Some pictures of my school equipment and the pit we work at. More pictures will be added as the school year progresses and we get to do more jobs. The pit isn't actually owned by the school, it's owned by the Moosehorn Refuge which lets us use it because we maintain their roads and do projects for them and such. Driving practice to see who is capable to take the dump trucks out on the back roads of the refuge to bring material out. It took us about an hour and a half to get to the culvert we were puttin an extension on and widening the road in that spot using the back roads, takes 10 mins if you use your truck on the main roads. Those who don't pass the test stay back in the pit and practice or they can ride as a passenger. Every truck when it leaves has to have a passenger and the trucks have to travel together, never alone. We get no cell service out here and have no radios so if something goes wrong they want us to be able to get someone out to get help. This is my favorite dump truck, everyone else hates it. Which is out of service for another couple weeks. The fuel doesn't stay in the lines so we have to prime it to start it, so once it's started you don't wanna stall it or turn it off. I had never ever driven a standard or anything bigger then a Ford Ranger before I got here. It is a 13 speed with a really odd shift pattern. It's got Direct, Intermediate, and LO. More to come later today! I gotta go to class now.
Nice pic's. I like the Western star dump truck.:thumbsup Kyle
Lol everyone loves the Western Star, no one ever gives any love to the Kodiak or our Brigadier. Our old grader. We call her hunny. She will kick your ass. This WA300 is a dog. You have to smash it right to the floor to get any hydraulic power. Good luck screening it with our screens too because the bucket doesn't quite make it high enough. Our 966 setting up the screens. New WA200 that everyone fights over. The little "road" I made with the John Deere bulldozer. I'm pretty sure it's a 450G. The roads actually kinda flat instead of wavy!
Me and a few other people get to the pit an hour early to do pre-checks and load the trucks so when 7am rolls around we can take off and get a couple more loads out that day. This is the Western Star and the General. The General has some balls let me tell you and it always wants to go. The General comin threw the gate. The passenger in the first truck has the lucky job of running around opening the gates when we get to them, then closing them when all the trucks get threw, then haulin ass back to the first truck to get movin. That happened to be me that day. Gotta get your exercise! The D3 everyone hates. You come to the pit and almost everything will be working but the D3 because no one wants to get on it and take the time to get to know the machine enough to do anything with it. It's not such a bad machine when you figure it out. The new CASE the MooseHorn let us borrow. Another machine people have thrown punches over. boys.
Nice pic's. That Western Star is my favourite out of all the trucks there I like the GMC General too. Kyle
Well done HEO do keep them coming,and the odd update on your progress as well.
everyone always runs for the new toys huh, when they get out they'll be out of luck most companys ive been at the new guy doesnt get the new piece they get the old d3 or that komatsu loader , if it was me get the time with the older stuff learn to be good on them and if and when you get a new piece of a equipment it'll be a cake walk
Good advice jimmyjack, same with the trucks keep runnin that old brigadier! This looks like a great place to go to school, keep posting up pics and good luck!
I love those old 966s. I would rather have that than any of those new ones.
nice pics we had a new brigadier dump in the 1980.. pretty black shiney....everyone pretty much hated the truck... The name of the truck...."BLACK BONUS"... why? well that year we didn't get a bonus... we got the only thing the company purchased that year... a dump truck... we already had 5 dump trucks
I'm so glad to finally have a chance! Odd updates for an odd person :tong. Exactly. I like running the older stuff because then people don't come over and kick you off to take their turn. But man let me tell you that 200 sure is nice compared to that 300 lol. The little D3 ain't so bad though, you just gotta love it. I ain't driven the Brigadier yet but I've been in the passenger seat. We are putting in a new power steering pump and with everything else going on it's kinda been put on the back burner. The accelerator is really touchy and she shakes and rattles like mad. The 966 is a tired machine. I didn't find out what was wrong with it before I left the pit Thursday but someone said something about the hydraulics and something else I can't remember. We call ours "The Rig of Fear"
HEOGirl that reminds me of the old song Girlschool by Britny Fox. Brings back memories of when I was your age. LOL! YouTube - Britny Fox - Girlschool
What kind of excavator is in the back there?Love me some old Komatsus! Looksmlike you are havin fun.Rember,if its not fun--Its work!
