For those who had a Big Wheel as a kid....

Danny Tse

Remember Big Wheel?



Apparently there's an annual Big Wheel "race" going down a hill in San Francisco and the 2012 "race" is taking place this coming Sunday. I came upon the information from this Wired magazine article today....

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/04/big-wheel-racing/

Don't forget to check out the video....

[video=youtube_share;dcGia7V_Nyw]http://youtu.be/dcGia7V_Nyw[/video]

MrDHEJ

There's a similar race held at "The Tail of the Dragon" at the gap in tenneesee. It's a popular motorcycle route, 318 curves in 11 miles. I've heard of guys getting compound fractures in the big wheel race. More dangerous then a motorcycle if you ask me lol.

chumlie

I hate big wheels. One of the most annoying sounds ever. I used to live in an apartment with an inside court next to the bedroom. A perfect track for big wheels. Try going to sleep listening to that ALL day, every day in the summer. Working nite shift, but its kids having fun, so what ya gonna do. Had to move.

obieone

I think I blew through 2 or 3 of those as a kid. I was a lead foot:cheesygrin:

Sherardp

I would so do this. Loved my big wheel as a kid. Even ran mine down a hill and off a ramp. I was considered a wild kid back then.

SKsolutions

According to my parents, I got mine when I was four - and promptly rode in down the winding stairs of our third floor walk-up.
fun!

hochpt21

Ha Ha...I had one back in the day. I remember riding around on that thing all the time. I think I even wore through the plastic on the front wheel.

Good memories...thanks for bringin it back.

Sherardp

hochpt21 wrote: »

Ha Ha...I had one back in the day. I remember riding around on that thing all the time. I think I even wore through the plastic on the front wheel.

Good memories...thanks for bringin it back.

Yeah I think we all wore the wheels down at some point. I remember putting rocks in mine for cool sound effects.

amulford

I will always remember the time I was in 8th grade and took one of them to school. It was freakin hilarious, even the teacher were holding the sides when I parked it in the Principal's Parking spot. He didn't find it too amusing, but WTH...

wolfman1138

Big Wheels were OK, but I'd take my 1978 Green Machine any day of the week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygcConBiLV8

tonyb

Sherardp wrote: »

I would so do this. Loved my big wheel as a kid. Even ran mine down a hill and off a ramp. I was considered a wild kid back then.

You probably owe that big wheel for your career path today. Small boys-small toys, big boys-bigger toys. John Deere has a few sweet big wheels themselves. Personally, I like Kamatsu but don't tell the Deere guys that. Though Deere makes a darn good Bobcat, I'll give 'em that.

Sherardp

tonyb wrote: »

You probably owe that big wheel for your career path today. Small boys-small toys, big boys-bigger toys. John Deere has a few sweet big wheels themselves. Personally, I like Kamatsu but don't tell the Deere guys that. Though Deere makes a darn good Bobcat, I'll give 'em that.

If you ever get down to Moline, shoot me a PM and I'll get you a tour of the facilities. State of the art production of those very machines you speak of, will even try to get you an operators demo. I love my John Deere toys, I get to play in the sand with pretty much anything I want.

thsmith

We were to poor to have Big Wheels but we sure lusted for them.

disneyjoe7

amulford wrote: »

I will always remember the time I was in 8th grade and took one of them to school. It was freakin hilarious, even the teacher were holding the sides when I parked it in the Principal's Parking spot. He didn't find it too amusing, but WTH...

Now that's funny

tonyb

Sherardp wrote: »

If you ever get down to Moline, shoot me a PM and I'll get you a tour of the facilities. State of the art production of those very machines you speak of, will even try to get you an operators demo. I love my John Deere toys, I get to play in the sand with pretty much anything I want.

Thanks bro, I'll keep that in mind. Playing with all the new toys has to be way cool. Here in Chicago, most companies are running Cat, Kamatsu, even Volvo. You don't see too many Deere machines anymore. But heavy equipment these days are getting to be like cars, rebadged from someone else. Curious, does Deere rebadge anything ? I always thought New Holland bobcats was a rebadged DEERE, very similar in design and performance. Their backhoes seem nice, but never had a chance to use one. Most here went to Kamatsu, faster on the swing, cheaper. Definately some competition when it comes to heavy equipment. Given the price of these things, people tend to hold on to them pretty long. Some will cost you the price of a house, a nice house.

