I’ve operated everything from a hand shovel to a pc1200 1000 times,all with standard booms/ buckets. I’ve been offered a pretty sweet deal operating .. think he said 48’ rig. Anything I need to watch out for other than no side loading, bucket capacity and probably just depth perception adjustments? Just dredging a drainage ditch , no rocks .
When you have a bucket full of mud for the first time and you’re bringing the stick in, you might want to keep the front window closed, because when that stick stops quicker than you anticipated,it will throw most of the mud from the bucket into the cab…
Lol.. yeah I could see that happening.. thanks
What Dash number in the PC200?
Not sure yet.. way to muddy to get to it today lol I’m stuck on a Volvo EC350El today. Loaded to the teeth
@Shimmy1 does a lot of that ditch cleaning and pond work, he would have a lot more specific advice for your new gig. Yes side loading the stick and boom is bad news, they are more like a fishing pole than a heavy boom at times. I have used the bucket to assist turns, but do so very carefully and not a big hurry. Regarding the tossing material, I had a young fellow on the job who was eager to try it out so I set him up there with a task, and soon enough he tossed about a half wheelbarrow onto the cab floor and his feet. The toe glass was out or it would have been broken.
Good day You may find this information of interest. Kind regards Uffex
something like this Even with the bucket empty, it's heavy. If you stop to fast, it can slide your tracks around, and when loading trucks, even when you stop, the boom will flex, and go past the truck. I think when we put the long boom on our 350 linkbelt, I think they add extra weights to the bottom of the counter weight.
Like on this JD 270 I was operating in Mount Rainier national park. it was a 60' machine.
All that makes sense with that long boom. I never operated one and I know a local guy that has a Hyundai HX300 with a 60’ boom. It’s brand new and they broke the pin that holds the stick to the boom. I was like that’s weird cause it’s brand new with no wear. No I bet someone did it swinging it around too fas and stopping or hit something etc. he lets anyone that’ll climb on it operate it. And it had mud all over the front of it. Now I know lol
Most run a smaller bucket as well. They can be robust with the right man on it. We have used ours for shore line protection jobs. Handling large rock can be hard on it if you're not careful. If I remember, Skyking1's picture is a machine placing rock.
That’s what we need one for rip rap on the shoreline. We have a place in West Tennessee on the river and there’s a lot of rip rap applications here. Many require a long reach machine.
You are going to need a very big machine handling a long reach and setting rip rap.
Yes I was armoring a slope, taking rock out of the truck there.
Ours is set up on a 350 Linkbelt. Even then there is quite a bit of weight added to the counter weight,. They built a rack at the shop yard that you can run the machine up to with the boom and stick folded up, set it in place, remove the pins and lines, and then back away, leaving the boom in place, so you can put the regular boom and stick back on.
to put it in perspective, both this 270 above and the hitachi 210 I have operated had a 4' cleanup bucket on them, very similar to the bucket for my current 120. That's all they can handle, especially over the side like that. In the picture above, you can see the paint from what looked like a boom repair some time in the past.
Well they sold the komatsu before starting and brought in a Volvo 250lr It’s not bad I don’t guess. They’re not as intimidating as I thought. 5 miles of drainage ditch..,here we go lol
Not written in stone, and I am by no means a hoe man, and by that I mean I can run one if I have to, but it's not my daily driver. But I was taught years ago that if you ditch from the lowest to highest spot, you have less of a chance of having a puddle. I have always used this, even running water with the grader.
yes indeed. If you want to make a good product, set up a laser next to the outlet and put one of the targets on it with lights and check yourself now and again. hump the laser along as you go.
These particular ditches are in north east Arkansas.. keeps the farm land drained off in the area after clearing the forest after the great Chicago fire. A maze of them running west away from the Mississippi River levees. They pretty much keep a water line in them. Further west they go the wider and deeper they get. I’m pretty much against the levee so I’ll just flatten the bucket on the existing slope profile and take out about 1-1.5 foot and any silt buildup. Sure would be nice to have a gps setup in this rig.
It's going to feel weird at first, like things are sluggish. Stuff happens a lot faster, just take your time and get a feel for the machine before you try and get after it. It's going to feel tippy, but you'll get use to that.
Think I gotter figured out .. thanks
Yes you do! What Volvo machine do you have? The local rock Quary by our place in Tn has a EC300C with a long reach boom that they keep on a stand for easy switch out with the standard boom. They like it a lot.
Ec 250.. i like It. This gumbo with a smooth bucket gives a bit of trouble.
Here she is
That’s baddass! Looks like a regular ho would reach there ?
But maybe not. Not judging you fosho!
Maybe, but it would be a real bugger with the water and slop. That boom is a good 30' long, and it just reaches to the bottom. That ditch looks to me like one of those situations where it just isn't feasible due the fact there's a lot of cut on the opposite slope, and maybe access is restricted to one side? Like my waterholes last summer, sometimes a tiny little bucket moving the muck once is better than a big bucket moving it two or three times, not to mention easier on the sanity of the driver lol. I don't mind running a long reach. For a little while anyway. It gets old after while.
I know looks can be deceiving. I’m sure it was needed or he wouldn’t have been using it lol. Either way nice work !
Stretched all out it likes about two foot catching the other bank top. The ditch has been neglected for a decade or two. Pretty much having to re dredge the whole profile. It has like double sometimes triple shoulder slopes.