Different jobsites ive passed this week. the first is a storm drain renovation downtown, the second and third are pics from a combined waterline fiberoptic job going on. I must have caught these guys at lunch nobody around. Usually there are about 15 on the different crews working in their respective areas. first exc. digs wide enough for both and the second is filling afterword. seems like a good idea until the water crew starts picking on the fiber guys. then it's hillarious!
cool, I am working a little adding a round about and about two miles of sewer. Using a deere though not my cat. :
When you guys dig around existing utilities do you dig through them and repair it or do you dig around it carefully? A few contractors up here will dig through anything in there way and they say its cheaper then digging aronud it by hand. One contractor was doing a deep sewer project in boston and would dig right through water and sewer services as they didnt want to dig a hole on the other side and lift the trench box out and around the obstruction They had a full time crew repairing stuff behind them.
Dig through? We always try and miss everything, according to the guys doing the fiber it is one of the major trans continental trunk lines and every our it's off it's 6 million down the hole. Usually around here if anything is hit the contractor pays for it and if lucky don't pay for the downtime of the utility. There have been too many cowboys here that chew through everything and cause major trouble in the future and they are trying to get this stopped. 5 years ago there were only 3 utility locators around and the business would very rarely send anyone out, now they are all fed up and blaming everyone else it's got so you can't dig a hole for a dead parakeet. :Banghead
dig thru everything? man, you either have some understanding insurance agents...or utility owners that are still in the dark. locally, you not only pay for the repair/replacement of that utility you broke being a cowboy....you also pay for the loss or revenue of that utility for that time that service has been disrupted. many times, repair is cheap...loss of revenue is where it gets expensive. there are occasions where you must move/relocate a utility to perform your work. we work with the utility owner, and build those costs into our proposal/bid. gee, i can't imagine digging thru a gas line, waterline, fiber, power line...intentionally? i know my ins. company would yank my policy, and the local governing authority would yank my license. but that's just how things are done here.
Yeah they've cracked down hard here, some cases especially gas lines, if a crew nicks the line and haven't had it located the whole crew goes to jail, and gets some heavy charges laid on them, several years ago it was bad enough that they made it a terrorism type of thing if you didn't get it located. Needless to say the gas company had to hire a bunch more locators!
I find it hard to beleive that their are contractors out there that would just dig blindly through utilities. Fiber optics are very expensive to fix and can damage the eye if you look into a cut wire, and a ruptured gas line can potentially explode and kill people. Let me rephrase my statement, I do not beleive that their are businesses that would do that and if they're are they won' be businesses for long.
I know what contractors your talking about. I can't understand that mentality. I did a sewer job we would dig all day and not get any pipe or get 3 pipe a day. I'd rather work around the utilities than be the jack*** who rips them out.
we avoid We strive to avoid dig-throughs, trying to pothole carefully to locate known , marked facilities beforehand. We've had owners attempt to charge us for hitting mismarked or unmarked lines, so i can only imagine what might occur when knowingly cutting through a marked existing facility....... invoice for downtime of the aforementioned pipes / cables?
this disclaimer goes on all of our proposal forms.... State law requires us to call an 800# whenever we excavate. This service only applies to major utility company main line equipment and will not locate many of the things that may be buried on your property. We are only able to make a surface visual check for things that are commonly found on a typical property without charging for the time and services to do so. The owner assumes responsibility for informing the contractor of all underground pipes, conduits, cables, wires, tanks, drainage systems and structures, and agrees to hold the contractor harmless in advent of loss or liability incurred as a result of incorrect or incomplete information provided to the contractor and agrees to indemnify contractor for loss or expense resulting from such incorrect or incomplete information.
I think it depends on what your digging through. You dont want to pull thru a gas line, fiber line, water line, sewer line, or main phone line. Gas, you get charged for repair, and lost gas. They estimate the loss, so you can be sure its in their favor. Fiber, big bucks to hit that stuff, there is no way to splice it. One company i worked for sent 3 pipe crews, 8 guys each, to a project we had on a Saturday. They spent all day locating lines by hand. 3 main fiber lines, with repair costs, and then lost time costs of 200k a minute. I can see pulling through a coaxial cable service, or a phone service to a house. Both are small, hard to find, easy to repair. Ive heard of a lot of guys doing that. More importantly, its amazing the equipment used in different areas. All the excavators look to be 20 ton and down. Around here, your small fry if your digging with a 45 ton machine. Most companies actually use 65 ton and 85 ton machines. Were talking a 24 inch water line 5 feet deep. Its wild to see. A 385 makes one cut, and lays 3 sticks of water line. Seems crazy to me. But, when one company is using a 385 and beat you on bids, you get one to compete with them.
