..or not...or maybe... Right now, I'm doing this on my own, by myself. I'm going through my third winter and have been through three hot summers so far. This year has been better than the last, and the last better than the year before that. I've steadily picked up customers and my fiancé just recently came aboard. I was about to explode trying to do it all myself. It's been worth every single drop of sweat, frustration, and dollar though. I started on my own in early 2011. I had quit a great job as an operating foreman after losing my parents to cancer back to back, and feeling sorry for myself. Or maybe that was my excuse, because I was getting burned out. I sat at home for a long time doing side jobs and readjusting to my life with a smaller family. and when I went back to get a real job running a dozer the pay was less than it was when I started in '94 as a kid out of high school with no direction. After two months of that I started calling old contacts looking for work, any work to go out on my own. It was my time if it ever was going to be, because the dirt industry was far from recovering from the crash at that point and good jobs weren't out there. I had nothing but a prayer. No money. No credit. No help. I'd say nothing to loose, but it's everything to me. My Dad never gave us a thing, and when he passed it all went to the Cancer Society. I think tough love pays off really, and can only thank him for that. I have friends that still receive way too much help from their parents, and 90% of the grading outfits I worked for started from land and family money or the company was passed down. Not to be bitter, but that's my experiences and it can be discouraging at times. So, I landed three days of work. I was actually on the dozer working at D-tt-n Grading and calling rental companies for machines. I was gonna pawn my truck title to get money. After a bunch of hassle from the corporate rental places I resorted to Nasser Heavy Equipment. They have a yard full of machines and only half actually run, but they have a can do attitude and treat people like people. I went in there all cleaned up after a few phone inquiries and pleaded for them to rent me a machine. I offered my truck title. Which to me was everything. After connecting really well with Joe the salesman we went to the big guy's office. Well long story short they saw it in my eyes and heard it in my voice. I made a promise to myself I would stick that no pay job out for 90 days and something good would come my way, because the job before that I didn't last a week because I was hired to finish grade and they had me dig probe holes by hand. So, I walked mid day. This blessing happened right at the 90 day mark of me sticking that job out. They gave me a hardly used Hyundai 140 for a week. After thanking them both I had to ask for transport. They hooked me up with a local lowboy guy they use and Joe told him I would be good for it. In the end the jobs kept coming and I had rented from them for an entire year for the price of what I could have bought a decent machine for. Not that that was my goal at the time. After a few months of maintaining business. I got this jewel from their yard that nobody had even looked at during the down economy. A 94 Ford L9000 8spd w/a L10 Cummins genuine dump truck. The repossessed L9000 belonged to an equipment leasing guy that they do business with. Joe the salesman contacted him and vouched for my history. They had a 2000 Eager Beaver 20XPT across town at another yard that really needed a good home. Joe my new friend the salesman talked to the leasing guy and vouched for me. I got approved for this work horse truck and trailer combo. It was a wet Saturday when I picked it up. The trailer didn't have deck boards and upon further inspections the trailer didn't even have any brake pads and was missing several vital brake parts. Didn't matter to me, it was coming home with me...even on wet streets at 30 mph. Getting home with my first piece of equipment. That was a great day. She did something funky to this picture, but it's from that day. This is after I did all the brakes, bearings, seals, sanding, priming, painting ,lights, deck boards, and DOT inspection on the trailer. I had also painted the L9000 it's original color. It took a long time to get the L9000 DOT ready. You can imagine the leaks that surfaced after sitting for so long, but it had a reman. Cummins from '06 and didn't get used much after that. I had to replace the windshield, several axle seals, motor seals, and a lot of other things I can't remember but it finally passed the DOT inspection with flying colors and has been a great, dependable, hard working truck. This is right after getting the L9000 the way I wanted it.
When I was about 19 I got a page on my little beeper. I'll never forget pulling over to a pay phone and returning that page because I really didn't have direction or guidance at that point in life. It was a friend of my older brother. He asked if I wanted to come work with him at his Uncle's grading company. I started the next morning and fell in love with it. They put me on a metal tracked New Holland skid steer the first day pushing off dirt from tandems. Are you kidding, you can get paid for this. I was hooked. Of course it wasn't all pushing dirt. I became the saw guy too. His uncle took to me, and got me an F700 with a 12 ton trailer and bought me a brand new Bobcat to do final grades. The Uncle became my idol. He had a beautiful Peterbilt 379 lowboy and a pristine 955L. He was only in his 30's and had the cars, the girls, big vacations, big house, big boat, etc. His nephews ran these brand new immaculate 953 B models that I thought were the greatest things ever. The uncle let me get my Class A in that Peterbilt and then bought me an L9000. I became a loader operator after working there for a few years. The uncle who was my idol was living a double life in drugs and I had to move on and he ended up losing it all. So sad. Now he works at Werner trucking OTR. That's when life got fun jumping around from grading company to grading company. I went commercial grading. Then got on commercial pipe crews. Even had a spell on a clearing crew. Over all those years I learned so much from my pursuit to get to the top of the grading food chain. I wish I had pictures from the past but nobody cared about videos and pictures then. Just some good memories along with some bad ones. It's all what you make of it. I was always a little more anxious than most, but I was very humble and did not run my mouth or even talk much. I was just there to do the best I could do and I picked up my work ethic as an employee who never ever wanted to do anything wrong. I had somebody back me in '99 and I bought two new bobcats on his dime. We got stiffed by a builder that had a practice of doing that and in the end we had a good run and I had to go back to grading on crews. These are about all the pictures I have. Funny, because I take pictures daily but didn't even have a thought of taking pictures back then. This was the best job I ever had on a great condition 973. I would finish apartment pads and shear cut 2/3 apartment buildings. We only finished on track loaders there. We all wore Motorola headsets all day and our crew had a D9L, 631's, a 245 in perfect shape along with haul trucks and everything else. Loved that job. Should've never quit. If you wanted 30 yds. of dirt on your building pad you would push the "push to talk button" and before you could finish the sentence a monster 631 would come bouncing in with a load. By the picture that must have been a rain. Show up, 10 people look at the mud, then go back home. Did a lot of time in the neighborhoods clearing, digging basements, etc. I remember when the "C" models came out and people were trying to run thicker hyd. fluid in them because the wire controls were so quick. I got so bored and tired one time digging basements that I made a bed in the dirt and had to take a nap before I fell asleep while running the loader. Did a lot of time in a hoe and always loved running excavators after getting beat up on track loaders and dozers. This was my first foreman job and I was responsible for a lot, including this detention pond. I stayed after hours for days trying to get it so perfect for inspection. Then at the inspection the inspector said " Ah man you ain't gotta get it perfect, you just need to get the volume right " I'll never forget that, because I had every contour just exactly like the plan.
