Hey there, i figured id browse the internet to see if there was such a thing as a HE Forum and there is hopefully u can shed some insight on my question. I'm looking to go to school it's a private career college has good reviews and whatnot, package: DZ FF(DZ firefighters which is automatic) But if u can learn stick on your own im told it still counts as a solid DZ. Rock Truck Certificate/experience Quarry Certificate Backhoe Loader Dozer Excavator All in 6 weeks Class is 8-10 hours a day Guess my question, is that too much im putting on my plate for a 6 week length. I wanna be efficient in the industry so that's why i want all the training i can get , so was wondering if you all think its too many machines for time alotted or if its a good investment as it costs $10,000. There all pretty much brand new full sized machines with 500 hours or less, So there it is, your insight is much appreciated cause i don't wanna go do some crappy deskjob with paperwork, much rather play in the dirt.
What does DZ mean?
To be honest I have never seen an "operator" come out of a Heavy equipment school that I would hire most times the can move the machine and know its function but they have no reall world site know how. I much prefer they guy who started running a shovel and worked his way up on one machine then another over a couple years. also spending time as a grade man no sense hiring a guy who don't know slopes and grade. I would recomend triming it down to a couple machines and try and learn them aswell as possible its better to be good on two machines then just good enough on them all!
I just want to get a job in the field , i was told to get AZ and a few pieces of equipment but i don't care to drive a Transport truck for a living, Then im guessing 2 good pieces of equipment would be what, I see Backhoes used like everywhere around here and Excavator, but then again i also see Dozers and Graders, but i dont care much to be in a Grader seems pretty boring, and was told usually the People waiting to retire do Grader jobs. So what do you think i should do then i want to get into the Heavy Equipment Field, No colleges/universities offer a course anywhere in ontario that ive been able to find, I wanna get trained properly, but also have a job as well. I wish it were the good old days when my grandfather used to run Cranes and dig waterways where i could just hop in and do whatever i wanted but nowadays too much legal risk.
Like ive also been out to the Site i even went out for 5 hours and was taught how to trench both on and off a hill/slope. I just don't want to make a bad decision,. and don't wanna get stuck driving a truck. so it's either find a way to get Heavy Equipment Training that will give me the neccessary skills needed to improve upon on the workplace. or go and be a welder which i don't much care to do as my dayjob
Get hired on to run a shovel or packer and work your way up My DAD owned the company and i started as a ground man flagger and shovel man watching and talking to ops. 2 weeks is in no way enough time to learn even 1 machine jmo
That's a lot of money without the promise of a job when you're finished with their program. Your most direct route to landing a job is to get D1 certified and work your way up from there.
Your grader operators are usually your best operators on the site. They have the knowledge and ability to put the project "on grade". When you are dealing with large quantities of stone, asphalt or concrete a good blade man is invaluable to the bottom line. They are usually the highest paid operators on site as they should be. Well said and true. I would say you need at least 500 hours or so on a piece of equipment before you truly understand the way it operates and what the machine is capable of. Even then it is a constant learning process, changing from each project to the next. Another very important consideration is the ability to read a set of plans and visualize the intended finish product, transferring the 2D design to real world results takes ability, knowledge and experience. Something even more difficult is to have a project without plans. When you can walk the site, access the situation, create a solution and a finished product, you truly begin to understand the world of earthmoving.
I have an associates degree in Operator and took 2 years of courses(Diesel Mechanics, Hydraulics, Surveying, Site layout, and 3 months of operating) but by the way it sounds Im still a dumbass.....great. ointhead
Dura I would put more faith in your 2 year of of school then any other of these BS operating schools. You went to school for the right things ones that can be taught in a class setting mechanics and surveying ETC. Don't worry after 8 years learning from some of the best I'm a dumbass too. Your better off being a dumbass then a know it all.