i can't believe the school that she has waited so long to attend. it should be the King of Obsolete School, LOL. up here in the great white north the students get so much seat time on each machine and no one can kick them off. if you are uncomfortable with a michine you get more seat time. with the big mine clean up here and it has on the contract to hire so many locals. at my real job i had (ok, he was the only one answering the phone that day)to take the male waitress from the cafe and toss him in a brand new rock truck and give him the 3 hour training course (ok it has 2 seats and i drive then you drive) and he spent the summer driving with no problems. once off the rock truck he got tossed in every piece of equipment that buddy barry owns because he showed up to work everyday. a training school to me should have the newest equipment because that is what the companies are leasing. the older stuff should be learned when there is no other equipment around and that is what you get to drive today. my reasoning for my views on this is i waited 5 years to take machine shop course at the college, i entered at the age of 18 and the first month we did nothing. the teacher never talked to us and we watched him build brass canons which he gave away to gov guys. if we asked him what he was doing he just flicked his smoke and told us to be quiet. after 4 months of this 90% of the class went and seen the dean at the school. the dean told us that nothing can be done because the teacher is very close to retirement. after the meeting with the dean, 90% of the class quit and got on with their lifes. the 10% that stayed could not get a job as machinests because they were not trained as machines. i touch base with the 90% guys once in a while and we have all done good in their lives. some are machinests and other are machinests as hobbiest. i express my views because i want HEO Girl to be successfull as if she was one my five daughters. ok, i'll step off my soap box now. thansk KoO Published Author
Lol. I used to have a cassette player. Never heard that song before but I actually like it. To be honest I'm not sure. I'll let you know Tuesday when I get back to the pit. I'll even try and get a picture of it for you. I am having a blast. King of Obsolete - I understand what you are saying. I am doing the best with what I have and what I have right now is this school. This school is a whole lot better then nothing and will get my foot in the door of this industry. Had I not takin this route I would still be sitting on my butt wishing and dreaming of the day someone just might give me a chance. I know way more now then I did when I walked into this school. I did look into other schools like the 2 year one in Penn. but it was way to rich for my blood. And I know I will be successful because I'm just to damn stubborn to give up :tong.
Good on ya for following your dreams, if you love grease, dirt and Diesel go for it:notworthy
Here you go 580bruce It's a PC150 incase you can't really see the picture that good. Good old Brigadier back in action! Rode in it all day today. The clutch brake doesn't exist so going into first from neutral is awful. Pretty much shifting into any gear is awful with that truck unless your loaded. It also doesn't have any heat. The heat you get comes off the engine and it will just about roast you out of the cab, especially on a day like today when it wasn't cool but extremely muggy. Even got it's own name plate on the inside .
That is a pc-150-3.Too bad it isnt a -5,way better.Good old hoe though.Once you get used to and old Komatsu,you will always like Komatsu!
Who is that pulling up their pants behind the GMC?Bet there is a story there ).Ron G
<> Our 80ish Brigadier with the goofy chrome shift knob and lever had a push button clutch brake on the shift lever. Any chance it's the same? The brake was strange but they really couldn't wear out.
Is it just me, or does anybody else think that old komatsu looks a lot like a 2xx cat? What year is that brigadier? I hadn't thought about it before, but I think it uses the same cab as my 1970 C-90.
Dont know if it it is true but I heard it said that Komatsu was butterfly in Japanese which is what every caterpillar aspires to be..........................
well in the early days of search engines.... Komatsu searches where a completely different animal...
Was it a Japanese porn star or summit??????
Yeah... usually a backhoe wasn't even on the first page.... but now the companies pay big bucks to have their site on the top of the list.... Kinda like BP did...
