Re: Roger Hogan took some video of the Jordan Spreader testing

Mike Wissler Wrote:
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> The cab was not swaying. Roger said he had wind
> gusts, so probably an illusion. If the cab was
> actually swaying that much, I would have halted
> operations and bailed.
>
> Mike

I would certainly hope that all that steel up front couldn't bend like that. I can tell you that the back of the frame will twist when the blades are down and digging in. There is a lot of welding repairs in and around the back bolster. We had OU out for a major ditching operation 30+ years ago (1982?). We used the 19 for power. The 19 is the best engine to do that with. It has lots of low end power, but not enough to derail OU. I recall digging out the ditch coming off the hill above MP289 (now known as Gravity Hill) At one point the ties lay directly on a slab of basalt rock. OU's blade hooked the rock and jumped about 2 feet straight up and came crashing down. We were only going about 5 mph so things stopped real quick. Getman was really pissed off at Russ and I. He thought we were going too fast (5MPH???). Amazingly, everything was still on the rail, truck still in the bolster where it belonged, journal brasses still in place. Any and everything on the deck of OU had gone flying into the sagebrush though. Once we got moving, Russ and I had a good laugh about it. Gary sure got wound tight about that.