We’ve touched on several of the biggest and baldest construction machines in the past, like this 800 ton excavator and this 600 ton haul truck. While videos about these gigantic machines are fun to watch, they also truly put into perspective how many people and time goes into creating and assembling them.
In this post, we’ll be looking at Joy Global’s P&H L-2350, originally designed by LeTourneau Technologies, which currently holds the record for the world’s largest of its kind. At an operating capacity of 160,000 pounds (72,574 kg) and a total payload of more than 400 tons, this magnificent beast has a bucket capacity of 53 cubic yards (40.52 cubic meters).
When the designers set out to design the 2350, they couldn’t even find wheels big enough to work, so they had to team up with Firestone’s engineers to specially design a 13 foot tall tire, which also happened to be the world’s largest tire.
As you can imagine, this loader requires a lot of power to operate and even more fuel. The engine produces 2300 horsepower, which is turbo-charged and consumes roughly 50 gallons of fuel per hour. The total fuel tank capacity is around almost 1050 gallons (3974.68 liters).
According to ExtremeTV, who uploaded the video to Youtube, the price tag on the 2350 was $1.5 million in 2012.
On Tuesday morning, February 23, the Syracuse Fire Department responded to a call about a collapsed crane on a construction site near the university. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.