Using my cat 953 track loader, mini excavator, and skid steer to repair a dam. Cat 953 was recently purchased to move dirt, brush, level off stuff the skid steer struggled with. So far It has been a great machine. When turning on the dam the rear of the loader is hanging over the lake. The holes being repaired are deep, big and steep. Pretty much straight down 10 to 12 feet. Not much room to work. The beauty of a track loader. A wheeled loader could never preform here! No room to turn and it gets worse the further in I go. Cant figure out how to safely pack this stuff. Every time the track gets near the fill it seems like the loader wants to break over and go for a flip down into the hole. I am limited on how much I can put in the hole it boarders a stream and I dont want to back it up. Decided to drop the rock in the bed of my old 1970 F600 dump. I have owned and used this truck for 7 years with out a break down or repair ever needed other than to fix the tail lights when I break them backing into piles of brush. Never had the truck stuck either. Has some meaty rear tires that just dig.
Almost lost the skid steer in the lake. Stuck in the lake. 2nd time I have had it stuck since I have owned it. It just would not come out.
Nice looking A model Georgia Iron. It's hard to tell what you are trying to achieve just from the pictures. Is it the same spot in both pictures where your are filling in the wash with the loader and the skid is stuck? The wheeled skid is always going to have a hard time in an area like that, also I would be very careful with the loader there as well. A 953 can float over pretty soft ground but when they break through and sit down, they're there.:cool2 You can push yourself out with the bucket if you get stuck in most situations but if there is no resistance for the bucket to push against, like ground the consistency of baby poop, then you are going to need extrication help.
Yair . . . Georgia Iron. You have some nice tidy machines there. When folks put up pictures and make comments on a site like this I assume they are seeking comment. As CM1995 says it is difficult to tell what you are trying to achieve. Without trying to appear to be a smart arse (and not knowing the circumstances) I would suggest that you are going to need some better material and techniques if what you are doing is repairing washouts through a wall. In a normal repair situation any thing you do will have to be better than the original or when the next flood event occurs you will have wasted all your time. Under most situations you will not get away with just filling washouts with dissimilar material. As I say, in no way being critical, just trying to help. All the best with it. Cheers.
Heavy Rains and flooding. Yes the area of the pictures, other than the one loading is all the same spot. Lake to one side; drop off, wash and creek to other. So machine mistakes equal stuck to one side or flip into a wash out a few feet away to the other side. The slope on dam wants to pull all wheeled equipment towards the water. Between the trees, water, and slope it makes getting the fill material there with a truck about impossible. A few years ago we had heavy rains and major flooding here in Georgia which caused a lot of damage. I believe it was something like 17 to 20 inches in one night. The water in the small stream rose to lake height and then went over the dam into the lake. During the flooding that lasted for days, a large portion of dirt was removed from the stream walls. The stream also cut itself deeper into the ground going from say 8’ deep to in some places 14' deep. In the process it took dirt from the dam and washed it away. It also took out trees that were 2' or more in size. The lake has been here for more than 50 years and it is about 2 acres in size. I think the only thing that kept the lake there through this is the fact that there are so many trees with roots every where. The first spot I have shown in the photos, had 3 feet of roots with dirt mixed in hanging over a 12' straight down drop to the creek bottom. Looked like a floating ledge. The dam area of the lake has long since grown over and be left alone for 15 years or so. Upon doing other work on the property the problem was located. The material being used to repack the dam is the same material that it was made from. With the addition of the chunks of concrete. I am adding concrete in as I go in efforts to slow the loose pack from being washed back out from rains and the like. I could do a much better job if the creek level could be brought back up 5 or 6 feet. I was concerned that moving machinery across the dam could destabilize it more and create a break causing the lake to come through. This would take me and my equipment out in the process. I am tiring the fill before I drive further in. In the areas ahead the water is coming through the ground about 8 feet down and going into the creek. Slow trickles. It has taken a lot of dirt just to fix the first 2 wash areas. I believe I am at 20 dump truck loads now. I have had to carry it in, bucket by bucket with the 953. Slow going. If you guys see something wrong, let me know, I am open to better methods.
Hi Georgia Iron. Putting old pieces of concrete in the dam wall area will only make matters worse. Any material under the concrete will not compact properly and is likely to develop voids as all the material settles. This will make the wall washout very quickly. You need proper compactable fill, preferably clay based so it won't seep. To prevent flood washouts, once you have the wall repaired you need to have a floodway made from geotextile fabric covered with suitably sized rock rock so the water can cascade over it without the underlying soil being eroded. It may be quite a big job in your situation to do it properly, but you may lose everything in the next big flood if your repairs and preventative measures are not well engineered. AusDave
Now I understand this a little better. As you already know, the wheeled skid needs to stay out of that area until you can build your dam back up and be able to travel straight across it. How much concrete do you have? It looks to be 4" driveway or sidewalk tear outs from the picture. I have a creek that runs behind my house, the bottom of the creek is about 12' below the grade of my back yard. I need some more backyard space. What I am planning on doing is using 4" concrete driveway chunks to build a retainer wall that would also serve as scowl protection when the creek rises. I have about 7 tri-axle loads at the shop plus 5 or so tri-axle loads of rip-rap size concrete as well. Since I haven't used concrete to build a wall before I don't know how far this will go. I plan on excavating a ramp down to where my mini can place the concrete for the bottom run, then stack a wall using the larger pieces as anchors back into the bank and backfill as I go. What I am thinking is you may be able to do this as well if you can gain access down low enough without affecting the integrity of your dam - which would be my biggest concern. If you could get down far enough and start building a wall on the creek side, it would serve as a ret. wall and scowl protection from the creek. Stack and backfill as you go using the largest pieces on the bottom. You could then use the smaller pieces of concrete at the bottom of the completed "wall" as rip-rap to add extra scowl protection from the creek. Just a couple of thoughts. Here is a company locally that does what I am talking about - http://www.concreterepeat.com/Portfolio.php
CM1995 I have a lot of concrete. What was in the picture is only part of it. I am not sure how far you will get with what you have. I think it will depend upon how big the chunks are. Some of mine are very large. I try to get big pieces on the bed of the truck first so that when I drop it in from the sides it just hits the pieces laying flat. So I have some pieces 7' by 10'. This saves damage to the bed of my trucks. The old truck I just drop it in and dont worry about it. Using big pieces to build with will also use up the material fast. So you might not have enough for your wall. As far as using the not so mini... mini. A vertical fall stops me from getting to it from upper side. I would need to go down the creek a ways and try to come back to the washed areas. There is not enough room to swing the cab in the ditch. In some places it is just narrow and deep. I do not think that I would want to stack the wall down in there either. There is too much wall and it is too tall. I like your idea and think it could work for you, but it will be a lot of work and it probably will fail if a lot of water is going down your creek. Also I am not sure what you plan to pack your dirt with if it is narrow down there. You will probably need one of the small wheeled units. If you dont own one a used one is about $5k. I think a jumping jack would be too small. Also if your ex is in the creek how will you hand the concrete down? Do you have two units? In heavy rains this creek looked like it would kill you if you fell in. Narrow channel, steep banks, with a pretty steep drop create fast moving water. It took feet and feet of dirt out from under large old growth trees, which had lots of roots and they just fell into the wash. It lowered the creek level further into the ground and the sides washed away to. When the trees fell in it caused weird currents and made the dirt wash away faster. Not to mention, I dont have the time to try and build a wall like that. I thought about poured walls. I have poured 8 ft walls (never a 12' wall) before but the footings would be to wide and part of the dam would need to be removed to do a correct footing. I dont have the funds and I dont want to carry the concrete in. So other than bringing the creek level back up or moving the creek further away from the dam I am limited with my choices. My current plan is to to let the dirt slide down at its naturally angle as it falls from the top and let it build upon itself. Let it rain to pack itself, then add more to level it out. Then lay large pieces of concrete on the sloped bank in almost a paved type wall and hope that holds for another 50 years. The large pieces of concete will slow the dirt from being washed out in the rare flood, if it does wash it out I will just put back again later. If I had a 400 sized machine I could just move the creek over about 10 feet. Put in a bed of concrete and call it good. But I dont.
Scored some Heavy duty Cables and shackles Today. I went to a salvage shop. I was looking for some 3/4 drive sockets. I noticed a lot of cables out in a grown up yard. Most were 20' 3/4 ropes. I kept looking and digging and 1 hour later partly under a metal bin, grown over by grass and ant beds I found some jewels. These will help me out when I get stuck! 2 - 1" 1/4" wire ropes with loops / 40' lengths. 2 - 35 ton shackles. The rope is rated at 160,000 lbs. Is this big enough for a stuck loader?
I thought that idea might not be doable in your situation. The main issue it looks like is protecting your dam from the creek, so try to cover the whole area that is washing with your concrete and maintain any washouts. Not being able to actually walk the site, that's the best advice I can give. My future project is much more simple. The creek doesn't have much flow except in heavy rains. My goal is just to create more backyard. I will build my wall from the top down, no mini in the creek. As far as compaction goes, I'll use the mini or my 48" vib roller attachment on one of the skids, although I don't think that'll be necessary. The rope may be strong enough to pull the loader out but do you have a piece of iron big enough to pull the loader out?:cool2 This was from yesterday. A friend of mine was grading too close to his lake with his 953 and didn't get stuck but slid down in a soft spot by the lakes edge. He is an old timer that's forgotten more than I will ever know. He knew from experience to stop the machine and get some help. It was an easy extrication and we used a 1 1/4" rope. My loader is the one under the tree. That's a chain we didn't use hanging on the first bucket hook and the cable is hanging on the second bucket hook over. It worked out well, we had just loaded up the '53 to move to a job and his place was on the way.
I'll let the boys with "recovering stuck equipment" experience comment on that side of it, but your sling according to the label is good for 30,000 pounds SWL (15 tons) in a straight pull, not 160,000 pounds as you state above. Even with the factor of safety designed into lifting gear I would say that 60,000 pounds would be its absolute safe limit, and if it goes twang look out, because it'll have someones head off.
Not so! The rope is rated at 160,000. Nige "I'll let the boys with "recovering stuck equipment" experience comment on that side of it, but your sling according to the label is good for 30,000 pounds SWL (15 tons) in a straight pull, not 160,000 pounds as you state above. Even with the factor of safety designed into lifting gear I would say that 60,000 pounds would be its absolute safe limit, and if it goes twang look out, because it'll have someones head off" Most 1" 1/4" cable is rated at around 159,600 lbs. My cable is certified to be used as rigging in a vertical application for 15 tons. The cables sling ends must be certified to be used in rigging applications. Tires tied to cable help prevent cables from whipping when they break. CM1995 Cool photo. Has your buddy got any good recovery advice? How did you guys rig the pull lines up? I think the only chance I would have getting it out is: 1. using the buckets curl function to pull it backward. 2. Using a cross tie chained to the tracks. 3. Pushing itself with the bucket. 4. Friends 963. I hope to get a D7 in the future. But for now the best I can follow is dont get it stuck!
Please don't think I'm nit-picking, but the weakest point of the sling in your photo is the crimp on the eye at each end. You are correct in that a 6/19 wire rope is rated at 160,000 pounds breaking load and my rigging handbooks show the same number. However I would venture to point out that one or other of the crimps on the sling will fail long before the rope itself does. Typically based on my experience I would say that the breaking load for a sling assembly is around twice, maybe 2.5 times, the rated SWL. That would make the breaking load of the sling assembly somewhere between 60,000 & 75,000 pounds. When you have a stuck machine and an "exuberant" operator on the machine who's trying to pull him out jerking on the tow rope it's easy to generate huge loads for a split-second, possibly enough to fail the sling eyes. I'm just commenting in order to hopefully avoid someone getting hurt and don't mean to offend.
Being the old timer he is, I am sure he would say "Don't get stuck". Well probably not the "correct" way but we hooked one end of the cable to the drawbar on his loader and looped the other one around one of the bucket fork hooks on my loader. I have a set of hang-on forks for my loader and it has 1/2" hooks welded to the bucket that the forks hang on. And yes, I think I bent it slightly... Other than #4, that's what I would do. Nige I should have pointed that out as well. I don't think any harm was done. I have broke many a chain pulling out equipment and prefer a wire rope. There are so many variables when you are trying to get a piece of iron "un-stuck" that experience is the best guide.
Great thread on getting stuck and retrievals. On the 1 1/4" cable, I have broken brand new cable that size using a single line pull with one end hooked to the ripper bar on a very stuck D-8K, I'm talking mud clear to the radiator cap in front, and to the bottom of the seat on the deck, and no, I did not get it that way. The other end was hooked to the lifting lug on the back of the bucket of a 235C Cat excavator. I could not get any pull with all the hoe had normally, but I wedged the teeth into the ground and used the bucket curl out like a lever combined with stick in, and the cable snapped right in the middle. I had stuff, I forget what, hanging on the cable, so it did not whip too bad, but I am telling that to make sure no one believes the 160,000# rating. I am pretty sure without getting into the books that the 235 might make a 50K pull, and using the leverage like I did, maybe 15% or so more, so the cable broke a lot less that 160K. Probably around 70K, or 35 ton, or for reference, between 4 to 5 times the rated SWL. I am uncomfortable pulling more than about 3 times the SWL for vertical lifts. Having a rated snatch block, and using a double line pull will help. Looping the cable around something to get a double line will NOT help, and will likely ruin/break the cable at much less than it is rated for because of pulling around a corner. Using a proper sized block (pulley) will effectively double the strength. Also, make sure what you are hooked to is strong enough for the pulling you will do.
Grease guns and such.. I needed to lube my 953 and broke my old grease gun. I then went on a search for grease guns that took me to Home Depot, PK oil, Northern Tool, Walmart, Auto zone and Tractor Supply. Priced from $7.99 to $130.00. I must have looked at 15 different guns and tips. I sort of have been threw this grease gun BS before. I wasted so much grease on my excavator with the track adjusters when you must let the grease out and repump it to tighten the track. Tubes and tubes gone. I really spent my time and I decided that Home depot had the nicest gun and nozzle for $25.00. The Lucas gun. It seemed like it had the most precise jaws on the nozzle. I bought it and found 3 stubborn grease fittings hid on the front of the track frames. I started by cleaning the fittings. Then I tried to pump grease. I gave the gun all it would take. I was wasting grease and pissed. Finally the nozzle came apart. The lucas gun failed me. That was last night. I went and got more tools and tried to take the grease nipples out. NO go. Frozen in. So I knew it was down to no grease or a major pain in the ass. I saw a high pressure grease gun 10,000 psi at tractor supply for $130.00. I wondered if it would work. I drove 30 mins to go get it. The last one on the shelf. It is the bad boy to the left. I noticed right away what a nice nozzle it has. I put the gun on one of the stuck fittings and began to pump with the grease gun on the normal pressure mode. It would not pump. I then put it on boost. You get like 4 times the pressure. The hose got real tight. I started pumping as much as I could and thought it would not do it and then finally, I heard dirt and stuff moving and it started pumping grease into the fitting. It cleared all the fittings and did not waste much grease. What a nice gun. It really saved me. I also moved up into 5 gallon buckets of grease now at $78.00 per bucket. Much cheaper than the tubes. The gun is MEGABOOST by Legacy.
They make a tool that is made for cleaning out grease fittings. TSC carries them also
Yair . . . I am completely unfamiliar with this machine. It appears the idler pivots rather than slides. How does this work out in practice? Is it an improvement in design? Just curious that's all. Cheers.
"Yair . . . I am completely unfamiliar with this machine. It appears the idler pivots rather than slides. How does this work out in practice? Is it an improvement in design? Just curious that's all. Cheers. " I have not owned this machine long. It has 14,000 hours on it so I think it must work well? I have seen others that claim the track adjustment rod was weak and that the new models have larger rods due to them bending. Mine is the old style weaker unit. The under carriage is about 40% left pins have been turned. I have not thrown a track yet and the adjuster still has room to tighten them up more. It has made it this long so heres for hopeing.
I have that gun and it has never failed to open a plugged fitting. I do want to get a longer hose for it though.
Cat 953 Bucket Repairs - New drag plates. While I was dealing with the grease fitting problem. I had to lift the bucket up. It of course was covered in dirt but I noticed a crack. I decided to pressure wash the bottom of the bucket and located worn threw drag/wear plates and broken welds. I then torched open the area to inspect the inside. The cracks were starting to go threw into the bucket scoop metal. The plates were replaced by others in the past. They however did not bother to go in and fix the broken areas. They just put 1/2 plate over the worn out 3/4 or 1/2 Cat plate. I torched open the cracks to allow my welding rods to weld the inside of the cracks. I began welding and spent 6 hours repairing the cracks. I then headed off to buy some 3/4 plate.
3/4 Plate - 990 lbs - $700.00 I obtained my plate and headed back to the shop. So far I have spent $100.00 welding rods 7018. $35.00 cutting torch gas. $50.00 welder gas. $100.00 diesel fuel. $700.00 plate. $30.00 plasma torch tips. Electric ? The lincoln pro cut 55 plasma will cut 3/4 on single pass fairly quickly. It took about 2 hours to draw out and cut these plates. I wish the Ranger 250 could run the plasma and an air compressor on site. The 20.5 hp motor in the 250 just can not keep up with the plasma cutter. A diesel welder could however. But I only have a 250 ranger. SO if you are interested in running both on a job site go straight to the $10,000.00 diesel welder. It will pop a 60 amp break sometimes. Today it was 104* here in Atlanta. Lovely day for wearing leather and cutting in the hot sun. Next stop will be back to the job site to weld in the plates.
Georgia Iron, don't miss the grease nipples on the inside of the track frames, that's a common mistake.
Hi Georgia Iron, Keep up the good work, nice thread on your progress with the loader and work on the washout. And its always good to see some welding work, have fun , wosama
Looks like you did pretty good job with the cutting torch.
Installing drag plates and how to bend 3/4" steel plate. I first welded the plates in on the leading front edge or the side towards the teeth. When you prep the bucket the plates should be level with the cutting teeth. So the bucket prep is key to getting the plates to sit right. 3/4 plate normally comes flat and straight. The challenge is getting it to bend into place. A hammer and torch will not do it. My 16 lb hammer just bounced off the plate. I did this repair with the bucket still on the machine. You will use a lot of gas to heat it with a rosebud. So I just leave the cutting tip on and get the metal red across the area I want in to bend. *A 953 has a lot of downward pressure that it can place on the bucket. Use this to help you bend the plate. I took a piece of heavy wall pipe sch 80 about 4 1/2 feet tall and welded it to a piece of flat plate to give it a solid base so that it does not push into the ground and it just stands up straight. I then stood this up under the bucket and dropped the bucket on it till the plate bends. I heated the first time. Then reheated a second time when I was close to having it do what I wanted. The 4 1/2 foot pipe will put the bucket at a height that is still easy to work around. While you tack it all in place. Another angle.
Bucket Heel Plates all finished up. Here some shots of the finished project. It took about 35 hours to complete this repair. Let me know if you guys have any questions.
"Georgia Iron, don't miss the grease nipples on the inside of the track frames, that's a common mistake. " I got those. Both had been long forgotten about by others and were clogged. The grease gun freed them up.
Drive issues. This afternoon while working on the dam. I drove the loader down a steep incline and got it turned around facing foward. The loader did not want to drive back up the bank. The hydrostat became un-responsive. Some times it has done this when the machine jerks hard or thumps the ground. The loader did not want to back up or let me turn it either. I put it in park and prayed that it would move and waited to try it again. It slowly backed into the trees to where the ground leveled out a little. I then tried to get up speed to get back up the hill. The loader started moving foward again and then when I got back on the hill, it amost came to a stop. It did but then it would move an inch and then stop and so on. I barely made it back up the side of the dam. The fluid has been a little low before but I added some and thought that it was at the right level. I know fluid level can affect the drive. My question is does it sound like that is still my issue or do I have other problems? Like .... A: exceeded the machines abilities B: have a hydrostat problem C:? I also slid down another steep area and got sideways then crawled around facing foward down the hill. The loader would go right up a hill backwards that the machine could not go up foward. It never stopped pulling on the hill when I back up. It seems the 953 has more climbing ability in reverse? Have any of you guys experienced this with your track loaders?
Hey there, Georgia Iron, How steep a grade are you trying to get up, i think, in the operator book some oil levels may have to be cked hot are maybe running before you know when to put in oil, Always keep a good lookout at the dirt when your working for fluid, you could spring a leak like that dam, have fun. wosama931b
I am not sure yet on how to identify how steep a grade is. I do have a leak from the hydro coming out the belly pan which I am just fixing by adding fluid. I have not got up the energy yet to crawl under it and remove the heavy suckers just yet. I am trying to get my Cab jack made so that I can lift the cab to see what I can from the top inside the machine. I will get some pictures of the loader on the bank if I can. I was sort of nervous about dismounting the machine on the incline. Worried it might roll off or somehow hurt me..
