hope everyone feels like having a better year than last. My company performs residential and commercial excavation here on the western slope of the rocky mountains. I have a lb 210 x2, a lb 225 msr, a lb 135 msr. 2 bobcat 435's with varios buckets, compacter and hammer, a komastu 180 wheel loader with a qc- forks and 12' bullplow, a case 850 h, 2 bobcat s300's a s250, a bobcat mini-mini- asst of compacter's gravel boxes, trench boxes, laser's, a 90 kw t800 with a interstate triple axle. and who knows what else. I don't need everything I have but most is paid for and it is not a good time to sell. Last year we a a 110 unit high end townhome project going consisting of 35-40 8000 sq foot foundations- 2-3000- c/yds a piece. we got 15-18 holes into it and the developer stopped paying ointhead. Residential has been hit real hard as well as I would dig 3-6 8000 sq/ft + custom homes a year. everybody is holding on to their money. We a a job going in Aspen, Co. but the G.C has refused to pay winter conditions :Banghead. so our pile of snow is probably 20-25 loads. We got over 100" of snow in december. Bidding is real lame right now as everyone is hungry and the new guys bid for less than cost and their is always a stupid g.c. trying to save. Thank god it is snowing, whoever said snow removal is for desperate people is wrong and i hope he is still working. I ran 3 skids a wheel loader with plow , plowtruck with sander and a dozer more hours in dec. than sept, oct . nov. we had a great billing for december thanks to the snow and it is helping pay paymnets on the new iron as well as fixed overhead. thanks for letting me share as i find this forum very helpfull and informative. there seem to be a lot of guys around the world sharing the same problems- advice is always welcome by me. let me see if i can figure out how to show you guys some pics. bob
Great pics ,that Komatsu looks like a handy little pusher
Welcome from Vancouver Island in Beautiful British Columbia.
Thanks for sharing the pics. Im new here and working toward my 3rd post so I can share more. I worked in your niehborhood during the oil shale boom in the 80s, lived in parachute. Many times wished I had never left. Still have some good friends there.
Which side did you work ddigger? Exxon or Union Oil? I paved most of the roads and streets in Parachute when I worked for Corn.
Joe I worked on the Union Oil side for Daniel Constrution. I had left AZ where I was from to go there. From there to here in Northern CA for the last 24yrs. I still have family in PHX.
I did some work over there when I was a Cat field mechanic on some Daniel underground muckers that had Cat 3204 engines in them. Rebuilt a D9H final drive too for Gilbert-Western and did some other work outside the tunnel. They wanted me to go underground but I said no. NO way was I going to go where the sun don't shine. I later rebuilt some Galion grader articulation joints when Union was actually working the mine right there at there shop located outside the main entry. That was when I was working for HW Moore, the International dealer. Cold as hell then, middle of the winter. When I worked for Corn, we paved the road from Parachute up to the main gate, also the entire refinery. Lots of hand work there because of all the pipes. I rebuilt 651 scraper hitches, swapped engines and transmissions for Green Construction just outside of the refinery location when they were still building the road up. Do you remember the days the big cut would slide off the hillside and block the road? We used to turn around and go out the back way, lot's longer drive, but we figured the drive was worth it to avoid being trapped till midnight. Do you remember when Green's D4 Cat went off the fill and fell about 2000 feet down to the bottom, landed near where the old shale plant was? I helped pick up the pieces and later loaded it again for transport to our yard in Grand Junction. Most totally destroyed Cat I ever saw. Killed the operator of course. Most of my work was over on the Exxon side for Gilbert. Steady diet of repair on D9's, 777B's, 651 and 631 scrapers, and 992C's. Nice in summer once you got used to the altitude, cold, cold, cold in winter. I stayed in the Junction till you couldn't buy a job on the western slope anywhere. Lost everything, went to Kentucky and started over.
Yes I do remember most of those things, although I didnt see them all, word of that stuff traveled fast. I spent most of my time there first building the man camp and then the refinery. I was a operator for them running track loader, backhoes and gradalls cutting slopes, good duty but your right colder than hell for an AZ boy. When we left I went back to work in AZ but even though I had grown up there we were gone long enough I couldnt work in the heat. My wife had grown up here so we came to check it out and never left. I transfered from 428 to local 3, work for a few good outfitts then bought an excavator and went out on my own in 89 and am still at it, happy as if I had good sense. Are you still at it?