The Long wait is over and the first of the giant De Donge "Backacter" BA 1100's is about to start digging... Jan De Nul Group has a total of three of them coming. They are the size and power of an RH 400, and the whole power system/hydraulics is built into the hull of the dredge pontoon. They will be the largest and most powerful backhoes of any king yet built. These are pics that have just come out recently on the net and sent to me by a freind who has also followed the progress of the machines.

That is huge nice pics
Jason

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Nikl Scale Models
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Thanks for the update Tim, they certainly do look the business as oposed to the computer generated pictures which have been around for the last year or so.

Is it fully comissioned now and when does it go to work??

Some specs I found

Barge;
Length Overall 64.9 m
Breadth 18.0 m
Draught 3.35 m
Propulsion Power 2 x 500 kW
Total Installed Diesel Power 3,700 kW


Business end;
Installed Power Excavator 3,460 kW
Dredging Depth 18 / 26 / 32 m
Bucket / Grab Capacity 15 / 25 / 40 m³

Cool pics Tim needs some Tailend though to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye maybe a fake counterweight right know looks like an ugly Zero offset machine !Some bucket on it!

Thanks FS
Chet

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I live in my own little world it's ok they know me here

Damn!

(I do not think anything else need be said)

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Bob
Bobs Cranes

Come Over To The Lift Side . . . . . . . We Have Cookies!!!!

That is a huge machine are they going to stay mainly in europe or be used world wide?

William......

William, They "Jan De Nul Group" will have three of them the near future and VanOrd also has at least one coming, Both those companies are massive, the largest dredging contractors in the world, and running the worlds largest dredges of every type, Cutter Suction, Trailing Hopper Suction Dredges, Backhoes huge fleets of barges, rock dumpers, pumping barges, etc and both also run massive spreads of land based machines of almost every type. These are the guys that are building the maasive palm islands and container terminals in Dubai, and also the massive projcect of widening the Panama Canal as well as hundreds of other huge projects all over the world, those machines will be used on many projects all over the world in the future.

Great pics Tim, land or sea we still gotta move the earth!!!

Would have to agree it looks a bit out of whack with the small tail and i can understand that the machine total balance is derived from the 60 odd metre barge but i would think some counterweight to provide even balance to promote swing bearing life might be in order, time will tell i guess.

With regard to all the piping, well it is not much different to a large land based backhoe and basically when you get that big a volume of oil required to be delivered to the cylinders it is most likely the cheapest way for the manufacturer to get it there.

one word describes it: massive