Hey Nige, No offense taken. I appriecate the safety advice. Thanks for giving me a little more info on the SWL. I did not know that.
Heel Plate CM1995, What kind of heel plate or steel plate is that attached to your bucket. What is the purpose and did you fab that up?
It's just hooks for the bucket forks. They are 1/2" thick cut plate, I didn't fab them they came with the forks.
I just finished replacing my "lost" cab jack. Northern tool and Harbor Freight have replacement hydraulic cylinders for engine lifts for $50 to $90. I bought the $50 cylinder and made a bracket to mount on the bottom stud and a fork to fit the lift tab on the upper end. It worked great. You won't have any trouble fabbing and welding up what you need. Regards, Clark
Awesome. Can you get any photos of the ends of your jack and post them up?
CM I think he is talking about the flat plate I see on the bottom of the bucket. It looks different than most. Is is just a wear plate, or some special "tool"?
There's nothing special other than a few old D5 and 6 cutting edges welded to the bottom as wear plates. In the picture a shadow looks like there is something across the teeth but it's an optical allusion. On edit- Now I see what ya'll are talking about. The BBX models have a flat bottom bucket with small 90 degree angle that turns up at the back. The older A's and B's had a rounded back bucket. My bucket is just beefed up a little bit on top of the factor wear plates. I replied to that post from my Iphone, something I hardly ever do..
The machine is at a remote job site. I will try to get pics of the base and upper fork that I made for the jack. It may take a few days. I will get my granddaughter to help me post the pics. Regards, Clark
Ok. Thanks for clearing that up. It seemed like you had a flat plate added to the bottom of the bucket.
Using the loader on the dams banks to clear downed trees and brush. After using the loader a good bit clearing downed trees on the dams banks. I found out it is important to: 1. Make sure the hydro stats fluid is full. (That was what was giving me the no power problem on the grades). 2. Keep the pads angled so that you keep traction and do not slide sideways. The loader will not go up this incline forward. It spins. The bottom photo shows the lakes drain pipe that has a small stream under it. The loader floated right across the creek pushing a large pine that had fallen into the spill way. The picture shows the top of the pine tree. The tree goes on for another 90 feet. Being nervous about getting the rear end down into a mud hole. I reversed the machine straight back out before crossing back over onto hard ground. On reverse it started to sink into the mud. It went down about 18" and the belly was just starting to slide on mud. The LGP tracks floated the machine very well. I however do not want to find out what happens when they break free and start spinning. So once in and out was enough for me. The CAT 953 is a really nice machine to use to do any kind of work around property. It moves fast and has a lot of traction. It will go places that you might be better off not taking it. I really like the A model that I have. It is good on fuel and seems to have good power for what I am using it for.
I'll always go bucket down slopes like that because you can use your bucket if need be to push yourself back up. The last picture is an area that a 953 does not like.:spaz
I bet that flat plate makes it nice for grading with.
It does make grading a lot easier. Also helps tremendously when back dragging and clean up. I can turn out a finish grade as good as a skid steer with that machine.
And Now, with the help and encouragement of my grandson, I will attempt to post the pics of my replacement of the cab jack on my 943 with aftermarket parts. I hope that you can see the general arrangement of the fittings I made for the ram fork with pin and the cylinder mounting base.
Sealark37...Very Nice Job! Very nicely done. I am wondering what is the purpose of the cab jack having a fork on the upper end? Can I just take a piece of 3/4" flat plate and bore a hole in it to mount on the machines "mounting pin" and then weld it to the jacks shaft? Is that forked piece something you bought or made? The jack I bought is a similar jack. Thanks
I made the piece on the nose of the ram. Your idea of welding a plate with a hole to the ram will work. My jack is only a 3-ton unit, and it did the job easily. I took a hacksaw and cut the two ears off of the bottom of the jack, then I bolted a 4"x4" plate to the bottom, and welded a piece of 1/2" bar to the bottom 4x4 and bored a 1 1/2" hole to fit the stud on the tractor. You should measure the distance between the bottom stud on the tractor and the holed tab on the cab to be sure the assembly will fit in place. The six large bolts that hold the cab in place are easy to remove, but you have to disconnect the jack to get to all of them. Remember to disconnect the pins that connect the steering controls. You may have 7 or 8 depending on your machine. After I finished my repair, it occurred to me that I could have merely cut a large "V" on the bottom mount of the jack, and accomplished the same thing, and saved some room, too. Regards, Clark
Cool thread Georgia Iron! Your loader is 1 year newer than the 175 we have. Glad to see you taking care of it and getting some good use out of it. Nice fab work on the jack sealark. And good job posting the pics. Did you mount your fire extinguisher is that factory? We've been meaning to mount an extinguisher, but haven't gotten around to it.
The fire extinguisher is normally mounted at the operator's right knee, just out of the way. It was in the picture because I laid it there while working on the steering pedal linkage, which was the reason for needing the cab jack. I tend to over-build and over-repair the machines that I work on. It's nothing new. If you mount an extinguisher on your loader, place it so that you can reach it as you are dismounting the tractor. Don't put it inside where you have to open a door or panel to reach it. Don't ask how I know this. Thanks, Clark
Clearing trees with the 953 and eating Ivy. I was working on clearing a little area for a building and an old tree was in the way. I did not think to take pictures beforehand. But here are some pics of the tree that came down. If you look at the last picture you can see a wedge I cut in the tree in efforts to drop it away from a power line. I was going use the loader to apply a little force that way too so that I could cut across the back of the tree. When I pushed on the tree up and over it went. The stump is 5' tall and the tree is 34+ inches at the wedge cut. The loader just pushed the tree over I could not believe it. I wasted a lot of effort on that wedge cut! I carefully fought threw 2 feet of posion Ivy in order to make that wedge cut. Posion IVY really does a number on me. Then the vines on that tree came down on me when I was loading it and the chainsaw dust must have gotten a lot of posion it it. I knew it was going to be a doctor visit for a shot. I have been put in the hospital when I was younger. The day after I got into the IVY, I was starting to get red streaks and burn/itch all over. I have heard that eating posion ivy will make you immune to it. I knew that if I were going to try to eat it, now is the time or else I would have a very bad week and a half. I read to start out with a small piece, then increase it over time. I just increase it to a full leaf by day three. You would never think eating posion ivy is a good idea till you must! NOTE... DO NOT EAT POSION IVY BASED ON MY STATEMENTS.... it is dangerous and might not work for you!! It also causes you to feel like you are getting it everywhere you sweat when you sweat. But it just goes away after you stop eating it. I never got a blister or bad rash this time just a few iches here and there and it went away once it cleared my system. It stopped the outbreak and cleared me up. MAGIC. NOTE... DO NOT EAT POSION IVY BASED ON MY STATEMENTS.... DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH...
from the looks of that stump that tree was going to fall anytime ............so on the poision ivy eating........how did you handle it to even eat it.......gloves....fresh....dry....stem...leaves...any mouth issues?....
The stump split in half. Half stayed in the ground. So it was weak. Day 1. I used a pair of latex gloves and picked a small fresh leaf and tore it into a 1/2" by 1/2" piece. Then carefully put it in a piece of fruit roll up and sealed it up into a small pill sized bite and swallowed it. Day 2. Same deal but 1" x 1" piece. Day 3. Same but increased to a Full small sized leaf. Not requiring any chewing or choking. Careful to not get any oil on anything other than the inside of the fruit roll up. That was it. Others say to start out in spring with a small fresh leaf. I just used what was on hand. It never effected my face other than it made my eyes feel ichy but that could have been from the chainsaw dust, not too sure. But the bad rash and the burning was most certainly cut to maybe 15% of a normal case of posion ivy. Which for me is great cause I can go on with out even itching it. No broken skin or blisters.
you really have to wonder about the first guy to try something like that.....(eating PI leaves)
Yep. I wondered if it was going to put me in the hospital but it did not. I am completely over my case and it really works.
I took the belly pans off the 953 and notice they are concaved to the point that they are rubbing on the hydrostat. Is their an easy way to flatten them out. I am thinking of attempting to use the loader and run them over? What do you guys recommend? Thanks. Also I want to give a quick thanks to Yancy Cat in Atlanta. They went out of their way to fix a wrong length drive hose on my loader. I got it on after 3 attempts and appreicate there help recutting it twice. I give Cat a hard time on there pricing but this time it paid off buying original equipment and they had it all in stock. :cool2
hi georgia iron, I have the same problem with belly pans and i was thinking about trying the same thing, if you add a little heat would that help, iam sure some one has figured out how. sam
Yair . . . Georgia Iron and wosama931b. I am not familiar with your machines or their belly pans/sump gaurds but generally speaking on dozers you will need more point loading than what I believe could be achieved with a loader tire . . . perhaps a loader applying down pressure to a baulk of 8x8 timber with the belly pan bottom corners supported on 4x2's? . . . it would be a good start but it could take twenty odd tons. Heat would help of course but over here it would be very expensive and if they won't come right I would be more inclined to cut a few judicious slits with the oxy and then try again . . . its not much trouble to put a nice run of iron powder or whatever on the slits. Once you get them right you will need to check the mounting hole centres. They will be almost never be right and may need jacking out or pulling in with a come-along. Cheers.
I like to use a big excavator to massage those bent belly pans. You can put lots and lots of pressure on one tooth. I agree that they will be warped a little, but a come along or lining punches and bars will get them back on. Use a longer bolt just to get them started if you need to.
Yair . . . On most 'dozers I always found it worth while to hinge them on one side. Easier then to clean them out at service . . . by hinge I mean just a couple of sets of stout lugs with say a 3/4 bolt through, you still use the bolts up into the frame. Cheers.
I think he's trying to cascade a patch into an erosion on the lake side of the dam where materials are being deposited in water. Clay is used to build dams or patch leaks, it looks to be you are trying to lean material against a near vertical that is partially submerged in order to prevent the edge/top of the dam from narrowing. If that's the case, use concrete only in the water. Put a couple of buckets of concrete in with the loader then do your best to settle them flat with the excavator and scoot them out at first. More concrete and wider at the bottom making a sloping wall face underwater in the lake. Cap it with compacted clay as soon as the concrete gets up out of the water.
Two loaders are better than one. Thanks for all the tips on the dam work. I more or less did what Doc Dirt stated. I finally have it repaired and it seems to be ready for the next 50 years. While working on this project and others, I have gotten more interested in 953s. I went out and test drove many more machines including B and C models. Since pricing is so amazing on the machines right now I thought that I would look into getting a spare either for parts or just to have another to pull me out if I get stuck. My machine is a 20z model. I have the complete cat shop manuel for the 20z and 44z which is about $400.00. I narrowed down my choices to another 20z with 4000 hours and a 1995 b model. Two thousand dollars difference in price and I came home with another A model. This machine received a complete cat redo including a new motor (not a rebuild) 4000 hours ago. The under carriage is about 40%. The guy that sold it to me told me that it was a Cat $70,000.00 rebuild A few years ago this machine sold for $85,000.00 to a contractor. He had not been using it lately and had no where to keep it. The dirt pit it was left at was someone elses and he just wanted to recover what he could. Basicly, He put about 2500 hours on it and sold it to me. I decided to put up a carport to put the machines under. I have driven the brakes off the new machine lately. It seems to be a strong worker. I could not get used to how the C models drive. The B models have more power but not so much that it made me go that route. I looked at several that had cabs and I really wanted AC. Then I decided that AC does not make money so Open cab will be fine. They are a pleasure to drive in this fall weather. When you get both of them running at the same time the dirt really starts moving. The diesel fuel also goes FAST. Today I ripped the door off my dump truck. Time to get the welder back out.
Hi Georgia Iron, That new Cat looks good with the other, I like your building, how big is it?? and how tall?? Did you put the building up yourself?? wosama931b.
Thanks I put up carports and buildings like that. Thanks. I put up metal buildings like that one all over for people. I can install one anywhere in the lower 48 states for very good pricing. If any of you guys ever need one send me a PM and I will get you a quote. Check out my website at www.SuperiorPortableBuildings.com I had a used one that I got off a job, where someone wanted me to come in and level and grade a slope that this carport was sitting on. I took it down and then put in an enclosed building for them. The carport was 20 wide x 26 long x 5 tall when I got it. I ordered some new tubing pieces 7' long and welded it to the 5' legs. I then installed the carport with 12' legs. I made it extra tall so that I could get a large excavator under it if I needed to. The center height is 15'5". If I were planning to use it for two loaders I would recommend at least 22' wide. It is tight in the 20'. We normally don't increase leg height on used buildings for people so always order your unit with tall enough legs to begin with. When you take them down and reinstall them you end up with a lot of screw holes in the roof also. The length is pretty good. That unit also has two extra panels on the sides. So 6' is closed and 6' is open. The carport really does a good job and runs around $2000.00 installed with tax here in GA. Some northern states and western states are a little more. Regards.
My track loader could use a shelter like that. Any concerns with it blowing over being up that high?
Not really. The buildings do pretty good. Anchoring is very important. We use moblie home tie downs and rebar pins. The buildings can be certified to with stand a certain amount of wind. Basic carports are not certified. Most states require at least 90 MPH wind rating and some like FL go all the way up to 160 MPH wind rating. Extra bracing and extra anchors should be used if the location of the building is exposed to wind. The extra side panels also greatly improve the buildings "strength". They tie all the side posts together. Some need to worry about snow loads also. We can increase the ability of the unit to carry weight by placing extra legs and trusses. And we can also use heavier wall tubing. 14 gauge is standard and 12 gauge is upgraded. Some places require permits to put up carports and buildings. They might want "certified engineered drawings" to even see if you can get a permit, which we can provide "at a cost" to help get your permit. Permitting, taxing, and insurance requirements are out of control. In FL I have had customers that have had to get drainage studies done in order to see if they can even have a carport. AZ requires that the buildings be built on concrete footings or concrete is placed around the tie downs for wind. They sometimes want copys of plans in triple and they have been known to "lose the plans". They want a permit even if you are a farmer and you are placing the unit in the middle of no where. We do not get in the middle of the permitting other than to provide documents to help you get a permit if you desire. We leave this choice up to you. If you are getting a permit call your local building department and ask what snow load and wind load you will need for your area. This can change form city to city and county to county even in the same state. Then let me know and we can price it out that way. Anyway, my unit pictured is not certified and does not have any extra bracing just anchors. It is pretty solid as it sits. It does not have much movement in the frame even if you try to rock it. The side panels really help pull it together. Normally the buildings edges are all trimmed out and it has a nice look. I did not put on the trim. It is hard to tell from the pictures but about 10 dump truck loads of dirt and a load of concrete make the base for my building. Since I never planned to buy gravel I spent extra time shooting and leveling the building site and outer 15' in order to control water coming of the hill side near where it sits. I made sure that when it rains all water including that which comes off the roof goes around my building and not in it. That way I can be in there and be under the machine when it is raining if repairs are needed and I happen to have a free rainy day. My tree guy friends will give me free dump truck loads of tree mulch and deliver it to me. I placed that all around the building and on the floor. I love the way fresh pine trees smell when they have just been ground. As for the wind if you get a direct hit from a tornado or wind sheer the unit will be gone. IF that happens; your house, trees and everything else will most likely be gone to. Other than that it should be fine. If you need a building and I miss your PM just go to the site and call us. Sometimes I get out in the field and miss the computer stuff. Thanks.
953 cat loader - welding new grouser bars on older pads. Hey guys. I had an interesting experience with one of my 953 loaders, I almost slid into a pit. It had worn pads and I was working with the loader near a 25 foot deep hole. The loader will pick up enough dirt in the bucket that the rear end will come off the ground or get light. I had a heavy load of dirt that I was placing in a pit and when the front idlers broke over the edge the rear end came up quick. The machine was going to slide/fall into the pit. The tracks did not hold, bite in or grab and over we were going. Once the bucket went over far enough dirt came out, the machine rocked back and was able to back out at the last minute. It was a close call. Not wanting to repeat the experience, I decided to either A. Get new pads and hardware. Cost way too much. B. Weld on new grouser's using real grouser bar. Cost $1000.00 C. Weld on 3/4" square bar. Cost $325.00 D. Weld on 3/4" rebar. Cost $150.00 I did not want to mess with the bolts on the current pads, they are just starting to wear the tops off. The bolts can be a pain if not properly torqued and they are expensive. I decided to use 3/4 square bar since it would look better than the rebar. My worn out grousers had been ground down from use and that gave me a small gap for the weld to fill in. Remind me to never do this type of repair again. I began the repair using 5/32" 7018 excalibur welding rods, which did well burning at about 190 amps. I then special ordered some 3/16" 7018 excaibur welding rods. These I burned at about 210 - 220 amps. It was all my ranger 250 could do to burn them. If the ground was a little bad they did not burn right. But once they got going what a nice weld. It took me almost 50 hours to do this job, cutting the bar and welding it on. Materials. 110 lbs of welding rod cost $210.00, about $250.00 in fuel for the welder, 14 pieces of 20' 3/4 square bar cost $325.00 and my time. It turned out great. I would not repeat the job it took me longer than I thought it would. There were about 160 grousers 18" or so long. Here are some photos of the repair.
Good job.
Nice work and I am sure it will serve you well.:thumbsup In the past I have run the numbers between re-grousering and new pads and the costs were about the same when you add in labor, not including the lost productivity of the machine being down. If you charged yourself 50 hours of welding labor it would be more expensive to re-grouser. However everyone has different situations and I have done many things myself that I could have gotten done cheaper if I charged myself a labor rate but I wasn't working at the time so the numbers made perfect $$ and cents.
Took out my new shoes and went for a spin. Rain. Rain. Rain. It seems like we are getting wet weather every few days over here near atlanta. One loader is on job site and the other is on clean up duty. I got a chance to run around a bit in the mud. These new grouser bars are unfreakin real. My machine acts night and day different. This A moder tractor has really got it now. It is running strong and now the pads, grab great. I can push entire dump truck loads of cut trees, debri or busted concrete with out a hitch. I can also work safer now that it bites better. I did not realize how much worn pads were effecting the machine. Hopefully the old girl will stay together and not break some other part due to the increase traction. All the welding paid off it seems.
I replaced the shoes on my 951C. The old shoes were three bar and worn so bad that they were breaking off on the rear edges. I replaced them with three bar grouser shoes. The old pads were 14 inch and the new are sixteen inch. Much more traction now but I can tell that it is much harder to turn. I have a dump truck just like your old ford. It is a 1971 F600 with a 330 engine, four speed and two speed axel. I just finished replacing the exhaust manifold gaskets and complete brake overhaul with new wheel cylinders and all new rubber brake lines. I also have done a engine tune up, new fluids and filters and new rear axel bearings and seals. After a through inspection all that is left to do now is to recover the seat. I plan to use the dump truck to haul the mud when I drain and clean out my lake this spring. You can see the truck on my thread listed under "Track loaders " Cat 951 in my sights "
Did your axle bearings go bad? Those old ford trucks are tuff. Mine had an electric fire in the dash other than that it has been bullet proof. I will say that my late model f series truck is night and day different. My old 700 would struggle with loads around 8000 lbs. the newer truck has moved 26000 lb loads, but they were to heavy too be considered safe. It will however haul 10 tons all day long and goes much faster. Which i think is good for a gas burner single axle. Since i only use my newer truck, my older truck has just been parked. I let it sit for about 4 months charged the battery and it cranked right up. That old truck made me so much more than it cost. It saved me so many dumpster rentals, i can not even count them. I was never stopped by the police in it either they would see how fast they could get around me! I feel bad that it is just sitting on a farm waiting to be used but what do you do?
Excellent looking work and results there. Great job. That sucker is going to eat now!
Be kind of cautious with the soft steel as grouser, looks can be deceiving. I have one shoe with a mild steel bar on it, is smashing down and rolling over while the grouser stock weld on are still sharp and smoothing as they wear. I would have gone to Rebar for the hardness even though ugly rather than mild steel.
Yes, The axel bearings were bad and needed replacing when I tore it down for the brake job. Looks like the rear axel seal on the right side had been leaking for years and nobody ever bothered to check the rear end grease. There was enough grease to protect the gearing and inner bearings but the axel bearings were shot.
DMiller, I have been running the old girl around a bit and i have noticed that the bar is showing some wear. The outside edges are chipping off and the top is grinding a bit. I was thinking my under carriage is around 40% or so on that machine so i was hoping the pads would last me till i bought a complete new under carriage. I might have miscalculated time will tell. So far no welds have broke and it bites great. The machine backs out of a deep wet hole much easier and i am happy just looking at the beefy tracks.
If you decide to regrouser again you might be better with proper through-hardened grouser bar. We use Dura Tuff - http://www.dura-tuff.com/products/grouser-bar/ - from experience it's the best on the market.
We have used rebar sections on old machines a long time, it is hard and will chip at times but tends to not be soft around the edges, welds really well with drag rod. I am with Nige on this though, for longer life, trying to extend a set of shoes to match a set of chains use Dura Tuff for grouser bar. Welds very well, looks as good or better in many respects to original grouser, can be had in Dozer tall stock or loader short stock. I priced it for my old Allis, would have been pricey but was for cut to shoe length and palletized, still looking to do that as I get to changing the rails under my old machine this summer.