Boring? You was told wrong...people waiting to retire?..told wrong again..Exciting?...Fun?....challengening?... :yup..there ya go...on the right track....:drinkup
. First of all these training schools will blow you full of smoke, and promise you the world and take your $10,000 so they can pay for that new high dollar equipment, and pay there big salaries and benefits. No matter what equipment you learn on, when and If you can find a company ( after school ) that will hire you, it will probably be a small company with old worn out equipment, that runs nothing like the new equipment you will be training on. They will not flunk you if you can not run the equipment, because that will not be good for there business and reputation. Neither will they guarantee you a job with any company after you finish there course. You will be on your own and the $10,000 will be gone. You still will not have enough experience to get the job done safely no matter how you feel about it, or what them may tell you. Myself I would not put you on the side of a hill to do any kind of work. I would not put you on a Excavator, Loader, trying to load trucks. You won't be assigned a area where fine grade and finish work is being made that takes a lot of experience that you do not have. Even most union trainees start out on simpler things like dirt rollers. Then the put you on a peace of equipment working away from other people. Even truck driving is not as easy as most people think. .
THanks for the Info i finally found an actual college institution that runs a good course apparently a friend of mine took it a few years ago, ran into him the other day, its a little over a year for the course, Everything from Blueprint Reading , Grading, Slope, Elevation, how to use , LAsers , Gps . Definately think a 1 year course will be much more beneficial,.
I really hope everything works out for you but you can learn all that by becoming a ground man for any company. I spent a few grand $$$ to become a software tester only to find out what they taught was a thimbleful of what I needed. Just be careful. PS I recently looked a vocational school for bodywork. This time I went to 4 different bodyshops and asked if they would hire someone right from school. 4 "no's". They wanted people who started at the bottom and worked there way up or had been self-taught just because they loved the work. Again it doesn't mean it can't be done.
That can be said to for just about every tech job HVAC, auto mechanice, ETC. I think(I'm not a owner) you would easily stand a better chance of getting a job from 1 years school for site lay, reading plans, and ETC over operating. Heck I have head from several guys there hard press to find operators that are fluent in English much less anything else.
I can second that
Bro...You need to maintain a Commercial Drivers License in pretty much ALL heavy equipment lines of work. You are extremely valuable to a Contractor if you can put a machine you KNOW how to run on a 60 ton detach trailer and move it from job to job.... Most any contractor running a multiple jobs would kill for someone like that even if you NOT that great on grade controls/slope req/high production situations...you aren't stuck in a truck all day long. The better you get on grading and loading material out the less your in a truck...Doing both helps you learn more alot faster than even just the two or 3 machines. In most areas in America where its prevailing wage and/or union, you MUST have (at minimum) a license to drive a tandem but class A is preffered.
Honestly you are making a mistake going to school for this as opposed to just getting a job for a company on the shovel. Factor in a year of spending money on those classes vs going out and making a salary AND learning from the ground up. Youll get a lot more respect that way as well. Im no pro operator at all, but it makes my job easier when I know first hand what the guys on the shovels need because Ive been in their position.
I have questions for you? Try not to take this as written word but as a friend hard nose questioning you. First i will give you my background that formulates my points of view. I have a friend my best friend that i think is a master, a natural :notworthy i cant even begin to compare to him in a skidsteer :Banghead i had an 06 new holland L170 i owned it for a tad over a year why new holland because they took my arctic cat in on trade my friend hated the farm machine and i tended to agree he could still make it walk and talk but he didnt like it. He was and is a bobcat guy foot controls is the only way for him that machine i put about 100 hours on myself now ive had an 08 s185 for two years and it has 266 hours on it. I have probably put 150 of those hours on it maybe 100 my dream is to be good enough to say hey i can grade this i can clear this lot with this t300 i can drive this dumptruck etc. Im not talking about excavators, bulldozers, loaders, and the list goes on i have background in manual labor poured walls flatwork heavy highway paving tree service i was a lead man on a crew meaning the guy with the saw in the air getting the job done safely. Now for the hard realities :Banghead I dont know with owning my own machine and practicing whenever i want if i will ever be good enough without working on the job starting with a shovel and a cdl in a dump truck will i ever get as good as my buddy i hope so i dont want to be in trucking over the road anymore ive owned a truck for 8 years im an excellent driver what do i know about dumps ive run them a little bit a few weeks worth my buddy swears ive gotten ten times better then i was i dont see it. My tough question for you to really ask yourself is do you have friends your age or close that run equipment if so be honest and compare yourself to them i know these will sound stupid but OPERATORS HAVE NATURAL TALENTS THAT CAN NOT BE TAUGHT IN A SCHOOL OR WITH PRACTICE. Just some things ive noticed with good operators there really good with hand eye coordination ie. there really good at video games 90% of the time they are really ambitious, they pick up on a new machine and make it do what they want almost immediately give them an hour and they are acting like its an extension of themselves. They can run a snowmobile like theres a fire to put out somewhere im just saying. Heres how you become an operator, fred the foreman is 52 years old and he doesnt want to bounce around in that skidsteer so he says tony go over there and do this and that maybe fred and the boys want a good laugh when the new guy grabs the cage hanging on thinking it will never stop imagine that tony finds that when he lets go of the controls it stops moving 5 minutes later freds thinking he isnt great but hes trying to make it save himself shoveling and hes doing alright so now its started fred decides tonys gonna run that back breaker good luck with 6 weeks or a year even a year of school 50 weeks 40 hours all in machines you still couldnt become proficient you either got it or you dont Well said and true. I would say you need at least 500 hours or so on a piece of equipment before you truly understand the way it operates and what the machine is capable of.