The company I am refering to was doing 20 foot deep sewer work. They were pulling double stacked boxes and the amount of time it would take to dig around a water line or such they just dig through it pull the box then had a full time crew repairing stuff. I am sure the water dept charged them for there work to fix the lines but to the owner of the company the fines were cheaper then spending a whole day digging around a water pipe to get the box in on the other side. There are several contractors in the area that do this. Im sure mikef87 has some stories about them as well. I have spent a whole day to just get in half a sewer pipe in. I had cut the pipe down just so I can say I got some pipe in that day. In this particular area there were 3 lines all about 2 feet apart and not enough room to get the bucket in between. Luckily machine has coupler and we were able to reverse the bucket around and undermine the lines from both sides.
services I know exactly what you mean xcavate. Certain drainage contractors in the UK are purley intent on getting pipe in the ground. I dont fully understand the mentallity and could not work like that, although I know of at least one who would be happy to give me a seat. :beatsme A main contractor I have done a lot of work with, will stop the drainage contractor short of known services and get a gang of thier own to do the difficult bit. The sub contractors are on a price and it seems easier to get them to leave the difficult bits rather than spend days repairing the damage and arguing about lost time/delays etc. :Banghead As a result I get to do the fancy stuff :cool2. Some days when I bend over I swear you can see the sun shine :bouncegri This was to install a 300mm (12") storm water pipe. We had already crossed a live 33kva ducted cable. The red are 3 phase 15kva power cables, live, the yellow is new gas but not yet live, blue are water and all live.( yes there is one under the left power cable) The 3 pic are all live services on an unnamed USAF base in UK and people get awful upset if you break them. They take it very personal so it was decided the drainage contractor had better stay away from that section.
Wheeled excavator eh? That is allot of pipes. XD We only lay about 2 inn one trench.
doh! Some you just cant win :ban The locator and lighting columns told us there would be a cable, and as a result the breaker only cracked the slab, he didnt sink the point right through. Then I carefully lifted the slab and rolled it over.
cool shots!
That looks like it would be a nightmare...gotta watch what lines you are by very carefully, Ive heard of guys that have hit fiber optic cables and have had to sell everything they own just to pay fines for hitting it on their stupidity. There's one that runs through my town and across the river and apparently it costs about a $1 million per hour if its down. I dont know what its for but apparently theres very important information flowing through it at a very high rate of speed.
drainage hi rob have you come across dynes bros drainage on your travels pull through everthing seems to ring a bell with that name happy birthday too :drinkup graham
A guy that works for me now worked for a sewer guy before that would use a 8 foot trench box for a 20 foot deep hole. Everything I do is shored up properly, if OSHA ever catches you the fines alone will be ridiculous I've been caught before on a few little things.
You Know!!!! ..... I Know both brothers ! .......... Caufields !!!!!! Ask Olly about the bridge on the M25.......... on second thoughts dont ! I am impressed by the strength of the O&K dipper, and the neck muscles of the operator......... I was on the same nightshift, only 2miles up the carriageway God that must have hurt only broke one pipe on the bucket ram :notworthy:notworthy
Explain that pic please, am I to assume that an operator left the boom up on a "rubber duck" while travelling down that road?????
You go right to the top of the class Ron! Quite how he didn't either turn the machine over or break his neck is still a mystery. It is a M- way over bridge and was part of an overnight closure on that lane while the Quick Move Barrier was out
What ever brand of excavator that is (or was) I think I want one.
strong It is an O&K about 18ton. I was very impressed by the lack of damage, apart from the one pipe. It would have been a very expensive mistake to have made with my Atlas, quite apart from the dent to my pride
john ??? hi rob i heard alot about one of them ,foul mouthed ,abusive to his workers ,right down to fisticufs i worked on a site in bracknell where he killed one of his labourers ,he was a lad of about 21 ,they had just pulled one 3 meter trench box out to start backfilling ,he went to get a bucket full of concreate from the mixer truck he slewed round and hit the trench box that was stood up it fell over crushing the labourer against the box that was still in the ground very sad contract journal 2006 Three deaths on 26 July bring construction fatalities total to 19 (26 July 2006 12:29) There were three fatalities on construction sites yesterday (Tuesday) taking the total number of construction deaths for the year to 19 - a reduction on the total this time last year, which stood at 26. The first fatality occurred at 12.00pm during ground clearance work at Peacock Farm on Peackock Lane, in Bracknell, berkshire The 21-year-old, who was working for Essex-based main contractor Dynes Bros, died after he was crushed by a 3,000kg drag box that had been knocked over by an excavator. Local police are still leading the investigation following the incident.
