Hey guys I’ve been operating heavy equipment for about 20 years primarily front end loaders, motor graders, backhoes and various other heavy equipment. I work for the city of Colorado Springs parks rec department and often I am needed to dig around utilities water, sewer and other utilities. I have yet to get a good hang of it while I am doing the excavation with either a backhoe or sometimes we rent a excavator. Any tips or a good training I could use to help me my education process. Thanks.
Lift your front bucket 3 inches off the ground if your looking for pipe you will feel the bump if you lift it to high it balances and you loose sensitively in your rear Also get a good labor and put a butter knife on or really worn teeth or better yet patent rubber teeth
If you hear a metallic sound, it’s not a treasure chest.
Patience.... If you know you’re going to be digging near around utilities, I usually drop the throttle down a little bit and I try to be patient while I’m digging. I also try to always dig in line with the utility that I may be digging around instead of across it (of course you don’t always know what or where you may find something) that way it gives me at least a fighting chance of not yanking it out of the ground. A good guy on the ground doesn’t hurt either. Also usually when you’re digging around utilities, you can tell when you’ve gotten into previously disturbed ground just by the color change in the soil. I also have a larger smooth edged grading bucket I use on my excavator if I know there’s a utility close by, I don’t mind digging a slightly wider trench until I locate the utility, once I do, then I’ll switch back to a skinnier toothed bucket or If I know there’s lots of stuff to dig around and I can’t use the wider bucket I’ll sometimes weld an old cutting edge over the teeth.