Trench Crossing lessons.... :(

[WhyWhyZed]

didn't want to hijack the "crashed some komatsus" thread a few down, but it inspired me to vent about what I see on youtube here:

YouTube - excavator trench hopping

This is a beginner Heavy Equipment Operator program at a provincially run college in Ontario. I guess the instructor wants to impress the students with his abilities, but it seems irresponsible to me.

I could suggest a dozen more important lessons for beginner operators. Time in these courses is at a premium.

Is there not a less dangerous/abusive way to relocate the machine?

 

[Hendrik]

I suppose he could have just gone around the trench
However this is not as dangerous as it looks because the walls of the trench are sloped and thus are less likely to collapse than if they where vertical.
If this person was more experienced he would have cleared the area for the tracks on the other side before attempting to cross.
It is also recommended to walk the area before crossing to establish how soft the ground is.

 

[ddigger]

Well you know what they say, Those that cant, teach. You can see him drive the front idlers in the ground every time he booms down, had he extended the stick he would have made it on the first try.

 

[OCR]

Crossing lessons....

You can see him drive the front idlers in the ground every time he booms down, had he extended the stick he would have made it on the first try.

Right on the money, ddigger... :thumbsup

He was lifting too much, rather than pushing.

Not only that, if he would have extended the stick farther, it would have transfered some weight off the idlers, and they wouldn't have "plowed" in as bad.


OCR

 

[HLNTOIZ]

Totally agree guys. Not as crazy as one may think. He definately isnt' a "operating engineer". Maybe more time in the seat than in the classroom is best for him.

 

[terratrac300]

yeah i`m really not impressed with his abilities, i`ve been playin` in the dirt for over 20 years now and i`ve been there done that more times then i`d like to count, but like it was said before, he had the stick too close when he went to push away, and with the soil conditions it is there, mostly sand by the looks of it, i`d rather NOT have to try that except for a last resort, at least the ditch was sloped nicely !

 

[Bobcat190]

I like how when he digs out the front of the track closest to the cameraman he throws the dirt into the trench lol

 

[plantman.uk]

why did he not just track around the end of the trench?...saves all the sillyness but there is always one muppet

 

[AtlasRob]

Well you know what they say, Those that cant, teach. You can see him drive the front idlers in the ground every time he booms down, had he extended the stick he would have made it on the first try.

:lmao I like that, doesn't appear to be very good at teaching either, whats left, management ?

Right on the money, ddigger... :thumbsup

He was lifting too much, rather than pushing.

OCR

I agree, except if you watch the final attempt his bucket was just off the ground when he started to track which allowed the sprocket end to start down into the ditch allowing the idlers to climb up. Farting about in front of the idlers with the bucket just made him look more incompetent than he probably is

why did he not just track around the end of the trench?...saves all the sillyness but there is always one muppet

It is a training school so it needs to be done to show what is possible. If you listen to the comments you will understand how green the pupils were.
We all had to start somewhere, some of us are still learning, I know I am. :drinkup

In half decent ground he could maybe teach us how to get out of this, I should say its ripped rock and not the sand he was playing in

 

[Hendrik]

It is a training school so it needs to be done to show what is possible. If you listen to the comments you will understand how green the pupils were.
We all had to start somewhere, some of us are still learning, I know I am. :drinkup

In half decent ground he could maybe teach us how to get out of this, I should say its ripped rock and not the sand he was playing in

Perhaps he was deliberately making mistakes so his students could tell him where he went wrong. In order to know how to do something right you have to know what is wrong.
Far as getting the Hitachi out of the trench, without knowing the ground conditions I would say back fill the trench, drive the machine out and then straddle the trench sideways to clean it out again. If they are going to dig trenches with a machine at that angle it is going to be a crappy trench.
It may be possible to twist the machine out of the trench using the boom as support but hard to say without being on the ground. If the trench wall on the right side track is vertical I would not attempt to twist out.

 

[Taylortractornu]

I cant down load the video but have seen some trench crossing stupidity before. I by no means am an expert still learning, but I saw a an older Liebherr take a trip south once. I was working for a company with a 200 Komatsu with a 250 carbody and undercarriage. They mostly used it for hammer work in steep areas. I was running it and we had been crossing some pretty deep square dug ditches. They had silted in and We were in the middle of the sie and it was a mile either way to go around. The landowner we worked for didnt want a culvert put in and we were waiting on a bridge. The land owner had seen us crossing several times and had just bought a smaller Liebherr. All we heard all week was yall dont work and yall are over paid and anyone can do this. I was crossing and and he decided to follow. He got the idlers across and swung over the rear, instead of easing up to get more idle over the ditch he just put the bucket between the tracks and went to shove off. He ddint walk much and let the machine stop wit hthe boom still knucled under then some how he let the machine set down on the bucket then it fell into the ditch. Theat made a good day right there.

 

[AtlasRob]

straddling trenches

.I would say back fill the trench, drive the machine out and then straddle the trench sideways to clean it out again. If they are going to dig trenches with a machine at that angle it is going to be a crappy trench.
It may be possible to twist the machine out of the trench using the boom as support but hard to say without being on the ground. If the trench wall on the right side track is vertical I would not attempt to twist out.

When I think back to the things we used to do and the abuse those machines took it makes me cringe.

That machine is actually working along a section of blasted trench. Initially the ground was ripped with a C@t D9 or Kommi 155, the excavators then dug what they could, sometimes literally ripping buckets apart.
What we couldn't dig was then drilled and blasted. Once blasted somebody had to drop back and clean it out.
Longer sections we straddled the trench as shown then walked the machine off on one track using the bucket, arm, boom and slew while tracking the one track that was still on the ground.
The biggest problem was getting large amounts of material clear over the otherside of the trench as often we were alongside existing pipelines which we were not allowed to bury, cover, mark. As a result only the very last bit was cleaned from the right-of-way side.

 

[volvobl]

i dont like to push the with the dipper fully in or pull. I would push with th dipper in the middle and same with pulling thats the rams strongest part