Customer had it his way. Here are some photos of a job a customer wanted me to do in the rain this week. Customer ordered seven tandem loads of dirt for re-soding the front yard. Half were dumped then it rained and the rest was dumped. Advised to wait to spread dirt once it dried. Customer stated no must be done now and that the sod was being delivered and IT WOULD BE finished today. Advised that it was a bad idea. Customer said bring the machine. I thought I did a pretty good job with mud. What do you think? It should be ready for sod in a week if we get sunny days. Customer called me again today to come out, it is still raining. I flat told him no that it needs to dry. He said it would be done. I am curious to see if they get someone else or try shovels.
They say that the customer is always right. Your guy is going to make a lot of people miserable. Regards, Clark
I would have told him that in the beginning and refused to come out. Did he pay you yet? The customer obviously is not always right and this a perfect example. Now I am going to switch to jackass mode and tell you that you shouldn't have went out in the first place, knowing this couldn't be done. The reason why I am being brunt is the fact you couldn't do your customer the service he was requesting and you knew it. If I would have drove by and saw you spreading mud in a front yard the first thing I would have thought would be you have no idea what you are doing and why are you out there - obviously I wouldn't have known the demands of the customer but my first impression would have stuck in my head. Carry this further and his neighbors saw this going on as well. They may very well have thought the same thing I would, once again they are not privy to the demands of your customer. However, they saw you making a mess in their neighbors yard - do you think they would call you or look for someone else? It's not right but perception is reality.:cool2 Furthermore, your customer will follow standard human behavior and will not likely be the one to take the credit for this mess but rather blame you and tell his friends and neighbors what a mess you made. It's not right nor fair but it's one of many of life's lessons I have learned the hard way.
Cm your looking at 3 k, paid in full. He owns a company and has done well, he does work for me when i need him so ... He had other men and sod on site. I told them exactly what would happen but he was hooked for the sod cost and there is no stopping him. He actually still has men on site working that mess. He would have looked at me as if i let him down by not being there when i said i would. So i did what i could and kept my word and told him upfront exactly what would happen. The other landscape men had him thinking it would be done but they are getting paid daily and they do not care how much money he spends. He was not happy that i did not come back out and he would have paid me again. It would not have been productive in my mind but i guess sometimes 20% is still progress. I am sure i saved a lot of shovel work but it is not how i would have done it, if it were dry. Think of it this way. He had 3k in sod ordered and delivered before the grading is done. I did not even know about the job till 3 days ago and the sod was already bought. I told him to stop the purchase up front. No can do. He was being led by someone who was meaning well but got in over their head real quick. I almost suggested renting a ctl but for another 500 loss to him but i did not. Would the tracks have even made a difference in that kind of slop?
He paid you $3k to spread 7 loads or was there other work involved? This gets back to what I was talking about. I didn't know your relationship with this customer and I made a judgement based on what I saw, without the privy of the backstory, like a future customer would. Perception is reality with future customers and I was viewing it as a potential customer and a competitor. Obviously that is not the case with your relationship with this customer but first impressions go a long way and that is what I was saying. I understand and respect that.
I understand your comments. I would have felt bad for them but i laid it out crystal clear up front. He spent 2400 on dirt and 600 on grading plus all the other costs he had. Dumpster, sod, men, etc. All that being said he might still be mad at everyone that was associated with the job after it is complete. It might turn out to be a 10 to 15 k sod job for him. The craziest thing about it to me was the area was perfectly flat before the dirt. The landscaper told me that to much water sat on the front yard so they wanted to build it up to make it drain. I thought oh ok i see a few areas that might be a little low like 2 inches here or there. When they kept ordered dirt i was like what are they doing? I still can not picture the end product covered in sod. They are talking about using a compactor and smoothing it out. I am a building guy that has installed and or prepped many yards for sod. I have never been asked to mound up a front yard. Much less move mud for sod.
So my buddy on Sunday 03/30/14 at 4:16 pm whom is of the Spanish race sent me this photo with the text "Never under estimate a Mexican. It is done". I am glad I did not bet him $500.00 on that job. I would have lost. I have not seen it in person, so I do not know how well the yard is packed or how smooth it is. But hats off to them. They really busted their butts on that one. Shows what a can do attitude and enough labor can tackle.
I was trying to figure that out too from the pictures. I've done landscape berms to add detail you yards, maybe that's what their going for?:beatsme
Running the 53. Here are some photos of what I have been up to lately. On a grading job for two building slabs. On the above "snow" photo. I was onsite attempting to repair one of the lift arm hoses which decided to pop. It is the one that requires removing the front end and the fuel tank to get to the connections. When I showed up it was cold and no snow. 4 hours later rain turned to ice and then snow..It shut atlanta down. I took this picture as I was leaving. It took 4 x 4 just to get up the icy roads to get home. All two wheel drive cars and tractor trailers got stranded on the hills and it caused every road to grid lock. Taking back flat roads allowed me to work around the problem areas and get home. I was lucky cause many people spent the night in there cars. We started the year off with a lot of rain. This is the other loader at the farm and this was on a dump truck load out day a few days ago for the sod mess. Here is two days ago. My F-550 7.3 liter power-stroke has run out of life so I had to use the 250. The F-550 7.3 has low compression. The compression numbers are #1 325, #2 381, #3 384, #4 364, #5 372, #6 351, #7 295, #8 345. Blowing smoke and only getting about 160 MPH per tank. I also have one bad injector. Not sure if that is what sent it off the cliff or not. Still trying to find another good 7.3 engine or a new F550 with 4 doors , manuel trans and 7.3 diesel. Every thing I have went to look at for sale is worn out. My fuel bill is pushing $2k a month The 5 ton machine is too much for the F-250 truck likes to fishtail and you could end up in the ditch quick. Putting a water line through rock We now have had a few hot days and I am back at it. This photo is from yesterday. You can see loader #2 hid in the trees to the right.. Getting ready to form slabs.
I got caught in that storm too. Working a fill lift with the 953 on a dollar store we are finishing up. It started to snow but I didn't pay much attention as it looked like it wasn't much, couldn't really tell how much was accumulating being in the dirt. It started to come down pretty hard and I knocked my two trucks off hauling in fill because I was worried the snow would melt fast and make mud - which it didn't at the time. Finished up spreading and compacting the last two loads and went to leave, at that point I realized I was in trouble. All in all it took me 5 hours to get home which is a normal 30 min ride from this project. I too went the back roads through the country, as I figured the roads would be less traveled and country boys would have 4x4's and chains to get people who are stuck out of the way. It paid off for me too as many people spent the night in their cars or in lobbies of retail establishments that stayed open. The problem was the gridlock of cars that couldn't go anywhere, I put in 4 high and cruised the back roads.
The snow and ice makes for a nice change in my opinion. I have had a hard to find leak on my 953. The metal lines at the lower rear of the machine are brake lines. They seem to only get pressure under power. One of mine had been dripping and finally turned into a hard spray. It blew a pin hole in the top of the line and was covering other lines with oil. After about 5 gallons lost i finally got a helper to power the tracks while i looked. My helper could not locate or see the leak. High pressure oil scares me so i used a wood board to see where it was spraying from and which hose it was blowing out of. Hard to do on a moving machine down in the belly. But i found the pin hole. The tube has a good bit of rot on it. Cat wants $130 for the 2' 1/2" pipe. Has anyone tried brazing up these kind of pin holes?
When I braze holes in lines I wrap the area with rebar tie wire and braze over the wire and tube.Never had a failure that way.Just brazing holes shut never worked for me on high pressure lines on ag equipment.
I have had better luck TIG welding if you have access. I tried brazing one of the steel lines on a case 590 four times and it kept cracking the brass so finally i took it back to the shop and welded and it has been going good for about 4 years now. Luckily the line was easy to get to or it would have only taken one try gas welding it. The brass would stick to the steel around it but where the crack was to start it would make a crack in the same spot through the brass. I am no expert at brazing but it just did not seem that the material itself would hold the pressure some 1/16" er70s filler wire and ten minutes was all it took. the worst part was my shop is about 45min or an hour from the customer so driving took longer than anything
Using rebar tie wire sounds like a good idea. I am going to give that a shot.
Felling larger trees. How big is ok? Hey guys. Work has picked up even more for me and my jobs keep getting bigger. I recently went to a job site and quoted out installing an 30 x 80 private shop at a nicer home. The area is crowned and about 4' out of level. There are approximately 25 trees on the building site that need to be removed. All the trees are with in danger range of a million dollar home. There are 7 trees larger between 30 and 40"s, Georgia pine trees and popular soft wood trees. I have never attempted to push over good healthy trees this size with my 953s. Anyway on my second trip out the tree guys are on site and telling the home owner that they need to rent a 953 to use to root em out. He proceeds to tell him that he worked for a grading company for 5 years and that the machine would send them right over. Of course i was not saying much and listening. I have already dropped one tree on a house and had to fix it out of pocket. I was not using a machine on that tree. It was a dead 7' wide white oak that spun in the air and went 180* back towards the back cut. I knew i was in trouble when the back cut saw gap closed up. That tree caused me two weeks of house rebuilding and a lot of pride. What size trees can i take down safely with a 953? Any one had any problems felling trees with about a 30,000 lb machine? How safe is the rops for tree impacts?
You need room to cut the feeder root system under the canopy of the tree, the canopy is the tell tale as to how far out these roots can run so the tighter in on a taller tree they can be thick and plentiful. I managed to push over a 16" dia. Locust with my 24,000# Allis, took a lot of doing to cut the root mass to where the tractor could get it pushing, I was around a full foot under the root mat on three sides. Biggest concern I would have as to the OEM ROPS you have is no side screens, limbs can poke their way into pretty tight places even as they come crashing pretty much straight down they will roll, that Locust I dropped while moving it tried to come into the operator station more than once.
30-40" in circumference or diameter? I have laid over many a southern yellow pine and popular with a 953. The pines will have a large and often deep tap root with very little surface roots. The popular will have a wide flat stump - Georgia Iron I know you already know this, just some info for the other folks. On the project I am finishing up now we received a change order to clear a strip of trees adjacent to the ROW, and when I say adjacent I mean we couldn't fit the 321 on the side we needed to push because the overhead phone line was too low. So the '53 had to come it at a 45 degree angle in order to not be sitting on the road, under the phone line and push the pines back into the clearing. Took the 321 and made a couple of swipes to break the roots loose on the pushing side, left the other side intact in order for the roots to help guide the tree down. We took our time and removed everything without instance. The 400 pair phone line would have been a very expensive mistake. Depending on the site and situation a 953 can handle most of the trees we have in our area, there is always exceptions of course.
Hi Georgia. Just had to do a similar job with much smaller machinery. 5 trees with the largest approx 80' high and 30" to 40" at the base, all Australian Eucalypts, (gum trees). Machinery was a 3.5 ton JCB 1CX compact backhoe/skidsteer, and a single drive Mitsubishi tipper, 14 ton laden, with HIAB crane. Site was a 1/4 acre house block with houses on both sides but open at the rear. We had a climber/lopper who took the main branches out of the head of the tree and attached a cable about 30' up the tree. I then excavated with the backhoe all around the base of the tree, severing all the radial roots to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. Then attached the cable to the crane on the truck and gave it a pull with the hydraulic extension on the crane. The first time the tree still appeared to be well attached to the ground so we dug a little deeper around the base. Gave it another pull and it seemed to be moving so I then got in the truck in first gear and started pulling. The truck had about 4 tons of logs in the back and good traction and the tree came down. Repeated for the next 4 trees without any damage. Pulling enabled more control of the tree but one tree went within 2 feet of the neighbours house which was not intended. Could have been better positioned on that one ops The secret was pulling from high up the tree, the leverage gave us the advantage and with a 953 you'll have no problems. The stumps we brought out of the ground attached to the tree were massive with tons of clay attached. Would have been very expensive to get the stumps out otherwise. As long as you have decent cable/chain and make some allowance for the tree falling a little off the predicted line you should be OK. You won't have the problem of the tree doing a 180 degree pirouette onto a house. AusDave
Guys, thanks for taking your time to reply. Work has jumped on me hard. I have went amost 2 months behind. I recently got my class a cdl. This stripped the chains off me and i now have the freedom to move my machines when i want. I bought my 953 first learned how to run it grading a dam and smoothing out a field. Thought myself! Off course i have almost 700 hours on my skid steer building slabs and driveways. Then i got my 20 ton eager beaver trailer used. Then my international 1990 9400 tandem dump truck which is a converted road tractor with the massive frame. I call it the "brute". It has an old mechanical cummings engine with 400 ponies and it will run. It is old and ugly but it will put a lot of new trucks in the rear view mirror. I love my truck. I got the cdl last. I do not have any friends that have a tractor trailer so i passed the book stuff at the state and paid a school to let me take a test in one of there trucks. It took 15 hours at the ga dmv. I even managed to parallel park a road tractor and trailer on my test. Keep in mind i only had 5 hours of seat time. But i got a full class a with tank endorsement. As fast dirt says "the one man show to grow" . Today i hauled an hour north and put one off my 53's on a job site. I have been hired to build a 30 x 80 slab with dual driveways into the building. The site is 4 feet out of level and has 20 trees on it. I do most of my tree and grading work alone. I run the chainsaw and the machines. I have been pushing the larger tree work off on guys who do it all day long. I have spikes and i can climb but i find i can make more money doing what i am best at which is building slabs and doing water control. The tree guys have been flakey with this job. The customer has been price shopping and speaking to several compaines. Since my tractors are older I am always afraid of loading them up too much and breaking something. Every job i blow a line it seems. The cylinders have started leaking on this job but the machine seems strong. I decided to do the tree work and today i started pushing bigger trees. I hope to get a go pro video for you guys. Lets just say i have been missing out. My 953 is stronger than i thiought. Every pine i have walk up to and pushed on has come crashing done without even digging. I loaded a stump that weights 3500 lbs? I will get some pics up soon.
I have experience now removing about 40 stumps. It is very easy to remove a stump if a medium-large tree is still attached to it. It is fairly easy to remove small to medium sized stumps with no tree. Removing medium plus size stumps without a tree can take time and a lot of fuel. IN some cases it is necessary to dig 5' down all around the stump to get them to start moving. You must cut the large roots all the way around and I would wager that the stumps can weight in excess of 4000 lbs. Maybe even 5000 to 6000 lbs each.
Pics of tree work
More pics The above tree was left for a saw man. It was leaning 6 feet towards the house and I had about a 6 ' drop off on the push side. I decided to leave that tree alone. That is what I call a bankruptcy tree. After it was pieced out and dropped by a climber. I went after the stump with about 4' of trunk left for leverage. It was so much easier having 4' of stump vs being cut at the ground. I got it out in about 15 mins. I have some cool gopro vids. I just need to figure out how to get them uploaded.
To give an idea of how big these stumps can be. The truck is empty and this one stump is on the bottom of the bed. I had to remove the tail gate twice to get the dang things out.
Finally rolled one of my dump trucks! Nobody was hurt other than my feelings! As the load went up the dirt under the drivers side rear gave way. The rear end sunk to the axle and the bed started a hard lean. I was in the truck and attempted to slowly let the bed down. This created even more pressure on the low wheel. The cylinders bent. I got out of the truck before it rolled. I attempted to stop the roll by removing material from the bed with the skid steer. It did not help the truck was overloaded and went where it wanted. Three things caused this to happen. 1. Slope. 2. Soft soil. 3. Over loaded truck. And me not wanting to dump the load on the driveway due to clean up. I always seem to load the passenger side up with tools. Every tool smashed straight into the drivers side window at head level. It broke the front wind shield and most likely would have caused serious injury to operator. Lady luck was on my shoulder again and a I snuck by another bullet. The hole in the windshield was created by me with a hammer. It is a pain in the butt to turn off a rolled truck. You either climb over the truck or go through the window. I emptied the bed with a shovel and was able to pull the truck back over with a warn 12,000 lb winch and my skid steer. The old cylinders were shot and my wind shield was already broken. I had a crane truck come by and hold the bed up so that the damaged cylinders could be disconnected and the bed dropped. I took out the spark plugs and rolled it over to clear the oil from the pistons. two were full. Put them back in and she fired up. Double frame truck did not even bend. Ford TUFF. I proceeded to load the truck with a load of trash and drove it back to the shop. New cylinders and steel round bar. $2500.00. New wind shield $210.00 Oh it barley tweaked the cab. And it broke the drivers side mirror. It did not even break the drivers side door window! Already back at work.
what's the hole in windshield
And the day that kept giving! The same job that I rolled the truck on I also almost front rolled the skid steer right after I rolled the truck. I had a heavy load in the bucket and was going to dump it over the fence. The ground slopes towards the fence and the machine hit a little weird bump as the load was just clearing the fence. I attempted to dump the load by rolling the bucket down but there was so much foward momentum that it still rolled forward right on the fence. The bucket was stuck straight down into the ground and I pulled the machine back over with the truck. Did not hurt the fence. I did have to climb out the rear window to get out of the machine.
It was all I could do to reach the tie points to chain to the machine.
I used an EastWing framing hammer to knock it open. It took about 5 heavy hits to get the hole to open up!
Sounds like a rough week.... Hope it gets better John
Good times. Thanks. It comes with the job. I have wondered if I had hooked a chain to the dump bed near the top and pulled counter to the lean with the skid.steer how it would have turned out. Trying to remove material from the rear was a mistake on my part. The material slid away from the high side, which is what allowed the truck to flop.on over.
r15 10 ply trailer tires suck. Last week end I had another blow out and almost wrecked my f250 and my 10 k trailer pulling my skid steer. So far I have went through almost 14 tires on different trailers and trucks this year. My newer erucrete China trailer tires are crap. The trailer is running 6 lug 15" wheels and turning is ripping the tires apart. Today I bought 16" 6 lug rims so that I can run the 14 ply tires that the eight lug trailers use. They bolt right on but the trailers fenders must be cut off and moved up due to the tires being about 5" taller.
Removing the bottom rollers.
Thanks, my PSSR did some research on them over the weekend and found the ones I need...he ordered them for me. I already had the part number from the parts book but the original number has been replaced several times in the Cat system, and the ones it calls for is not right.
D9gDon did you get the correct rollers?
caterpillar hose life. I have been pushing 953's to the max it seems. I have been pushing up large trees and putting buildings up basically right in the middle of the woods. I seem to blow a hose on either machine every hard job I get on. I stall the machine, get the rear end up in the air when I lock onto a big root then try to push it up and rip it out. Works pretty good except something always wants to pop. Today I blew one of the lift arm cylinder hoses. Took 3 hours to remove the pan and hose. I.am growing tried of wrenching. I wonder if need to ... 1. Just fix them as the blow. 1988 models so they are.getting old. 2. Take them all off and have them made new 3. Get a newer machine. 4. Get a new line of.work. ha. What is the deal. How long should they last? I wonder if I would be breaking hard parts if the hoses did not fail?
If you are lifting hard enough to get the back of the machine in the air and you have good traction it would seem to me that there would be a serious load added to the lift cylinders when you push forward. Unless the hoses are bad I'm thinking the blown hose is your relief valve.
Yes I did and got them installed.
I blew hoses hoses left and right on mine for a while. From cylinder hoses to the main hose from pump to the control valve in the tank. I think I finally got all the crappy ones replaced for a while. Often times its not the cost of the hose but the down time and oil loss that bites the most. I looked at having new hoses made for mine end to end but it wasn't feasible due to the cost at that time for me. Good Luck John
Yes the hoses are expensive. Here is a pick of the tree I was working on when it blew. You can see the oil. All over the bucket.
I almost rolled my dump truck again when i dropped this in the bed. The left side tires came off the ground. I was just off the side off the truck attempting to get a smooth drop when the stump came off. If I had been forward just a few inches the machine bucket could have helped hold the truck on the ground. That stump was making the 53 feel light in the rear.
I just got my new replacement Danner boots. I only buy the ones made in the USA. I love these boots. I wish they made them in the logger height.
Hey d what method did you use to put them on and how much did they cost?
Relieve the tension on the tracks and jam an old solid bar in the sprocket and back up to get the idler to move back and that'll give you the slack you need. Then just use a jack and some blocks and your loader bucket to get the tractor up enough to give yourself room to get the rollers out. The rollers I got were Cat and were around $250 each.
The last ten days have been straight from the Iron man challenge. I have worked every day straight. I ran the 53' out of fuel once again. She really blew through this job. This is a 40 x 50 building getting ready on the concrete side. Before pic. Moving a gas line over. Laying the concrete building slab. 20 dump truck loads came out and 5 feet of cut was moved back. The front forms are for a 10 x 40 ramp. Over all size 40 x 60. We were light on men. Me and 2 guys poured that.
