Even though I havd been in the dirt moving business for a good many years, there are still some pieces of machinery that KICK MY BUTT. Do any of you guys face the same problem? Just ain't got the knack for some equipment? For example, a couple of my bosses have made the costly mistake of insisting (over my protests) on putting me on a NorthWest dragline or shovel. The end results were VERY disappointing (to them - predicatable for me). It just doesn't make sense to put me on a crane that swings with left hand and where the hoist clutch is the left lever. Another travesty is a Bobcat skid steer. My feet WILL NOT operate a bucket. No way no how.
OK, I can't even get my post worded correctly. The NW is the only machine that swings with the RH, which is impossible for my brain to coordinate with my arm. The hoist clutch arrangement is bad enough, but the bass ackwards drum brakes...
I hate skidsteers with foot control.
An old Gradall with the confusion levers and foot swing pedels. Then after that I ran a Prentice log loader that was set up about the same way. I could not think fast enough to run either one of them. Any excavator or back hoe set up with John Deere controls. And last but not least, a Case dozer with an accelerator pedal and foot steer. What the heck where they thinking?!!
Those cussed skidsteers,they are all different and counterintuitive.I get work done but I am just not comfortable in any of them.The one I liked the best was a John Deere with a T handle to control the steering and motion,it had a Woods backhoe on it and I could move it without getting off of the operators seat.Ron G
The first skidsteer I ran had foot controls, it has been 20 years since I ran it and every once and a while my feet try to make the bucket work. Never ran a Northwest so can't help you there. Link Belt had their controls where they should be to me. Though the first few days my legs got pretty tired from over working them and not getting your feet off the pedals when you engaged the clutch. I felt pretty humble for the few minutes I ran a Case with foot swing, it seemed I had to stop to swing just didn't feel normal to me.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the Case foot-swing. I'm sure that there must be operators who like it, but I'm not one of them.
I learned on a 580 CK case backhoe with foot swing , We later bought a JCB with Deere controls or wobble sticks , I can still operate a Case but it is a pita . My legs get tired from pushing against each other as one pedal goes down the other comes up. I've never run a 4 stick ford but it looks to be a night mare.
Skidsteer with foot controls. My mind is not wired to operate the bucket with my feet.
a northwest will wreck you if you have been on another crane. an excavator with deere controls will beat me up worse than anything. a cat 939 track loader was the bane of my existence for the 3 weeks i had to run it.
Although I've run AC & IH crawler loaders...asnwell as CAT dozers, I've never been on a CAT loader. What is issue with it?
The 939 is a perfectly fine track loader if it was 1980 or so. Once you run a newer track loader the 939 becomes: slow, awkward, has terrible visibility to the bucket, poor balance, did I mention slow?
We use to have a Case 880D that you used your foot to curl and un curl the bucket and the lever that would normaly curl the bucket tilted the machine on the circle. For what im not sure but I almost threw myself out of the cab a dozen or more time the one day I had to run that P.O.S
My list is this. When I was a little kid dad kept a 580 Case for the man he worked for. I played with it as a kid 8 or so. Later dad worked for another company when i was 12 in 92 dad had a new 310 for him. Laterdad started the landfill for another company and ended my hoe operating days lol. Dad bought 4 acres across the road from the house. It was cut over pine. Dad bought an old 1975 Ford 3550 Industrial. I started on it one day after school. I had 3 24 inch stumps near each other and I got the hang of the 4 stick well. It was like a 3 stick Case with a right hand swing. I got used to it. Then later we bought a 4500 Ford industrial and the SHerman pattern I never got used to it was unnatural to me. I sold it pretty quickly. I should have kept on it. Later I worked for a company Huffman from MO. I was 21 and started as a laborer. I saw a hand digging a ditch with the new 580 Case they had and he got off it complaining. I got the hoe job. My first skid steer was a 753 BC I started running it for my brother loved the foot controls. when I was 21 I also broke my leg and ankle in a car wreck and I never got back the full range of my right bucket foot back fine control and movement wise. I never liked the Case hand controls till I got a bargain on 2 nice 1840's I love it now. One Drott Cruz Air a friends dad had in a gravel pit I was loading tucks with was a pita. THe left hand lever was pushed forward and back to swing it. The right lever was a joy stick to run the bucket and boom. And the Crowd was a rocker foot pedal. After running a new 300 Komatsu I killed the heck out of side boards the first 2 days. Alter changed it the a wobble stick unit. Ran and old Oliver/White TLB with a left hand pair of directional pedals for forward and reverse with a built in throttle. sucked for a while. THe old Wobble stick 580 Case from the 80s had an odd feel to them I never liked them over a 3 stick. My excavator when I first got it was set up on Japanese grey market control. THe left hand was set up like a crane swing forward and back slewed it. Left and right was the crowd and the right hand was normal. Changed that fast. Case and IH/Dresser loaders took time as I alwasy hated sitting on the front half. THe Homebuilt compactor at work waas made from a timber cutter, and we built a spare from a skidder same thing on the skidder back half. I got to run Vesatile Bidiraectional tractor with a loader one time loader was pedal control hated it to.