Dang, that's a novel. But, I'll keep it moving. I have a lot of videos from the time I started till now. If it's serious work I don't really mess with my camera on site, but when I can I try to film. I am absolutely not here to get views. I don't ask for likes, comments, subscribes, etc., if you like them, you like them, and I'll never try to make Youtube dollars. I think that's what ruins Youtube honestly. I love watching peoples videos of work that would be posted on this site. I don't have cable and never watch TV. Just this type of stuff interest(obsesses) me. I am good at visuals and hands on stuff, but can read a whole paragraph and not comprehend it unless I force myself. Guess that's why I'm not the office guy type. Work has let up some this last week and it's been nice to regroup and tighten up. Last year from Halloween to New years I had a lot of time off. This year has been full. Almost overwhelming. My guys are outside now and we are changing some oil and cleaning stuff up, and here I am lounging on HEF. This was my first demo out on my own. Soon after that I got a two story duplex to tear down and then a burned house. I was also doing in ground pools which I do a lot of too and any grading/excavating work. I had swapped back and forth with the rentals between the Hyundai 140 and a 312 B. Video of the first demo http://youtu.be/IbQ3zMyWsWc http://youtu.be/sFgrEMT_1Ew Video tearing down the 2 story demo. http://youtu.be/f4c3o8JbcdA The 312B was really sucking in some dust and I tried to keep the radiators cleaned, but the Plastic radiator popped around 4:00. Nasser had another one out there the next morning and I helped put it in under a shade tree. I had hired dump trucks to haul off the debris on that one. The L9000 sure stuck out with that paint job. The 312B was hot and loud but I was interested in another 312BL they had setting around that I wanted to try and buy. So, I was giving it a run even though the Hyundai was new with the dozer blade, A/C, radio, etc. Tearing down a burned out house that a squatter set fire to after the police had run him off. http://youtu.be/c8uF6nlAxa4
Before I got the L9000 I had this guy move me. He was great to work with and had built a W900L day cab that was awesome. He was sad they day I got the L9000. Unfortunately he couldn't keep it going and sold the trucks. I still talk with occasionally because we were both the same age. http://youtu.be/gDpWGFt7SQc http://youtu.be/GqpZwlu3pmY I test drove this CH Mack before getting the L9000. The Mack's were getting shipped overseas. You had to act quit. This one wasn't in my cards. http://youtu.be/7LwFYiG7NCs I was advertising on Craigslist and was landing some jobs there too. http://youtu.be/TNPHfsbDunc Couple shots at the Nasser Heavy Equipment yard. You can tell by the yard that they are ready to do business. I love that place and can rent anything from D8's to 80 ton hoes. They have one of the best heavy equipment painters around. This was last job before stepping out. I made several phone calls in that dozer trying to make it happen. Nice people at that company but they were struggling to and the money was bad.
Glad to see you doing well on your own. Just spent an hour watching some of your videos haha. How old are you now? Sorry if i missed it. I know youre a great operstor but did the business side come easy? Pricing jobs, estimating etc?
I have watched your posts for some time, and you seem to be doing well. I wish you the best as you continue to grow your business.
Thanks, I don't claim to have made it by any means. I am still trying to build. When I first started running machines I'd never say I was an operator until I was called an operator. Those who paved the way deserve that, just like this end of it.. We are looking at a pile of receipts and paperwork on the floor right now (won't fit on the desk) and she says "man this is gonna take forever". When I applied for my S-Corp I put down "owner" and they rejected it. They wanted me to call myself "president"...of what I thought. I'm 38. I always said I'd do it before age 35 and just barely did it while age 35. Just got another file cabinet today for all the paperwork that stacks up. I have so much to learn. The business part is not easy at all. CPA's are so expensive and book keeper's and taxes can be overwhelming too. The hardest part is trying to pay things like excise tax on the truck tags. Pay who?? , because nobody in Gov't can tell you where to pay these type of things. I just use a third party for a fee to cut through it all. Pricing is changing for me as time goes by. I am valuing myself more than I did starting out. I'm not into estimating yet other than by instinct of how long and how much it will take me to do the job. By far of the important thing was to get an office. I had to sacrifice the hobby room, but well worth it. My good friend does remodeling and helped me out a lot. Funny the name of his company is Fast Trim. Hence the "Fast Dirt". I liked his Co. name not knowing it sounded like a diet pill at the time. He changed it eventually, and I wish I could change my usernames because it sounds arrogant and I know it does. Good thing I didn't name the company that, but I thought about it for a second. I came up with Fastdirt505 from a little of his company name and my all time favorite dirt bike was a KTM 505 SX that I used to race before this. Now I barely have time and can't risk it anymore. After swapping back and forth with the Hyundai 140 and the 312B I had fell in love with the 312's, even though it was banged up and had the short stick and the short undercarriage. They had a very good condition 312BL long stick with wide tracks that I was dying to get from them. I wanted them to paint it and tighten it up, and I had the same loan guy from the truck ready to make out papers. I would go up there and check it out often. Turns out after months of pushing them to get it going, they had paperwork issues. It had sat for years, but I didn't care. It would fit nice with the L9000 being an older "B" model. In the meantime they had a local utility contractor trade in a 2004 312CL on a package trade. They were always doing stuff like that at Nasser. Joe the salesman pushed me to try and get the 312CL instead of the 312BL that was sitting and was telling me the B would eventually start leaking from sitting so long. So, I shifted my heart to the 312CL with little hope, because it wasn't cheap. It had the long stick instead of the short stick and the "L" long undercarriage. That was very important to me. To have the reach and the balance. I wasn't going to get a 312 with the short stick. So, I took the 312CL out for a try out before it ever hit the rental fleet thankfully. The good news was it spent it's life as utility digger on the side of the road. So, it had a little trench bucket, but it was a new heavy duty bucket. I took it out and fell in love with immediately. It had 4,000 hrs. but I figured it was digging around gas lines and fiber lines and other utilities, so it probably idled a lot. Here's a few pics from that week.