That is good to know thanks for the info. One of my tracks has been rubbing, I have not figured out why. Ever now and then it pops like it jumps a tooth. View attachment 124714
Here is the pic of how the track is rubbing? What causes this?
Judged by the what I can see wear, the rail is pretty well worn down on the link facing surfaces, that with roller wear will lead to the roller flanges getting into the pin boss area on the links, would also indicate the rail may be twisting in the rollers between the flanges or there is a piece of steel on the guide faces at the ends of the track carriage either folding/folded or gouged and sticking out into the rail. First places to look. The popping you hear is the rail walking up on the front idler then dropping back into place, been there, done that and when it gets bad enough you will get to rehang a rolled off rail, also been there done that.
Well worn track rollers ...............
I sure hope my under carriage is not worn out yet. Another problem has surfaced. One of the two main lift cylinders have torn the face of the seal which scrubs dirt off the chrome plated shaft. It looks like I need to repack the cylinder. I am going to attempt this myself. What is the easiest way to do this. Can I leave the part attached near the cab connected and just pull the pin out from the lift arm on the front. Another words repack it, still attached to the tractor. What is the fastest way to repack the cylinder and how should I remove the large nut without the proper wrench? Here's a pic of my latest 53 job.
Looking good GI
Tl-150 brought on board. My new 953 helper. After what seems like years of looking for another skid steer, I brought home a used machine from Ky. I looked at new ones and was close, but price and the new emissions stuff is not for me. The epa should spend more time focusing on red light improvements and traffic patterns. Dealer told me the new emissions stuff added 5k to the price. It was a tuff call for me, the front runners for my choices were case 440ct's, tl140/240s/tl10, and tl150/250/tl12. I was dead set on a new tl12 till I got it priced out at 75k plus tax. I switched gears to a tl-10 priced out at 58.5 k plus tax. Hefty payments for either choice. I have been looking at used for a while, tl130s are everywhere. My requirements were cab with ac to help cut down on dust. That was really the only requirement and tracks. I really wanted a tl240 that had 50 hrs on it but they wanted 50+ k used. Too hard to finance with out the easy factory financing. I loved the case 440ct and that size machine. It felt awesome while testing it out. Since I already use a wheeled machine in the mid size range I wanted a bigger skid machine for the bigger jobs I get when my 953 is too hard to move. I cant load large trees with the mid size wheel machine. The tl150 was in my budget. I ended up spending 16 hours going to get my tl150, I purchased it from a contractor that was down sizing and I am glad we got to meet. I always like dealing with small companies since I am the same. The drive back was straight out of hell. I decided to use my ford 6.0 liter diesel which decided to go into limp mode on the way back pulling this beast up the hills. Once again I blew another trailer tire and had a fun 9 hrs drive back. 5.5 hrs there / 9 hrs back. More tire blow outs. Coming back home the right rear trailer tire blew at about 63 mph. It smoked in an instant and went straight to the rim. Truck handled the blow out good, I think it did because I had plenty of tongue weight. The last time I had a blow out with my 7k lb case machine it almost wrecked me, the right side front tire blew that time. Recently I lost all my studs on the right side front tire also. (Different trailer) Here is a pic of that. That tl150 has bad tracks, a busted front door, seized bucket pins, one boom pin that needs to be repaired. But hey it is a 150! Fixing the blow out stuck between gaurd rails on i-75 with my new little tank. I have always thought that you do not appreciate something unless you earn it. If my trip home is any indication of my future with this machine, it should be eventful.
It might be a silly question but how much tongue weight did you have..? It looks like the front wheels of your pickup are about to head into orbit.
IT look's like he's trying to join the bumper dragon club:thumbsup
If this life was easy any idiot could do it DIGGING AIN'T EASY
Yes it does appear that way. My trucks rear springs are just about shot. It has spent most of its life pulling my other skid steer. I will need to add air bags or something soon if ford does not cover it under warranty. I can not say exactly how much weight but I take great care to not overload it. It took two of us to set the machine so that there is enough weight but not to much. It pulled unbelievably well coming home. At times I almost could not tell it was behind the truck. Based on carrying blocks probably about 1200 - 1600 lbs. That little loader specs at 11k but I read it might go 12k.
Also the trailer is being pushed up at the back from the floor jack.
All goes to show that a photo can lie........
I thought my tl150 was king till I saw this. Steel tracks!
Our Cat Rental store has one of these- Georgia Iron, try loading the Tak bucket first on that bumper pull, you can get a better weight distribution. On my bumper pull trailer, I always load my T250 bucket front, with the back door of the machine slightly rear of the center axles. You might have to adjust the location of the machine to get the right balance with your truck and trailer combo. Not picking but you've too much tongue weight.
Cm, the old girl was not turn able and I was lucky just to get it on the trailer. The right side track was broke and she did not want to turn or pull going on the sled. I could only load it from one direction. It pulled really well like it was loaded. Yesterday, I got both new tracks on and I finished putting the 2 bushings in the loader arms near the quick attach coupler. It was dark by the time I got done putting in grease. Now I am going to do a complete belly clean and service the final drives, change engine oil etc. 3 days so far working on the machine. I have not got to drive it yet. The little movement I was able to do was very touchy and completely different than the case skid steer controls. I want to change it to case controls. This summer finally did me in on using the open cab case. The case has done all jobs I have thrown at it. My main reason for getting another machine was an enclosed cab to help me stay out of dust. I am tired of dust masks and filling my eyes with it. I had 3 really bad dusty jobs this year, one was an old livestock building demo, it was in SC and in sugar sand. That one sealed the deal. I decided I do not care how much it costs it is time for a front door when needed. The front windshield is busted out, I order the glass but I have not figured out how to best install it. It seems like it will be hard to remove the door frame. Also, customers jobs have stepped up a size it seems in buildings. I hope that this new machine will cut down on job time a few hours when grading. I know it will be more expensive to run, based on the fuel usage and under carriage costs, I am guessing it will be 8 to 10 time more expensive than the wheeled machine. The only thing I did not get that I wanted was high flow in case I decided to get a mulcher head.
Better Trailer Tires - 235/85/R16 - 4000 LBS plus each!!! Ok, Guys. I have been having some really bad luck with tires. I have went through about 15 tires in the last 16 months or so. I have noticed that most trailer places and tire stores sell really crappy tires that will not last carrying max loads. A buddy of mine introduced me to a worn out tire which he gave me as a spare. Come to think of it I have never worn out a trailer tire, they always blow out with thread still on them. When I went to pick up the wheel with tire I was like damn this thing is heavy. I noticed that it is a 14 ply tire that is TL rated and it is rated at 4080 lbs. My last set of tires I bought were 14 ply that are rated at 3750 lbs each with a thin sidewall. Well, I took it down to my other buddy at the tire shop and was like why aren't you selling me these. He had never seen them and could not get them. We pulled the tire off the rim to check the sidewall. It is BEEF. He was like I can get you a good year for like $300.00 plus for each tire that is similar, but it is still made in China. I bugged him to find this tire and he could not. So, I started checking around. Another tire shop which is like one of the largest in GA, has a similar tire which is NON-STOCK and runs $159.00 plus tax and install. It is a WEST LAKE CR960A. It is rated the same so it should be GTG. The tire I am talking about is a LINGLONG F835 ALL STEEL tire. Some guys on Ebay are wanting $200.00 plus per tire. I found them at a place called SimpleTire $148.00 each shipped to my door. These tires are the best deal I have found so far. If you know of a better tire and deal please post the info up. I hope that this helps someone else that is pulling a 14k sled at max load and then some. My last long haul home from KY, I blew out one of my trailer tires late on Saturday, I could not find another spare for over 200 miles on 75 south. I made it home on my spare but if it had blown I would have been stuck till Monday or longer. I normally would carry two spares, but this time I went with what I had left and it almost cost me a bunch of money. Stock pile some for your road trips Oh these puppies will take 110 psi and they are regroovable. Not that I would regroove it but I think it is a plus.
I don't know squat about a lowboy trailer but wonder if that's their intended application? I'm walking through 14.5 tires like they're made outta butter and moving to 16s soon so I'll have to look for those. John
TL 150 is a hoss. I put the tl150 threw the paces today. Took out 4 trees about 15" in diameter and moved a shed. I am just getting used to the controls vs the case. It is amazing the difference in push power between the machines. The tl150 seems to be 3 times as strong as the case 75xt. I walked up to the trees and just pushed them right on over, no digging. The case is a faster machine and scoots around faster. The controls and bucket response are faster on the case. Right now, I could grade soft dirt or broken dirt faster with the case, that might change as I improve with the new control pattern.. For new work or breaking new ground the tl150 is stronger. I was stoked when I got my 953. To me the tl150 is a great size machine when you don't need the raw power of the cat. The tl150 is maybe a third as strong as a 953. I have no intention of selling my case machine, I will use it when my tracks could be broken or when I need a smaller size for tighter area. I could do any thing the tl150 does other than float in mud and pick up heavy weight with the case. It would just take longer. I was thinking that the tracks would have less impact on the grass but it seems to tear it up real easy. You could tear up a back yard in just a few minutes of moving about. Also I can get enough dirt in bucket to make the 150 tip if I am not careful. My main purpose besides log loading and a cab in getting the tl150 was to increase productivity since my time is now at premium demand. I believe it will make bigger jobs go by faster. I am very interested in getting a mulching head for small farm type cleanups. Any one have any thoughts on that?
Cat 953 saves a truck. Well, I thought I had figured out how to keep my dump trucks on all 6. I almost rolled another truck this time off a trailer. I decided that I needed this old truck on a site about 150 miles from our shop. Thought while I am moving it I might as well take some river rock with me. Put 5 Tl150 scoops in it, thinking that should be about max, considering the trailer and truck specs. Truck weight 11,500 Rock weight. 8,500 This old truck has been with me for about 10 years now, never fails to start and works pretty good. Looks like it came off of Sandford and Sons. While loading it decided to shut off, as I almost had it up on the trailer. Brakes would not hold with out vaccum, so backwards we go, ramp decides to kick up and jamb into the dump body, which caused the truck to spin and almost go completely off the trailer. Lucky my 953 was right there and she fired right up. I was alone and had to quickly figure out what to do. Decided to get the ramp back down, used the 953 to pick up the corner of the trailer, then took a 5' pry bar to get the ramp loose from the truck. I then used the loader to support the front wheel to attempt to keep the truck on the trailer. The steering would not respond so I basically used gravity to help get it back down. Nothing bent or broke on truck. Bent a solid 1.5" steel bar on the ramp. I really don't know how because it was a violent impact. Ol lady luck was with me again. I called some guys over to help me load it, I had one steer the dump and I loaded it by pushing it onto the trailer with the Cat.
Unloading was as just as unnerving as the loading, due to the low hanging rear hitch which wanted to act like a plow. When I loaded the truck I used the 953 to pick up the back end. Unloading was a different story. I knew I had one shot to get it off the trailer. No machinery to help if it went screwy. I knew the ramps would try to fold up and if they stuck under the truck I would be done. So I locked the haul truck down and blocked the wheels on the trailer. I got the truck fired up, and slowly started backwards as the rear wheels got on the angled deck, the trailer ramps started to fold up, the trucks tires hit them and they sat back down. As this occurred, all the gravel shifted to the rear of the dump ballooning the rear doors. The front tires came off the deck and I was doing a wheelie with the front tires 4 feet off the deck. The truck continued backwards until the hitch/drawbar dug into the ground. The front tires gently set back down on the trailer. I then pulled the haul truck forward pulling the trailer out from under the dump truck. Mission accomplished. Here is the load that was in the dump bed.
This site will most likely be where this truck spends it's final days. I had someone offer me 1500 for it and I am glad I did not take it. He wanted to tell me what an old piece it was. Little did he know I was the one who brought it back from the dead. He underestimated the value of a dump truck that has never broken down, and always starts. Even when the gas gets old I take a plastic bottle punch a hole in it. Shoot fresh gas into the carb and once the fuel pump starts pumping fresh fuel she goes. I used this truck for many years running all over atlanta hauling house remodeling debris and trash. Max speed 50. You might even passed me on the interstate laughing. I bought it for 1500 and spent 2500 on it. 1000 on steel for making the dump box bigger, 1000 for new mud grip rear tires, 250 on the brakes, and 250 on lights. This truck is what I started with. Then a bobcat so on and so forth. The truck is 10 years older than me and believe it or not it allowed me to make enough money and save, so that I was able to grow without stress of payments. It won't carry as much weight, or go as fast nor does it have AC, but it's a DUMP truck, and it can do what a non dump cant. Used to be a logging truck. She is going back to work at my next major project an old farm restoration. She will be used for moving brush, house demo debris and dirt. Saves my loaders. 5 miles of perimeter. Who would want to steal it? It's old and ugly but it is a solid dump. Here's a pic of one of the streams on site.
Well its been a bit since I posted anything interesting up. I am looking at starting a fairly large job for just me. It will require me moving almost 250 to 300 dump truck loads of dirt from a front yard to a rear hill side. Ripping out 10,000 sq ft of driveway and installing about 23 trucks of concrete for various things. The rear area goes straight down towards a lake and the city is requiring a contractor with a blue card on site for the lda. I went to an erision and sedement class to find out basically it's 2500.00 per day per violation fine. I am also worried about having a silt fence blow out on the steep hill going into this community lake for 6 or 8 houses. The guy already had the city come out and fail his silt fence. At first I was excited about the work but now second thoughts.... This job is in between 2 houses that are about 200' apart. Last year some tree guys starting dropping chunks of trees from 40 or 50 ' up and the neighbor came out screaming that his foundation was cracked due the the vibration. The owner of the project paid him off to make him go away. This guys house was at least 125' from the tree work. He will be 100' from the grading work and I am worried about it. I told the customer that it was completely up to him to deal with any legal issues but that still does not really cover me from liability. I am worried about moving 200 plus loads of dirt with my lonely dump truck and 953. I have moved 60 loads before onsite but that's the most I've done. I have requested an engineer be sent in, $1000.00 to help me get the correct bmp's in place for the gullies that are already there. His daily rate is $2450.00 per day until his 60 k or so budget is up. I know by adding my blue card to the permit I will be taking the liability. I don't know if I am starting to get soft or what, maybe i am over thinking this... Of course my pricing had to compete with Jose's professional driveway installs so I was asked to match a bid, which I did plus $10k more. I am always ready for a challenge I think right now I might feel like a building demo contractor that has been hired to drop a tall building right between 2 other tall buildings. If it goes down good and straight great, if not it will be major problems.
watch your cab doors and your fingers. I thought I would post up a quick hard lesson learned. Unloading my excavator this morning almost cost me a few fingers. When the machine tipped from the deck to the trailer ramps it made a hard forward roll and smack . I was bracing myself with the front cab column where the door closes and the door decided to come unlocked and smacked close on my finger tips as I was watching the front boom arm. Almost took all my fingers off. Since it was still dark I did not even realize my fingers were in danger with the door closing. A first I thought I lost every finger tip since the door was shut and I could not see any my finger tips. I think they need to have a safety shut click on the locks to stop this kind of accident. Pretty sure osha rules state to close the cabin door first, now I understand why it's a bad idea to work with the door open.
I pulled out my stuck f550 with the 953. The 953 will pick the front of the truck off the ground like it's nothing... View attachment 153302
Brush piles...What is the right size for a fire? Been using the 953 to the fullest extent it is capable of. I am getting some food plots cleared and I am stacking the brush for it to dry out over the summer. To me the piles seem about right, they are larger than most small houses, packed as tight and dit free as i can get them. The larger pile is maybe 12' to 16' high. How much space would you have between this and the forrest when lighting it off? What is best size for burning when doing some clean up work?
When I am burning piles just with a loader I like to make them about 1/2 the size of the first pic. Reason being is when it's time to push them up you don't want the loader running over hot ashes, basically you want to stay on dirt while pushing the piles up as best you can. Those piles are fine for a 320 or larger excavator to tend. A good friend of mine's loader burnt from doing such. He parked at dusk after pushing up burn piles all day. Shut the machine off and was going to his truck, he looked over at the loader and saw a glow in the front by the fuel tank. He grabbed his fire extinguisher from his truck but it was empty... A police officer was riding by and saw what was going on and went to get his extinguisher out of the trunk and it was empty... He sat there and watched his loader burn waiting on the fire dept. Always have a current charged fire extinguisher on every piece of equipment and one in the truck. I like to have as much distance as possible from the remaining foliage as possible. Minimum distance would be 6-8 loader buckets wide. Good dry material will burn hotter (of course) and will not send embers flying as much as green wood.
A second to the stay on dirt theory. I'll make them long and tall but keep them skinny enoungh to work with the machine on clean ground. Nearly lost a 941 on the farm years ago to hot embers and wind. Thankfully I had stopped for a break when noticed the smell and slight smoke. I grabbed a can of Mt Dew out of the cooler in the truck, shook it really hard and just cracked it open. Made a good make-shift fire extinguisher and put out the smoldering junk under the bucket control levers. Be safe John
Guys, those are some real good points on the piles. Mt. Dew does all kinds of good things. I will not make them as deep from here on out. Unfortunately, modifying the ones I have made might prove to be to much work to undue. I was trying to figure up how much diesel I used stripping the ground. I am thinking about 200 gallons on the bigger pile. I set a pile off last year that I made with the case skid, it burnt up, including the stumps dirt and all. It had coals 2 feet deep and it was still glowing 3 days later. I was shocked that the dirt filled stumps went away. Logs 15" went completely away. I differently don't want to loose the machine to a fire, I don't have any insurance and that would HURT. I blew another lift hose in the front end inside so I have lots of oil soaked things. Working in the bush, 3 hours out is an experience just in its self. Not having water to wash with and not having tooling on site makes it real fun. We are 30 mins from the closest town. Ran out of fuel, with out my transfer tank on the truck and ended up using 5 gallons buckets to fuel up. I went to an auction and picked up this deal. 300 gallon tank, 30 gpm pump, and 130 good gallons of diesel in it for $220.00 I also picked up these 10' harrows. Super heavy duty
If I work my '53 hard for a 7-8 hour day on the clock running, it'll burn close to 50 gals. If you had 4 days working that clearing then that should be a close estimate. Good deal on the tank, that's a steal. If the material is dry and the fire is handled properly one can burn up pretty much any log or stump. Back in the early fall we burned all the brush hauled in from clearing jobs during the no-burn months last year. Had around 20 - 60CY loads of brush, logs and stumps. It was nice and dry and it took a couple of days to burn it. I like to dig a pit and cast the dirt to the back side and the two ends. Light the fire and feed the pit.
Thanks, CM. The auction was an all day affair. With most items selling for top dollar or being shill bidden above the great value and getting sold to a sucker! Auctions are really hit an miss and the prices are controlled by the auction companies. They will run something through an auction at 2 or 3 different locations attempting to get best price for it. Especially if it belongs to the auction company. If you are a guy that dropped a piece off to hope it sells it will. But you can bet if it sells low it is either something the auction company wants for themselves or they don't want to fool with moving it again. They bounce machinery from different sites and areas, fishing for more money. They have 3 or 4 buyers that stack equipment in at wholesale and the auctioneers will bid it well above what they paid for it. The auctioneers know almost exactly how much something can bring and they make sure it sells for enough. If it turns out to be a non selling unit they might take a loss but only after its been sold 2 to 4 times to themselves. So if you catch it then you might get a 20% discount. I did not realize how unethical it can be until just recently. I saw auction guys throwing up bids to push the price up with no one else bidding other than a single buyer. When looking at equipment prices sold by auction you can not get a fair idea of value, especially if it is smaller type auction company. They also will put a hidden reserve on real estate. And shill bid it up until "they" buy it or someone crosses the reserve amount. Typically I have found the best deals on items that are harder to move, like the fuel tank, or a wide load like the harrows. Large pipes, steel beams, etc.. At Ritchie brothers I have gotten fair deals on machinery. But it is never a home run like you think it could be. The best deals on equipment are person to person. And at auction, the best deals seem to be sold at the very end of the sale at the end of the day or when a group of 10 go up and you wait for the last unit. I had 15 things to bid on at this last sale and only bid on 5 items due to a used item selling for almost what a new item does. If you see the guy with the cane selling what you want and 3 others helping him get the bids, go real slow and watch for other actual bidders dont get sucked into the fray. Try to stand back away from the item so you can get the whole scene. Took me 5 auctions to learn this.
Still pushing piles. So I went back too a couple of areas I was working on to move some of the smaller debris piles. They were almost burning on their own. The heat was amazing, I could feel it on my face sitting in the seat of the loader. That was smoke/steam coming from the pile. I have seen ground up tree mulch do that but I have not noticed just pushed up brush doing this, of course most of the time I don't move the pile again either. Just to clarify I am not a farmer/so i am not skilled/and most of the time I stay away from planting. These area's I have been working on are going to be for planting food plots for deer. I guess they could also serve the same purpose for people when the end of society /apocalypse / we crash and burn happens.../ the US is invaded by liberal democratic socialist/ welfare sucks .... oh wait I better start prepping now. So as you can see I am now moving from being a construction type guy to farmin. I have about 15 acres to plant for the deer and turkey's. I have been wondering if I should get a drill or a broadcast spreader. I also don't know weather to get some cool attachments for a skid steer or if I should just use my tractor. I just got the harrows and I don't have any way to seed or fertilize yet.
