Hopto H1900 Hydraulic Excavator - Will it run? Will it Dig?
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- Опубликовано: 5 окт 2023
- The famous Warner & Swasey H-1900 Hydraulic excavator was the biggest in its day. This is another piece of history that Can be found at the Heavy Construction Heritage Society near Devon Alberta. A crew gathered together on the long weekend in September to see if this thing would come to life again. I unfortunately was working in the area for the weekend, and was not there for most of the work to bring it back to life. I was fortunate enough however to make it there with a couple hours before the sun went down to get some seat time in the old rig. I cant thanks all my friends enough that were there capturing video to share with me to create this video. I would appreciate it if you went and gave them a follow on Instagram:
@burnoot
@sparkling.iron
@nikkihype_
@landonmchugh
Also don't forget to check out @hchscanada on Instagram too to keep up on what else we are up to out there.
Enjoy the video, don't forget to like, subscribe, and ring the bell. Ill see you on the next one, and don't forget I am Ironman! 
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Hi there Nathan. Great video! Brings back lots of great memories. The outfit my father worked for had a W/S 1900 with the twin GM's and two 900"s, one had a GM 8-71 and the other had a Cat engine. Back in the day, they were great workhorses . Although I was kinda young, my dad let me move them around on his work site and as I got older, I started to use the 900B to backfill services. It's been at least 45 years now, but I kinda still vaguely remember the controls. The machine you showed with no stick/bucket, the two outside levers were the machine travel. The two inner sticks were the boom up/down ( I think left stick ) and the stick in/out ( right stick ). A bit foggy on the order, but I believe the two left side pedals were the left/right house swing, and the two right side pedals were the bucket in/out. I know lots of folks love the sounds of the screamin Jimmies, but working around them or operating one back then with rudimentary hearing protection made for long days and probably greatly contributed to my Dad losing a big chunk of his hearing in his latter years. . I preferred running the 900B with the Cat motor. Was a lot quieter!! I think The City of Calgary had a Hopto as well. It was painted yellow and I think blue. Not sure if its still there, but last I saw of it, it was parked in a lot in Highriver. Sorry for the ramblin', really great to see these beasts being brought back to life. Much thanks.
Rob
Thanks so much for commenting - I knew someone would know how those controls actually were arranged! Glad we could bring back some memories - from the brochure info I’ve seen the 1900 was originally blue and yellow. The boom and what not blue and the house yellow - do you happen to remember what model Cat engine was in the 900?
Sorry Sir, don't remember. I was pretty young and it was long ago. It was yellow, lol. Unlike the dual exhausts of the Jimmies, I remember it had a large, single exhaust on the house and rolled more coal then 8-V71's@@ironman3406
Love seeing these old giants at work again. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching
That thing is awesome! Thanks to the whole group for making the effort to keep that old history alive. The pictures of it up on stilts in the river are pretty cool, they sure put things into perspective on what they went through back in the day to provide the infrastructure we have today!
Hi thanks for watching - yes them fellers just got things done!!!
That excavator is a *MONSTER* Nathan!! 😧 It's crazy how they modified it so it could be used in a river like that! I was sooooo bummed when you couldn't dig with it at first.. But, it was cool to see you go back and dig with it. Whoever came up with that design was a mad-man!! 🤣 Enjoyed the video my friend. Have fun, stay safe and happy wrenching on your projects. 🔧🔩
Hey Zane!! Good to hear from you my friend. I too was pretty bummed at first that I want going to be able to dig, but sure glad I got to make a few bucket fulls! The stilts and mods were all done in house at the huneset pipeline company. Stay safe buddy!
Love seeing these old giants at work again
Thanks for watching
Hey Nathan, just found your channel and I can see I have a heap of great videos to watch to get up to date…… the privilege of retirement in Australia. Thanks heaps for posting this behemoth of old iron, what a cracking beast she is. Cheers
Glad you found the channel! Thanks for watching - hope you’ll stick around for more in the future.
Those things are beasts I love seeing the excitement of a guy who gets an old engine to live again, its great.