More stuff here and there. The shot with the crane is the first overpass in the area being built. It's a Manitowoc 777 I think. and the dozer is a D10 with the gps system, one of the first in the area in that respect too.
gps dozer That is a d-6H with a Tremble Gps system
Yep Yeah I got my pic of that one mixed up with another one laying around here somewhere, my bad. The operator of that particular machine has that thing clean enough to eat off of inside.
d-rings are down and i don't see any chains on that lowboy...am i blind, or don't you have that excavator tied down going down the road?
I didn't do that. Never would and wouldn't be able to live with myself if I could have prevented a deadly accident. It doesn't surprise me though I'll share some of the things like that that have happened and I've seen. If i have a phone and see some idiot without a secured load I call the fuzz. Same thing with a drunk driver or anyone else driving stoooooopidly. I have high standards for my driving and while i don't expect everyone to i will try to get rid of an unsafe situation. Thanks for seeing that dayexco, I know one of the transportation and safety foreman for that company, he'll get a call.
How do you like that Terex wheeled machine? I have a Volvo EW55B mini wheeled machine and a Cat M322C. I'm thinking about dumping the Cat for a John Deere or a Volvo. What size is the Terex?
fftopic Soory Bear Hi mike, its a 1705M (17t) but if you check out the spec sheets, as with most machines weight varies with configuration you have. The dimensions are exactly the same as a mates 1505M ! Mine has front legs ( not my choice ) and a short dipper. You can have same on 1505M if you want it. It has a 6cy Deutz against his 4cy and I have high speed box, 30kph against 20 It is the 4th Atlas I've had, though now owned by Terex, and I cant name another duck I would rather have. 2nd choice prob Komatsu but havent tried a new one. The dash 130-3 was a nice machine. Why an Atlas? Spent over 6 months trying to locate a 13/15t machine when I was starting up. Finally found a 1995 1304M from a trusted dealer and haven't looked back. A friend ran a Liebherr 16t duck for 3yrs from new, owner operator and chopped it in for a Volvo 160, 9months ago and loves it. But I know of another company that had issues with the trans seals on thier Volvos :beatsme Sorry but dont like C@t ducks. But come change time a demonstrater for a week might change my mind Why do you want to out the C@t if you dont mind me asking? A mate had a Volvo EC55 ? tracked and loved it. Very good reports. Sorry Bear for hijackin your thread.
Well I rented a John Deere 180C last year. Loved it. The Cat has a computer issue, and would swing on its own when on a slight hill. The John Deere just seemed to be built a whole lot better. I may try a Volvo 180W though because I like that Volvo EW55B. I'm in the process of switching all the excavators over to Komatsu. I have a Cat 345 a Cat 320, a 315 and a 302.5 I'm going to start phasing out. I bought 4 Komatsu excavators and love them.
I wont insult you by even trying to advise you you have enough purchasing experience to know the ropes. My question is, what are dealers like at providing demonstraters in your location. Ya, ney or if you twist thier arm hard enough. And even if you do get your hands on a demonstrater for a week, do you get to run it yourself, or do you have an op who will do the business for you and be honest.
I'll run it for a little bit, but usually one of my key guys. My Komatsu salesman bailed me out big time before. We had a problem with the Cat loader after a blizzard, I called him at Midnight he met us at the yard and gave me a loader until Monday when I got the financing and bought it. After that it's Komatsu or Volvo all the way. Cat also gave me trouble when I was having problems with my 320BL overheating.
Hijack away! It doesn't trouble me any. Heres a couple more pics one is a little case dozer I caught on the way hom from school. and the others... lets just say boredom sets in easy on a farm especially when it's rained six days out of seven.
And here's a couple pics from a distance of some Komatsu excavators working on the ground for a what i hear will be a Home Depot store. sorry bout the quality the wife hates hearing "honey slow down I gota take a picture of that machine!"
In case you're wondering I did crush the car with the dozer.
:thumbsup
I kinda figured that one out alone Better take it to the junk yard while scrap prices is still high. Then you could pay for the diesel fuel it cost to crush it Ahhh the fun of crushing things with a dozer:thumbsup
Same trouble here in IN. The hard part is to get the locate services to actually locate the line for you when call them. As for the deep sewer I have cut sewer and water line out of my way to pull the trench boxes though. I don't aimlessly dig right threw though. I will excavate up to them, expose them and cut them clean, that way when the box does go past you have a clean pipe to fix. As for the sewer laterals you can usually put the same one in as you took out with a couple of Ferncos. With the water servcies you can acutally freeze them then cut them and keep a dry hole. Then you can add another valve or just a couple of unions to couple them back together.