Equipment/Crop Suggestions for Planting food plots for whitetail deer /turkey. I am looking for equipment ideas and crop suggestions. Plants I am considering are: Soybeans Corn Clover Rye Turnips Clay peas Suggestions.. Approximately 15 acres total, in sandy/clay soil in south central Georgia. Land has just been reclaimed from woods. Stumps and all were removed with top soil left in place, except in areas where big stumps got dug out with the loader. I made the plots look nice according to terrain features and existing trees that were worth saving. So the plots in some cases are curved and not straight. In some cases they go around trees also. Most face north/south and will get sunlight 2/3rds of the day. Irrigation is not available. Equipment currently owned Wheeled skid steer Track skid steer 100 hp farm tractor Skid steers: Rockhound Tooth bucket Smooth bucket Tractor: 10' harrows 7' Bushhog Most areas are 1 to 2 acres in size so nothing really large.
I bought my 12' disc on consignment, was a Massey 520pile of scrap when first hauled home and gave but $750.oo for it at a implement dealer, a few hundred later in new disc, new bearings, new bolts and a lot of hard bent labor it functions very well
Dmiller, those look good. It seems you might have cut the unit down by removing some of the disc? I am in the process of fixing my set also, I spent $150.00 for bearings and $150.00 for flanges. The outside rear smoothing disc are smaller than the rest of them I guess that is due to those wearing out the fastest. I am thinking of moving the worn disk to the far end that way I can just undo the nut and do a quick swap when they are completely worn out. I really don't know what to buy to use for seeding. I see some older 10' wide grain drills for sale for 2500 to 3000. It seems they might be a good idea and I like the thought of the plots looking like they were planted uniformly. The trouble is I don't know what is best for me since I might want to plant different size seeds in different areas?
Most of the front gangs were tired and flimsy, had a good deal of the rears in decent shape and salvaged enough to build the rear gangs from the wings. old disc/harrow had clod busters at the rear but had seen little use, in checking found them to be worthless so ended up cutting a great deal off the unit. Ended up with a 12' disc my old 75hp Allis can manage with it buried to the axles. Installed new notch discs(scalloped) on the front gangs, machine is heavy enough as it is will cut old sod cleanly. This is my 'Baby'. Mainly as I must baby it for the wear and tear already upon it!!
Harrows disc needed or no? Best disc measures 17" Worst measures 15" I am not sure if I would need 18" or 20" discs, or which thickness 3.5 mm, 4.5mm or 5.5mm 1"1/8 " shaft. Both axles were bent, so I used a torch and a vise to straighten them back out. Replaced bearings and flanges. At what point is it best to put on new disc? I moved the worn ones to the inside since the outside appears to be wearing out faster. I have not put it back on the harrows yet so I am wondering if it is time to replace the or not?
Check the original build sizes for your device with the supplier closest, I bought mine online from Agri Supply, best price including shipping. Would reuse the axles until the bent again, then would look for replacements, by the teeth chips and splits in your discs I would consider scrapping them for new ones. Could also measure the thickness at unworn centers for a good determined thickness.
Harrows full speed ahead.. I managed to get 6 acres out of them before I went and got new discs for the rear. I went with 20" discs for a cost of about $23.00 each. After getting them installed I believe I could have went with 22" disc. 6 of the old ones spilt and pieces broke off. But mainly the new bearings were dragging threw the dirt while I cut the ground. We got about 6"s of rain while I was there. The tractor did great on the first pass on unturned wet ground but second pass on turned dirt would be a stuck tractor. My tractor has 15 gears and on 11th it will throw dirt 3' coming off the front disc. I decided to turn the roads to and that might have been a mistake because my 4X4 four wheeler almost bogged in the sandy loam. These harrows actually measure closer to 12'. There is a railroad iron on top for weight. They work awesome. Oh and as far as using a skid steer for plowing just do not do it. I can smoke threw dirt at a faster speed than the fastest skid steer can even drive. Skid steers and plowing is for a real hobbiest. I learned that this weekend. Tractors are the way to go.. This old red 100 horse fiat is amazing.. and it's fun to drive.
Some turnips..and a fire. 2 weeks ago I threw out some turnip seeds near a damp area just to see if they might come up in the heat. They did. We sent off soil samples to confirm what lime and fertilizer we might need. And then about 10 miles from where we were working I came across this. Sad day in a new clearing.. I got to thinking I wonder if it's worth buying for a rebuild .. I really wanted a newer cab machine with fancy electronics and air.. I figured I better turn around and get a pic since cm was talking about burning machines. From what I could see fire pretty much ruins it..
Fires on HE are always bad, lots of spots to hold consumable debris, lots of oils and such that will add fuel to a fire. I just had a hydraulic line to the bucket curl fail, sprayed the engine compartment with raw oil, could have been that bad if had been on the engine exhaust side so have decided to replace all the shovel hoses. That machine by appearance is just a few years old if that old, probably started as a electrical fire.
GI I'd run from that machine. It appears the fire started below the cab unlike my friends 953 that started at the front and burned towards the cab. That 953 is destined for the parts yard as it should. DMiller, that's a black hood 953 2ZN at least 13 years old, build date from 1996 to 2003. The BBX was produced between 2002 through 2007 and has a yellow engine hood. My loader is a 2004.
I'd run too. Fires can cause a lot of unseen damage in the inner parts of cylinders and engines. I thought for sure your tractor was a Heston when I saw it. Did Fiat buy Heston?
Thanks for the info on color changes. I had no idea they would be attaining that kind of age but years seem to disappear more rapidly than used to. Even so I have no need of the newer machines, too complicated electronically, too sensitive to moisture and dirt environments to which they are in continuously. I will take a old knock around hard drive machine any day over these or the Deere hydros even as they will work considered faster.
I haven't had any major issues with my '53 other than what's been documented on HEF. It's pushing 5K hours but we take care of our machines. The right final drive is showing high wear metals in oil analysis. The last oil analysis came back with change oil and re-sample at 100 hours. Just sent the new sample in today.. Totally understand the desire to keep a machine that's simple in design and to repair.
CM , I would pull the axle covers to see if they are wearing. If the operator favors the right side , which I do you may have metal from the axle cover.
Even if it comes back No Action Required it might pay you to drain the oil and pull the cover for a look sometime soon when you have the chance. All the sample analysis can do is see what's in the oil, it can't generally tell you where it's coming from. This is a case where a Mk I eyeball comes in.
Thanks for the advice guys. Actually I have time today and the loader is at the shop, I see about pulling the cover and taking a look. Dickjr, I am the main operator of the '53 and yeah I prefer the right side...
I'm not saying you have to throw the oil away. Drain it into a (very) clean container and reuse it if it hasn't been in there long.
Gotcha Nige. My philosophy is oil is relatively cheap comparatively speaking. I didn't get a chance to pull the cover today but when we do I'll put new oil back in. I just don't like to take the chance of contamination. The oil sample should be back next week.
Stuck again. I was mostly kidding about buying the burnt machine, although part of me would like to have it, just to dismantle. I received my soil samples and my PH is about a 4.9 in most plots. The samples call for about 500 lbs of fertilizer and 3500 lbs of lime per acre. I have been looking at what implement to plant with. I have been looking at John deere 7000 planter in either a 4 or 6 row configuration with corn, bean and milo seed units. I also have been wondering if I should get a unit with a dry fertilizer box on front, if this might allow me to say cut down to just putting out 200 lbs per acre as compared to broadcasting. As far as work goes I managed to bury and almost roll my tl150 yesterday. Have you ever tried getting into a machine when it is sitting like that? I was constantly worried about running it dry with no oil. A 20 min job turned into 4 hours. I lost my right side track. Recovery involved dropping 3 trees with a saw. Excavating a path to the machine and getting the excavator on a slope it did not want to drive up. Pulling was tipping the hoe. Once we got the tl150 out of the hole I then had to get the track back on. It came off in the worst way. It went inside the bottom rear idler and outside the sprocket. The rear of the machine was pushing the blocking deep into the marshy ground and I could not get it up to give room for the track to move. A 9' one inch pry bar was bending like a twig and between sweat and grease it was all I could do to pry the track back on! I almost threw my hands up and said forget it. But determined I was, and on it went.
I am very interested in getting a mulching head for small farm type cleanups. Any one have any thoughts on that? look at a Gyrotrac low flow mulcher. It was/is made in SC. It does NOT like rock dur to the curved knife design but will out produce my hi flow FAE mulcher in the right enviroment. Pic of both on my ASV. . I am still learning yhe pic upload procedure.
A golden Cat 953... I thought I would post some pics of the job I have been on for the past 8 days. I was hired to clear a driveway, install 40' of driveway pipe, clear a house site, get out all stumps, drop about 200 trees and haul in around 20 loads of gravel / stone. Terrain is steep like real steep and I have been trying to work around rock. 600 ft to house site, I have been getting a crazy workout, my still 461 feels real heavy at the end of the day.
A few more pics About to break or loose a track...
Did you move your idlers forward? You may be in for new rails. At least your pads look good.
Yes I did. Here is link to the experience's I had with the repair. They both work like new.
King slayer on duty. Today, I started off with an ancient white oak to remove. I dropped half the tree to get the stump off balance and to avoid dealing with 2 trunks. Today is day 14 on this job. Yes I am on lunch break, enjoying some key lime pie. Approaching 400 trees down. Only injuries so far is an acorn about the size of a pecan fell from above smacked the loader and bounced right back in to my eye. Hurt like hell but ok. Still can't believe the bounce on that acorn.
Here is the "king slayer" stuck in the tree. If I have had it pinched once I would guess 30 times. I have tried angle cuts and bottom up cuts and just about every way you can use a saw and it still gets stuck. I currently use a sthil ms 460 saw with either a 36" or a 25" bar. I prefer the 25. I grind the raker's and it will cut. It will throw so much saw dust I wear a full face shield. Love this saw. I normally need it sharpened twice a day. Yesterday was the first day where the saw was on the edge of more than I could handle, I guess pulling 12 hour days got to me. It kicked back so hard it almost came out of my hand, of course sweat did not help with my grip. But it is diffently time for some time off. The ms460 is 76.5 cc and a little more than 6 hp. Imagine an 80 cc dirt bike. This stump probably weighs as much as the 440. It would push it but that was about it. Decided to move it on out with the 53. This job has been a dust bowl. 8" deep in dust and powder. Your boots will almost stick to the ground. Need rain!
An 80cc 2 stroke dirt bike will be 26 HP or more.
Lol. I am glad to see someone is reading and looking at my pics. Maybe more like a mopad ? I was kind of curious as to what saws others are using? I am going to go ahead and get another saw as a second. My ms460 will snap a pull string in a heart beat if you forget to decompress it. I was also considering getting a reel of chain. Anyone here spin their own?
Awesome work.
I have a concrete saw that has the same engine , I call it the man killer. It has a 14" diamond blade you can actually push hard on it when cutting concrete , it just gets loud. I thought someone said 6 hp or so on it.
I bet that is a good saw. I had a chain link removed so that I could keep tighten the chain, it already needs another link out. Ran threw another gallon of bar oil. It's almost impossible to keep maintenance up working in this hell hole of a dust bowl. 8 inches of dust. Put in another 12 today and went up to a friend that has an lt40. Turns out the large tree was a popular, we cut it in to some nice boards I got to run the mill. It did real well. I have had a crazy idea of building my own hunting cabin for a while now. The place I hunt is real remote and I want something super durable. As in fire proof or resistant. I was considering pouring it out of concrete. But lately I am considering building it with 15" thick logs in an upright build old pioneer fashion. There are no codes or bs regs where it's going. It won't mean much to me unless I am actually swinging the hammer so I am in the planning phase. Anyone here done one?
A never ending story it seems. Lost in repairs and work.. 900 feet of water line threw rock and more rock and more rock. 15 hours of digging.. They decided to have me form the house pad and we used rough cut to do it. Been running a worm drive skill saw and really like it. Some where on day 22 or 4 now lost count.. I have not ever poured a house. First one. My 953a went down on me today. I had some guys call me and ask if they could put a few loads of dirt on an empty lot I own, that sits below the road. I had a nice clean little pile with about 20 loads sitting there all prettyed up. I was stuck on this job. Got a call from the county wanting to know what was going on and where is my erosion plan and permit. He said I was over my allowed loads. I was like how many can I have, he said oh 10 or so before it becomes a fill site. I was like let's haul a few off. He acted weird on the phone and said I needed to come get a bald fill site permit and that I needed my bmp's up. I was nervous and went to check what's was up the next day, since it was about dark and I was a ways out. They stacked 60 loads in on my pile and all around it. I almost fell out right there. I am stuck on a job and I can't deal with this BS. I mean dirt ever dang where. Called the guys no answer no call back and hell I don't even know there last name. I am not kidding the pile is 25' high and at least 100 x 100 on a major road. They must have had a superman dump truck cause I can't figure out how it got the loads stacked so high. I am feeling really down cause they want a long list of approvals and plans to get a permit, I am not even sure if I can get it. I am stuck on a big job and my 953 went limp today while trying to clean up some of the mess, I managed to get threw about 40 loads and have about 25 more to tighten up and get silt fence up.around and the old girl just went down. Not sure whats the issues yet one track side was getting tight and wanting to come off the bottom and a hose or something busted in the belly. I need my machine like I can't even put into words... so no pics but I will slow down to get some. My back up machine is 160 miles away and I managed to get my broke machine on my trailer but now it stuck and it will need to be fixed on it. Oh and around here the fines can run into 2500 per day on violations. Nice way to loose property to the government if it goes that way..
Wow! Interesting read...I'm glad you posted. Sorry things went from "well" to He!!". Hope the county doesn't jamb you up... And I hope it's a quick repair for your trackloader. DB
Been there with the tractor down issues and just when needed most. Sorry to hear those guys took advantage for a drop site, most are just looking to save a buck dumping what they can where they can.
Cat 953 lift cylinder rebuild and repair. The lower main drive hose on the right side motor blew or really developed a spilt in it. I have been threw a similar repair for the other side. This time before I removed the hose I paid special attention to the stresses and bends in hose. So that when I took it to cat for a new one I could have the correct length and degrees in the fittings. They verify it with the book spec but that does not mean something has not shifted in the belly and settled wierd. I got them to cut it 3/4 " short and roll it 1 extra degree. Dropped right in place easy peezy. Took the tractor back to the dirt area and moved 30 more loads. Tracks have loosened from this job and the last 22 days of tearing out trees time to tighten them up because they are riding up the sprockets in reverse. I have not addressed the permitting issues yet but everything is as good as I can get it for an erosion control plan. While the machine was near the shop I went ahead and decided to do one of the bad lift cylinders. The repair took about 7 hours and cost was $650.00 with oil. Here was my technique. Step 1. Set bucket on trailer so that it can't fall and squeeze your guts out. Step 2. Support cylinder so that it can't fall. Remove pin and take off rod cap, use big bad ass ridgid chain wrench to remove cap. Step 3. Use machines hydraulics to push rod out. Yes it will leak. Make sure and use a sling to hold the rod so that it does not ding up the chrome. Step 4. Take rod to cat and pay $450.00 to repack the seals. Or do it yourself... seal kit is a $125.00 I went to cat because I did not want to take the time to figure it out. I am currently working 12s. Step 5. Break loose the rear hydraulic fitting so that you can push the cylinder rod back in. Get rod Lined up with your slings, grease the seals and push it back in with a Porta power from harbor freight. Use big bad ass ridgid chain wrench to tighten the cap. Fill up your oil and use the machines hydraulics to line up the pin hole with a fork lift lining up the height of the pin. Easy as pie. Here is a link to my thread on doing the tilt cylinder...
Looking good. I got the 43 back last Wednesday. Pushing 60 running hours now. I'll post the happenings in my thread. People don't realize how versatile these loaders are and vitality to our business. I had an interesting conversation with my repair shop guy about these machines as well. We can discuss this on the phone sometime.
Oh look a Stihl 661c has found its way to me. Dickjr i am curious of your conversation. Of all things a local Sthil dealer came to me and ordered a slab and a building. As part of our agreement a Ms661c came my way. Considering I am 4 weeks behind on work I squeezed his job in asap. Passed inspection and pouring some mud on my Saturday. Started out the day breaking ground on another house.
Strange under carriage sounds? While working on my 53 I noticed bearings on our concrete. Every now again I would feel a strange rubbing vibration. Lucky I saw the bearings if you see any laying around a roller is probably shot. Fairly easy to change out. Used a high lift jack to raise the track off it, stuck a wood block between the 2 for safety. Used a couple of different sized chisels to help press the roller out with a hammer. Cleaned the bore with a flapper sand paper wheel. Greased it and installed. Here is me with the stihl ms661c chainsaw and a slicked up slab.
Good fix on the 953. I understand the 661 is a top performer in it's class.
Slick repair. Nice saw. DB
That's a bad azz chain saw for sure.
Wil the day bring victory or defeat? As the work for today brings a sleepless night, I rise early to wait for the light of day and for the machines and men to follow me to the job site. Today is almost the final chapter of my site work on this custom house site for a new 500k home. I am suffering from a small case of whiplash due to hitting a rock with the skid steer and being brought to a sudden and violent stop which caused me to faceplant into the headboard and front door. Lesson learned make sure and wear your seat belt even if you are being easy with the machine. But none the less we have a boom truck and 60 or so yards of concrete coming in on a narrow mountain type driveway today and I have my saws sharp and ready in case any more trees need to be cut down due to trucks loosing there footing. Everyone is looking to me and only me to make this pour happen and my beloved Cat 953 is not on site to help rescue any stuck concrete trucks or what not. It has moved on to the next home site and I am left here with a skid steer and 2 really mean Sthil chainsaws.
Good luck today
75 yards / 15 hours. 35 mph winds and plastic cracks. Left when light ran out and managed to keep everyone unstuck. Boom truck boom bounced off one tree and I was happy to see them make it out. About 40 days on this site.
Looks good
Interesting thread I just bought a 1987 953. Have a JD 350C that just wasn't big enough and found what I thought was a good deal. Got it the last of August and have only put about 2 hours on it. Whole lot more power and much different controls. I have enjoyed reading this thread and will definitely be watching to try and glean as much knowledge as possible. Georgia Iron you could have a reality show....
yep
Just trying to get my head around a $500k house on a slab! I have less than 300 in a 1860sf footprint full walkout basement house with a breezeway and 24x28 garage. Inlaws lived in Atlanta burb, had a massive home that was close to that but also on basement. I am still shopping for a replacement to my antique but work on it thinking I will keep it anyway.
I like to learn about how things are done differently in other areas. I'm not that far north of GI , but its a rarity to see a monolithic pour around here. Footers are supposed to be 18" deep to the top of the footer , then a low wall or concrete block. We do get some hard freezes here. The finish on the concrete looks damn good from here. I personally like a slab house. We use to do a lot of them before the crash that wasn't a depression. They could get expensive at times , footer , block , backfill with #57 stone then the floor. No squeaks though. I'm not sure but I still think termites can eat through concrete. Just takes a bit longer.
We cannot monolithic pour here unless mix is designed for it, cooling sheets of canvas stretched across and sealant applied as dries and so on as the heat and humidity get to it where the concrete draws and shrinkage cracks hardening too fast from the outside. Basements here all crack at some point, how badly or how many is due to lack of use of reinforcing rod and wire mesh. Many try to get away with four foot on center rerod and less than 14 ga. mesh or none at all with Fibermesh in the mix. Biggest access to termites is small cracks they can crawl thru, cannot see the tunnels they use that way so we treat under the foundations before pour.
Congrats, brother. A 953 is the end all, do all. Best thing out there for a general purpose site machine. These guys that think they can out perform one with an excavator have not been around me long enough. If the dirt needs to go further than a hoe can place it, 953's are kings on site. They cost more to run but they can flat get it done. It is hard to learn how to cut and hold grade, I am just starting to feel like I am the big dog on mine. I can finally get it real close real quick. It took me a long while especially with the round back bucket which is hard to gauge. But it can be done. And it can be done at speed if you have a quick hand. Hopefully you will find some work and get some money back soon. If you have any questions be sure to ask and good luck.