I remember when Alex first showed me that site ten years ago I've been wanting to see those Hopto's running since then. Hopefully one day the Polar Bear will run again.
Oh the polar bear would be awesome to see operational again, but it’ll take a lot of money for that. Maybe one day! Thanks for watching
Hi, Ironman3406.
Thanks for the video. I never got to run any Hoptos or any of the W&S Gradalls but did get to see a few around and work alongside a couple of Gradalls - good machines
The man who taught me to operate excavators had done some time on Hopto excavators on pipeline projects here in DowNunda and he sounded very impressed with their digging power.
Thanks again.
Just my 0.02.
You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.
Thank you for this awesome video. I'm thankful some people care about these historic machines that shaped the modern world, and what we now know of modern machines that do the jobs these did. Also the sound of those 2 stroke Detroits is positively glorious.
Thanks so much for the comment and for watching
So cool!! 👈
Just fantastic
thats a really interesting excavator! never seen anything like that before..
This collection and restauration work is a treasure! I love seeing past generations of machines. These units were designed as they are for a reason, and at the same time there's a reason we don't use them any more today. Collections like the HCHS here make it possible to see all these innovations and changes next to each other and teach us a lot about our modern equipment. Learning how things were done done really helps to understand and appreciate design choices, features and systems we consider trivial on modern machines. Not to say that there aren't many questionable designs on modern machines but that's the nature of it, not every idea is as good in practice as it seems in the drawing (and sometimes the reason for a bad machine is that the bean counters were left unsupervised...).
Well said thanks for watching
Nice Video
Thanks mate,been waiting for this one.I,m not a 100% sure but the 2 where I worked had two pedals on the floor that went left and right and one for slew and one for bucket movement maybe,can't remember it was along time ago.I know one thing for sure we had 65 ton diggers which were about the biggest back then,and then the hopto,s turned up and were 100 tonners they were huge.
loved this video. great work with old iron - i would love to see a video (or series) of the stilts being installed to show how it was used back in the day
That will be a project no doubt but we hope maybe one day we can get them back on.
Wow that’s definitely something I’ve never seen or heard of before 😂hop toe lol I really love the Detroit power so these are awesome in my book what a beast you get to play with all kinds of cool stuff wow they run great I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Detroit not smoke some while running lol until the last little bit definitely didn’t look good puking 🤢 thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching pal - yeah she filled the ole crankcase so full that it was comin out the breather haha. But as mentioned it was an easy fix. I am fortunate that I’ve had the chance to play with these old machines. Thanks again for the support.
What a mother of a machine that is. I can't believe how clean those exhausts were. Imaging all the smoke if they were a well known different brand of that era. This was a fantastic video Ironman, thank you very much. I hope the rebuild of the old tractor you stripped a few months back is going OK. Thanks again, loved this 🙏👍
They do run pretty clean, will get back onto the Sixty project this winter! Hope to have the engine finished over the winter. Thanks for watching
Those machines are absolutely incredible I would love to see that beast run with the stilts again but that is a massive task to undertake haha good luck I can’t wait to see what these rigs get up to
Really good video
A Detroit with no smoke? That's wild but 2 Detroits that don't smoke is insane lol
They are clean yea - amazing
wow really cool machines
Great video, glad to see the engine problem wasn’t terminal and you were able to run it on both engines 👍
Thanks for watching
Thanks for showing that excavator ! I never seen or heard of one.
Thanks for watching!
Hopto Power💪
I have a 700A that i still use to this day ill make a video next week thank you for posting video just fantastic
Now that’s a power barn!!!!
Haven't seen an old HOPTO up close in years.. used to be a few around. They were good machines.
High track, like modern logging equipment. Love the track tension system!
Those stilts!!!
All nice footage! Thank you Nathan!!!
Morning Ed!! Those high tracks were part of the modification for the stilts (or so I’m told) I’m great full for my friends sharing the footage no doubt. Thanks for watching
@@ironman3406 they still look like today's high walkers in the woods.
