So I'm the "greeniest" driver on out scraper crew at this particular job. Now while I've only been on pans for maybe 6 months, but not green by any means to heavy equipment. The driver of this particular one has just instructed me on how to drive, and where to put my loads. He believes that the very dry powdery topsoil pile should be three feet higher on the edge than the path just to the inside. He has been rubbin me the wrong way for the past few days... Myself and one of the others was trying to keep the edges just about 6-8" higher. Well he was draggin the edge and this happened. My reaction, take picture, then gun it for the dozers, then come back and take more pictures... :cool2 It took them almost 45 minutes to slowly lower him down without him rollin over. I wanted to attach as thumbnails but I can't figgure it out.... so just click on the link http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0926070929xq5.jpg http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0926070918co3.jpg
Stockpiling topsoil is alway a joke.Especially when it is dry and powery.It seems you never have enough room to pile it to start with and then there is always more dirt then they estimated ! It is better to try and keep the outside edge higher if you can it just tend to keep the scraper tipped in toward the pile and not over toward the outside edge.It is hard to keep it high on the edges. Sometimes it's just easier to start a new pile if it's getting to narrow at the top,but again depends on if you have enough room.Boss always would say just a few more loads! Yeah right !!!!!! Be careful and keep the shiny side down now.Good luck:usa
Stumpjumper, I like to keep the edges a couple feet higher, starting where I drive on. Then I prefer to angle just a bit to where I'm going to dump and put a driver right on the edge while keeping the trailer tire inside the edge a couple feet. This does a couple things. It helps crowd more dirt to the edge because the outside of the bowl is tipped up some. It holds you on the edge better because it is downhill to the inside of the pile. Theres a chance you can pull yourself out backwards if the driver starts to go because the trailer tires aren't next to the edge. What steams me is when people dump a half a scraper width from the edge when trying to build a pile up pretty vertical.
What the hey! It's just a little itty-bitty slope. He should have pushed the can down a little more and piled on the power. It would have come right on off the pile no sweat. These models are hard to tip or roll with the can down on nearly any incline.
Boy does that bring back memories.... I was with an Air Force Red Horse unit TDY to the Philippines. We were cutting a hillside behind the firing range and filling a ridge to keep shrapnel etc... from hitting a civilian villiage just over the wall and what would be a new hill when we got done. All we had to do was cut going down a steep hill, remember sliding on goop to get to the spot I was to cut and "slamming" the bowl down to slow me down and start cutting, then turn and come up the new "ridge" and empty out. At one point it was the Staff Sergeants turn to get time on the Payscraper- 14cyd I believe- so I ran the dozer (TD-15)that was leveling what was being dumped. By the end of the week the ridge was getting pretty high, so I was pushing to both sides- keeping it about a blades width on both sides- and slowly going up. Then he has enough time on scraper so I get back on it. Ssgt (I was a Senior Airman) decides we arent going up fast enough so he is just leveling out what I bring over. Pretty soon I am going up the hill loaded keeping a fair distance from the edge he created, I turn around to unload only to find I was barely on the path on the way up. That was enough of that, I got the Msgt involved and he "recommended" the Ssgt start building it wider or he would be running the scraper while I fixed the problem. Sure enough, it took just as much dirt to widen the road as it would have to keep it wide the whole way up. Ah well,,, Memories!!!!!!! Good stuff!!!!!
Now in my defense we were tapering the edges in to about a 5:1 slope & the pile was 2 lanes wide. He prefered to take the out side lane 3' up, without tapering to the inside. While dragging the outside ridge he had built is when he ran off. Anyhow, after the other driver that was helpin me keep pace with the edges took over pile controll, nobody had any problems.
I'm with Joe on this one. It appears the guy that was trying to instruct you is green himself. That's a TS 14 and far as I can tell from the pictures cats should not have been needed to get him off the pile. A really experienced operator would not have missed a beet and just kept going when he fell off. He was right in keeping the edge lots higher though. ..he likely would not have fallen off if the edge was 3' higher then the middle. 6-8" isn't anywere near enough to support a scraper in powder. Why was he dragging it? It couldn't have been to fix it up to get the edge higher or he would have been about half a scraper width away from the edge.
Why did he stop he was half way down? ointhead
I cant finger out why the operator just didnt hog the can in and turn the tractor on down the hill, mash the throttles and go! Just keep the tractor under the can and he wouldve made it out on his own. Jason