Lol, I think that is Cliff and he was just walkin behind it. No cool stories, sorry. You know I never even looked at the Brigadier, we were right on screech all day but I don't remember any button. The shift lever is bent forward so it's awkward. I'll take a closer look and ask on Tuesday when I get back. We had to get the road all spread and graded so the Moosehorn could open the gates to the leaf peepers (a.k.a. tourists). I have no idea but I will ask Tuesday! Promise!
i guess things are different in the great white north. HEO girl, i treat you like one of my daughters and i want the best for you. i took this fellow (lance-alot) who is in to goth (everything is blak and lots of jewerly) and was working at the cafe because they hire anyone who comes to town. i had him at the shop working hard in this summer and of course the rock truck driver never showed up when the rock with the water tank was need the most. i gave him quick course on running a $300,000.00 rock truck and off he went. all summer he was doing everything from semis,cats to loaders and backhoes and dressing up to do meetings to promote buddy barry's company. in the great white north, if you want to work there is work. the best one was when the forest fire was inches away from town and we got the call sunday morning. of all the employees i called, lance-alot was by the phone because he was getting ready for church. so we headed out to the fire with the cats and when the big guys asked who the kid was i told them he had one hour on a cat and he was the only who answered the phone. so off we went and lance-lot learned alot on running a cat and after 2 days he was on buddy barry's newest cat (750J) because i like my old cats for some reason. i have a few fellows working around the shop and everyone gets seat time, even guys who have no drivers liecence get to drive the trucks. you only get to learn once and you learn by your mistakes. keep us posted and more pictures of your seat time, please. thansk KoO Published Author
sorry to highjack your thread but i would like to treat you as one of my daughters,my daughter xena was involved today. today my guys that i'm teaching got to be part of getting a rented 345 out of the sand and water. the guys worked hard and safely under the conditions and i was proud of them when the backhoe was up and on high ground. but they now had to was the sand off before it turned hard(ok frozen). i got the water truck on site for them and at 5pm everything was handled and everyone was happy. it is all common sense and no one is a hero, work as a team is all i tell them and learn from your mistakes. thansk KoO Published Author
Well I asked my teacher Kevin and he looked at me kinda funny then said "80s" in that sorta unsure slow voice that kinda sounds he's questioning himself. It's got a cummins in it I guess. Nope, no push button clutch brake. I actually drove it and I find that if you shift it it into reverse and then go to 1st real quick it don't grind so much and sometimes you catch it just right and it doesn't grind at all. I like the PTO on it much better, it's alot simpler it seems to me atleast. Tuesday me and my grading partner in crime Tyler were sent out to grade a road. It took us 2 hours to get out there and our substitute teacher Butch decided it was a good idea to come out and check on our progress... Well the grader has really awful brakes. You want to be pumping them long before you actually want to stop, and you can forget about stopping quickly. We were going along in 4th gear getting all the grass and crap that had made the road almost invisible, going down a pretty decent hill, we start to round the corner and all of a sudden Butch's van pops outta nowhere. Me and Tyler are freaking out, being all panicky forgetting totally that we could have used the blade to help stop us :Banghead. I pumped the brakes then practically stood on them with both feet holding onto the steering wheel to give me more weight. We stopped finally, we weren't that close to hitting him but man it scared us. Luckily the grader decided to stay in gear on the hill, it likes to pop into neutral. That happens to us quite abit... Later on that day me and Tyler were waiting for the trucks to come back and we had finished what we could so we parked the grader and turned her off to eat lunch. By the way on a cold day sitting on top of the grader where the radiator is, is very nice . Well the trucks go by and we waited for them to spread and come back our way, when they passed us we attempt to turn the grader on... notice how I say attempt, because it didn't start. It's tough to tell if you have it out of gear because it's so sloppy. So we check that and we're sure it's out of gear, we then check the fuel (still had