Thats great, keep up the updates. Its awesome to see three years of growth on one forum page. I have one on another site and its motivational to look back and see the huge jumps youve made on those days when it feels like you arent going anywhere at all
Great pics and story.
Thanks for the best wishes Jerry, means a lot coming from you because I've read all your posts. Thanks, I'm trying to get up to current. I didn't want to post too early in this and jinx myself. Still hope I'm not jinxing myself, but I should have share worthy posts. After trying out the 312CL and knowing this was the ideal machine for what I need, I pushed to get the ball rolling. I was dead set on Caterpillar. I didn't care if it was older, but as long as I was on a Cat I'd be happy. All my past experiences with Caterpillar have been great. All the others are great too or they wouldn't be in business. You just won't see me in foreign truck or machine if I can help it. My conditions were that I wanted a big bucket and I wanted their paint and body guy Eddy to redo the whole machine. Eddy is a master at what he does. That included paint, decals, lights, etc. I wanted a bucket around the 40" size. They ended up slapping a Hyundai 160 bucket on it. They used the pins from the heavy duty 24" trench bucket. They cut the ears off the 160 bucket and moved them in to fit the 312 stick. The pins stick out a little because of collar differences but I was keeping the 24" bucket and now I can swap buckets. I have used that trench bucket several times in rock and jobs with 10 stumps or more and it has been a great asset. It will bury itself quick. Finally it all came together and I was re painting the L9000 black in a rush at the same time. I had to get myself out of work for at least two days in order to paint it. We had done all the body and prep work while working it. So, I finished the L9000 paint just barely before picking up the 312 on a Saturday.
Eddy the paint and body guy came from Europe a lifetime ago and is like a mad scientist. He always looks like he is on a mission and moving fast, but very steady with the bondo and paint. He pulls out the seats and recovers if needed. He gets the seat out to paint and detail the entire cab interior. All new bolts in the pedals and such. He paints any interior panel if needed. Replaces or repairs everything that's not perfect. He even polishes the intake dust bowl. He puts all new bolts in all the hood panels. He paints the radiators and all inside the body doors he details and paints. I actually went up their today to finally give my sales guy a bonus for helping me get started and filmed Eddy in action along with his work. Should make a great vid. It's first dig!! I was so happy and humbled. Notice the no cutting edges and I had them make the bucket straight so I could trim walls straight at angles and such.
Congrats on your hard work. Nice looking 312, love to see guys succeed. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks blowerman. Here is Eddy the master painter at work today and some of his work. About five machines at once is his norm. He has a sandblaster in the yard and there was a 330 getting blasted.
I love popping in up there. There is always lowboys coming and going and you can see some very cool stuff. Some more beautiful work. I just get so thrilled to see a guy take pride in what he does. He always says it's only second and third rate paint jobs because he doesn't get the resources, time, material or environment to go all out. He is so passionate about his work. They are a Hyundai dealer also and he was using Hyundai factory paint here. I have seen a few decals that aren't in factory places and the 312C does not have a "312CL" on the left but mine got one and so did the one in the pic he just finished. I changed mine to the exact factory "CAT" decal on the left behind the door but I hate when the door is open because it hides it and I don't really like that because I never shut the door...never. Nobody notices that but me probably. He can straighten hand rails and grab bars like new along with steps and such. How they run is another story LOL, but I've seen some beautiful D8R', 963's, etc. come out of there too.
29' reach goes a long way. I will get up to the scales soon and off load it from the trailer and get the actual weight. I really think it's going to be close to 30,000 lbs. The reach has been great and sometimes It reaches further than I expect. I have never had trouble with the 160 bucket on the long stick. It does just fine over the side heaped full of dirt A lot more balanced than the 140 and the 345's I used to run. Am I the only one who thinks a 345 is a tipper LOl. I never work by the hour so the poor little hoe Is always heaped. I'm not sure if it will have long term effects from the extra stress, but I doubt it. I do plan on doing some shims all over it as soon as I can. Notice the light on top of the cab is broken out. That was another time where I was looking over my shoulder in a very tight spot already crowded up tight while swinging and not realizing my hands were just barely was crowding the bucket up to the cab. Luckily it was a love tap. I've actually jokingly adjusted that light with the bucket. Lot to pay attention to in those situations if your bucket will hit the cab. Bought a new light and hopefully the last one. The welder couldn't get to me in time to tack the door to the bar where it broke a little, so I hauled about 20 loads this way. Luckily I was going down hill slightly out of there to the left to another lot about 500' away. Took this of a 650. That's some reach.