I did and only used about 2 gallons to do it (Prolly burnt 1 gallon when she fired up ). Made over $400 on that car and some other crap I took. it's about the best way to be sure an get enough stuff to be halfway profitable. I only spend/use about $30 a trip in fuel to haul so that helps too, gotta watch what eats the profits and pinch every cent till it bleeds. Got a few more to run over so ill try and get some video.
So how many tree huggers were in the car? Pete
Ye but if you was really bored you would have jammed it up against a tree and folded it in half and flattened it again to really show off But I suppose the fuel used would have offset the cash gain :Banghead
i thought about it but decided not to. how well do the rubber tired excavators measure up against the tracked ones? capacity and all that. local county crew is selling a terex atlas i think slightly smaller than yours atlas rob. got a good price on it and it's not been used over 5 or6 times to clean out the odd ditch. they are only asking around 15000 for it and it's only bout 7 years old i think. what say you?
Pound for pound I dont think you will find much between them, wheeled or tracked. Its just that they tend to work in a different way. You dont see ducks generally pulling long pipe runs unless in the street, but I think that is as much down to there being more track hoe ops than duck ops. In the street the contractor will use a duck for many reasons not only lack of surface damage, some times better utilisation, multi tasking, fetching & carryin, havin to be off road at night etc, etc. Now if surface damage isn't an issue most contractors will use a track machine, I think as stated due to operator / machine availability not because of a performance issue. :IMO Terex took over Atlas around 2001/02 and they are still made in same factory in Germany. It is only in last 3yrs that any significant changes have been made. Complete new tracked machines from drawing board up ! Which has now rubbed off on the wheeled machines. For example hyd on mine are now Roxroth previously Linde. Both good proven systems. New cabs, a/c. Standardisation of undercarriage for ease of customer spec for legs, blade, or combination of both or neither. Still use Deutz engines though seem to have got away from air cooled. I know of Atlas ducks with over 15000hrs still working well. Same as any manufacturer there will be pigs, its a case of using your experience, and asking others for thiers as to whether any machine is worth what the seller wants for it. First question is Parts availability ? ( Deutz, Linde, Wabco ) 2nd question can you utilise it ? 3rd question PICTURES ! Fair price :beatsme would need a lot more info, including, if you were desperately looking for a 5yr old duck ! what is the availability ? Hope this goes somewhere to help in answering you Q :drinkup If you go to my site and click OUR MACHINE then MY MACHINES there are a few pics of a 1995 1304M air cooled, est over 8,000hrs when sold, 97, 1404M over 12000hrs, new 2003 1304M near 6000hrs (water cooled ) when sold, all served me very well.
Thanks for the info. This is the only one around here and I doubt there would be another within 500 miles at least. I'm thinkin it would give me a good niche to fill around here, especially in town. I went and gave it a good look today the thing only had ( hold yer breath) 152 hours on it. The main reason they want to part with the baby is nobody wants to run it. :beatsme they have one of those gradall machines and won't use anything else. ointhead I'll prolly cabbage on this if I can get the cash. It's a real peach. Forgot to write down the model number so that's another excuse to go look and see if i can talk the guys into letting me give her a whirl.
More Stuff More pics scavenged from my dead camera. Two are equipment and the third is a good flop eared buddy of mine named Duke.
Ex council over here is generally a good purchase, very low hours and not generally abused. If you get to give it a whirl. Dont change range gears on move.:Banghead Check low and high travel, splitter on left under steering wheel can be split on move. This is also forward reverse control. Check axle locks, 3 position switch on right hand consol. 1 off, 2 locks when footbrake activated, 3 axles locked for lift and carry. DEFAULT if broken should be locked. Hand throttle on right cab post seems antiquated but is normal What boom has it got, Mono, Manual Adjustable, or Variable Angle. Pics would be nice if possible. :thumbsup
I decided to let it slide for now AtlasRob. Money and time are never in the same place when needed lol. I did see the dangdest thing yeserday though, a crew is working on the road to my new while in college type of job ( tech support and help desk for... colleges go figure ) and I saw a small roller rigged up to the outrigger and back bucket of a backhoe (JCB for the guys across the pond ) I didn't have my camera with me (thank goodness for the stimulus money ) but next time I'm through there I'll try and get some pics of the work going on there. Here lately the area is starting to grow two new bypasses a new bridge over Lake Cumberland re grouting Wolf Creek Dam and all kinds of other projects ( around here yep they're big stuff) goin on. I can't wait to finish college and get back into the dirt ( mostly rock really) full time again. Untill then I'll content myself with clearing the farm some more. maybe dig a pond or three, never can fish enough.
