as you guys know, im not an operator, just the son of one. i've read lots of posts in regards to scratched up counterweights.sorry guys, but i've yet to see an excavator that didnt have a scratched up counterweight! maybe its the area i live!i can see how easy it would be to swing into something when you've got a big house!seems like most of you feel that if you're good, you know where your back end is in a swing! clear me up ,please! and thank you all for the education i get here! i wish the old days of rrr. was this good!
the posts on scratched paint on counterweights here always baffled me...yeah, nobody likes losin paint...BUT....sometimes you have a hole you have to "rock and roll" on....doing all you can do to get rid of your spoils...loader can't cart it away fast enough...that's what sandpaper.....and rattle cans of touch up paint are for i figure. when you start bending sheetmetal, or trying to swing against a solid pile...that's yet another matter.
when you work small jobsites too...you start to run out of room to pile the dirt and you start swinging into it... scratches on the counterweight, especially on smaller machines that work the tight jobsites is almost inevitable
im running a new 315D it only has 212 hours on it but the guy that had it got it all messed up like he said in a tight job, but they passed ti down to me
Hypothetical situation. Operator A never gets a scratch in his counterweight but he does not get as much pipe in in a day as the job was bid for. Operator B gets an occasional scratch in the counterweight but he is getting as much or more production needed to make a profit. Who do you think is more valuable to his employer?
as a business owner I get pissed if I see the counter weight getting scratched. Ya partly because it looks like sh#% but mainly because that means a part of the machine is hitting something it should not be hitting. We dont think that way for trucks do we...."ya the bumpers and lights are all messed up but man..that guy gets us our material in a hurry" You never would hear that about trucks would ya. Hey I understand sometimes you just cant avoid the counter weight rubbing on something,but 99% of the time an operator should be making provisions to avoid that from happening. THATS WHY WE RUN ALMOST ALL ZERO TAIL SWING HOES. YOU ONLY HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT IS IN FRONT OF YOU.
I'm not talking about someone who constantly swings the counterweight into things. I mean there is the occasional scratch.
I took this picture a few days before we sold this machine.there was 5000 hours on this machine when we sold it. there was a few scratches low on the counter weight but like i said ..."sometimes you just cant avoid it"... the machine was just hosed off and still wet,that is why it is shiney
ya i am following ya....:thumbsup
The speed in a job dosent come from hitting the bum of your digger its from a operator that is good at his or her job! Keeping your digger tidy is #1 ,The thing is worth more the a lenth of pipe! I know sumtimes you get a scratch or two but its not part of geting the job done fast , its a error !
hypothetical answers: If operator B at years end, had produced as a for instance, 3000' more feet of sewer main, or 10,000 more cubic yards of excavation, bear in mind here...i'm not talking about dinging up sheet metal, or using the counterweight for a dozer, or other abuses of the machine.....but if operator B produced more, i think every winter, we'd just mask the counterweight off, pick up a few rattle cans of paint, and reshoot it.
on our site we have to work alot of times in the woods, not a huge open field, and yes there are saplings that get in the way, 1" diameter and down, we cant just go and cut them all down, and yes they do scratch the counterweight, i can understand the big dirt jockeys that dont do anything but bail dirt all day but in an environment where you are working in tight quarters doing remediation work or septic/drainage work it isnt a reality. If your site is big enough to put a 45 ton excavator on it as well as pans and euc's you scratch/dent up your machine you are a bone head, I mean what is there to hit? But in my area with the work we do, yeah we do our best to keep the machine in as good shape as possible, but our stance is the same as day's a scratch here and there isnt hurting it and it doesnt make you a bad operator
I agree.