I disagree it maybe that way in FL though. I've lived/worked in WI, NE, CA, TX and never seen that to be the case. Companies have operators and then they have drivers. I see more and more companies hire out there moves over having there own trucks. Now there are some position that you can get into that you will need a CDL, but they are far from the norm. I've had my CDL for 8 years and only rarely used it until 8 months ago and thats only because on how slow things are. I'm not saying its a bad thing to have, but far from mandatory.
I learned coming up threw the ranks. Was shovel grade foreman gradeforman / operator to genral foreman before I left. Work for a large company you will gain the most knowledge. Also look for the old ass grochy operators that everyone respects because they are great operators. Those are the ones I learned the most from operating wise. Alot of them are grouchy cause the challange of operating is gone. I had one operator a couple of superintants n foreman hated to wrk with. So they gave him to me I would check grade put my paint out and he would do the ext oppiste. I took a couple of times before I realized what he was doing. He would grade things exactly right just on oppite sides etc. I never got mad or yelled. Instead I would layout agin n then I did the exact oppiste of what it needed it to be and he graded it right not knowing. Then I told him what I did and never had a problem with him and told and taught me all kinds of information on running every peice of equipment let me run it etc...the reason he wrked for me and not some of the others I earned his respect. I also found that alot of guys in their thirties and fourties with expation of a few still had a long way to go most were only good on one machine. So after u learn what laborers do and grades cycle times and that you will have picked up alot of knowledge of machines how they run and what they will do. Also the cool guys that party and all that with the crews and tell you how great they are udally are not and udally their is alot more shoveling on those crews. They are usaully buddies with super or foreman and that's how they got to operate. Stick with old timers they have already been on bigger jobs and have more experinces than most of on here will ever see. Projects such as intersates etc. They set precident for techniques machine desighns for what we do today and use
Theres nothing wrong with school it gives you a basic understanding, but don't think that because of it you are going to go out and get a good job, you will still need to work your way up from the bottom, with just a slight edge over those who did not have any schooling. I went to mechanics school and when I got out I had to start out as a parts man for the first job I could find, then worked my way up to a mechanics helper (tear down man, and parts cleaner) after a few jobs and a few years building experience I finally made it into a union shop as a bottom of the barrel apprentice mechanic, finally journeyman, after about 20 years of working on just about anything I feel now I could find a job pretty easy about anyplace in the world, also having about $10,000 in tools also helps.
I agree 110%. I have my CDL and have never used in construction. It is definitely not mandatory for the companies I have worked for.
In WI. you need a CDL if you are a equipment operator and drive any machinery on the highway like to or from a job site. I don't think anyone enforces it but it is the law, I suppose if you ever got into some kind of an accident they would smack you with a ticket if you didn't have a CDL.
Maybe its just the bad economy but I applied at seven different companies this spring and every single one wanted a Class A. Finally got in one and road testing as soon as we slow down. If you really want to get into being a operator and dont have some tie to it join the military get your training there as a operator. Even then you'll realize its much more then just lifting blades and driving back/forth.