You can keep the fishing, not my cup of tea I'm sorry to say I'm really intrested in that roller set up you saw. You dont mean a compactor wheel do you ? Get a picture next time your by :yup Dont rush to finish college, thats the bit that will help you later in life. The dirt, rock, grease, oil and diesel will wait for you
They were using the roller on asphalt. It's one of those small size rollers that would be pulled by a tractor. It wasn't a compactor just a plain 5 or 6 foot wide roller wheel. The hitch where it would be attatched to a tractor was chained to the outrigger foot that was let partway down and the side closest to the hoe was chained to the hoe by the side frame of it. I've been taking my camera to work but they've moved somewhere else on the project so I haven't seen them. Go figure get a new camera and try to take an interesting picture the subject goes into hiding. :Banghead
Hello Bear. Is that county Terex/Atlas still for sale? If you're not interested, I'd like to look into it....
PICTURES, never mind the excuses . Thanks for the reply, had me scratching the head for a second then remembered :usa outriggers are different to UK legs Sounds like a classic Redkneck ( we'd say :Cowboy ) set up, but if it works :thumbsup After my "I broke it Thread" :beatsme. only kidding RoadDoc, just suss out availability of parts.
AtlasRob, that is very good advice!:thumbsup
Well said Rob, I'm trying to get that through #2 sons head :Banghead now! He's got 1 year to go and then he can follow the Davis Bacon trail or join the union and get to moving dirt. That being said I'm not sure that the Cat impact ripper could pound that into his head!
:notworthy Well put. I'm not sure that brand is a choice I have the luxury of considering at the moment. Further, the Caterpillar 214 BFT I'm running now is causing me to seek relief......:drinkup Last weekend it went down on me during a critical weekend only shift..... Fuel problems.... Had to work in Florida this week. Mechanic said he'd handle it. Fired up Friday night for another shot at it... Went down again 45 min. into shift! :Banghead:cussing Mechanic changed fuel filters and played with the machine for 20 min. or so and "just knew" the problem was fixed. Now we think the fuel pump is going away. Gonna have the dealer out this week to check. This episode follows having to replace the hydraulic pump this winter. ointhead I feel for the boss... If I don't get to feed my bad "wheeled excavator" habit soon.....:jawdrop:duh:crazy I will need help.
RoadDoc, I feel for you. Nothing more frustrating than a problem that doesn't want to be solved. A few years back my Atlas 1404M started playing up toward the end of shifts, while travelling back down the carriageway to park up it felt underpowered. Changed filters, pulled air filter etc etc, went on for about 4 nights. Then I got a busy shift and after 4 hours she lost power, I knew it had to be fuel but WHY ? Proccess of elimination from what I had already checked, I tried to blow ( by mouth ) from the 1st fuel filter back into the tank to prove that was clear........ it wasnt :Banghead Each day the tank was refilled and was providing enough head of pressure to maintain the supply the pump requested, as the tank got lower the head pressure dropped and the pump was starved. I proved I was full of air that night nearly blew my neck muscles but I cleared it, and was back in the game as they say :thumbsup
A very difficult time, trying to advise and guide our young as they grow. I hope you succeed in getting your advice to be accepted for what it is meant as.
AtlasRob, Thanks for the advise. We'll check that out tomorrow. :salute
You are the Man! :notworthy:notworthy:notworthy Great advise! Took the supply line off the primary filter and all we got was a dribble... Fired up the air compressor and applied some "reverse pressure." Took the air off and had a flood instead of a dribble. Evacuated the fuel tank and it looks great in there. The machine's a 1989 model we think so we decided to go ahead and replace all the flexible fuel lines. Cat is having a time of it finding parts in their computer system, though. Schematics only show two lines. We brought three in with us.... The saga continues. We should get her going again in the morning. Praying vigorously that it works. Starting to have withdrawl symptoms.... :dizzy:eek2
No problem RoadDoc, a dribble changed to a flood sounds very promising :thumbsup
Prayers answered... Got through an entire shift!
Rock On :thumbsup You got a dining table toooooo ( 4 legs )