I am just backwards of that. You should see me on a 953 or 963 ( note: from a distance ). Every time the bucked moves I have a tendancy to turn. Even though I'm the one moving the bucket in the first place. I acually prefer foot control over pilot with one exeption ASV 4500 was a sweet machine to run years ago. Was like operating from a lounge chair you could kick back and relax. I'm a bit funny on case control backhoe as well on first start up and move. Go to pull the slack from the boom and right into the ground i go. Use to work around another contractor who set his cat 420E to case controls and instead of moving our machines back and forth between two jobs we would just use which ever machine was on site.
I had a neighbor that could run a Northwest in his sleep.I seen him cut slopes on ditches.And this ol machine was all mechanical. I think you left out one.A Road Grader with both blade up and down levers on one side.Seen lot of operators throw a fit till they changed the hoses to the Cat pattern. I have never liked foot controls on a skid steer either.The dozers with all the blade controls on one lever gets me since I don't operate one all the time.Guess every time the blade lever on a dozer was changed give some a fit till they got used to it.
Regarding the skid steers, the pedal bucket controls seemed awkward to me at first but then I got use to them. My experience on them has been older J.D. and Bobcat machines. On those rigs your hands were busy enough with the travel levers that they didn't really leave any other choice for the loader controls. I haven't been on any joystick models but I have to assume they are easier to run and much more intuitive.
2006 cat d5n... the company traded in the nice 99 d3c series 3 for a new to us d5n with enclosed cab.....nice machine but its tough to run. i could grade like a pro on the d3...no problem. foot steering , open rops. the d5 is kicking my butt...cant feel anything. cant see anything,whats up with the steering? theres no feel at all to the controls...i dont like the blade angle operation. its comfortable but this is going to take some time getting used to. its just really tough to "feather" any of the functions.
Your thoughts on the D5 are entirely valid. I ran one for a couple of years doing oilfield work. While it's a great oilfield tractor, it's certainly not the easiest dozer to operate. Like you said, the operator certainly can't see a thing.
I had a struggle with the early JD graders with the blade lift for both sides on the one hand, but I guess I was used to the Cat layout. I havent been in one for years now so I dont know what the go is on later models.
I never understood why a skidsteer would have foot controls to do something more complicated then the hand controls
I've been on about every brand of grader except JD. That sounds terrible. Wonder why ANY company would utilize such an unorthodox control layout. It sseems that to many of us, operating becomes second nature. Your body automatically responds to your brain's commands. Some design engineer, who has never ever operated such a machine, throws a curve ball at you because it's the easy solution for his design dilemma.
I ran a Huber Maintainer for years that had the blade hoist controls on the right hand and learned to like it. My next job had a 470 JD with the conventional control arrangement and the mechanic offered to swap the hoses to put me at ease again ) The downside to swapping the hoses is that you lose the float function that is built in to the valve body on the left hand controller.John Deere makes a kit to do the swap correctly if you wanted to buy it. I did not run a grader much after I left Fort Leonard Wood so was out of touch over the years but it seemed so natural to have both control levers in the right hand to free up your other hand for sinful things like holding your pipe and slinging the drool out of it from time to time.Cough cough.Ron G
I had a heck of a time learning how to run a 953 after 15 years of running Bobcats with foot controls. Everything is backwards. Now I can jump from one to the next with no problem. I still prefer foot controls for skids, it's what I started on and don't want to change. I can't hardly hit the ground on a skid with joystick controls.
It took me a day or so to get the hang of a bob cat. Its hard when the controls for the bucket are at your feet.
Ive been in almost every brand of skid steer out there first learned with a bobcat thought foot controls were the best thing ever, than i started helping a buddy and his dad on there farm than ran had a case 1840 and 1845 thought it was a little goofy having your feet just sit there and using your hands for it all my buddy thought the opposite he hated bobcat could never figure out the foot controls still hasnt to this day i found the case controls becoming way easier after a summer of moving hay bales. Worked a summer for another farmer that ran gehl t handles struggled and never got the hang of them thought it was a stupid same with cats pilot controls later my buddy had the the 1840 burn up so purchased case 430 with the new joysticks effertless to operate loved them working now as a mechanic at a big landscape company they buy only bobcat have run a link belt backhoe felt normal to me bobcat backhoe for the front of skidsteer is a little weird just my two cents