Great story and pic, keep it coming I enjoy reading about your success!
Yeah very good story and pictures I'm quite eager to go on my own.
What a great story really enjoyed reading it. Reminded me that most of us struggle along and love/hate every minute of it.
Thank you, nedly05, 245dlc, and AT&SW!!! I am enjoying my time off. I really needed a break. Last year I had a lot of time off, but this year has been full long days up until around mid December. Of course I've been servicing everything. I have a lot of jobs that I can start when I want. It's all gonna hit at once and then I'll be slammed. The day after Christmas I have to demo a burned out mobile home and then get a 2 acre pond ready to fill in. I am waiting on permits to start the biggest job I've got out on my own which is 4 new lots to clear and grade. There will be a lot of dirt moving and about 15 historic oaks to clear. I'm pretty excited about that, but was hoping I could've done that job during this break instead of under pressure. I have about five pools to dig. We have 12 apartments to tear down that we have to make chainsaw cuts to separate from existing units. I was hoping to keep this thread on a timeline base but it's probably going to back track and jump ahead some. The one problem I have always had is, I have the worst luck in the world with computers, laptops, and cameras. I am typing from probably my 8th computer. They just die or freeze or get thrown out the back door. Now, on cameras....it's a total nightmare. I've had three GoPros... I lost one and one got scratched across the lens. I have been through at least six nice cameras. I just have bad luck with fragile things. In my 38 years on this earth I have concluded that heavy equipment and dirt bikes are the ONLY things that don't break. I used to four wheel trucks in my younger days and have probably broke a total of 10 differentials. I have destroyed every four wheeler I've ever owned. I tried my hardest to get into R/C trucks, but they would break left and right. I was thinking about a Polaris side by side UTV, but nixed that knowing it'd just break axles and A-arms. My dirt bike I can't hurt, because in order to hurt it, it's got to hurt you. They are just tough and simple and that's where I spend my free time riding/racing dirt bikes. I hope to ride till I'm 70 years old. Oh, my point is I have lost a lot of pictures and videos. I started keeping the hard drives but I can't get them transferred to this new computer that I hate. My tech friend claims he can recover them, but we'll see. I have lost a lot of pics/vids along the way, but I saved a lot to web host sites so I have plenty to work with, but it's very frustrating losing good pics and videos. Here is just some of the crashed computer hard drives. A ruined GoPro, the one is lost and still have a good one. Many cameras that are not right. I have had fits keeping tires on my tag a long trailer. I've probably been through at least 10 tires due to wearing out from a misaligned trailer. Not to mention the tire guys cannot get these spoke wheels straight. We'll I've hit my limit. My Christmas present to myself this year is to convert the wheels from Dayton spokes to hub pilot wheels.
How big of a deal is it to convert to hub pilot? Any idea on the cost? I have the same trailer and I'd love to do that to it.
I just picked up the four hubs, four brake drums, and replacement seals yesterday. I got them from Fleetpride. They are Webb brake drums and the hubs are from Fleetpride's in house brand "FleetPride OTR". The FleetPride hubs are about $120.00 less each than the Webb hubs. That was a very nice break on price. This is a 2000 Eager Beaver 20XPT 20 ton tag trailer. I talked with Eager Beaver several times and they say I will be using the same brake shoes and bearings as now. So, we'll see. I ordered eight new wheels and they should be here any day now. The only aluminum wheels I could find were Alcoa's.. They are 17.5 x 6.75 8 hole on 275mm. I ordered four steel and four aluminum. I also ordered an Eager Beaver decal kit. I was rushed when I painted my trailer last year and had to slap some DOT tape on at 6:00 a.m. one morning and I hated the way it looked. As soon as I get all the wheels I am taking the whole rig to a big alignment shop where they do semi trucks and trailers. View attachment 111898 Here's the hub with studs and bearing races already installed. nedly, here are the invoices. You can save several dollars with the Fleetpride hubs, however Fleetpride does not make the drums. You can also go with all steel wheels or maybe even used steel wheels. This is a long time coming for me. I want to pull this trailer behind a road tractor too. I love the trailer and the heavy duty ramps. I will never sell this trailer. Should look really good with new decals and wheels. Let me know if you can't see the prices. Merry Christmas to myself I guess. Every dollar I make goes back into the company. It's a good thing I enjoy this stuff.
Here's the other invoice. I accidentally uploaded the Fleetpride invoice instead of putting up another invoice showing the wheels. I tried to edit the post, but what a nightmare trying to edit pics. You can't even see the pics in the advanced manager and the picture numbers don't match. You have to delete the whole post practically. I have fits posting on HEF. Every single picture I post has to be resized. It's so frustrating and takes so much time and almost takes the fun out of it. I wish you didn't have to resize every single picture. I went through this on HTF's with no solution:Banghead:Banghead:Banghead This is from Orrco International. They are a distributor for Alcoa wheels.
So its not that big of a deal really, just like doing a brake job, and putting on different hubs and drums when it goes back together? That seems easy enough. The price isn't too bad for the parts either. I would have thought it would be more like the total for everything. Im thinking I have another winter project now!!!
