A few projects I have done recently

smifwal said:

I will never own a machine with out a/c after having it.

You can order the ventilated seat in the new cat, and don't forget the key fob so you don't have to put in a code just saying

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I love that ventilated seat! The cab of the Next Gen CTLs is a major upgrade from the 2xxD series.

Tell me more about the key fob please. Waiting on the screen to light up so I can enter the code gets old...

AMBMike said:

I love that ventilated seat! The cab of the Next Gen CTLs is a major upgrade from the 2xxD series.

Tell me more about the key fob please. Waiting on the screen to light up so I can enter the code gets old...

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I can't remember how much it was $650 maybe. .you get (2).
.Pg 7 bottom right

smifwal said:

I can't remember how much it was $650 maybe. .you get (2).
.Pg 7 bottom right

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Interesting. Thanks.

CM1995 said:

Just paid off the D3 and all the older iron goes on medical leave..

Can't get ahead.

Did not know they offered ventilated seats in the CTL's.

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They sure do, when I was looking at the 255 the price with the upgrades it was cheaper to order from the factory than it was to buy a stock unit and have the service guys install them. Only problem was the factor is about 6 months out. I will see if I can find the build sheet when I get home from work but I really only added a few things

Interesting the ventilated seats can be installed at the dealer.

Right now our dealer has CTL's and mini's overflowing both their local yards here. Great time to buy a 255 - they probably have 35-40 of them.

CM1995 said:

Interesting the ventilated seats can be installed at the dealer.

Right now our dealer has CTL's and mini's overflowing both their local yards here. Great time to buy a 255 - they probably have 35-40 of them.

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My dealer wasn't ordering them with the ventilated seat at the time,(not sure if they are now or not) I assume to keep cost down on the stock machines and we can add it after the fact. But it was cheaper to have it ordered with since parts is marking the seat up and service is charging to install it.

I forgot about the 3 point safety belt. I have tried wearing the lap belt, friend told he feels like it really keeps me snug in the seat. My experience with it that I forget I have it on when I try to get out, I am sure I would get used to it but I never wear the seat belt because it doesn't keep my face off the glass if I run in to something (like a man hole when plowing snow)

company my son is buying into, just bought a new 360 komatsu couple years ago. took some convincing, but convinced his older partner to gps it. where they're at, they have lots of sand, no rock. bedding material "3/4" rock" has to come 80 plus miles. their operators if needed 6" undercut for bedding...were always going 8-10" over just to make sure in case engineer measured. his partner comes in office with stack of receipts, throws them on son's desk. tells him they needed to have the rest of the machines gps'd...their rock costs were down over 40% on the last 2 jobs. they love it.

dayexco said:

company my son is buying into, just bought a new 360 komatsu couple years ago. took some convincing, but convinced his older partner to gps it. where they're at, they have lots of sand, no rock. bedding material "3/4" rock" has to come 80 plus miles. their operators if needed 6" undercut for bedding...were always going 8-10" over just to make sure in case engineer measured. his partner comes in office with stack of receipts, throws them on son's desk. tells him they needed to have the rest of the machines gps'd...their rock costs were down over 40% on the last 2 jobs. they love it.

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It really is a no-brainer once you see the savings but the initial cost scares people away so much, there is also the increased productivity.

Not to mention the cost of removing the extra if it has to be disposed of off site.

Joe H

No doubt.

Today the guys were finishing out two retention ponds at the office/warehouse project.

Normally this would require a **** load of stakes at the toe and top to grade the slope which would be all in the way of grading the slope and top of dam since the top is only wide enough for the 325 to go across.



Easy - peasy with GPS in the trackhoe. Just walk around the edge of the pond pulling the bottom flat to the toe, then pull the slope.

Tasks like this used to be a huge PITA but now it's easily done.

I remember hours of jumping out and moving my own stakes and looking across the slope between stations, or having a guy doing it.
even having the hoe hog it and a light dozer with GPS putting the shine on is nice. Leave just enough meat to hang in there.

The kid cutting pads at the job I am gets in and out of the machine at least 10x a day to check with the grade rod and the laser. If I was so far behind because of the survey guys I would cut him some bench marks with the mini.

when i was in grade school, and my older brothers were handling pipe laying...it was my job to move/set up the batterboards for putting in sewer main. after a few f ups, i learned to check my math 3, 4 times. that habit has stuck with me. how i wish they had pocket calculators back then.

As the office/warehouse project turns.

Found several rock veins running through the middle of the project on a drive lane between two of the buildings. Around 600 CY of rock to be removed to bring the drive lane to subgrade.

Don't like to run a hammer on the 325 with GPS (yes I know) however the 321 doesn't have aux. hydros nor the flow for the hammer. Weighed the options and figured if we need to replace a sensor or two it's still way cheaper than renting a 320 for a month.



Cut the main entrance out today along with the turn in to the middle drive with all the rock.





Had to pull up the #24 stone for the construction entrance, cut to subgrade then place it back down before the rain that's coming Sunday and Monday per the weatherman.



We've put the majority of the interior roads/drive lanes to subgrade with exception to the rock. Concrete crew with 18 men (supposedly) and the utility crew is coming in Monday so all this nice pretty subgrade will be destroyed. No skin off our back - we'll get paid to put it back to this state.

GC and following subs want everything to subgrade so we give it to them. Job is bid putting surfaces on subgrade one time, further re-work to get back to this state is T+M.

Friend of ours broke out on his own and bought a lowboy. 2005 Pete glider with C15 Cat, 18 spd pulling a new Kaylen triple axle slide trailer.

Moved the 953 over to the dump site which is a friend of a friends place that is filling in their back yard for more room.

Trailer is brand new however we weren't the first to scratch the deck paint - he took a 320 to Jackson, MS earlier in the week.



Beautiful truck



Loader on top of the hill with Lucy in the truck supervising. We have 2 tri-axles making 2 loads per hour.

Load of the hammer rock. Had to build out the outside slope with good material so we can get the trucks to the rear yard.

I love doing **** like this. Gets back to the reason why we love to move dirt - no plans, no PM, no engineer - just a blank canvass to create something from.

CM1995 said:

Don't like to run a hammer on the 325 with GPS (yes I know) however the 321 doesn't have aux. hydros nor the flow for the hammer. Weighed the options and figured if we need to replace a sensor or two it's still way cheaper than renting a 320 for a month.

.

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Sitech sells covers for those sensors, I only have the cover on the dog bone, that was "recommended/included" but a separate line item, after seeing what they were I am glad I didn't add the others, they are very easy to fabricate and they charged me $165.00 for about $5.00 worth of metal.

You probably already know this but didn't mention it so I will add for any else that might be reading but not commenting, I am told the biggest concern with doing demo with a machine that is equipped with grade controls is things get loose and makes it harder to get gnats ass. If/hen you get the sensors replaced you might go ahead and have them do another measure up(I think it was $500.00 for that).