a quarter of a tank), check the oil (that was fine). Try to start it again, it sounds sick, like it's not getting enough power to turn over... oh sweet batteries are dead! We only had it turned off for a couple hours or so. Now out where we were there is no radio contact with our trucks (the trucks don't like to share their radios so we don't get one ) and no cell phone service. So me and Tyler go take a walk. The trucks just went by to go back so they wont be back for some time. Took us a little bit but we finally found a hill we could get a little cell phone service, we call our teachers cell and it's off :Banghead. So we called my room mate, she didn't answer.. We then called Tyler's room mate John and got him on the phone and told him to get Kevin to bring the service truck out to help us with the grader because it wont start and we think we need a boost. By the time he got out there and looked the grader over, and boosted us it was time to bring the grader back to the pit for the day. We found out today that the alternator wasn't charging and we have a parasitic draw somewhere.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarep...04/20101004phoenix-female-crane-operator.html
You are getting some good experience there,I hardly ever got new or even recently new equipment to run,the day to day events that you endure is just about what to expect with many employers.I carried a pretty good complement of tools in my pickup and many times it allowed me to continue working and making production as opposed to calling the shop for help or losing the day.Ron G
Wow, thanks for posting that! She must be one awesome lady. Maybe someday I'll be as awesome as her. Well since that little incident we now steal the booster pack from the service truck in the morning when we go out. That way we can boost our self and maybe a truck if it needs it. We are getting farther and farther up the road now, it's taking us quite some time to get back to the pit. Me and Tyler were grading when we came upon this. So this is what happens when you leave the lever on the PTO to raise body when it's already hit the top. We couldn't figure how to get the body to go back down so we called our teacher... Needless to say he was very unimpressed when he saw this. Matt started shoveling the rest of the dirt outta the dump body to get the weight off the back so it would go down. Jim told him to hop out and he put the General in reverse and road it up on that pile and the bed started to go back down... that easy, yup. Gravity.... duuuuuh! Why can't we think of these things. Anyways, at least now we know. Just takin a little cat nap at lunch time. It was cold and that radiator was nice and warm. This is at the end of the Jame's Pond road. Literally the end of it, the road goes right to the pond. Was really pretty. I found Beethoven! This was our substitute teachers dog. He used to be the teacher here before he retired. His paw was about the size of my hand. He's 160lbs and still growing.
Look like you guys have fun.
Sometimes to much fun :tong. I also learned that if you think a spot off the side of the road is pretty solid dry ground for you to pull off the road to let the trucks by (and you think no ones gunna even notice you did it)... your usually always WRONG! Cuz it was some pretty deep mud and I made a wicked nice rut and didn't think I was going to be able to get the grader back out on the road... Needless to say when the Moosehorn sees that they are going to be pissssssed. When your boss tells you not to go off the side of the road at all unless it's in a proper turn around spot (even if the turn around spot is 4 miles back in each direction) you best be doin what he says. Forget all about making the truck drivers happy, they can wait for my slow ass to back up all the way to the turn around spot from now on.
Yah I hear you got to keep the truck driver happy. It good that you got out too.
good stuff ! good luck with your studies looks like you managed to get a good school
Yeah better than those hackjobbies in Ontario.. errr I mean:drinkup
Good luck in all you do, just having my own daughter(just shy of two months old) I want her to go for her dreams and help her along the way. Not enough people today want to earn what they want. Your an insperation to all ladies. Trbo
Well done to all, hope everyone is well ,EZ TRBO of course you know that you will have to post a picture in the TGIF for everyone to ooohhhhhhh and ahhhhhhhhhh over............
I went to WCCC also for the HEO program, graduated in 04. Had alot of fun up there, Jim and Butch are great. Its to bad about the WA300, that machine had tons of power when I ran it! I really enjoyed lookin at your pics HEOGirl, its bringin back memories!!! Keep posting if ya can!