Speaking of tag along trailers. This happened earlier this year. I finally got the life scared out of me. I' know I've loaded on tags at least a 1000x's. I've never come off the side, but this one got me. I was in my own driveway on a Saturday. It had been raining and we had just enough mud on the tracks from the day before. The tire guy was there to change yet another tire. He said I had to unload the machine. I backed the trailer up just a little so the machine would be in the gravel. I noticed the slight angle of the trailer, but it wasn't much. I stuck my bucket out just in case. Well the 312 took off like a bat out of hell. It completely overpowered the swing gear and slammed down with one heck of a force. It went up on one track and then slowly sat back on the trailer. It seriously almost flipped over.I jumped out in a panic and busted my butt on the trailer, but I went straight to my knees to thank God for saving it all. That could have been so bad. I've loaded track loaders on the worst sketchiest beaver tails you could imagine. I've been on and off tag trailers a 1000 times. I've never ever come off one or come this close to flipping. It might not look bad but it was. I had to re glue the big lexan window after slamming into it. You can see where I had the bucket. It stayed in the same place. In hindsight, I should've had the bucket and boom at 90 degrees from the trailer and machine. Very very scary.
Here's how I recovered it safely. My internal physical balance leveler was going off the scale. It was at a scary angle, and then I had to lift and swing to 90 degrees. I counter chained the machine to the trailer and parked the 150 on the very edge of the opposite side of the trailer just in case. Scary stuff!! It can happen to anyone. A big bucket of sand could probably prevent this. Wet wood on wet dirty metal tracks is asking for it. I might remove the wood decking on the tail and have the welder fabricate some steel angle or grousers on the tail to prevent this. A lot of times I do load up off jobs in the rain, but never really had a close call. This one just came out of nowhere. So glad it happened at my own house and not somewhere parked next to something. Here's the video I made. I didn't capture the act, just the recovery. http://http://youtu.be/zsY5E71FQa0
I've put it off as long as I can. I hate looking in the mirror around turns and seeing wheels that are wobbling. Tire techs just don't care to true them.
I removed all of the wood from mine and welded angle iron all the way across from the deck to the end of the ramps. Makes some ugly noise when loading but it's never moved an inch on the tail since I did it.
Your lucky you don't have much for winter in Georgia I slipped off an old beat up 46 foot Fruehauf tri-axle lowbed a number of years ago with a Cat 320CL luckily it slipped off into a big ditch full of snow which made for a nice soft landing. Nothing was damaged just my pride but nothing like steel on steel with water or ice as a lubricant. Nice looking machines and trucks you have there, how do you like the Hyundai? They seem to be growing in popularity these days, does yours have the Cummins engine?
245dlc, Thanks, I actually don't own a Hyundai. I rented a 140 for about 10 months. They tried to get me to buy that 140, but I didn't like it much. It was so unbalanced to me that it hurt. It's heavy on paper and pulling behind my truck. A 312 has about the same reach and better balance so I'll take the lighter machine for my tag a long setup. The bucket was shallow...other than that it was a good machine. Honestly, it's a great machine. The joysticks are super easy to move. I like a little resistance personally. It did have a Cummins, but I think they are using another engine manufacturer now. I did love the dozer blade and they are priced right though. I think the price is why they're so many around. I just think of funny little cars when I hear "Hyundai".
This is a demo I did before getting the 312C. I used the Hyundai to demo this house. I used tandem dump trucks. I had to remove the slab and the footings. The footings were huge and a pain to pull up. I just dropped big pieces of the footings from high up onto the other pieces to break them up. I actually finished it in one day , but I was out there till 9:00 p.m. I was thinking the police might show and run us off, but they didn't. Sorry dog cut me $200.00 LOL. It was tough at the end of the trash pile with no thumb. Here is the video showing a long day. http://youtu.be/5VSK_XOvIgw Now this was a pretty big demo for me. It was three stories high with the top floor burned out and manually demolished. The bad part was I could not disturb the joining existing units. I had to chainsaw a cut all the way up and down both sides. Lots of big power cables had to be dealt with and a couple of live water lines. It turned out really nice. The same company recently just gave me another similar project of the same size. It too is amongst existing units that I will have to separate without causing damage. That job is supposed to be coming up any day now. They are dealing with the insurance company delays. This video shows some more pics and details http://youtu.be/hYkCr7Upbpg
Do you have any pics of your new lowboy?
About a million LOL. I was trying to lead up to current events LOl. I've been sitting on all these pics since I started out on my own. I was just waiting for some free time to post. I have a thread on Heavy Truck Forums. http://www.heavytruckforums.com/showthread.php?53-Peterbilt-379-Lowboy-project
Then there was ROCK! Here I have a big hammer on a rental machine. The video: http://youtu.be/VXTqodZ9SPk This little action cost $925.00...I refused to pay it.. Well, I contested it. I think they have dropped the charge. Once I showed them the video, they backed off. Window breaking video. http://youtu.be/hd1YPxSdHMc Some GoPro still shots.
Some more rental's and another breaker. Shotcrete pools are very tough to demo because they use rebar every 12" squared. Now, gunite pools are a different story. They come apart much easier.
Great pics and stories thanks for sharing.
A very important part to my little operation was parking. Luckily I have plenty of room here to make access and parking. At the time I started I only had my primary driveway which was very steep. Too steep for a big rig. It was also in a blind curve and the driveway was very narrow. Basically a nightmare for a big rig. So, I had to clear a new access to the main road. Luckily I live outside all city limits. I'm also on a main road, so no ordinance's or restrictions. I went to get a permit to tie a gravel driveway into the road and they told me you don't need a permit for gravel drives. One of my neighbors parks his huge concrete pump truck on his property with a gravel drive added to his property. Also, a school bus neighbor and a Bobcat grader neighbor. Lucky me! In the end I probably have ten loads of gravel and a ton of work involved. Nothing on my property is level. I mean my property is just one hill after another. It was very hard contouring the access for a big rig. I still need to clear some more. Being able to park at home has been vital to my little operation. Here is me just getting started on the new access. http://youtu.be/x4awYYdcP34 Trying to figure out the best route for a new driveway around some big trees and a big drop off. http://youtu.be/KVxDxceFejM A lot of tree trash to haul off. Luckily I had a place in the back to haul it to. http://youtu.be/k-uedYRKig0 Also had to bring down 20 loads of good red dirt to build out the road. http://youtu.be/7BkpIL-gqzI I had to set about 40' of ABS 24" culvert pipe and some rip rap. This was solid woods before clearing it, and it was extremely un level.