Yes, me too. I am guessing that includes the land cost too, but not sure. I believe it was 10k per acre. The folks that are building the house are putting in extra effort to eliminate the chances for mold. The slab was placed in the highest place on the lot and all water will flow away from the home on all sides. The "mom" has severe mold allergies and can't even enter common built older structures. They are building an all metal house including framing, special mold proof dry wall, very high end air purifying hvac and attempting to eliminate all possible mold and mildew from showing up. Spray foamed insulation. Tile floors. They must keep all building materials dry and so on. You guys might even get to see me on TV, they recorded me every time they came out. Who knows. The job was really a nightmare and I can't believe I actually got the concrete down before rain came. We are in a major drought right now and it worked in my favor for this one. The land sit's down a private drive and the controling party came out and stated concrete trucks are not allowed access. Ole lady luck was once again with me and I cut a new temporary access path in across the top of the hill/mountain and paid another neighbor to use it. If it had rained no trucks would have came in or out. The drive was so steep my dump truck basically bounced and slid down it loaded until it flattened out. Pretty much if something had broken loose it would have been adios amigos. I still have not been paid for the slab work so you know the feeling waiting on money. I have done more work in the last 50 days than most people do in 6 month's. It has been a whirlwind of work. They sent me on to a next house site for the basement cut, they have now asked me to pour the concrete for it after the results were seen from the previous job. Custom homes and topo grading without survey's and just your intuition is a lot of responsibility. Every thing other than basic review plans was left up to me to figure out. Review plans don't include the concrete details for measurements, so it's a lot of fun figuring it out while we are doing it. I got a new laser that works great and I can recommend it. This joker works and the hell with my old look threw level, this one works. I bought it used too.
Please tell us more about the topcon when you get a chance. Thanks in advance
Chainsaws: My late brother was a Stihl dealer. He always said that a pair of protective chaps were cheaper than the co-pay at the emergency room. A friend here is a forester with 13 operating chain saws, some of which he inherited from his dad. At one time he taught chain-saw use and safety to Union Camp wood crews. He and I were cleaning up a site for our Scottish Games when he walked over to show me a just-occured gash in the top layer of his protective chaps. He said that the chaps were ruined but they had saved him from a bad wound. Neill, Savannah
We have a RLH4C and love it. Great laser for the money. Had it 4 years now and it's still going strong.
I haven't commented much, but enjoy updates to your thread. Good to hear that you've been busy! Based on comments from CM, I bought the same Topcon last winter. It's been a good setup for us.
Did all the layout on our current house with a old transit, still know how to use one and is a lot of work but still works, I am jealous of the laser kits!! The concrete boys here that set my foundation and flatwork use a laser, made quick work of the site. Our home is on a 1860sf footprint, walkout with the added sf down for two added baths, bedrooms and family room, always told cheaper to go up than out so starting to see a lot of money in a slab large square footage. Our plan had to be adjusted when we found the solid top of the hill but still grateful house sit on bedrock, less apt to crack and settle.
Well. It is basically a sight line level. It just throws out a beam which is visible in dusk but not in daylight to me anyway. It has a sensor which I put on a story pole which home depot sells. Story pole - is a numbered stick which you can easily look at to figure out if the ground is a little high or low. The laser can be setup on a tripod which home depot also sells. I forgot my tripod in a different truck and I was able to work just by pounding in a 2x4 stake and setting the laser up on that... I get it close to level using visual then turn it on. It self levels then starts spinning and towing out the laser beam. Makes measuring almost a one person job. It works under all conditions I have used it in. I would not use it in the rain. If you are building and squaring slabs you need a man to help move your tape lines but that is even possible to do alone if you want to use a hammer and nail to hold one end. I have been working on writing a guide on how to do concrete slabs for anyone that is interested.. How to pour a concrete slab. - http://www.superiorportablebuildings.com/how-to-make-concrete-slab/ Since I am mostly self taught I like to be critiqued by old hands.. I would be curious to see your guys thoughts on my write up and if you have any suggestions to help me better the page. Thanks.
Nothing wrong with being self taught. Unless you grew up watching how someone does things you have to learn on your own anyway. Up here 3 people will do a job 3 different ways but the end result is usually the same. Some builders have me dig footers they're way which is fine because they write the check. I prefer to start at the low point then if it allows step when possible.
Good read Hey, just read your thread and it is very interesting. Keep it up! Chris
Read your artical and saved it to use tohelp educate my home owner customers. Thank you very much.
Hey Guys, Its been a bit since I have had anything interesting to post. This past week I decided to light my "fires' on my newly made shooting lanes. The pile "before" pictures are here -> HeavyEquipmentForums Here is how it went... No, I did not catch the machine on fire. I was careful as I could be and that is just HOT ASH that was working back on the machine. No oil leaks and I had a 5 gallon bucket of water ready! I actually opened the fuel bay and dumped water into the front of the machine before I went at it. I have been waiting for the time to be right, It rained a few days prior and rain was 100% on the way about 4 hours out when I lit them up. I have a had a few fires in my time but these took the cake. The piles were too large and full of complete trees, stumps, limbs, leaves, and all. The flames were probably reaching 70 to 90' high and my 50' fire breaks got too hot to hang around in until the leaves and small stuff went away. A smaller windrow would be easier and safer to use. 5 piles in all went up. 1 well made windrow was done it was on the left rear of the machine in the picture. It burnt 90% up. The large piles burnt up 75% before the dirt and rain started to take effect. The piles were tightened up about 4 times each. Should be about perfect for burying the left overs... If you have not ever worked around fires, take it from me it can be "scary" when the flames engulf the pile. I was hoping and praying that it would not jump to the trees nearby. I lit test spots in woods to see how it would spread or take hold if it went that way. They were somewhat wet so nothing happened. I would not recommend setting a large fire unless the forest is wet and rain is on the way. The dryed out piles burn with such heat and intensity that I could not have put it out with the loader.. By 4 hours into the work the ash was clogging the air grills and I needed to go find a hose to clean the 953 up so that it could breath correctly.
Had to buy a Bosch laser kit the other day from Home Depot to do a job. Today I bought two Topcon RL-H3C heads for $400.00. So now we can run at least three crews. The paper you wrote was very helpful and downloaded to my computer. Thank you very much.
Live and learn - Now that you have experience in how the material burns and what makes a burn pile more efficient, the next project will go smoother. Remember my story above - it only takes one hot ember and a drained fire extinguisher to burn a machine. He spent $25K to rebuild it. I've got a large pile of brush and trees that we'll burn in the coming weeks since it's started raining. I'll use the pit method and feed it with my 321.
I burn my piles, leave them for a couple days or sometimes a couple weeks, then push them up and burn again. I am not in no hurry that I need to push up when there is still flames. They are plenty hot 2 days later when they appear to be out. Here we can burn without permits when snow is covering the ground.
I have used a leaf blower to fuel burn piles. Then get up wind and crowd them up. GI I believe your a sharp enough fellow to keep your machine out of harms way. Things do happen but the urge to make progress makes you want to crowd piles up more. Most machinery that burns has a lot of leaves of twigs in the bellies and a little leaking oil to go in the mix. One thing that confused me , 2 D6N's burnt here , less than a 1000 hours. If it were one , i'd think insurance job , but two? I also know my backhoe , you better check it in the spring for birds nest daily.
No problem. Glad it helped.
Cm, your comments about the burns were dead on. I did remember your story and I thought about it while I worked. My face and hands turned black just like the machine. I stayed out of the coals for the most part. And I walked the area I worked just as much as I used the tractor. Next time I will make longer windrows that can be more easily pushed. Now it will be simple if I want to clear more because I have open area to work with. All in all the clearing went well. I got everything, roots, stumps, everything out of the dirt. I was able to harrow the grounds and plant as you can see in the photos. I had little time to get the fires going with rain in bound and I did not have days to let it burn. I am sure you have been around your share of them. One pile was close to 50 - 75 dump truck loads in size. It was something else to watch burn, it dryed for months in the drought. So it burnt up hot and fast. I stayed far away until it died down. 12" and 15" logs just dissappeared. I am glad they are gone. An excavator would have been a lot of help but I did not have one.
DickJr, you are right. When it's go time for me, I GO. I consider what I did to be high risk. I felt like I could handle it so I was careful. The value of the work done to me was = to the cost of the tractor so it had to be done. I spent 5k on fuel clearing those areas and planting. Having an open cab tractor is probably better since you can feel the heat and it kind of gives you a gauge on it. If I were doing this kind of work a lot I would weld up a push plate that stuck out in front of the bucket about 20' then I would not be so close to the coals. It would still be a problem because I had too much dirt mixed in with the stumps and roots... I can see that it is easy to make a mistake and catch the machine on fire. The coals can ride the tracks back up and small logs can be hot and stick back in the machine. The hot ash would rise 100' and at some points I could not see. I used the winds to my advantage. Some guys around here rent an "air destructor" for $900 per week. It is a giant blower with pipes on a trailer for this kind of work. Some areas require them. We're I was I was ok.
Ippielb, the laser works well. I almost considered mounting the receiver to my bucket to see if i could grade without leaving my seat. That would be interesting. Did i see that you were injured?
I bought a decent laser for about 1200$. Spectra LL300 with CR600 receiver that has the wide pickup and mag mount for precise grading. came with tripod and 15' stick. Can do slope with optional remote. Midwest Construction in Warsaw In.
Yes, drunk driver in a stolen car that was high on crystal meth blew a red light, and I was on my way to work. They were going 80km/h north, I was going 45km/h east, and I ended up facing west. And that was with my duramax, and full slip tank. So my lower back/hips aren't cooperating. Just glad the shotgun stayed in the back seat and wasn't used on me. I still think the best thing is to just have a grade guy. But your right, if a guy could rig something up on the bucket you could easily tell grade by sticking it in float and back blading to see your slope. I seen a laser unit similar to what you have on my classifieds for $450 and I drove into the city to get it but the guy sold it before I got there. Could really use it to slope my yard and the corrals.
I HATE drunk/high drivers. In Europe the consequences for even first time DUI are much harsher than here in the states. You see on the news all the time about some guy in a wreck with 4-6 prior DUI convictions. These habitual offenders really need to be in prison. On another note starting the first of the year you have to show proof of insurance to renew your tags. Finally. the only problem I see is that a lot of scofflaws will just let their insurance lapse after they get there tags.
Back home a DUI offence is loss of the driver's license for 18 months minimum just for starters, higher blood alcohol levels will simply increase the disqualification period. 2-3 years driving ban is not uncommon. If an accident has happened, especially one that has resulted in personal injury then jail time on top of a fine is all but guaranteed. Fines for DUI start at maybe $1500 as an absolute minimum and go up from there. Fines for driving while using a cellphone start at $2000.
Good thing you had the mass of your truck and he didn't take you broadside! Hope you get the kinks worked out and it's nothing permanent. DB
So I just had a few days off a week ago and I decided to clean up the burn piles. There was still hot coals in the bottom 6 months later If you ever clear land and use fire. Learn from me, make long narrow rows, say 10 or 15 feet wide and pile it as high as you can get it. They burn better and its is easier to clean up. The giant piles of logs and stumps put about 30 dump truck loads of dirt in one area which was also mixed with debris. It took me 5 hours of straight running to move some of the left overs from these fires. But it all went away nicely and the clearings look awesome.
Back issues are nothing fun nor funny. Mine has me walking much as I had years ago all kinked to one side and over like a stove up dog. Can somewhat work this out but mind what nature has given as it won't give seconds.
Working on a Cabin site. Cleared 2' of over burden. Took site down to hard clay/sand. Moving in about 3' clay/sand to elevate area 1' above surrounding soils. Moved 16 loads in one day. The truck has approximately 75,000 lbs in it. or about 10 - 12 scoops with the 953. A leveled load weighted in at 62,000 lbs according to a scale. Just for on site off road moving only.
Built a tow bar for the yota to have a get around while hauling out of town.
That's a heck of a load on your tandem. Nice looking dirt though...mostly black expansive junk in the areas I work.
Yes. Let me clarify my statement. The truck and the load weighs in at 62/75 k. So the truck weights about 27k and the dirt is around 24 to 25 tons.
Here are some pictures of the lastest site clearing for another custom house. Lost the back tire on the case in this pic 22 dumpsters of debris out so far going on day 9
Never fails working in debris fields to lose a tire or two. Have considered the new flat free tires? Not the solid ones but the honeycombed sidewall design.
GI , looks like you have been keeping busy.
What is the cost for a 30 yard dumpster. I assume you are in a no burn zone.
$280.00 ea. They take it to a tub, grind it and sell the grindings to the power company for Eco-friendly plant fuel. I am not sure if they grind the stumps but I put some LARGE ones in. Burning would not be possible, here, other houses too close. And like all jobs, want it done asap. Customers decided on a week more of clearing and dirt moving. I had the clearing down and the grade cut and then 40 more trees went down on the deck. House is on a full basement and the customer wants to be able to walk out the rear of the house and have no steps. It is currently open air there now, like 11 to 13' out on the grade.. 50 to 100 more loads of dirt will need to be moved in. And of course I am here to help. This 953 has 14,000 hours on the clock. I think to myself this job is going to be the one that sends it to the grave, or what am i going to break on this stump so on so forth. Then i think maybe I will go before the 53 does. I had the track loader neck pains from getting beat by it. You know where it feels like your neck has been stretched out right in the middle of your shoulders kind of like your joints are pulled apart. I almost took a sick day to rest but it went away on day 4 or 5. I keep wondering when the 53 is going down... it has been running at 210*s in this heat. Maybe this next dirt move will be the end of it..
I have thought about it. But I guess it has been 3 years since I lost a tire and 50 % of my work is on existing concrete, which grinds them down pretty fast . This site had a good bit of trash on the ground. First tire blown, had sidewall torn out. Second was a hole which i had patched but in my experience it will ruin also from all the twisting and turning. So looks like another set of something will be ordered soon rather than later.
I chose our home site due to lack of trees, won't ever understand those that dearly love a tree covered lot to hack them all down for a house! Work looks good, looks like fairly soft soil for rooting and digging.
30 yard dumpsters here in Nashville are $695.00 each for 30 days.
Yes the dirt has been nice so far. Just a few rocks which have not slowed me down much. In this particular neighborhood the lots are all wooded. It is really a nice place to have a house made. Lots are 3 to 7 acres and there is about 10 or so on this side of the hill. I see you are having some body pains hope they level out for you.
I feel your pain on worrying about what's gonna happen next. My loader has been running along with minor hiccups here or there. Couple days ago the bolts holding the cap on the eq bar came out , one broke and had to be drilled out. I can live with these things. It was running a little warm and we washed the radiator out real well that cured that problem. I wonder if the 43 and 53 use the same radiator and coolers?
Trade ya!
you ever try foam fill for the tires?
No i have not. I normally run the cheapest tires i can because I use the machine to move a lot on concrete so i just keep a plug kit with me.
Some more pics of a basement dig and dirt move for a 3500 sq ft house. Day 14. Finished for now. Ready for footing and walls.
And then I moved onto another small clearing job for a garage.
Quick 6.0 field fix- I was hauling a bobcat down the interstate and I heard what sounded like a gunshot come from under the hood. I lost all power to my turbo and the truck slowed to 30 mph once I hit a hill and then it begun blowing black smoke. I pulled over and I figured that a hose had popped off the turbo somewhere but everything was tight. I noticed a split in the big plastic intercooler pipe on the drivers side of the motor, which was blowing out some very not so nice hot air. I had to use welding gloves to mess with it while it was running since my 6.0 could not be shut down due to a hot start problem. I attempted to tape it together with electrical tape but it would not hold with the hot air. Of all things I had a 100 count of plastic zip ties and doubled them up and put about 25 on it. Pulled the split together and it was quick lucky field fix. Got me home another 100 miles away pulling a load and I was able to drive the truck for another week while the parts came in. I lost about 5 psi of boost but it worked I thought I would pass along some info for any Ford 6.0 owners. It took me a minute to find the best deal on a metal replacement. Here is the info, I ordered it off of Rockauto.com Intercooler pipe upgrade. Price $90.00 GATES 26100 {#6C3Z6C640AA} Turbocharger Tube Kit Info
You should send that pic to ford with a thank you note.....id send them a note about mine but it wouldn't say "thank" before the "you".....
after watching all the screw ups in the design of the 6.0 power stroke and the max force semi engines. Navistar should just turn into a scrap yard for all the crap they made. Sell motors they never even tested on the road. Who ever heard of such garbage
I agree the trucks have some problems. But it is mostly due to the designers not accounting for what really happens to the trucks. In my case it pulls very heavy loads, at high speeds. I have this truck programmed so it is pushing out an extra 100 horse power. The motor has been studded and new head gaskets installed. This truck is really strong and it will give you a smile when you give it the pedal. My other 6.0 I bought new and I blew the head gaskets twice. I had to sell it because I needed a bigger truck with 4 doors. I can not prove it but I believe ford installed a de-tuned program in the truck to help stop the repairs it needed. The 6.0 is an amazing engine which only became problematic once the emissions control systems where added to the design sorta of as an after thought. It has too many electronics and the wiring is a jungle. Mine currently has a battery drain that causes the instrument cluster to not shut down when the key is removed. I have spent 2 days and sent the cluster out for a rebuild with no success in finding the bad module or short. So I disconnect the batteries every night to stop them from draining. I could go buy a new truck but all the truck makers have lost what I want to buy. The new trucks have too much BS in them. Too many sensors, too many wires, and not enough STEEL. A vehicle that I can work on myself, heavy duty parts, I don't care about chrome or a radio that will cost $2,000 to replace when it tears up from the 3 inches of dust that will be on my dash. It should also be affordable. I would rather have bigger brakes and better hitches and a mega cab. A nice 7 speed manuel transmission with front and rear lockers for off road to help me get out when me and my trailer and machine are stuck on the side of the road. Heck how about a nice easy to take out and blow out cabin air filter to help get the dust of out the air. My floor boards have about 1" of dirt on them. I dont even have time to wash my trucks. It has been years. They work and they make money and I fix them to make sure they keep working. And why do i need a king ranch to get a factory sunroof. How about just let me get the options that i want with out 10 other things i dont want. Who wants to pay $70,000 for a truck that will be worth $40,000 in one year. I don't consider that to be a smart use of my labor/money, earning money doing heavy construction work, even though it pays well, it is not worth a loss like that to me. My 7.3 is easier to work on, but my 6.0 will blow its doors off and get 5 mph more. I love my 6.0 when it is running I have got my money out of it and then some! But when a 10 ton trailer needs to be hauled the old 7.3 550 is the only option, but that is manly only due to the bigger brakes, bigger frame, and stronger springs on the rig. If it had a 6.0 in it, it would be fine. I look at myself in the mirror and I think about how my thoughts have changed. I see older men driving there older trucks and they seem capable and handy but yet the truck is old and I used to always wonder why they would drive that old work truck. All of a sudden I am becoming that guy. My main hauler has 220 k on it, completely rebuilt and My back up has 125 k on it.
My old 7.3 is kicking well at 340000 miles, the cab is starting to crumble but the engine strong as always. I added a program to uprate it by 75hp to keep it pulling well on this ULSD crap. Take the btu values out and expect power WTH!! I have intended to buy a replacement, some day, pretty well come to the conclusion will be a Business Class Freightliner or similar KW or Pete, worse case International possibly crew cab. Can get a reasonable five year old less than 150,000 miles on a midrange Class 7 diesel and heavy gearbox/differential. Will do anything I can come up with, for now. Can buy these around the $50-70k mark, quite the set ups.
Thought I would post some more pictures of current work. Demo on a parking lot for a new 40 x 60 Metal building This job was permitted and the work begun and then the county decided the permit was issued in error and the job was stopped. Sitting in limbo currently. I was a contractor brought in by another builder. I got paid. The builder went out and ordered a custom made building for this job, he has it and now can not put it up. That was 3 or 4 weeks ago. Not sure what is going to happen.
Here is a picture of a cat 262c ready to roll on over and down about a 15' bank. I was asked to save it. I jumped in and brought the bucket toward the lower side. If I am on a steep slope I always attempt to keep the bucket on the low side and the weight behind me. This is the first time I have almost flipped a skid steer over sideways. It got light on the high side and I got butterflies in my stomach. I was able to stop it from going over but it was close. The operator lost his footing twice in the same area and both times he had the ass end towards the wrong side. People dont understand how easy it is to flip these machines. For all you Case fans, I had to run this Cat for 3 days loading dumpsters, builder bought this to save on my bill so I left the case at the shop. My Case 440 series 3 could put out twice the work of this complete piece of crap skid steer. Go Case. The Cat finally gave up with a blown hose and a surging and cutting out issue. It was moving dirt that i was stacking in with a dump truck and a 953. It was just to much for it. 100 dump truck loads was all it could take. Still broke 5 weeks later. $2000.00 for cat to pull the engine to get to the plastic fuel tank in it.