Pretty cool 👍
@GosselinFarmsEdGosselin they sure do.
Wow. Thank you for this video, I did not know at all about these machines! Hefty fine units 😅 Hardly street legal these days, haha. The first move hardly made the tracks squeak, very impressive.
It was pretty remarkable to make it do what it was supposed to. Thanks for watching
Awesome moneypit ;-D
Warner and swasey was a good. Equipment line a friend still has a dragline
My Father bought a brand-new Caterpillar 955H in 1963 to be used on high altitude Hydro Electric Dam projects in Switzerland. The first was a Traxcavator 977 in 1957. H is US-Built | B Belgium | G France
Something a lot of people don’t know once you get into the hundred ton range of digger is it’s not good for the stick boom and pins slewing and trying to push dirt side ways… it’s not a 20 toner
@@aleksahgr6238its manipulated person
Great video Nathan! Did I hear or see somewhere that most of this equipment came from Calgary? If so that old Hopto probably hasn’t had a bucket full of dirt for closer to 30 or more years.
You could be right it belonged to huneset.
Wow
I've never seen one of those machine's before!
Tachuki tb 290 shave had the track tensioning system for years
In the drone shot thats the red trailer top left that the platform is sitting in front of, they make the semi trails look small once you realise where they start and end
Yeah they are not small stilts - thanks for watching
Wow that's quite a climb, but they look like some real weapons.
Nice work guys. Sorry I couldn't make it
We will catch you next time pal!!
@@ironman3406 and I want an AHCS sticker!!
@@simonwilkinson2133 assuming you meant the HCHS sticker? Lol The Frenchman has em he can hook you up!
Very cool! is this place open to the public & also, what are the chances you have any Sales brochures on this stuff.
It kind of is - you just have to know where to get in. I have some scans from the brochures on the Hopto 1900 yes.
Cool & nice, how can i contact you? I do 3D modeling and it would be super awesome to get the brochures on some of these machines to remake in a Virtual life.@@ironman3406
Real nice loos l😍😍😍😍😍😍😍ike a lot of fun to run
I had a great time, we all did
Powerful rig, in its day, but I would hope it was somewhat faster, especially at digging. Very interesting.
I feel like I might've seen you post these machines on a pipeline group on FB?
Holy crap, you start loading those hydraulics and it’s going to be a swan fountain of hyro fluid 😂
Hey Nathan.
Some great videos, some fabulous machines!
A couple of observations, can we listen to the machines working and the discussion around getting them working instead of the music please, and can the camera operators try to remember to turn their phones landscape, many of us are watching these videos on TVs which leaves us with a tiny strip in the middle! 🤣
No I haven’t published anything as each video I’ve tried to make has annoying issues with lighting or jumping frame size, but I do realise the effort involved so thank you for bringing us this most interesting content.
Binge watching from the first video, subscribed! 👍
Regards, Graham.
Hey Graham - appreciate the constructive feedback. I’ve never taken any kind of videography classes or anything in school I’m learning on my own as I go. However I don’t think there was any music in this one because of feedback I’ve had in previous videos. Typically music is an easy overlay because drones don’t records audio, and it’s difficult to get the sounds aligned right when you just place a mic near the machine to record the audio. At least I’ve not figured it out yet lol. With regards to the landscape mode - I know it’s annoying but the reason that they shot it that way was so they could also post it on social media which prefers the vertical orientation, I’m just using their video to capture more angles and perspective. As I say still learning all this high tech stuff - I’m a mechanic and heavy equipment operator so this is still all new territory.
@@ironman3406
I know where you are coming from, I’m a classic car mechanic and I’m also trying to make some videos, I have some timelapse of building a gearbox but when I resized it to 1080 something went wrong and it keeps jittering the frame in and out so the shot of the bench randomly gets wider and narrower! 🙄
This video stuff ain’t easy! 🤣
About the music, I’ve watched several of your videos today, including this one. I thought it would make more sense posting my comment on the most recent episode I’d watched rather than a several year old video.