Nice looking professional equipment and work looks good, to me in my business image is important...
Thank y'all so much for the kind words. Lot of days out there I feel very alone...but I do love dirt. Well, hope everyone had a great Christmas. I had a very personal Christmas this year and was ready to hit today like it was the first day of the year. I scheduled a burned out mobile home demo for today.....and I will actually be starting that in the morning instead of today. My day took a turn at 6:30 a.m. I've taken the last two weeks off to regroup and get my truck and machine smiling again. The time off was much needed for me. I wasn't expecting to be this busy this year and I was really needing a break. So, new filters, oil, cleaning and just some much needed love. I have a tire on my trailer that leaks at the valve stem. It's been like that for a month. Every morning I air it up. I was just waiting to do all the work I had planned at once, and it was supposed to be fixed on the last service call. Well, I guess last night when I loaded up the machine and moved the trailer I pulled the tire off the bead. Didn't realize that till this morning at 6:20. So, I'm dead in the water. Called the customer to let him know I'm going to be late...if I'm lucky. Naturally he thinks I'm just trying to extend my vacation. Call the commercial mobile tire guy and they send a guy out. Then I get a call from a shipping company to see if I will be home to receive the pallet of wheels I just ordered. They apparently have the wrong address for me. My gears start turning, I'm thinking how can I make this happen. The shipping company says I can come get the shipment at the dock, then they say "ohh, it's already out on a truck". So, I call my customer and at that point the leaky tire is fixed. Tell him I'm good to go, he says ok "let's do it". Then the shipping company calls back "hey I made the driver turn around with your shipment". Ok, great I'm thinking. Call the customer back and ask if we can just start fresh tomorrow. He finally agrees, after wanting to shoot me. Long story short. I call the commercial tire company and set up with them to get it all done at their shop. Plan was to drive the rig down there, and I'll pick the wheels up on the way. I wanted a full alignment on the trailer too. Well, it went pretty good. I ended up buying eight new bearings, four new seals, and I even had to buy 32 metric uni-mount nuts. Luckily they were in stock just down the road from the tire place. Turns out that they cannot align a tag along trailer with the Hunter system they use. It works off a king pin mount and not a pintle hitch. They did help me find the one and only guy around who can do a tag along trailer. So, I set an appointment for Saturday.
So how did the Conversion go? Did you do it or did a shop do it for you? Any pics of it finished?
My nightmare has been these trailer tires. First they can never true these wheels, but mainly the sucker is way out of alignment. I have been through probably 15 tires due to wear. The tires are brand new on one side and shot on the other. So, naturally I needed two new tires.:crying Years profit right here, along with all my wasted tires.....but I'm going to win this fight and have a great trailer in the end.
Niiiiiice! All done in one day?
I'm still not done, but I did get ready for the alignment guys this weekend. My Hutch link was bent when I bought the trailer. Somebody was just mean to this trailer before I got it. So, I picked that up today too. Finally, a break...it was less than 40 bucks. I am just happier than ever spending my money on this finally. I love the look, and no more embarrassing wobbling rims.
Looks awesome man, making me want to do it on mine!!!!
Thanks, Yeah, pretty much. It was a crazy day, and I still got the alignment to do, but yeah.
Today went ok, but the dumpster situation was bad in the end. Six total dumpsters, two companies. One company was slow and fair priced. The second company was fast, but pulled a per ton hat trick on me. I was just happy it got done and I could get out of there. Accidentally deleted the before pics, but imagine a semi burned double wide with a block foundation. I separated the I beams and was thinking about putting them with my wheel/hub take offs from yesterday, but in the end I gave the steel to the scrappers that were lurking. They were pretty happy, and I can guarantee that they got it all on their little pick-up by now.
You seem to use a lot of dumpsters, have you thought about converting to a rolloff or buying a truck already set up for it? Im contemplating making that leap in a year or two with just a single axle cdl truck so i can pull ten yarders of concrete and dirt
Back to my timeline, if anybody is still listening... After renting big hammers, I decided to buy a wrecking ball. I do charge more to dig in rock, but I cannot destroy my machine. That 24" bucket really came in handy when trying to get through rock, plus it only has three teeth that are far apart. I had experience with one so I knew how effective one can be when used right. I just wasn't sure how to match one to my machine. I put out a thread on HEF earlier this year asking where to buy one. One of the good members here led me to Ginnow Equipment. I tried to find one around here, but nobody had one or any leads where to get one. I did find one big demo company that would rent me thier's, but they wanted too much per day. I just really needed to own one. When talking to Mr. Ginnow we couldn't figure whether to go with the 1.5 ton or 2 ton. I bought the 2 ton. Wasn't sure if my machine would like it or not. I had two open rock digs I pulled off of at the time, so I had to make it happen really quick. They had a 4,000 lb. ball tested and ready to ship. Apparently if they don't cool correct or get poured right they could crack. This is one job where I hit some serious rock. I ran up to the local rental place and got a backhoe with a hammer that you see in the picture. It did absolutely nothing after trying for a couple hours. I had to return it and pull my machine off. I didn't tell anybody my plan. I just let them think I was coming back with a 30 ton machine and hammer. My plan was to hurry up and get the ball. I hit another serious rock dig two days later and had to pull off it also. I let them think the same thing. I had to get the ball now, and it had to work. Well it got me through both those jobs and has been great on poured walls and shotcrete pools and rock jobs. Haven't rented a hammer since. My machine handled it fairly well. You have to treat it like an egg though. It is a heck of grab and will rock your teeth out if you just go to grab it and it can get wedged in the big bucket. I had never tried to use one with a thumb before. I started out with a semi tire chained to the ball. I would just grab the tire to lift it. That method works good when you need to swing the ball at a rock or concrete wall. Not by swinging the machine. That could destroy any machine in a hurry. Just back and forth with the stick movement and some good timing.