Shop Time Has Begun Wow Dirt Farmer I didn't even notice you posted here! That's so cool that you went to the same school! The WA300 has a hole in the turbo so that could be one of the reasons. It is with Kevins HEM class (he took over for Butch) gettin fixed up. Well since the snow has set in we have been in the shop since the beginning of this second semester. The class at this time splits into 2 parts. Kids taking Heavy Equipment Maintenance (HEM) and the kids taking Heavy Equipment Operations (HEO). I am taking the operations part of it. The Maintenance kids fix all the hard stuff and us Operations kids do little things (we split the equipment for the most part) like change filters, hoses, oil, ect. Along with fixing things at this time we are learning grades and later on in the semester will be learning forklift and crane theory (heavy heavy learning on the rigging, my teacher says there isn't anyone worse then someone who can't rig a crane right). We do get to plow a little bit with the loaders around the school, mostly in front of our own shop. We did however get to go out today and tomorrow and plow a parking lot out for the fishing derby coming up here. I will post long overdue pictures now Compliments of our teacher Jim. Came out of the PC150. Whoopsies. Poor grader. Clutch rod on the Brigadier snapped in half but we got it fixed. Falling off the lowboy, at least we didn't pop a track that time.
However the first time it fell off we did knock it off. Took us awhile to get it back on too. Trying to get the Kodiak started so the HEM kids could bring it in the shop and get it fixed for good. We tried the booster pack and it was a no go then we tried both the booster and the WA300 and it was still a no go... so we decided we was going to bring out the big guns. It started right up. Sargent Corp. brought their simulator for the WITT (Women in Technical Trades) day at the school. Me and the other girl in my class went down to help out and talk to the high school girls about Heavy Equipment. The guy on the simulator is the HEM teacher Kevin and the kid behind him is John, he's in my HEO class. Need to know air brakes? Cool picture of the Western Star I took in the wee mornin hours.
Our forklift. The allmighty CASE sitting on the mock culvert we did. Service Bug at your service!
The pit has changed quite a bit since the beginning of first semester. (see first page to see what it looked like first semester) That pile of bank run in the middle is completely gone. Our 3" stone pile has gone from nothing to huge. That other bank run pile off to the left right behind the fine grade pile is all gone also. The fine grade pile don't really look any different because we were hauling out just as much as we were making. Mock culvert we did.
Great pic's. I love the one of the Western Star. Kyle
Last Week Well this week is officially the last week of school! We are supposed to be out ditching town roads right now but something came up.... Anyways, we made the best of the sudden change in plans and went back to the pit. It was hard getting the track equipment back out there because the roads were posted but they eventually made it out. Here are some recent pictures I have taken. Went home with my room mate and got to run the skidder for abit. Was awesome! However, pulling cable... not so awesome. Hanging off the back of the damn cable like a monkey and it still wasn't spooling out all that great. Guess I need more muscle . Our teacher trusted ME with HIS pickup... Silly, silly man. He was bringing the backhoes out to the pit (roads were posted so he drove them) and I was following behind him. Was a nice truck. So we couldn't get this itty bitty generator started... we got fed up... we fixed the problem.
Finally got the 966 running. Sat in the pit all winter was tough to start (batteries were ran flat). I wanted to take the batteries back to the shop to charge them up for the night so when we brought them back they'd be all ready with plenty of juice to get it going. But no, instead we spent 2 days frigging around with the booster pack trying with failure. But that's ok... because eventually we got it done. Doing some screening with the WA300. Actually got some time in the WA200. Was pretty exciting. "Supervising" The other kids that wanted to try the grader. I know, shocker, someone actually wanted to try it! Even if it was only 1! It's a start! Pit was pretty lonely today, not many people around.
Busted a hydraulic hose. Oops. The pit collects quite a bit of water so we decided to build a drainage area for the water to go. Working on the drainage area. Got the PC150 all fixed up... sorta.
You still got snow in the woods there?Ron G
Possibly in some spots. I ain't really been in the woods though. I know the roads are wicked soft out on the Moosehorn and last I knew a couple weeks ago in some spots there was a lot of snow. They almost rolled one of their dump trucks, sunk bad.