Thanks for the response. 👍
@@grahamstretch6863 ahh 10/4 I understand good luck with your videos man keep at it it’ll get easier are you using a go pro ?
@@ironman3406
No, I’m using gear that I have, Canon cameras and studio strobes!
That was another problem, one strobe triggers the other and the sun came out, shone through the Perspex roof sheet and swamped the receiver on the second light, it stopped working so one side of the bench goes dark! 🤯🤯🤪🤪🤪
I want one
Any video links longer than 2 minutes showing these machine working?
Other than the ones I’ve posted on RUclips I’m not sure I’ve not looked.
Jezz... it's like watching molasses. That excavator is slow. Running that for a day would drive me nuts. Is that actually its top speed?
Hey Joe thanks for watching - there was a little left on the throttles, I was running about 3/4 throttle - didn’t want to push those engine to hard after just waking up. But even at full RPM it still would have been slow, but it was faster than a cable hoe in its day.
Are those piloted hydraulic controls
Negative - the manual linkages run under the cab right to the valves. Thanks for watching
There is a lot of wear on those track pads it must have seen lots of walking around jobsites.
Now i see why you are called IRONMAN :0 I thought i had big machines my little ec220d @56000lbs. That Hopto could lift my machine. My question is the Hopto's fuel consumption per hour or shift? I semi tanker per shift. LOL. The stilts? Never seen that setup before. Super cool. I used to work on gensets the weird part is i could sleep next to large diesels . When its -40 and i sit next to a genset radiator after freezing balls all day puts me right to sleep.
Well I mean they burned 17.9 gallons per hour at 2100 rpm at MAX load - fuel consumption wasn’t really a factor like it is now haha. The stilts definitely make it unique, and they were built in house to top it off. Thanks for watching.
thanks for the vid to see that on the stilts again what a project.
@@ironman3406
Very cool excavator 👍
Thanks for watching
Where is the other half of the stick for the other machine?
Sitting out back - it’s never been put back together since it was transported to the site. It’s on the list to put back together after we address a couple seized pumps on it. Thanks for watching
That is a monster of a excavator. You need to do a video of the thiokol juggernaut with that excavator sitting in the back ground.
Sorry - the thick ole juggernaut? Which machine are you referring to have this machine behind?
@@ironman3406 It is the one sitting next to the other H-1900 you can see it clearly at 31:56 . It is a Thiokol 6T / Juggernaut.
@@jakesoldiron Googled some pictures of the Thiokol 6T. Don't think I've ever seen anything like that. Four tracks, and a diff placed between each pair. That is quite something.
That's a big piece of machinery.
Did the kid check the oil before you tried starting those engines?
Hi there you bet it even got changed in one of the engines. Thanks for watching
@ironman3406 I just had to ask, sometimes those kids get ahead of themselves. Lol
I was in the Navy, worked on big and little diesel engines. We had to do a viscosity test to make sure we weren't having trouble with a fuel leak, those were 567C whith a generator attached to it.
FANTASTIC STUFF! SO, WHAT IS DONE WITH THESE BEAUTIFUL BEASTS? ANDREW CAMARATA IS PROBABLY INTERESTED IN BUYING SOMETHING FROM YOU JUST TO DO A VIDEO, THEN LET THE MACHINE RUST TO THE GROUND.
It’s a heritage site - we just keep history alive. None of its for sale, especially to rust to the ground, it can do that where it is and at least still be part of the site.
Looks like a cylinder sleeve oring went bad, started dumping water in the oil. Have to leave radiator cap loose on engines this old so no radiator pressure builds up. It will never do production work again so it wouldn't hurt to leave it lo9se
If you had watched a bit longer you would have learned that it was a loose injector line dumping diesel into the crankcase - east fix!
Luke will like that
I dunno if he’s watched it yet lol but he does like Detroits.
Shake hands with danger 😊.
You better hope the rack isn’t sticking or your going to have a run away big time . I always pull the valve covers and check on Detroits if they have been sitting a long time . You have to run those excavators full throttle.
You must have missed the part of the video where it showed that we had the valve covers off.
What's the plan? Total restoration?
