Hey guys. I made a thread in the excavator part of this website asking for some tips on operating excavators and avoiding roll overs. A fellow user suggested that I create a thread inside the foresty side as some of you guys are some of the best operators around. Having to build roads and scale large mountains is nothing short of greatness in my opinion. A few questions I have are: What things can I do while operating to save time and increase productivity. What tips of tricks do you use to navigate through tricky terrain where the possibility of a roll over is fairly common. And just any general tips you would give a fairly new operator to help turn me Into a great operator. Currently I have a bit of experience operating excavators ranging from 1.5 t through to 20 t I work on the railways in Australia so we use little 8t yanmar vio80's and sometimes 13t komatsu or similar. Most of the machines are operated on track with rail wheels but sometimes we need to scale the rail shoulders to gain access which can result in roll overs if you don't think about what your doing. If you have any advice please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it
Try not use the first or last quarter of the cylinders.
Boy that's limiting yourself if you only use half the cylinder stroke.
What's the reason for that ?
Remember you must good operator before you can become a fast operator. Once you get good you'll become fast without even knowing it, use common sense , know the limits of your machine and most important thing of all is bring extra underwear:tong
First wear your seat belt! One great practice is on flat ground lift up the machine to it's limit to get an idea as to how far you can tip without worry, then learn to use the bucket to lift while at the same time swinging and traveling with the tracks. Practice moving the machine with one track in the air, you will do that a lot road building....:cool2
Some more to add to the above. Watch and take note of what good operators do.
Point A to point B! Don't go any farther than you have to when dumping your bucket, meaning don't raise up to high. Start dumping before your target and when the material is almost all out start heading back to your cut. Concentrate on filling your bucket every time. When you don't get full bucket, just grade the material towards machine, back up and start near top and work your way down with each bucket. Do not go to bottom every time to get your bucket full, your traveling to far. As far as traveling on uneven ground, keep your bucket lower than your tracks, hard to tip over that way. If you need to swing up hill with bucket try to get tracks level and or have tracks headed down hill
Less is more, less movement means more production. Smooth, fluid motion, when swinging from the spoil pile back to the excavation spot, start to bring your dipper stick towards you, that way when the bucket makes contact there is no delay in digging, the dipper has already started its cycle. Just before the bucket is completely full, start to swing to the spoil pile, as you're swinging start to run your dipper out and begin the dump cycle, almost as if you're throwing the dirt towards the spoil pile. Using the dipper to help get the dirt out of the bucket helps save time also, as your running the dipper stick out it require less curling out of the bucket to empty the dirt, I don't curl the bucket a whole lot as I'm digging. Just take pride in your job and never stop trying to better yourself. Hope some of this helps.
Hey thanks big show. Yeah I have been trying to do this lately and seems to be working quite well. It feels like its an extension of your arm when you get it right and happens so smoothly. I was once told that when I started that to position trucks so that you only have to slew the minimum possible. For example 90 degrees or less instead of 180. There big advice was to not have any wasted movements
I keep the trucks at 45 degrees or less if I can help it, but I'm lazy in that regard. I'm sure you're going to be ok, you sound like you care and that's half the battle rut there. I've seen some great hands become complacent and it's all down hill from there.
I enjoy reading the advice of good operators, like bigshow, you can tell that cat has had some hours in the seat. It sounds like you move more dirt, where-as we use excavators alot to clear land. But any advice helps, bigshow tries not to curl his bucket as little as possible, moving dirt, good advice, but digging stumps or rocks, the cupping off the bucket gives you the most power and leverage with the least stress and strain on machine, using the power off the booms to lift shakes machine violently when roots brake free. When walking machine to & frow on decent ground keep bucket up close to you, like carrying a baby, its just easier on machine than holding child (bucket) out at arms length. When your in bad ground, travel with bucket already in position to use as a safety crutch, you will also learn from experiance that sometimes you need to use extended boom as a counter-weight,traveling across slopes, crossing wet- spots, ditches, narrow ravines, etc. When you approuch ditch, stop, turn machine facing opposite direction, extend boom, back until tracks are on opposite bank, pull-in booms while turning back in correct direction, machine will never even dip and it want destroy bank shoulders,( works great crossing narrow wet areas also, tracks will stay on-top off mud instead off diving-down). The more you use your feet to walk machine, is the more virsitile it becomes. I hope some off this helps.
What whitemike said about crossing the ditch is spot on, and always use your feet for traveling. Speaking off rocks and stumps, a little tip I picked up by experimenting- Place heel of bucket on the ground, Get the teeth a good bite under whatever don't want to come out, keep the dipper plumb to the ground, now boom down and run your dipper out while curling your bucket up. The booming down and dipping out puts more force behind the buckets curling cycle, the bucket on the ground acts as a fulcrum point and your not booming up at all, so there is no shock loading or that greenhorn stuff where your trying to be a hero with your back tracks 6' in the air. Now for the legal disclaimer, pay attention to the bucket lip and teeth as you do this, you WILL SPLIT a bucket if you're not careful. I'm sure it sounds stupid to some people and they will disagree, but it has worked for me every time, I have pulled out many objects that others said couldn't be moved. Like Archimedes said," give me a big enough lever and a fulcrum point and I will move the world".
I think that's aimed at efficient production, which is the last thing some operators care about. Great tip, Bigshow, it makes perfect sense if you think about it long enough. I sure never would have come up with that one. I suppose it's not abuse if it's the best way to get the job done.
Get ahold of the Caterpillar performance handbook, there are a lot of great advice on how to set-up your cut for maximum efficiency. The comment about not using the first and last quarter of your cylinders is good advice, I always try to set myself up so that the dipper is within 40 degrees of hanging plumb from the boom. The dipper is fastest in that position, has more breakout force, requires a lesser amount of boom influence, and some other benefits as well. On steep slopes always keep in mind that your counterweight becomes "heavier" as you boom up, if you are facing down hill with your boom at a high angle, then swing uphill, your high boom may put it past the center of gravity and you can go over backwards. I have been in steep terrain with hoes that wouldn't swing uphill unless you high boomed it, used the counterweight to pull it around then boomed down quick. Those were extreme situations though and I was tied off, if you're not comfortable, don't do it, and don't let others push you into it.
MadMitch lucked out when he happened to catch the attention of some good ole boys, bigshow's stump pulling method is exactly what a clawhammer does & we know how well they work ( some good advice that comes from practice and necessity). Here is something i want to run bye everyone, we have all had the problem when digging in gumbo clay and it sticking to bucket and i'd like to here of some of the methods used to avoid this and how yall clean it out. If working close to water keeping buckets wet helps it from sticking but thats rare to be that close to water in your cut, so you need away off cleaning it out every so often. If theres a small tree close by you can pinch it off 10' or so high and uncup bucket and use it to help clean with, but there again usually no trees close to cut so we need a portable dirt pick. Mine is a 12' piece of 4" thick wall tubing and a short length of 12"x12" wood. Lay tubing ontop of block like a see-saw, pull one track a foot or so up one end to pin it to ground thus raising opposite end. Now your ready to pick out some clay (works fairly well). One more thing involving water if at all possible leave bucket cupped full off water overnite. It will sometimes be mud by morning. What have you all found to work?