That first pic off of the skidder looks like snow on the ground.I assumed that it was a recent picture.Ron G
that chevy 10wheeler. Im going to guess its 1987. Does that have little Cat 3208- 250hp, a strangely bent shifter with a chrome shift knob? I bet thats the sister truck to the one i grew up driving. we bought ours from a guy in NH, who said the other truck had gone to maine. this was in like 1991.
Great pic's. Kyle
HEO GIRL, You be very careful boosting that equipment. ALWAYS wear safety glasses. It gets ugly real fast when a battery explodes. A friend of mine lost an eye recently and was almost completely blinded. Looks like you are learning well in school. You can operate my Volvo and screen out some material with my Finlay screening plant when you get to Alaska. No worn out stuff here.
You are correct it is snow. That picture was taken many weeks ago. It's a 78' with a 290 cummins in it. My teacher tells me it was an old road tractor that they lengthened the frame on and put a dump body on it. It does have a funky bent shifter though, no chrome however. We always wear safety glasses. Not allowed anywhere without a pair. The old 966's governor is messed up. If you could make it go full throttle it would beat both the WA200 and WA300. That thing is beast. I don't mind the old equipment. They have character and if they could talk I bet they'd have lots of stories to tell. Today I had to bring the grader back from the Moosehorn. The people that worked there said the road was rough with trees fallen and big washouts but it was passable. Yeah.... passable. Some of those washouts were a little hairy to cross for sure. Let's see, do I want to roll down the hill on this side... orrr roll down the hill on that side... But we made it!
Always connect positive to positive BEFORE negative to negative unless it is an old English positive earth system.
The End Well it's all over. Got my certificate, walked at graduation, said goodbye to all my friends and teachers. I'm not gunna miss Calais but I sure am gunna miss all the people I met and the friends I made. Me and the guy who put up with my crap all year, Jim! I'm really going to miss him. He was an amazing teacher. Took me sweet talking him for a week to allow me to get a picture with him! Me and one of my apartment mates Vanessa. Taken a few hours before graduation. We are holding our awards we got in our majors. She was in Maintenance and I was in Operations, we both got the Presidents Award for Excellence. Beat all them boys for the highest award in each of our majors Goin out with my boots on! We wanted to bring our hardhats with us and wear them up to get our certificate. We got caught with them and they said no way . Always ruining our fun. For those of you who thought I couldn't do it, figured I was just another one of them annoying kids here to terrorize the forum, didn't have the heart... well I guess you are kinda right on some parts... But I got this to say, I will be a heavy equipment operator someday and I'll be damned if anyone tells me otherwise. But I am still here to terrorize the forum . Sorry Steve, looks like your stuck with me :tong Now onto the next chapter in my life "A Real Job!"
Congrats!!!A nice job's waiting for you somewhere for sure!!!
Congrats!!!:thumbsup Kyle
Nice going,congratulations to you.Keep in touch and the best of luck.Ron G
Congratulations, HEO, you have already shown the determination it needs to become a good operator. Best of luck with the new potential job. If you were a bit closer, you could have a job here anytime. RnR.
congrats on graduation i'm sure you will find a nice opertor job .
Well done there missy ..............and an award too by gum ........might be a future for you in this business ....keep knocking on them thar doors...... Sincerest congratulations on your achievement and my all your expectations be fulfilled in your chosen vacation................................. Stock
Congrats! Dont let no one fool you, sounds like u got heart! Its tough out there but theres jobs to be found.
You've totally inspired me to do the same. I'm going to be starting a thread and documenting my progress through the Interior Heavy Equipment operator school. Thanks for your pics, i hope mine will keep people just as interested!
This is one of the best threads i had the opportunity to read in a long time. Thank you for that young lady and the very best to you in your future.
Please do! It's always fun to hear about other people's schools. Thank you very much