AZ to ND Trip II

[ZR2BIZON]

Dang cool!

 

[AXE]

Did a little lawn mowing today!

 

[AXE]

I was coming back from a meeting the other day and went through coal country about 40 miles north of Bismarck. They were stripping overburden with a dragline near the highway so they can mine lignite coal about 200 feet below the surface. Hard to appreciate the scale of this dragline, but it is massive. You could fit a 1/2 dozen ZR2s in the bucket. There are a few of them this size and several smaller working several surface mines.

When done the land is reclamaimed to farmland or prairie. It's hard to believe, but you wouldn't even know it was mined like this.

ND has an abundance of energy resources and coal has always been a critical industry and still generates 1000s of megawatts of electricity for the state and surrounding states.

 

[AXE]

 

[AXE]

Did some investigation on some substation interconnection points today via 2 wheels. Talked to a guy about the work going on this wind farm. They have to pull the blades on all the turbines due to bearing failure. Then replace the bearing. I've watched them do a few so far, but a lot more to do. They are only a few years old, so warranty work.......I'd hate to pay that bill.

 

[scubatech]

That's a big Ass dragline.

 

[AXE]

This is where your bread, pasta, and doughnuts start. These guys are harvesting some winter wheat with some pretty big iron. Probably have about $3 million worth of combines, tractors, and semis churning in this field. Burning thousands of gallons of diesel a week.

 

[AXE]

Got some towing in hauling some 6 inch pvc pipe and dug some trench for a 450 foot water line to connect a couple water wells. I'm not gonna set any land speed records on this mini-x, but I can dig in straight line.

Air bags (35 psi) work great on this rig with 26 foot beaver trail trailer. It probably weighed about 7k loaded and I ran 60-70 mph for about 150 miles an got over 14 mpg on rolling terrain, low wind.

Not sure why this picture looks like truck is squatting so much, but it's completely level. I guess it's the 16:9 wide format picture that bends in the middle.

 

[AXE]

Finished digging and installing the water line. Had some help from my boy and a friend. We had a full herd of dark horses in the stable.

 

[AXE]

Seen this guy hauling this big ol track on this heavy haul Kenworth. This rig was awesome and all blacked out, even the stacks. Looked even better from the front. Hauling quite a load at 70 mpg.