Pretty cool how we unloaded it here.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RP7c27elPc&feature=share&list=UUwmjLTz3Ih_Uk7akHrTTieA
Some pics of the first job after getting all the rock out. I had dump trucks bringing in good red dirt and I was loading them with all the rock on the return. I was very happy to succeed and get through these two brutal digs. The ball also comes in handy on demolition work. It destroyed this poured wall foundation... http://http://youtu.be/ahsilL5JcYs I started putting dirt on the rock pile, but it is about 90% rock... I've always said "oh the landscaper will take care of that"...but I don't think so here. We actually had to get rid of that stuff.
Looks like you need a pin grabber quick coupler to make your bucket changes a little faster, but nice work!
Not for me. I'm not a trucker. I do think if you get in it right you can make money. The good thing is you can find drivers, but you never know how that will work out. There is a lot of competition in roll-offs. Most established grading and hauling companies have branched out into the roll off market. I haven't used my dumpster guy on the last two because of location. I have a local demo coming up and checked with him today to see if he can do the job with me. He said he is selling his whole setup for $200,000. He's got several trucks, several cans, and a TL150.... He wants a break from it and wants to try something else. Tough business if you are not established. Just like today. One company couldn't keep up, so I called another company to pick up the slack. It just seems so competitive, but the dominant guys are banking I'm sure of it. Good luck and buy some good used stuff and go for it. Pricing against so many other companies can be tough.. You know the saying " You can send two truckers into a whore house full of whores, and they will screw each other"
Thank you. I lift over my guys frequently and can't risk the bucket coming off and hitting somebody. Otherwise I would love to have one. I've heard of that happening before. Couldn't imagine that...pretty risky
Most hydraulic pin grabbers have a fail safe of one kind or another so that doesn't happen. I'd stay away from the wedge couplers like Weldco-Beales, I know Cat makes a pin-grabber that would be worth looking at and Geith also makes one that has to measure up to the much higher European safety standards. http://www.cat.com/en_US/products/n...lock-pin-grabber-quick-couplers/18271262.html http://www.geith.com/quick_coupler_na.aspx
Thanks so much for the insight. I think about having a quick connect all the time. I was just concerned about safety, and wasn't aware of a fail safe setup. I will start inquiring, because I want a sheeps foot roller or a combo roller/bucket. I am always packing dirt, and I really have a direct physical side effect the days I pack dirt, which is on every pool job. Something behind my ribs hurts all day and night after compacting dirt, It's ben two years now. I just get in a rhythm and BAM BAM BAM. I've had neighbors come and complain that I'm shaking their walls and I can here when my guy does it from a 1/4 mile away. It's really brutal and there is a fix with the right setup and investment.....That would be my main motivation to get one really. Plus having the 24" bucket on stumps is great. Tiltorator would be incredible too. I'm imagining big money for a good setup One can dream.
Yeah I ran a mini-excavator with a tilt rotator and it added $20,000 to the overall price of the machine! Yeah banging the bucket like that on the ground can't be good for the machine either. You could always look at getting a vibrating plate compactor I've used them many times in the past and they do a nice job you basically you massage the ground back and forth till you get a black sheen on the dirt which is the moisture coming up and is a good indicator that you've got good compaction. I've never used the excavator mounted sheepsfoot compactors before so I couldn't tell you how effective they are but the Allied 'hoe pac' works wonders. http://www.alliedcp.com/products/compactor.asp
if you want the best "pin grabber" you need to go to these , very happy with mine http://www.hillattach.com/
Thanks 245 and d4c24a. I am definitely going to start looking into this. I've always wanted a quick connect. I just never thought past the fear of one coming off and killing somebody. So thanks. I did get the Eager Beaver 20XPT straightened out this morning. Had an appointment this morning at 8 a.m., and left at 11 a.m. as one happy customer. Turns out my axles were way off from straight and way off from one another. He replaced the bent adjustable link with the new adjustable link. That was on the left rear axle. Had an appointment, so I was the only customer on this Saturday morning. Very professional shop here that specializes in heavy truck and trailer alignment. I couldn't find them on my own, but the tire company that did my hubs referred me to them since they were incapable of aligning my trailer with their Hunter equipment, although on the phone they claimed they could align the trailer. Turns out this place takes over when the tire company cannot get it right. I love specialized companies, not just a company that buys expensive machines and branches out and then claims they can do it. Before report After report
This equipment just makes since to me. Not the hitch mounted equipment that I recently have seen.
Very cool, how did they do the adjustment? Pretty much a brand new trailer now !
http://www.hewden.co.uk/pdf/healthsafety/QuickHitchYellow.pdf Have a read of this.
