already got the loader side down with 990 ll.

[@Bomaz727]

Awesome view of that monster in action. what size bucket does it have on it.

[@PAmining]

@Bomaz727 Thanks, that's a 22.2cu.yd bull clam

[@PAmining]

@MrRuslankr Thank you

[@angkatanpw]

i love the engineering in that machine

[@peterschorn1]

At quitting time, does the operator slide down the boom yelling "YABBA-DABBA-DOO?"

[@crowpeak]

I seen the results of a High Wall Cave-in at Homestake Goldmine in Lead, SD. It was one of the first 5230's, one heck of a machine! Squashed it good though, when a huge boulder came off the high wall, and hit a Triple 777 hard to! The Operator of the Shovel didn't make it. Mining is a dangerous business!

[@jix177]

Great video.

[@swn02]

great camera angle get a good look into the shovel from above, need more from this angle.

[@diego2988]

Very nice video , thanks for sharing

[@KohalaIronWorksCase]

Once she is leveled off in the shot the cycles will get shorter. Here I the Islands we just use trucks, loader & dozer...our jobsites aren't that big & the contracts are never big enough to bring in a 5230 Dipper... But it's fun to watch if you love machinery...

[@ScoopExcavator]

Nice Vid. The dump trucks coming in and out provide a reference to the grade. Would have been great to see it from another angle.

[@robertjackson8905]

great video damn good operater

[@PAmining]

@Gacekspojler Great! Thanks

[@007TruthSeeker]

I see. The force must be terrific to do that.

[@JoaoSantos-zp7pk]

Eu sou apaixonado pelas máquinas..não é atualmente sou operadoro...gosto da minha profissão

[@beerdeddi1]

How old is she?

[@judderman37]

Cats first atttempt in building a large face shovel before they bought over the O&K/ Terex/ Bucyrus line and came out with a new flleet of big shovels up to the RH400, with possibly an RH500 design coming soon to fill their biggest 797 trucks in about three passes!

[@MrTylerstaas]

try swinging and curling and opening your clam all at the same time counter swing while at the dove tail you will gain a lot of time right there also when comingout of the truck try having your bucket already set up to dig always have your next move planned. nice shovel though we run hitachi 5500-6 thats a big machine

[@EucPete]

Nice vid! :)

[@DexterAburry]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! SO a MAZING

[@berick22788]

We have one of those sitting idle in a lay down area. Still could work well if they fired it up.

[@PAmining]

Depends how well they're maintaned.

[@PAmining]

@beerdeddi1 It's in the description. 1998

[@markstengel7680]

Enjoyed🚜👍

[@PAmining]

@328DLCR Thanks

[@swedengines]

very nice video! hope i will see a big machine like that sometime =)

[@genehall8895]

Sounds and looks like the hydraulic pumps are playing the death march.

[@TomokosEnterprize]

Most diggers/shovels and excavators are a bit tippy when working from the side but this beauty never cares where it works from. Oh how I love BIG and this one certainly suits that bill eh, LOL.

[@Gacekspojler]

thanks for upload :) A & V is good

[@srgofcb]

I see the incline now that I notice the angle at witch the dirt falls from the shovel.

[@PAmining]

Like the description says, he's cutting a 10% road

[@robertjackson6932]

When you can dig at 10% grade that a good operator great video

[@PAmining]

Thanks. People think mining is picture perfect production. I haven't been on a single mining site where it was a perfect setup everyday. Digging on a slope like this is slow and hard on everything. But it needs to be done

[@Tomcat425uk]

@PAmining Sorry to butt in here, I listen on a pair of good quality JVC Headphones and the sound quality is excellent for me.

[@PAmining]

A lot of those track pads get broken from operators curling back to far and bumping them. Thanks

[@PAmining]

@56pw Oh I agree. The 5000 series was definitely not the Cadillac of mining shovels. Cat bought the best and O&K was one of, if not, the best.

[@bert26a]

The old girl still has pretty good digging power. Swinging uphill is always kind of a pain in the ass.

[@boobalooba2]

You can hear the engine is fairly dying when she's getting stuck into the face of the material.

[@PAmining]

All depends on the type of digging

[@edinacunacruz6951]

buen video

[@cloggedpitot1]

How much fuel does a machine like this consume in an 8 hour shift? Cool video!

[@elanty]

awesome!

[@mrbluesky2050]

shame that Cat no longer make machines of this size and calibre, the 50xx series always seem in demand second hand/used. especially for demo conversions. be interesting to see what the recently purchased terex / o&k products look like with cat yellow and branding???

[@PAmining]

@tarheellax92 Aside from an RH120C documentary, no

[@PAmining]

If you don't keep up with proper maintenance you'll run one of these machines into the ground but even with proper maintenance you will always get some downtime. There’s no real answer for how long a hydraulic shovel will last on a job; that all depends on its owners. Some companies replace machines every so many years while others will run machines for 20+ years. I’ve been around some machines over 30 years old that run like new. Good maintenance is the key to a healthy machine

[@koisdad]

had a tree come through the cab of our 5130 last night at work. thank God noone was hurt

[@punhoss]

Camera angle doesn't show the grade. Very cool

[@lupo0144]

There's a new 6060 just been assembled by my house!

[@blusharx]

Great machine

[@godbluffvdgg]

It's so crazy we have equipment as giant as this and yet they are always building bigger ones each year...Your machine is obsolete in 5 years...

[@PAmining]

22 cubic yards

[@robertjackson9470]

that's a good operater

[@Gavin84w]

It does not void warranty at all, your FOS.

[@tractortom401]

love it

[@PAmining]

They are 150 ton trucks

[@charlesbeck6284]

Nothing like older cat machinery.

[@blizzardxc12]

beast

[@wrightfarmshoffman8663]

Hard digging

[@muckrunner308]

At least the cab is on the left so you can see the truck, our komatsu shovels are all on the right and you can't see the truck til the clam is halfway over the tray, load the other way and the truck cab is on the offside

[@PAmining]

@mrbluesky2050 Apparently you've been living under a rock for the last few months lol. Have you been on Cat's website to see what the shovels, drags, drills, etc look like? There have already been a few shovels built and put into service; one of them just arrived here a couple months ago. I recommend you follow our Facebook page for news and updates!

[@PAmining]

She's a 1998

[@Ratkill9000]

Ever heard of Bucyrus International Inc in Wisconsin? They were just bought out by CAT for $8.8 Billion. Bucyrus was the company that built Big Muskie walking dragline and other large mining equipment.

[@jamesgibbs7343]

think that machine needs some tlc leaking ram seals and them tracks are awfull

[@MICKSHRED]

James Gibbs shell put the cash, why dont ya. Lol

[@godbluffvdgg]

If it ain't broke you don't fix it...If you ever own a machine that cost a million dollars; you'll understand that pretty doesn't make money...This equipment follows maintenance schedules and this one is near its time...

[@andrewasbra5996]

Excellente

[@crompton33]

Fast enough for me!....besides, it gives you more chance to look at the details.

[@69rd96]

I feel the swing gear's pain.

[@PAmining]

It was designed to match up with 150 ton trucks

[@PAmining]

@localcrew Well a 5230 isn't that fast of a machine to begin with. But yeah digging on any steep incline like this and trying to swing uphill is harder on the swinger. Now when he's on a level surface the swing speed is fine.

[@christopherrobinson4266]

I still like a 993 k that is a work horse

[@PAmining]

That would be called the 6120B