I remember 20 years ago, all you saw was Deere and Cat, that was it. I'm curious about another thing. The warranty on these big pieces. You spend 200-300 g's for a good size backhoe and you only get one year worth of warranty. Is that industry standard ? Given the costs to work on these things is also astronomical, one would think if you offered a better warranty it would sway some buyers your way. Construction company owners, in general, are some of the cheapest bastages you'll ever meet in your life. At least the smaller to midsize companies anyway. Forgive my rant, It's just that I've been in the industry so long, they have a caveman mentality, nothing changes. I'm always thinking of ways to better the industry. Like a trade in, trade up policy. You get owners to trade in machines maybe every 3 years and offer them a good price, given condition of coarse, off a newer machine, better financing. The used market is huge for construction equipment. Also, the number one reason machines go down is hoses, broken hoses. We have a bunch of small mobile companies that work out of a van to service just that. Make the hoses on the job site and install them, refill the oil. To me, thats money out of a manufactures pocket, but I don't see it as a huge money maker. More so a convenience factor with brand recognition and reputations for service......which is lacking for all the major brands. Crap, I'm babbling on again. Enjoy those cool big wheels you get to play with, I'm envious.

boston1450

i remember using mine so much it wore the tred off. my dad brought it to the dump. i was. very mad

Sherardp

tonyb wrote: »

Thanks bro, I'll keep that in mind. Playing with all the new toys has to be way cool. Here in Chicago, most companies are running Cat, Kamatsu, even Volvo. You don't see too many Deere machines anymore. But heavy equipment these days are getting to be like cars, rebadged from someone else. Curious, does Deere rebadge anything ? I always thought New Holland bobcats was a rebadged DEERE, very similar in design and performance. Their backhoes seem nice, but never had a chance to use one. Most here went to Kamatsu, faster on the swing, cheaper. Definately some competition when it comes to heavy equipment. Given the price of these things, people tend to hold on to them pretty long. Some will cost you the price of a house, a nice house.

I remember 20 years ago, all you saw was Deere and Cat, that was it. I'm curious about another thing. The warranty on these big pieces. You spend 200-300 g's for a good size backhoe and you only get one year worth of warranty. Is that industry standard ? Given the costs to work on these things is also astronomical, one would think if you offered a better warranty it would sway some buyers your way. Construction company owners, in general, are some of the cheapest bastages you'll ever meet in your life. At least the smaller to midsize companies anyway. Forgive my rant, It's just that I've been in the industry so long, they have a caveman mentality, nothing changes. I'm always thinking of ways to better the industry. Like a trade in, trade up policy. You get owners to trade in machines maybe every 3 years and offer them a good price, given condition of coarse, off a newer machine, better financing. The used market is huge for construction equipment. Also, the number one reason machines go down is hoses, broken hoses. We have a bunch of small mobile companies that work out of a van to service just that. Make the hoses on the job site and install them, refill the oil. To me, thats money out of a manufactures pocket, but I don't see it as a huge money maker. More so a convenience factor with brand recognition and reputations for service......which is lacking for all the major brands. Crap, I'm babbling on again. Enjoy those cool big wheels you get to play with, I'm envious.

Excellent post TonyB and very well thought out. Most HE ( Heavy Equipment) will carry a standard 1 yr bumper to bumper warranty. The only exception I have seen with this was our military customers in which they pay for 5 yr bumper to bumper warranties. This does save them time, cut down gov spending because anything that is damaged will be covered. The way the military operates HE is alot different from our non-mil customers. So I can see within reason why they opt for such warranty plans. As for rebadged gear, I have not seen that so much with John Deere though I have seen it with CAT. Matter of fact, if you look at CAT's telehandler forklifts you may notice similarities with JLG machinery. That's because JLG makes CAT's forklift machines under a program called the CAT Alliance.

As for trade up and trade in programs, lot of manufacturers will do this. I know of a few personally, just not sure how much of a discount the customer will receive. It all depends on condition, but often times a customer can walk out of the office with a newly refurbished machine at a great price. I've seen this done, military does it alot. Another option would be to bring that old piece of gear in and have it rebuilt at a lower cost.

As for my machines, I work with various equipment. I work John Deere Construction & Forestry (Black/Yellow) side of the house, not the Ag side (traditional Green/Yellow) so I spend most of my time on Loaders and Dozers. Backhoes I work with sort of sparingly out here in Japan. In this area I have roughly 200 624KR loaders and about 40 850JR dozers (commercial version is the 624K/850J) plus accessories(winches, rippers, buckets, etc). You mentioned hoses, but to be honest I don't really see that many failures in the field. In most cases they are simply ordered and replaced.

Are you familiar with Ultra Booms, Booms and scissors? Check out JLG products and let me know.

PrazVT

I had an A-Team big wheel complete w/ an e-brake(??)

It wasn't exactly like this one ..but close.

jephdood

Yeah, I remember the front tires would always cave in, the seat pegs would inevitably snap off, and the e-brake would no longer do much of anything other than dislodging gravel, mud, and occasional dog crap from your right rear wheel.

But I loved powersliding in those things.