Operation restoration first - then see what happens. Thanks for watching
@@ironman3406 Looking forward to it.
Hey Nathan! Been a while.
Hi Matt - yes feeds been a bit slow, that dang real job thing has been keeping me busy this summer! Hope you are doing well my friend.
100% chance the operator has at some point in his life uttered the words. “That chilli had me messed up, i could have shit through a key hole at 20 paces”
The foot pedals control swing and bucket
Thanks.
With all that modifications that machine probably weighs close to 110 tons.
Essa é antiga mesma
1970’s
That would be great if you could get it back on them stilts.
All these hefty hydraulic lines, dang it. Hope you don't ever pop one 😂 Probably not to comfortable working on those engines...
Detroits had a place in history, and I'm glad I got to run the 8v71 and 8v92's. Sure glad we don't have them anymore. Fuel burning oil leaking mess.
They most definitely had their place and served their purpose, but things evolve and get quieter 😂 thanks for watching
I'll bet that machine was a maintenance nightmare. With all of those hydraulic components.
At least without tin it’s easy to get at everything
Heniset pipeline machine? Read about excavator Heniset built.
Might have been this one, they modified it heavily. Thanks for watching
@ironman3406 Get Banister shop built 710 ditcher, lucky smaller one also. Heniset built shop built sideboom on FA41B.
Oh, it'll run and it'll dig. Just a question of how much elbow grease and bad language you have to apply.
They can lift my house!
Betting the pumps are weak
Hard to say - the old guy that used to run it said it wasn’t very fast - we also only ran the engines to 3/4 throttle.
Machine is too slow. Wrong hydraulic oil or worned hydraulic components... PTO, Pump etc...
The older gentleman that used to run it who was there said they didn’t operator very fast. This is a very early hydraulic excavator, nothing was as fast as it is today. Also if you were watching while it was only running with one engine yes it was slow then
Fix your Mic from rubbing on something. Very distracting.
Thanks for watching. When I made this video I didnt own a mic yet, the noise you hear is just the camera picking up my hand when it moved on the camera handle. Go pros are very sensitive to picking up sounds like that. It’s since been remedied so you no longer need to be concerned.
Couldn't you help push yourself backwards
Not enough hyd power on one engine to multifunction for that, good idea but it just didn’t have to hydraulic power to do it. I was at the mercy of the pumps.
I didn't know what's going on with your mike, but it's quite aggravating.
Unfortunately I don’t get to hear any of it until you go to edit the video. Sometimes it just comes with the process.
Holy shaky camera
How is there fresh dirt on the tracks if it hasn't ran in 20 years? 😂 Fake!
If you watch the entire video that is explained actually - I was not there for the start up and my intro was filmed after the whole process. I can assure you the video is not fake, I don’t do fake - there’s enough of that in the web already.
@@ironman3406 maybe misleading or click bait is the word then. The main picture says "sitting 20 years". I've seen people recover abandoned dozers and trucks from properties where they literally have to cut trees down to get them out. This excavator had obviously been recently ran or towed so "sitting for 20 years" is in fact a lie to bring extra views. I can't go get a world record for longest sitting session if I get up to use the bathroom and go out to eat. It makes no sense. I'm just saying quit walking around the meaning of words to fit a narrative. There's already too much of that in this world. It was still cool to see an old excavator in operation, but it was under false pretenses. I'm sure many others thought the same thing when seeing it.
To scrap yard
Ummm definitely not happening.
@@ironman3406 Thanks for reassuring us heavy equipment enthusiasts about that. I just can’t fathom why someone would consider scraping such an important piece of equipment history.I for one, am very glad that you and the crew have decided to preserve this hydraulic giant. This H-1900 is definitely a very rare machine. The main thing about this machine that really makes it special, is that this may have been the first hydraulic excavator to cross the 100 ton barrier. This machine is from the infancy of large hydraulic excavator development. Just as a little side note, my all time favorite old excavator, is the Koehring 1266D. The big Koehring weighed in at a hefty 130 tons.Take Good Care.