44k in concrete walls and footings. Safe room and vault. How freaking cool is that? Only other thing needed is a helo landing pad. This is this morning. Another builder starting a lot across the street. A 953 rival. His is a B model. I was wondering how much stronger his machine is.. BUT If an A/B/C models gets the same amount per hour, which is better for you to run? $$$ If you work by the hour $$$...I been thinking this job will be the one that does my 53 in. My under carriage is popping and trying to de-track from the bottom rollers. Of all things I ran it out of fuel again today while facing down on the rear slope with a load of dirt in the bucket. It started to miss, I dumped the dirt, pull back on the stick to go in reverse and spun it back up and around out off the slope and it just made it. If it had not I would not have been able to get to it with the fuel tank in the 250.. Lucky today, 7th time I have ran a 953 out of fuel.. Yes I keep count.. This time I had a full transfer tank with me. Someone send me back to pre-check school.. Anyway this is so steep on the back side. I did not think i would be able to get back up on the pile, it was about 20' high and had a 10' wide trench 14' deep near the pile. Which was cut in for the wall crew.. It crawled its way to the top of the pile and down the dirt goes. Still 4' low on the back side. So more dirt is needed. Many long days here on the 53. Out side wall of the garage. Water proofing and drain installed
Dang look at those teeth. Anyone have any spare cutting edges and teeth for the old girl. Another angle of the job. Getting to look like a site ready to frame. This is at the end of the day.
Its been a bit since I posted anything new. I set up and built several concrete slabs for buildings, cleared a lot for a commercial building, move many loads of dirt and rock, cleared a fire break, most recently I have been clearing a house site (on job now for 20 days and they just added another week) all this since I posted here last.. I lately would call myself overworked. I have stopped taking smaller jobs and that has given me more time. But now the jobs are getting bigger and they are taking much longer. I really want a tub grinder now, I feel like I could make a small fortune with one, or more likely spend a small fortune on it Here for the last few years I have had a hard time finding men that are willing to go 110%. Most are 60% type guys. Here lately I have grown tired of working with other guys on clearing and building work. My concrete men are good but my other guys really seem to just want to stand around watch me work and get paid for more than they do. I don't have any younger help and the older guys seem to just get slower. It is like I must be a baby sitter. I have scaled back to minimal help. I absolutely can not stand keeping up with other men. I call them in to help when I need a hand so they are more like an 10-99 type worker. But it really is just not worth dealing with them. From showing up late, to no shows, to leaving and claiming they are on the clock, from just a complete lack luster of not caring.. Most are just a flat let down.. So I work alone a lot now. I know it is dangerous cause if you drop a tree on yourself there is not anyone there to help... And up to this point I have not met another person that likes to work like me. That could be bad and good, I guess. I am the type of guy that almost would rather sleep at the job-site than leave with work undone... I am driven. I sort of consider this thread to be for the new guys that are considering getting into some heavy equipment so most of this is directed to those just getting going. For anyone that is just getting started, here is my best advice. Only depend upon yourself. If you don't know how to do something figure it out. Learn to weld, learn to be a mechanic, learn to be a salesman, get your CDL, learn to be a saw man, learn to ride around and not worry if your AC is working, learn to get to the job-site 25 mins early. Be eager and willing to learn and work. Learn to balance your money so when you don't have work for 4 weeks you can be looking without being hungry, you don't need a new truck, or a new machine, you just need the will to push forward no matter what.. Any thing and everything can be done by YOU. Just find a way, anyway, and do it. Forget drinking, smoking, drugs. Grab a sweet tea, Gatorade, water, and go. Focus on your work and do it. Yesterday was a big day, the person paying me was coming to the job site.. I got up at 400 am, left at 445 am, arrived at the fueling station and 530 am purchased $250 in diesel, on job site at 615 am, fuel machine grease and lube, sharpen saws. No coffee, no breakfast, one large water from the house to start the day. At 1200 pm I am behind schedule boss is on site at 200 pm, I ask for 45 more mins, dumpsters are running slow, they say no cant do it, 4 people coming to site with him. I say Ok. Bring me a burger. I skip lunch to finish clearing the main site for there staking party. Never left the site, never stopped for a break, did not have a water cooler, dam was I thirsty.. Got home at 830 pm.. That is what it takes sometimes ... That is what sets you above the rest.. Some tell me that I will pay the price later. You only have so many seasons to be fruitful, don't waste it doing nothing. My family does not come from a line of men that operate machinery.. sort of.. dad uses f-350 truck and trailers and a forklift but no earth moving machines other than a small tractor.. I am that guy that bought a machine without ever being on one. My dad told me I was crazy and that I did not have a trailer or truck to move it.. I said I can pay someone else to move it and I did. I decided that I needed something bigger than a bobcat and I went to craigslist, I talked to a few sellers. I told him that I did not know how to use it, I asked if he would explain it to me and that I wanted to "test it before I bought it". Seller hesitated but then was like go for it and just go slow.. I bought the first one that seemed right which was the first one I looked at.. It seemed right and it was. He said to me buddy this is fine machine it is a great machine you will love it.. I did not believe him but I was excited, I was so thrilled, it was like having my own tank! Turns out he was not lying not even a little... Never in 1000 years could I believe that a machine with 14,000 hours on it could do what it does and what it has done for me. I fix it when I break it, I run it and I know it. I have learned as the years go by just what it means to load it up but not over do it. I take care of it. It will make you cuss, cry and be proud. Over and Over and over. It was time to start moving forward again. I found a little work and was paying to have the machine moved to the sites. So I stated looking for a trailer, which I found. Then I paid someone to move my machine on my trailer which saved me $25.00 per hour. A year or so later I found a truck which I did not drive. I spoke to many men about trucks. Basically I knew I wanted a truck set up with a factory air-brake system, a large motor for power and a large dump bed. I basically wanted the biggest badest dump truck I could find for $10,000 grand. I found it after a lot of searching. I then got my CDL. The truck was driven to me and it sat waiting on me to get the CDL. I had never driven it before I got my CDL. It was quite an experience to drive the brute compared to a new truck at a CDL school. Completely different. I will never forget the first time I got in that old truck and went for a ride. Lost all my air in an intersection. Stopped traffic, could not get it to shift holey hell... I did not think I was going to get it to move.. But I did. So if you are on the fence just jump off and get in the game. It is worth every bit and it will lead you to somewhere you want to be. I love my job and I look forward to it everyday and I think about my work while away... and don't let me fool you it is not easy it is hard work but it is worth it. This type work takes a special person are you the one?
This part struck a note with me. "You can't find good help nowadays" is such a common sentiment it's become cliche. But put yourself in their shoes. I for one know darn well that if I'm working for someone else I'm giving most of the value of my labor up to them, so you can bet your behind I'm going to be milking that clock for all it's worth. I wouldn't go as far as being dishonest about anything, but if I'm working for a boss and getting paid by the hour I'm doing the bare minimum it takes to not get dismissed, because the less work I do the more money I effectively make. On the other hand if I'm working for myself I'm doing whatever it takes to make the customer ecstatic about the job so he'll remember to call me back the next time, and tell his friends about me. Call me lazy, call me greedy, I just call it being smart with your time, talent, and resources.
Hey CM. I loaded my tl150, grapple bucket and dirt bucket on my trailer. I was half way choked on the dirt bucket with the grapple. I pulled all the way to the front of the trailer and the trailer set down on the hitch but not really hard. It was about 1' further back than it should have been. I said it should be ok. I pulled out early in the morning as I was increasing speed going up hill I noticed the trailer had drift. This was at 48 mph. I started to slow but the trailer kept drifting. I hit my trailer brake controller and it did not do much... I knew I had to slow down before I got over the hill so I was riding the brakes and i was at 38 as I got over the hill. The drift was getting worse. I was struggling to control it with my 4 door f250. I was on the verge of loosing it at 25 mph as I was taking 2 lanes on a 4 lane road. Still going down hill. I attempted to throttle out of the drift and the rear end broke free and the trailer slapped the side of the truck and the trailer and the machine spun me in the road. I had brand new toyos on the truck and good tires on the trailer and a full transfer tank in the bed of the truck. It melted all 8 tires evenly around the tires as they kept turning as it spun me. I lost a few chains in the road came to a stop still on the road but truck partly in the grass facing the wrong way. No one was near me so I was lucky. I ruined the bed of my f250 along with the rear bumper. I normally do not move this machine with the 250 but i needed it on a job, since my f550 tore out the clutch for the 6th time. This time I installed a new south bend clutch. No more heavy duty clutches from the auto parts store. The last one snapped a spring, and smoked the pilot bearing. Anyway it is so easy to overload the hitch and break it. And it is also easy to not have enough tongue weight. The trailer brakes were replaced about 1.5 years ago, but they were worn some again and this might have prevented my problem. As I was spinning with the truck and trailer I was wondering if the machine was going to come off and flip down the road or crush me. It stay on. The f250 is not enough truck for the tl150..
Well take it like this. Nothing I have was handed down or given to me. I worked for it all, the hard and harder way. So I watch workers very closely. I try to look into their eyes to see if they are high or "there". When a man does not work like he should I send them home early, I tell them I don't have work for them the next day. If they milk me, it will cost them, you can bet on that. Right now as I am able I would rather do the work myself than feel like I am getting 60%. This statement is not directed at you but I can not stand to hear anything negative while I am at work. If you show up and cry about a saw being to heavy or it is so hot today, or really anything negative leave all that at home. Be positive and motivated to do what I need done, right away... There are to many other negatives to deal with like breaking trucks and machines and hoses and everything that can break.. or just getting paid for what you have done. Customers will goat rope your for lots now. It has happened to me I have been beat out of thousands on "hand shake work" my guys got paid but I did not. Now I am much more selective on who and what I do.. But when a man shows up to work and does a good job, I will pay them. Some of my concrete guys get $300 or more per day... if you are a slacker your boss knows if you are working for the one that writes you a check you might just say hey man if I really bust my tail for you today could you possibly pay me a little more. If he says yes then he is a good boss. If he says no find another job. I believe that the most successful companies have good men that can share a vision and are willing to go the extra mile.. The holy bible says stay out of debt. It does so for good reason, it is full of wonderful experience and ways to live your life for a fuller and happier life.. You have the ability to be free and make moves towards things that are better for you. That is partly why I say buy a used machine. Do not go into debt if you can avoid it. Save your pennies and do what you need to until you can do better. I would never advise to go in to debt to try to start making money. If you are doing well and a tool can help you do better then maybe. But try to stay out of debt. This is the best advise I ever learned. I learned it from watching someone that lost everything they ever worked for and they were still working when it was all lost. They went broke working.
Ah, I should have prefaced my post by saying that most (all) of my experience comes from working in a factory setting as a faceless drone, and where the people in charge of setting the pay rates are a different nationality. If you have a personal relationship with your employer that's different. And if you offer skilled labor that's different too. I quit that rat race to try and go back to school, and at the same time dabble in small skidsteer jobs. Not sure what the future holds but your posts have got me wanting a track loader bad lol.
With that attitude I would call you "FIRED" in my company - just being honest.
Here are some more cutting pictures and some saw information. On almost every large pine tree. I see one of these spiders. I have been bitten twice now buy unknown spiders on this job.. Whenever I clear woods I get bitten. Sometimes it does not do much other times it flames up. And my new favorite saw combo. My MS460 was worn out and tired, needing a new top end. So I let it sit and went out and purchased another ms461 for my primary along with the same for my secondary saw. Currently using a 28" bar with skip tooth RS Sthil chain. Had a little chain saw comp against a 18 year experienced tree man. He carries a file and is about the only other guy I know that really knows how to sharpen a chain. Myself being the other. I use an 12 volt electric Oregon sharpener with red dremel #455 stones - https://widgetsupply.com/product/bb...MI-tG3pNTK3AIVBlYMCh0UQAynEAQYAiABEgJdOfD_BwE . 2 sharpening per stone with a light raker buzz after each two sharpenings. Saws stay sharp and cut well. Anyway. We both dropped our bars into a 24" pine. The 461 went through the log twice and fast as the 460. He got his feelings hurt and we let it go. Of course it could have been the chains but maybe his 460 is a little worn, it seems like it runs good. He uses a 25" bar with a RS standard chain. The normal way the saw is sold. I have begun wearing chainsaw chaps and I am glad I did for I threw the 28" chain and it wrapped back around and laid open the chaps on my thigh... After 3 weeks of cutting I only threw a chain 3 times and it was normally due to limbs pinching it when it would get slightly loose. Very good combo.. Some really nice timber, yes? I have been wondering how much timber is normal for an good acre of land. I am guessing maybe 140 tons of saw logs and 160 tons of pulp ? What is good?
Knowing how to do your own repairs is good but you also have to know when to call in a professional no matter the cost. This is especially true with welding. You don't learn how to weld in a few weeks or even a few month's. It takes years and you never stop learning. If it's something critical that could cause injury or a fatality if it broke, pay a professional. Speaking of trailers, they shouldn't be your first project 3 weeks after you bought your new welder. If you want to fix a crack in a bucket or weld a bracket for a light on go ahead. If you want to weld a lifting hook on a bucket or a trailer hitch get someone with experience to do it. A lot people who think they know how to weld don't have a clue what rods to use so just pick the easiest one for them to use. This could have serious consequences as well.
Looks like the Wolf Spiders we have around here, usually timid but can get aggressive if threatened. Not been bitten by one yet. Are you dropping those trees as you roll the root ball up? We call those widow makers down here as they will tend to snag on surrounding trees and roll off generally toward the cutter, unless you are felling into an opening. I am a not so well practiced welder, having been a mechanic for most of my adult life I have always welded just generally not so pretty. Takes a lot of time effort and practice to perform adequate welds, double that to make pretty and really solid welds, building a trailer gets you into a sensitive region as to liability should a weld fail where many insurers will not cover your butt over that.
When I was a kid. I had a go-cart. It had positive traction drive axle in the rear both back tires pulled. I really abused it and broke the axle. I was living with my mom and we had no way to fix it. When it broke I was down and out. We managed to get it in the trunk of her car and hauled it to a man who welded it up. I will never forget how happy I was! I would think most guys that are going to be owner operators must learn to weld and learn it well. I have only went to a pro when I did not have the equipment to do the repair. Mostly aluminum repairs or line boring. All of what you say is very true. I would suggest to find a welder and pay him a few hours time to show you a proper welding procedure. Most would do it. When I first started I knew a man and he gave me basic instruction for free, he was happy to help. Welding old rusty metal and making reactive shooting targets will show you how your welds break and pull apart. It also gets all the flux out and you can really see if you are binding the metal or leaving slag on one side. Use 3/8"s and 1/2" plate then go to town on it with 45/223. The frame will bend and the plates will get holes. It will show you how your welds pop and how you do or do not get penetration. Welding rusty metal is hard. Welding thin metal is hard. Using a good ground and cleaning your metal is a good start to a better a weld.. Welding heavy machinery in areas that get stress and strain also helps you figure out if you are doing your welding well enough.
Georgia Iron posted: "I have begun wearing chainsaw chaps and I am glad I did for I threw the 28" chain and it wrapped back around and laid open the chaps on my thigh..." My late brother, a Stihl dealer, always said that a pair of chaps were cheaper than the co-pay at the hospital. For him, I always wear my chaps. A friend, a forester who teaches chain-saw operation, has 17 chainsaws, most old. We were running chainsaws preparing for a Scottish Games and he walks up to show me where his chaps had saved him a trip to the hospital. Just remember that once cut, chaps lose their integrity and should be replaced.
We made it through our last clearing job. The work was done safely with a few break downs. One log smashed a dump truck door and mirror. 2 hydraulic lines broken, one TL-150 track broke in half, one aluminum fuel tank cracked apart, and one F-550 radiator split on one of the plastic intake tubes. I found a complete metal replacement for $350.00. Plastic topped radiators in every case are complete garbage and avoid them at all cost, especially if your rig is bouncing up and down on dirt paths/roads. The new replacement lasted only 2 years on the job. Never will I buy another even if it cost me $1000.00 to special order what I need. All in all about $2500.00 worth of out right damage plus wear and tear. On almost the last hour on the last day, I almost threw my track on my 953. The chain made a loud pop in a turn and the rear drive sprocket teeth jumped up onto the edge of the chain and stopped on the sprocket teeth. I barely stopped it before it rode off onto the track pad. I was able to use the other sides track to provide power to leverage it back into the chain. My sprockets are worn out. So I have finally had a rainy day, thanks to hurricane Michael, I am one of those that prays for rainy days now, the only chance I have to complete repairs unless I am out right broke. I am normally outside working on these machines in the open which does not bother me. I used this day to install some new sprocket segments and check out my idler rods. Here is how I did it.
First I clean the mud off the sprockets and do a basic hose down. Then I locate the alligator link and move the machine until it is sitting on the rear sprocket. I do one side at a time and I make sure I can access the front and rear of the machine to reinstall the track with another machine. I keep the alligator link on the sprocket so that it is held together by the sprocket. When you pull out the four bolts the tracks will want to go flat which means each side of the track quickly goes toward the ground. If your feet or your dog is in the way kiss them good bye. Keeping both ends on the sprocket allows your to remove your tools and safely use the drive motor to roll a little each way to let them go on there own while you are in the seat and not under them. You can do this job with the tracks left on. But I find it easier, safer, and a good time to inspect the front idlers. So I drop the tracks off. I use my harbor freight 1" impact with a 15/16's socket. It will break the nuts loose off the segment bolts. I inspect the bolts. Dirt wears the heads off the back. If they are still close to 50% I reuse the nuts and bolts. The book says to replace. I say destroy then replace. I take the old ones off. Toss them and put on the new ones. I purchased this set of copies for less than half the cost of CAT parts. The cats were $1200. These were $450.00. Made in Korea. I can not tell you if they are comparable to CAT or not. I am testing these out to decide if I will try the complete Korean under carriage to the tune about 10K, if I do the work. Which is 5 or 6k cheaper than the name brand. I use my old trusty harbor freight 1" socket set which came with the breaker bar and extension which is also your breaker bar handle extender. I spent about 1k on 1" drive tools from harbor freight about three or 4 years ago. I have used the breaker with a 10' cheater pipe and not bent it yet. You must buy some of the smaller socket sets to get the smaller sockets since the big kits has large sockets that you will more than likely never use.... Once I tighten up the nuts all the way with the impact I put all the weight I can on the nuts with my body weight until they will not tighten any more. With the breaker bar and extension. How much is that? About 185 lbs of GA iron redneck torque. I then move onto the idler. I clean each side of the rod. I make sure it is moving freely and not bent. Mine only has about 1" of push left in it. My under carriage is shot. Putting on the new segments moves the rod back in about 3/4's of an inch so a little more life. You need to loosin your grease fitting and use another machine to push the idler wheel in about an 1" to make it easy to reattach the tracks. You can push it in further but you just waste grease. Once you have some slack pull the track back up on the the top of the idler and carrier roller and back to the segments. Put in a pipe so the track will slide over the pipe across the segment teeth until you get it back in line with the other side of the gator. Use some wood blocks in various places and make sure the sprocket teeth are holding the tracks so that they dont fall back away and crush you. Put the lower one about a foot from the ground so you are not fighting too much weight.. Reattach your alligator link and then re adjust your track and then do the other side. Allow about 3 hours per side. If you are fast maybe 2.. If you skip the idler checks maybe 1.5 hrs per side. But you will be more man than me Happy repairs..
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Wow! Considering the break downs you listed, I'm glad it was done safely! And kudos for a detailed repair process--but I won't be looking at the photos on my slow connection(!).
That looks like a Huntsman spider. We have a variant of those as well, they are different than what we can wolf spiders.
We have Funnel Web and Wolf spiders here the Wolf units are at least half dollar size, have seen one tarantula as they are in the Ozarks too. Keep the house sprayed as have had the annoying Recluse show up from time to time.
Here are a few wall form pics from my latest job. The rear wall is 6' tall. 32" wide footing. Major pain in the rear to square a slab over an un-level area. There is about $3000.00 retail worth of wood in this one. $250.00 worth of snap ties and 23 yards of concrete @ 190.00 a yard off a belt truck. 15 days of labor for the footing steel and wall forms.
I was on a grading / driveway job last week and some other contractors where working on a nice long stacked blocked wall across the street. They had 5 guys working. One of them was hauling in dirt and gravel, one supervising driving back and forth and so on, one running the bobcat, and 2 ground workers. They had placed the gravel and drainage and were placing the final fresh dirt behind the wall which was about 7' high. I did not see any geo grid, t walls or evidence of a true concrete footing. Just a long wall about 80 or so feet long. While I was working the foreman came over to my job and sought out my customer to see if he could provide skid steer services, of course it was for less than my rate. I was wondering if I would get sent on my way. I was in an excavator working on leveling in a path into a steep sink hole so that it could be filled with a skid steer since it was on side slope that was almost 75* due to the sink hole. And then it happened as quick as a cat can jump on a mouse. The fresh dirt decided to move and the wall decided to fall and it did it with such force that it sounded like a dump truck, dumped a load of block right on the skid steer. Both ground guys were on top of the wall right in the area where it fell and they leaned back on the slope to avoid going down with it and getting smashed. The skid took the hit mostly on the bucket and the tracks so the driver was ok. What a mess... No one was hurt but what BIG mess to clean up and loss of money to. I am sure funding was not in the project for this. IF someone was next to the wall it would have been in the news. They were looking at the mess thinking should I just leave and move on or should we try to clean this up. I fully expected them to haul tale... Around here any wall over 2' must be permitted with footings inspected. They missed that step. Of course I am sure the customer just went with the cheapest price. Who thinks they will remove the rest of the wall and build a footing???
