Favorite Machine?

[tylermckee]

id have to agree with 345cl, theres nothin like, digging around obstacles, gets a little strenous somtimes, but it feels good at the end of the day when you met your quota for the day and nothings ripped out or broken. but then again, every now and then its aslo nice to sit and load trucks all day, a little change of secenery now and then never hurts!

x2
Although it gets a little stressfull when the locate guys cant locate their stuff properly.

whats the hardest obstacle you have had to dig around, like a water line..gas line somethin like that?

Digging around/under one thing is easy, its when you get a couple things running all different dirrections that it gets tricky.

 

[TRACKHOE71]

one particular job i was on about 2 years ago, my crew was putting in sanitary sewer, off site , we started out of an exsiting manhole roughly 16 ft to invert of pipe, about 200 ft out it got really hairy, the road it self was only 16ft wide, i had overhead power lines on both sides of the road, secondary services crossing over top, going every which way, plus 12 inch water mains on either side of the road , plus numerous trees, fences, triaxles, double stacked trench boxes, besides my hoe which was a 330 there was another one that was behind me with a hammer on it , we had hit alot of rock, plus a IT28 running bedding and pipe, plus 2 buckets and a ripper. it was a little nerve wracking at times, but never ripped out anyhting on that whole off site part of the job. plus it was may first time digging on a pipe crew.:Banghead

 

[Dozerboy]

whats the hardest obstacle you have had to dig around, like a water line..gas line somethin like that?

An old 12KVA that fed Offutt air force base that didn't have any sand, tape, or anything. They said it was 6’ down and we had 3’ of cut (scrapers) it ended up being only 3.5’ down. Or a Phizer plant that has some much crap going every which way it looked like a bunch of kids where painting lines on the ground. There where 2 very high pressure steam lines that we had to cross the dirt around them was very hot to the touch.

 

[chevy94]

that project at offutt were you out in s. eastern neb/ s. western iowa? if i am completly in the wrong place i must be thinking of a different base

 

[Deas Plant]

favourite machines/jobs

Hi, Folks.
One older operator with whom I worked some years ago summed it up pretty well for me. He reckoned if it burned diesel and made noise he was happy.

Having said that, I have done a few pioneering jobs with a dozer away up on the side of a hill/mountain where nobody comes to bother you 'cos it's too far to climb. Great!!!!!

I also enjoy push-loading scrapers, especially if they are a good crew of scraper operators. I like running a good grader boundary riding for scrapers too, doing their haul roads, keeping the fill in shape, etc..

I thoroughly enjoyed running a dragline too, especially the one I had to set up 'cos there was not a single fitter on the company payroll in their main workshop who knew anything about setting up a dragline.

I've enjoyed running excavators, 4wd and track loaders, face shovels, cranes, sideboom pipelayers, scrapers, dump trucks and the list goes on.

Hell, I'm just a kid in a (BIG) sand pit and happy to be that way.

 

[jazak]

Dozers, excavators & skidsteers...BUT ONLY A CAT as NOTHING beats their controls... :notworthy

 

[farm_boy]

...BUT ONLY A CAT as NOTHING beats their controls... :notworthy

ointlaugh :umno :crazy ....can't say that I agree with that one.

I really enjoy operating dozers, but wheel loaders are home for me.

 

[catd8t]

i got to go with my 2007 d8t things great i could run it forever cd player in it just put in some music and hammer on it. see must of the time im cutting trails in the woods for a water line so its great all alone start on one end and to to the other there always deer everywhere so dozer all the way

 

[CM1995]

I would say a 325DL is my favorite. From clearing and grubbing to loading trucks. Close second is a 953C track loader - jack of nearly all trades.

 

[Dozerboy]

that project at offutt were you out in s. eastern neb/ s. western iowa? if i am completly in the wrong place i must be thinking of a different base

Yep it was NE

 

[chevy94]

alright im glad i was thinkin of the right place, if you hop over to the iowa side just northeast of there i know that area up there real well

 

[deeredude]

I enjoy running just about any earth moving equipment but I do like a change after a while.If I had to run a loader in a pit full time I would go nuts.
I really do like doing site work just for that reason.Stump the land,strip topsoil,box out roads,mainline pipe work etc.
Then you dig the cellar holes,backfill,utilities...........spread topsoil,always something different so you never get bored.Favorite???Maybe the dozer,big or small...........it is a nice feeling to be able to fine grade a roadbase,spread the process stone to get ready for paving leaving very little work for the grader.Sometimes I am the grader guy as well and you get the satisfaction of having been a part of it all when it is done.
Plowing snow with a loader has to be the most boring job there is unless you can shear off a hydrant as I once did with a Trojan 4000 causing you to wonder why the snow was turning blue around you until you figure out what happened. Ron G

no way. brand new 644j with a 20' box on the front in 2ft of snow during the middle of the night, dont get much better than that. the new 450 hoes are nice machines too:drinkup

 

[dayexco]

no way. brand new 644j with a 20' box on the front in 2ft of snow during the middle of the night, dont get much better than that. the new 450 hoes are nice machines too:drinkup

if that snow is very wet/heavy....w/a 20' snow box, 2' of snow...you'll be nibbling about a 1' of snow at a time....and don't want to get stopped until you reach your push point. we have a 544 w/14'er....that's "enough" of a blade on a 12" snow

 

[deeredude]

if that snow is very wet/heavy....w/a 20' snow box, 2' of snow...you'll be nibbling about a 1' of snow at a time....and don't want to get stopped until you reach your push point. we have a 544 w/14'er....that's "enough" of a blade on a 12" snow

our 544h dosent even come close to the J when pushing snow. didnt have too much heavy snow this year, but if you get a good enough head of steam, it'll push it.

 

[stuvecorp]

I've found that some guys just hate plowing but I enjoy it for some reason. If you have to get the lot done for shift changes or to pushing big snow with a pusher or blade its fun. If I had to plow with bucket only, I would not do it but with a big pusher or blade it's way different.

 

[dayexco]

our pusher, has taken our target store from the 544 w/ 2.75 yd bucket, two pickups/blades w/wings 3.5 hrs....to one pickup, 544 w/14' pusher.....1 hr. 10 mins. seasonal bid, kind of a no brainer, but i agree. snow removal SUX

 

[9420pullpan]

i will take a 9520 with dark tinted windows with 2 bowls pullin down a long hill. oh and gotta have the tunes up on the sirius satelite radio. and just sit back and listen to the whine of the turbo

 

[jhill]

I have not had a chance to run a great variety of equipment like many of you but of my stuff I really like to run my mini excavator. I wuld like to run a bigger one someday but really enjoy digging a straight flat bottom trench or digging out stumps.

 

[Tigerotor77W]

Love track loaders for their beauty and gracefulness, but I've never operated one.

I really enjoy skid-steers and MTLs (haven't been on a CTL for digging... yet...), so I'll take a 287B in my dream fleet (which thus far consists of a few scale models).

 

[Lashlander]

Lattice boom crawler cranes, large dozers and excavators in that order. :thumbsup