I think I stated before somewhere that I work for a small company which means us operators also work on our machines. Its pretty cool to know your tractors inside and out. It really breaks it up when you have a day or two of maintenance, I don't mind it at all. Anyway few pictures of me and a coworker putting tracks on the J and later in the day hunting for a transmission leak on the C. So how many of you guys get to get dirty every once in a while, or maybe you have to?:drinkup
what outfit do you work for??
I will be the first to admit that I got much better at turning wrenches on my equipment than I ever expected or planned. When you are a small operation the shop labor rates are out of the question and, a having your own shop reasonably well equipped to do as much as you can in house is a necessary item that saves tons of money.
Alot of dealers here laid off a whole lot of techs, especally C.L. Boyd the deere dealership for central, OK. then all of a sudden the oilfield picked back up and alot of these factory trained techs are working for oil companies and are afraid to come back to the dealerships like if oil and gas prices drop they wont be laid off again lol. In the mean time its very had to get timely service since everything turned around so quick. most dealers are still a little afraid to bring back everyone anyway incase the econmy does stumble again. So if your sitting around waiting for the dealer field service tech to show up in Oklahoma you might be waiting awhile so you you might better learn to start working on it or hire a good mechanic. The Cat dealer here is offering $2k refferal bonus to its employees for recruiting techs.
Great pictures & story Bluedrc.Yep thats Life working with a small company.You learn to operate & turn wrenches at the same time.I still work at a small company,wouldn't trade it for anything.After awile you wont even need to get out the service manual on the equipment.The small company thrives on multitask people that like a challenge.Getting dirty Or Operating?Thats a toss up for me as I like Operating & working on the equipment about the same.
YELLOMTLMILITIA, I work for Gallion Excavating we're in Edmond. We do very local work mostly developments but its been more commercial stuff the past couple of years. We are fortunate Boyd takes care of us in service and parts. Field mechanic Kenny is great he always works on our stuff, we usually call him on the bigger things for example he just put a differential in the 9520. Things like hoses, tracks, cutting edges, etc. and general maintenance we do ourselves.
I've learned to work on a lot of things. Really wish that I had learned some of the stuff dad tried to teach me then instead of haivng to learn it much later the hard way....LOL. I turn a pretty good wrench becuase I had to. While a young father and soldier I couldn't afford someone to fix my stuff. Now many years later there is nothing on a car or lite truck that I can't do. I've also learned hydraulics and trannies and now am learning about farm stuff. I'm just about ready to buy a TLB and have been looking for a small dozer. Bet I'm about to learn a lot more. Rick
employers like past owner op? I should think that were I an employer I'd be more inclined to give the nod to someone who owned and maintained their own equipment over a school trained operator? There are a lot of ways to break big iron and having had to fix my screwups I am sure carefull when operating but I also know the limits...... though like anyone i suppose i'll try for that 'extra' blade full etc.
It was good for me, I started working for a small outfit when I was 19, we did almost all the major work on D8's in the winter months. I learned alot from one of the older shop men including heavy welding. Long story short I was able to put that knowlege to use on my own equipment in later years. Never been afraid of getting dirty, still not.
yabut, it must be nice to just be an operator and if something breaks you go work on other equipment or something. Sometimes i so much do not want to do something..........grease 18 rollers or something, flush the cooling system etc.
The more you know how to do the better, you will stay busy that way. Greasing rollers is better than going home sitting on butt right?
You need to be well rounded to stay alive in this economy. I own my company have 9 excavators, 3 dozers, 7 loaders, 4 backhoes, and a handful of minis and bobcats. I can keep all the equipment running, because its getting harder and harder to find mechanics these days. The local union sends apprentices out that want nothing to do with turning wrenches or getting dirty. When I started out thats how we started out greasing the trucks on Saturdays, changing tires then worked our way up to mechanic/ operators.
I know more then the average operator already IMO. Most of the places I have worked though are so big there have several mechanic and helpers. Or so small they have cheap new iron and keep it under warranty with dealers doing maintenance. I wouldn't mind learning more about turning wrenches, but I won't do it for a living. I always try and help the mechanics when I can. I learned to turn wrenches that way and it never hurts to have the mechanic as your buddy and trust you. He reports right back to the guy that signs your check.
Planning Dozer Maintenance For an in depth look at dozer maintenance, I think some of you might find this column interesting: http://www.gradingandexcavation.com/november-december-2010/dozer-maintenance-schedules-1.aspx ( With contributions from yours truly. )
Growing up in our fam biz there was very little we didn't do on our equipment. 2 dozers, an excavator and self loading scraper, few small machines as well. Winter time used to be for crushing ag lime but once we got out of that(and thawing water pipes), we spent all the time in the shop. Everything from engine rebuilds to undercarriage, burnt a lot of rod welding and hardfacing. Company I am with now, I still get to do a fair share of wrenching but our major projects are left to our main mechanics. Trbo