A few projects I have done recently

Oxbow · Saturday at 12:51 PM

CM1995 said:
One of the problems one our newest Wacker has is it will not stop when you want it to. Some internal gremlin we don't have the time to chase out. It has hit structures and walls before - thankfully with no damage to either but still not good. This one is going on the auction block.

The oldest Wacker is the most reliable and I'll keep it as a spare. It has some weird electrical gremlin that sometimes makes you have to cycle through the starting process many times before it cranks.

What I like about the Bomag is everything is controlled on the remote. Start, stop, idle - everything. It has auto idle down when it stops for so many seconds.

One can run the Bomag sitting in the excavator cab if the conditions allow it. Use the hoe to backfill the ditch then crank the roller up and pack it.

IIRC Wacker makes the roller for Husky?

All the trench rollers I have owned/ran till stop within 10' of the one holding the remote however it will run over something in it's way.

This is full remote too.

CM1995 · Saturday at 12:56 PM

Oxbow said:
This is full remote too. View attachment 363604

Got it. Full remote is so much better.

Our 2 Wackers have the start/stop and high/low throttle in the console on the machine. Didn't realize how annoying it was until there was a better option.

willie59 · Saturday at 8:16 PM

CM1995 said:
It was the first time we've dug in this type of material even though we've worked all around the area for over 20 years.

To the north it's red and white chert, then sandy red dirt with grey and blue rock. To the south is more orange chert then sandy flat ground along the river. Going back west gets into the limestone quarries.

As Willie said - we have mixed bag buried underground.

I believe we can at least partially blame the glaciers for that. You know, those glaciers that formed the valleys and Appalachian mountains from New York to Northern Ga, Alabama became the sewer plant for all the crap those glaciers carried south.

Oxbow · 2026-07-26T08:15:08-0400

willie59 said:
I believe we can at least partially blame the glaciers for that. You know, those glaciers that formed the valleys and Appalachian mountains from New York to Northern Ga, Alabama became the sewer plant for all the crap those glaciers carried south.

Ha, I have never heard it put quite that way!

DDoug · 2026-07-26T08:16:23-0400

willie59 said:
I believe we can at least partially blame the glaciers for that. You know, those glaciers that formed the valleys and Appalachian mountains from New York to Northern Ga, Alabama became the sewer plant for all the crap those glaciers carried south.

It's all them damn Yankees !

dayexco · 2026-07-26T09:55:14-0400

we always liked having 2 excavators. one digging, one compacting. either vibe plate or packwheel. that way we could stay immediately behind the pipelaying.

CM1995 · 2026-07-26T11:31:47-0400

We use a trench roller and either a hoe, track loader or CTL to backfill the trench.

Using a CTL and trench roller allows us to put a lessor operator on the backfill while the pipe laying goes on. Depends on whether the pipe has to be inspected or not.

CM1995 · 2026-07-26T11:38:32-0400

Speaking of rain and how much we have had this summer -

Friday afternoon.

Crew finally had to stop hammering since the pond filled up and backed water into the ditch since the pipe is relatively flat at .25%.

They could work up until water filled the trench since it's solid rock. However when you can't see the bottom it's time to throw in the towel.

The pond has a Faircloth Skimmer which was doing it's job to filter the muddy water before letting it go into the OCS however it was just overwhelmed at this point.

Pic from Monday of last week showing the rain over last weekend. The skimmer is the floating PVC contraption.

Columbo · 2026-07-26T13:14:03-0400

Looks slipperier than you know what!

CM1995 · 2026-07-26T14:09:26-0400

Columbo said:
Looks slipperier than you know what!

Surprisingly not. The 325 is sitting on solid rock and most of this material is very sandy with rock fragments.

Now 6 miles down the road where we built the metal building pad back in April is slicker than owl ****. It's red clay.

smifwal · 2026-07-26T16:15:11-0400

I get those nasty jobs right before I have to go work somewhere on or near asphalt where you can't track mud. I like to sneak a little extra in somewhere to pay me to wash my machines. Call me greedy

CM1995 · 2026-07-26T18:59:04-0400

smifwal said:
I get those nasty jobs right before I have to go work somewhere on or near asphalt where you can't track mud. I like to sneak a little extra in somewhere to pay me to wash my machines. Call me greedy

If you have to wash your machine then that is a cost of doing business and should be accounted for.

That's not being greedy that's being business savvy.

Oxbow · 2026-07-26T21:59:38-0400

CM1995 said:
If you have to wash your machine then that is a cost of doing business and should be accounted for.

That's not being greedy that's being business savvy.

We are required to wash before going on to almost all new jobs, in an attempt to reduce the spread of noxious weeds and certain snails/mussels that they do not want transported to another stream/river. 8 hours labor per machine is not taking advantage of the situation, especially when you have to get every bit of soil out of the track frames and grousers.

I used to consider that overhead as we would wash equipment when it came back to the yard anyway, but anymore we add it into the mobilization cost.

A few projects I have done recently

Oxbow

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willie59

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DDoug

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dayexco

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