Here are some photos. The two close ups I got the next morning.
In my experience, those stacked block walls will come with an engineered plan, showing Geo grid every 2 to 3 feet going back 5 to 7 feet depending on conditions, they are always set on a crushed stone compacted base, I’ve installed a lot of them and never had a failure, especially if it’s installed according to the engineered plan…obviously this one was not. Glad no one got hurt....Karmas a bitch...Maybe if he was focused on his own job instead of trying to steal yours it would’ve worked out better for him.....
Retaining walls are good money makers! Especially when someone else has screwed them up to start with. I've rebuilt several behind other "contractors" and especially homeowners. Seems lots of homeowners with some ambition will price block at the big box store and a rental mini ex for a weekend. Throw in a couple buddies and some beer and you have a future job headed your way. I straightened up one around here for our local fire department after their GC set it out of dunnage blocks. 6ft high, no gravel footing, no drainage and back filled with $×!+ dirt. The fire board and chief were none too thrilled that their new parking lot was covered in mud that was supposed to be the back yard of their station and the dirt was disappearing around their sidewalk.... Made a great couple days for me!!! John
Well you get what you pay for..
Happy February 2023, I have not posted too much in the last few years. I have been so busy working that I have not been around much to post. 2.5 years ago, I went to work for a company. The work was endless, we could adjust and move for weather, we could move to a different state or sometimes just 3 hours away in another direction and we could keep working because sometime rain misses an area. So less down days waiting on site conditions. I was working out of town a lot. I was led to believe that I would be helping build up an existing company that had fallen to a one man show and I was told that at some point, I would be a part of it. So, I stopped almost all my building and clearing work and went on board full time sometimes logging 80 plus hours a week. Then as the jobs went by and we started to grow, I figured out that he had other thoughts. He found two graders and I found us another grader and we started to pick up even more. To clarify I was a sub-contractor that could be used on an as needed basis getting nothing other than pay. I was an operator that works all the time and paid with profit split based on job value. I was paid a lot more than an hourly employee, which even if I could out work 2 other men at some point more men can out work 1 man. I never missed a job or called in sick or even let an equipment failure stop me. I would fix the machine myself or go get another machine if it was not fixable on-site. My job output probably went into the record books. I graded more than 10,000,000 sq ft. and I believe I can do it better than most others. I have a lot of experience looking at grade and making it to with in a 1/2" and depending on the material a 1/4". I noticed that I was getting sent further away and the jobs were getting harder. All the easy jobs close to home went to others that were paid less. I began to realize that I could be replaced or worked less based on the companies needs or given jobs that no one else wanted. I also come to the realization that I would on be a sub-contractor that was not building my business and that I was not appreciated. My hard work was for nothing other than money, someone else was using my skill set to build their business and I was not going to have any rewards for that other than high pay. I was told that the company came first ... I quit with a text message, with no notice and walked away. I quit the best paying job ever and I probably should have quit sooner, I saw it coming 6 months before hand. 2 years of hard long days of work. I did walk away with new ability, I am now an expert on proof rolls, material compaction, and bringing a site to final grade weather for a road, a building pad, loading dock or parking lot. I can grade horse arenas, tennis courts, and ball fields. I can grade using a CAD file and I can make my own grade file based on curbs, drains, or slab height. I know how to use site plans to build a project which before I was using a drawing on a napkin from lunch. I have been attempting to fix so many things that I left un-done including special time I lost with my young kids and wife. My old track loaders have been basically sitting and waiting on me to get them going again. I have brought on a new machine and now I have machine control and I am fully equipped to handle even more types of work. I am going at it fresh this year and looking forward to what it brings..
Glad to have you back GI! So what piece of iron have you added and what GPS grade system are you running? We bought a next gen D3 in 2021 running Trimble and love it.
I got a Volvo G80 grader up and going. It took almost 9 months to get it and everything it needed was custom made and installed. I am not using GPS, I am using LEICA with a dual slope laser. It can do 2d currently and 2d sloped. I am in the process of having a total station and 3d setup added. The machine has a very complicated mold board that makes placing a rotation sensor hard to do. The mold board can tilt, side shift left and right, rotate, and swing out from under the machine. The machine is 17,000 lb class machine and it is running an old school 4bt Cummins.. 110 hp, sounds like it has a cam in it. It will roll a wind row and push like an 18,000 lb cat d3 with a little less traction. I can out work a D3 with it. It reminds me of my old case 440 series 3 that had the same motor but at 90 hp. You could not stall it out and you can run it on light throttle of course the slower the hydraulics pump the slower the blade is to respond to grade adjustment.
Lately I am getting called in to fix wet areas that need to be poured in the small dry windows we have been getting. This was left 6 inches high and we cut off the soft top layer, got down to hard ground and any areas that failed proof roll were dug out and brought back to grade with gravel. P61, rock truck, 349 ex, roller and a front end loader where on site to help be move off the soft top layer. Think this pour is about 30,000 sq ft. My machine control is super cool, I can adjust grade on the fly and can say switch from an 8 inch pour to a 6 inch pour without leaving the seat. Newest stuff out.
Leveling a pad or road the Grader would be faster but I think raw pushing like leveling big piles or on wet ground a D3 would have the advantage. Every machine has its advantages and disadvantages.
Welder Dave, you are 100% correct. In soft ground the motor grader does not want to move a load. Normally we don't work on pads when things are wet. We do get called in to remove water and mud sometimes, I don't like it because it is pain to get the machine cleaned up and ready to move out at the end of the day. A dozer is a very easy machine to run with machine control, more so than a grader so you can put a less trained person on one. My machine can damage electronics and the poles because the mold board can hit the cab, or front tire, or lean into the cylinder, if you hit anything your day of grading is shut down. If I am on site when trucks start rolling, I can put down to grade somewhere near 3500 to 4250 tons. The dozer can not grade to accuracy like a grader, it does not have enough blade stabilization. I don't rough grade with it unless there are site problems, most of the time there are larger graders on site which can be used to bring it closer to grade for me. The worst is soil cement. It will push a small grader up and it wont cut if it is too hard.
I'm pretty sure I saw that machine at Construction Laser when it was getting fitted out......say around early last summer or late spring; I was shopping machine control and came to check out the Leica total station machine control. I remember thinking it looked like a clean, tight machine. Ended up going with Trimble GPS base rover w/ a d3 and machine control.
Savman, that was the one. I picked this machine up in Texas and brought it back. It was used by a road department there. I have had a few issues with that I have had to work through. To be a 20 year old machine it still has a lot of wiring and now it has even more. How is the D3 doing with machine control? What do you think about it? How close can you keep grade with it and do you use it to do final grade or bring in another machine for that? I see that CM got a d3 also. I know in certain instances I also wish that I had a dozer running machine control. I am on a job now that has a p61 and d5 or 6 going and the guys have a grader checker going with them. The operators are first class and you would almost think they finished graded it. Some of these guys live in those machines and they can really keep a good grade.
CM1995 would probably be better suited to ask about his machine control (we have identical setups I believe); I've only used the machine control on one job and it was nearly completed....I bought the base/rover last summer and only recently added the d3. I can tell you there are different levels of resolution on my machine and I did not run it in the most detailed and I was pretty impressed with it's capabilities. Sadly, the job was almost over when I got machine control; and at least half the parking lot was already covered with what amounted to giant parking sheds for garbage trucks. So I didn't have reception everywhere and where I did it was spotty in parts due to the sheds obstructing reception. When I could 'see' the satellites, it was awesome. When I initially graded the site I did it entirely by feel on my 953c with a man walking around on the base and rover calling out grades. It was a small site (around an acre) and very detailed and odd. The GPS was invaluable. Also, I had no other points of reference anywhere close as I was essentially out in the middle of a landfill.
Hopefully you will get some more work for it soon. All of the site graders are using rovers now it seems like. Every now and then, it causes some hurt feelings. I did 85% of the fine grading work here in north Atlanta for the new Yancy Cat off of 400. They poured there roads and areas around the buildings with 12" concrete and double rebar, 1 1/2" dowel pins and each section was poured separately from the other so every thing was pumped. I had to set up off of surveyor control points and I use a total station with CAD file points and then check the curbs, drains and gutters. The rovers lost grade in a few areas and I started cutting and we had to get the site guy to come back in and help remediate certain ares. Some areas we out 12 inches, which is a lot of dirt coming back up. I set up and help cut grade to final then he matched my lead. We worked together because they have the heavy iron and muscle. I am normally there with the pouring crews to check and make it right for them. I make sure they can set forms and the grade is right. The architects / engineers also missed a few basins and I caught it and then they had to figure out how to make it work and who was going to pay for it. Do I grade to a plan that has errors and will not drain water, (I was told to grade the plan up front) or do I fix it and then no one else will be the same. Part of the curb was not in yet, and part of it was off. Of course everyone looks at me and wonders if I am correct or how could everyone else be wrong. But no one wants it wrong so we always fix it. Then it is who covers the cost for the extra work which sometimes can take a week or more to fix and the project is not staying on schedule. It is challenging because you don't have to many ways to double check, and then you doubt yourself. But I know how to make a grade file and check and control drainage so if they can afford me (probably not the right word, they can, most of the time they don't know they have a problem until it is too late and then it gets ripped back out) to make a program on it I can see if what they have planned will work or not... Most of the time I find out when I set the grader up and the blade is 6 inches in the air or pushing me up to the moon... This all 3d work with a total station. And it is by far the most challenging grading out there.
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Thought I would share a few pictures of MY TL150 stuck. It was stuck, I try really hard to not get a machine stuck, it does not pay and I dont like cleaning it up.. I went back to the shop to get an excavator. I was alone and dug it out. Tried to back up and it went down 2 more feet.. Dug it out again and then had someone come by and help pull as I backed up and it still did not want to come out.
I thought I could get around the soft spot then stuck it again.. Needless to say doing some quick drainage contouring turned out to be extra work...
Those conditions are best waitied out to Dry Season!!
Managing to stick the 53 on the side of a top soil pile that was wet attempting to knock a tree down that needed to be removed. Had to dig it out with the mustang. All forward movement was stopped. Barely had enough space to get under it with the mustang.
My under carriage is shot. Like completely gone. If you are taking the tracks off use some different sized solid metal bar to slide in between the sprockets and the track chain after you loosen the track adjuster grease fitting. This will move the idlers back if the rods are not siezed up.
Lots of side to side play and no more adjustment on tightening. Once you slide the idler forward and pump out the adjuster all the way, the idler fork can touch the idler wheel. Once this happens you cant use the machine. A new under carriage is pricing out at $17,000 plus tax in this after covid world. If you drop a link out of the track you can get 200 to 800 more hours on your under carraige maybe even more, I plan to run it to destruction.
Rear idler setting Front idler setting for worn tracks. It is easy to move the idler housing with tracks out of the way. You have direct access with an air gun.
A friend brought over a track pin press. In hindsight i would torch it apart and reweld the pin without the pin press. It took so much pressure to break them apart. It was dangerous. It took all of the presses power to get one of the pins out. To avoid pressing the pin back in I turned it down on a lathe then welded it back up. Had enough fun playing with the track press.
Would have thought that machine new enough for split link master.
I think he was taking a link out to shorten the tracks.
Thought of that after sent
My quest for water
Could you use the skid steer to power the drive but have the drill rig mounted on your 953 to provide considerably more lift capacity? Does your skid steer have high flow and/or high pressure? They make high torque auger drives for excavators too. A guy used a 1 ton truck mounted rig to drill holes for perculation tests on my former acreage. The augers were only 6 or 8" and he used a steel plate with a slot to hold the auger in the hole while he added extensions. One auger fell in the hole but was only down about 6' so I later dug it out with the backhoe. I think a better way to hold the augers or extensions wouldn't be hard to figure out. I posted it on here a few years ago of a place that spent mega bucks converting a couple Bobcat 975's into custom rubber tracked drilling rigs (Lundrills). I think he could drill either 16 or 20' in one shot. Very impressive units but heard he spent over $100K on each conversion in addition to the original cost of the 975's. Could maybe copy some of the idea's on those. They could drill a 48" hole up to 30' feet deep so I think a much smaller auger could go considerably deeper and a 953 will lift quite a bit more than a 975 Bobcat. Lund Enterprises has some pics. on their website.
Bin there, done that.... meaning looking for an inexpensive way of drilling water wells. Back in about 1985, freshly married and on a wilderness acreage with a wife and a new son and another on the way, we needed water. The father-in-law was on an adjacent parcel and had drilled wells in the '50's. He swore up and down there was no well water on the dry mountain side we were both on. He had previously got water rights on a creek down in the bottom of the little valley we were in, which was about 1500 feet from his land. And vertically up by about 500 feet. He rented an excavator and dug in a PVC water line to his place, casting a concrete storage tank at his house. The major issues around that method of getting water was rights of way and permission to cross a road by the creek and no permission to dig an infiltration system into the creek. He eventually made everything happen and had water. I did not want to go this route, as dealing with the government was getting tougher as time went on. I wanted a well on my 8 acres without having to get permission from anybody. So I wanted to be able to drill wells cheaply if he was truly right that the country was "dry". So I was wanting a way to drill a few dry wells without breaking the bank. I told everyone that I was going to "ventilate the countryside until I found water". This was problematic because just hiring a well driller with a conventional air-rotary rig was expensive, and the cost had to be paid even if they didn't find water. Being an engineer, I hit the books first to find out about drilling methods and what I could do myself. The modern rigs were immediately rejected--I didn't have the cash to buy anything that approached an air rotary. I soon found that the old ways of drilling worked just as well but took time: The cable tool drilling rig. It's an OLD technology that goes back at least a thousand years: the Chinese used the method a long time ago, with wooden tools and fiber ropes. Newer cable tool rigs were still pricey but I found a decent rig that someone had built themselves. It was mounted on an old single axle flat deck 3 ton. I got it for about $2500. It had a drill bar and a bunch of random drilling bits with it. Found an old US military instruction manual about drilling with a cable tool rig which helped me with how to actually do the drilling. Father in law helped the most, since he had actually operated a cable tool rig in the past. So we started drilling, dumping 5 gallon pails of water down the hole to make the stuff we drilled into mud. When we had enough, we pulled the drill bar out of the hole and dropped down the mud bucket on the "sand line". It had a one way valve in the bottom of the bucket that allowed the mud to fill the bucket, and we pulled out the full bucket and dumped it. We would use the drill bar to hammer the casing further into the drilled hole and also used the drill hoist to pull up more casing pipe to weld to the casing that we were advancing into the ground. Since the drill bar cutting bit fits inside the casing, it drills a hole a little smaller than the casing. The casing has a hardened "drive shoe" welded to the end of the pipe which scrapes the drilled hole as you drive it down the smaller hole made by the drill bar. This dirt has to be be beat up into mud with the drill bar and removed by the mud bucket. The only issue here is if you drill thru a solid boulder bigger than the drill bar and casing. In that case you clean out the hole and hang a stick of dynamite down the hole right in the center of the boulder you just drilled through and break it up. The hole can then be cleaned out and the casing be driven through the now shattered boulder. This happened once with my drilling. I had anticipated this and took a course to get a blasting license. I will never forget the feeling when we realized, at about 200 feet down, we were pulling up MORE!! water in the drilled mud than we had dumped down the hole. By the way, Father in law said he had drilled a well to 600 feet with a cable tool rig back in his day, so they can drill a long way. So we struck water on the first hole, on that "dry hillside" that Father in law swore there was no water. At a cost of a couple of grand for an old drill rig. We resold it for the same money that we paid for it. So, my suggestion to you is to take a close look at an old cable tool drill rig...they are simple compared to anything you are looking at and can do the job to whatever depth you are considering. Not as fast as an air rotary but not costly. If you are interested in having a look, a quick search on the 'net for "cable tool drilling" or "Bucyrus-Erie 22W drilling rigs" would be a good start. They are dead simple and easy (and cheap) to keep running, especially if you want to do it yourself. YMMV! Jon.
The other notation is casing, water wells here only case to mudline or dirt end, casing extends some 10-1(‘ into solid rock and stops, not cased full depth. A water driller will set a 500’ hole here in a matter of hours, to me did not waste a week pounding and mucking out a hole then driving a casing that had to buy for that depth. Soon gets to a six/1 half dozen the other.
Sawmilreg, Those cable rigs are nice. I did not find any for sale in my area. I am making a home made auger type drill. Getting close to having it ready. Other work and machines have put it on the back burner for a month or so.
I am way behind on maintenance, over grown trees and have seen a need for one of these trucks. I picked up this at auction from the local power company.
60 footer
standard boom, wish it was75 ' and an over center but they were 35 to 45 grand more. it has a material handler which is good for 1500 lbs at 2' and 750 lbs at 5' on the jib. Other than the front hydraulic winch being taken off and the drivers door falling off it has already done 2 days of work.
Worked on over center rigs, hateful awaiting the slack to catch up on over run!! Be really cautious if upper mast pops and snaps down deep, look for rust at the pivot head to fiberglass mast. Both indicate the epoxy joint connection is failing and is all that holds it together. Can be Re-Glued but not cheap to pass inspection for safety.
What would cause the mast to pop and snap down deep?
You will hate this, is why most get to sale yards The joint from Fiberglass sections to Steel is Epoxy Glued. Last one I found in 96 we had a Altec tech come in to verify, he did as to that epoxy joint was failed. Four High Dollar Lincoln hand pump grease guns and a box full of Altec special recipe epoxy with sixteen grease zerks, that at every coupled connection(3 times), we hand refilled the joint until the guns locked up as epoxy set up. And yes they got really warm holding them. Truck went on for three more years then went to sale yard. I did ask, tech was not sure store bought epoxy would be qualified by the company. If is popping pretty loud and consistent, stop use. This IS a safety concern.
Ok. I got what you are saying. I have not noticed any sounds coming from the boom nor have I seen any rust or paint cracked on the boom. Only issue I have had is sometimes the boom hydraulics are slow to respond to the hand control inputs. I have used the truck a fair amount so far. I did cut down a very sketch tall leaning 100' plus pine tree. Which almost got me in trouble. It had a semi bad base and was leaning hard towards that weak area, which was full of lighter knot. One if my neighbors asked me to get it off the property line, since it was headed towards his building. Tree was on a slope above where the truck could be placed so that gave it another 5' of height. At 60' up the tree was still too big to get with the hydraulic pole saw. I take the big stihl saw up in the bucket and make sure I am not in the path of the trunk when it swings back. At 60 ' the tree seemed to have a 35' lean in the top at about 45*s As I cut threw the trunk, only about half way the top starts to falls on over but did not break away as the top leaned more towards the ground the tree was straighting itself and moving back. Which pulled the top with all the limbs towards the bucket and it felt like it was now going to be coming down on the back of the truck and me in the bucket. About that time the top snaps off and it did a 180* flip and trunk went down opposite of where the limbs were. Other than putting a line on the top and having some ground men to anchor it, I don't really see any safe way of dealing with a tall leaner. Not sure that I will mess with one like that again.
I actually have several Dead Trees, may end up calling a Tree Service to drop as are just TOO beyond a Safe Consideration for my capabilities. Really need a Large size Excavator with a decent reach, perhaps either roll out or break them off.
Have i ever told you guys how much trees suck. In the last 6 or 8 weeks I have managed to get popped 3 different times by some piece of a tree. I have a machine on a storm cleanup job. Let me tell you between a 6" oak limb popping me in the forehead and bringing stars and blood, wondering how the hell it hit me. Thinking I will make sure and be more careful. To yesterday a small tree tree top / long limb flipping out of the pile under tension on the ground. It smacked the rops and a broke piece about 2" in diameter 4' long hanging by the bark wrapped around the rops and popped the side of my calf and shin. I saw it coming moved my leg but there was no escape. For those of you that have not experienced what a 2" 4' long tree top can do to your body let me tell you this. I still can't even believe that it can hurt as bad as it did and still does. The last time i got hit i swore I was welding a guard. Ran out of time and went back to work. Pushing up acres of debris and trying to be as careful as possible. Well I should have sat my butt down and enjoyed the winter sun and took another week and welded the front of the rops up. Works always calling and maybe it time to take my phone off the hook. It's no where near as bad as what happened to a guy that used to work with me. He had a broke piece come off a top and got him on the ground in the back. It managed to crack 4 vertebrae and he has been cutting trees for 25 plus years. Trees... watch out and better yet just keep lots of steel between you and them.
Tree's are unpredictable is an understatement. I've been slapped a couple times by small branches that act like a whip after rubbing on the ROPS post. Have been saved by the ROPS canopy a couple times too. Worst is they totally mangled the hydraulic lines on the 4 in 1 bucket. You try to be careful and figure you're pushing everything into a pile but then a rougue branch pops up behind the bucket or over the top of the bucket and wreaks havic on the hydraulic lines.