thought you may like to see a few pics of what im driving at the moment and yes i am digging over the track motors , i had no option but to load it on the dredger like that
nice pics Chris, where abouts are you working with the 375 at the miniute?
that would take some getting used to,does it move around quite a bit when u dig?
Are you using a GPS dredging program to keep you on spot? I don't see any grade marks on your dipper stick.How deep are you diging? We tear up the spud pockets pretty bad when we dig with a hoe. Do you have down pressure on your spuds? They look like they could be walking spuds. Are they?
im working on the river thames at canvey island in essex
the boat has gps onboard and i have a prolec digmaster 3 in the cab . im not sure what you mean by walking spuds , they are lifted by winches and then dropped from a height when in position . the barge is moved by winches connected to anchors and the excavator . we are digging 13 to 16 m depth and the barge is quite stable.. its not a nice feeling though when all you can see in front of you is water , I got a big chain wrapped around the bucket when the tide was coming in and my ass cheeks were nipping c bit I can tell you.my next job is on c lack up barge breaking concrete at 19 M deep , any tips ?
For want of layman's terms; "spuds" are big poles running vertically to secure and locate the dredge/barge. A "big steel pole" will be an apt description. In your case they are just behind the excavator port and stbd.
i know what spud legs are , it was the walking bit im unsure of. basically when im ready to move i track back as far as i can and put the bucket on the sea bed , they then lift the spud legs up and i track forewards which in turn moves the barge backwards, they then drop the legs and take the tension on the winches at the rear of the barge
Awesome pics, I'm sure its a fun job for the first few hours then gets to be really repetitive. I know thats how it is with alot of earth moving, more so on large quannity earth moves. Still fun though. Thanks for sharing. Trbo
Great pics Chris, good to see you are mounted up again, if you've got all that river to clean out you will be busy for a while
finished yesterday , they managed to bend a spudleg on thursday night . may be off to southampton next week for a month .... ill be breaking concrete 19m under water. you keeping busy mate
Ouch! bet that isnt cheap to repair. Breaking blind is hard enough, under water at that depth must be a nightmare, hope it isnt small pieces Back on the M25 on Monday for a week or two, pretty quiet otherwise. Theres a lot coming up, so just hanging on
never used a breaker underwater:beatsme , saw fred gooch before xmas at felixstowe , he has some work on the a12 ans seems to be busy, he has built up his fleet again with mostly new hitatchi machines
It isn't to bad if what your breaking is large and you can poke around and get a good feel for what your doing. I never did anything that deep though.
i have been busy on the new job , currently 80 + hours a week , we are breaking concrete on the dock floor at 15 to 19 m . broke a few buckets and a chisel but we now have a good bucket made of hardox
few pics
few more , they tried making a ripper tooth but it only lasted an hor before the shank snapped off
the biggest lump of concrete i pulled up was 9.2 metric ton
Great pics Chris, really glad you are busy. Intresting in a strange sort of way also Your right about Fred and the A12, and his additions to the fleet, another lowloader, and a D6T on order I'm led to believe. I was too expensive for the A12 but at least it kept Rob Drawbridge busy. :drinkup
Chris That looks like an interesting project. I was wondering if you are tied on to the barge? I don't see any lines to the machine. I would be worried about sliding into the drink if I was not tied off. Especially while digging up rocks as big as you just showed us.
your right its not tied to the deck , she don't slide around very much with the double grouser plates . most of the concrete has broke up into 1 to 2 ton lumps , but occasionally a big lump comes up like in the pics
hey new guy here, sorry if I sound like too much of a newbie, but I was wondering what was bad about digging over the track motors? I guess on some dirt jobs Ive been on I see it done without a care. Operator probably didn't know either. Thanks!
Whoa! >.< Isn't it scary working that close to the water like that . . I'd be freaking out haha I dunno if I could do that.
it is a bit at first , you get used to it though
Welcome aboard Beel. you got some reading to do.
What sort of breaker do you use for under water, I was always lead to believe if you used a normal breaker under water it blew all the seals?
it has a airline connected to stop it blowing the seals
now 10.1