The trailer jack went out just recently. The gears just stripped out and it doesn't lift the trailer. So, I ordered a replacement from Eager Beaver along with the new decal kit. I am going to mount underbody tool boxes under the deck on both sides to hold shovels and tools. Then I will have the welder fab up a link for the ramps so they can fold all the way down on the deck and rest there. I don't like how the stand up now. Then put on some mud flaps. Do a light scuff and buff, and put a fresh coat of black on it. Put on the new decals and some side blinkers.....and then it will be done. Lot of work, but it will make my life easier in the long run. The adjustment is made by simply turning the threaded rods in the Hutchins links like a tie rod. One on each axle controls all the alignment. Thanks. That's a good read right there. The statistics make it a difficult decision.
Great thread and stories you got Brian, keep them going really enjoy reading them. Nice equipment and great looking work. Your story reminds me of myself only I haven't pull the plug and gone on my own yet. Started out doing residential dirt work and then subdivision and commercial and now been doing highway work for the past 10 years as a operator/foreman getting burned out and ready to go back to residential on my own. On your pool digs, is everything pretty much trimmed by hand they look awesome when done, one of the local guys around here does a lot of basements and pools, he's got a 312 with a helac swivel and a 40-48" smooth lip bucket, but our pools aren't like yours around here. Anway looks awesome keep it.
i would have no concerns working around a machine equipped with a hill hitch ,semi auto/manuals would be different kettle of fish
Well I have worked with Keltec, Miller, Geith, Dromone, Hill and some locally made ones as both semi and automatic set up and in my opinion it down to the operator. Hill did make one that was a pain in the ass to change a bucket, the miller bug swing lock would jam when a breaker was used for an extended period often requiring a sledge and drift to shift it. To be honest I would use any form of q-hitch over changing a bucket manually. I'll say it again it the operator that defines how safe a hitch is.
I think unless you have connections you just about have to start in residential work, but so much competition. The one thing I never did was road work, other than decel and excel lanes. I never really loved working on crews to be honest. As far as the pools, yes I have to trim my digs perfect. Well, I don't. My incredibly hard working guys do. We use heavy trim bars that will give you blisters before 9 a.m. if you're not a laborer. We use pick hoes, sharp shooters, and shovels. Everything is within an inch. It's brutal work and I have been through so many guys. The standard is just so high. I've tried white guys with tough stories, but they quit before lunch time. I get my butt kicked too. The standard has been set so high around metro Atlanta that you have to be perfect and that's just the dirt trimming. I can get real close with my machine which saves so much labor and time. On some you can get the walls perfect with the bucket, but way more hand trimming than not. Basically every square inch is worked by hand. Now you also have setting the stakes to set the forms and they have to be perfect dead laser level and squared and parallel and exact and you get the point. It's brutal work and I stay out 16 hrs. a day a lot of times. Have to order all the material and have it here constantly. It's all consuming, and between me and you I hope to build into site work and more demo work. I'm really wanting to push more demolition work. I have the experience, I just have so far to go to get there safely. I just do it all now. I don't care what it is. I know what I need to make per day/job and do it the absolute quickest I can. I usually average four jobs a week, sometimes five. A pool should take two days to excavate to these standards, but that cuts the money in half if it takes two days. So you don't leave till it's done. Brutal when it's 95 degrees or it get's dark at 5:30. It's very stressful and the builders are always slowing you down. But you have to be nice, otherwise I'd tell them to stay at home so I can work much faster and smoother. They have to be there to deal with nervous homeowners, etc. Same with a demo. It's a lot to do in a day. I don't have an operator yet and my brother was supposed to help build this company, but he can't hang really and has let me down too much. I really need help. This year I hope to get a big mini (or midi) excavator that can work with my skid steer. Get a thumb for the midi ex. and get a grapple for the skid steer so I can do demos, digs, and grading with another crew. I can configure my dump truck and tag to haul both if needed. That's just an option and it doesn't have to happen, but it might be a good plan. Otherwise I will just bust my tail. I had my fiancé helping with all the office stuff, but I think I've run her off for good this time. It's a lot a work. So much work!!!..but I love it to death and I always wanted more responsibility, more deadlines, and more challenges when I was grading for companies.
It's best to check everything before you leave.....twice...three times...or l have to come back and fix it for free.
Some hard work.
Some dirt is a pleasure. Some dirt is a nightmare...or rock..
Some days you hit water late in the day.
Do you do all that formwork? They dont do those types of pools here, all steel and fiberglass. Any pics showing the installation?
Yes, I do every single bit of the layout and forming. Well my guys do I should say or we do it. It all falls on me. I just get handed a plan. I'm probably around 1500 pools by now, with 5 years as an employee strickly doing pools everyday and going on 3 years on my own. I spent Monday doing a layout with glorious dirt. This was for an Atlanta Falcons player (funny I don't follow teams, and had no idea who he was). He had me ride his little boy in my lap around to the back. What do you say when the builder says " hey can you ride his little boy in the machine for them". Of course I say "sure"....Yes Mom has the iPhone pictures with my mug and a snot nose little tike in my lap... Haha, I was ok with it, and actually tried to enjoy it and let him push the track handles and drive. I'm a bit cold and iced on site because I'm so serious and focused, but I need to change my ways. I'm a one of a kind I guess. 2014 is a new start for me. I've had several people screw me last year...even the day after Christmas I got screwed demolishing a trailer. I'm moving on from all of it. I'm not going to be bogged down another day over any of it. If you want to screw a man for doing a great job for whatever reason you have, then I hope your business plan works out. I have my solid customers and then I have to take jobs from strangers. No, more going to lawyers, no more phone calls to deadbeats. Moving on, lessons learned and paid in full. Happy New Year, and looking up and FORWARD!!!!!!!! Resolution speech over. I even sent my sister a friend request today. I haven't even seen her last two newborns it's been so long. Right on the Chattahoochee river Monday too, makes for easy dirt but I'm so glad we stayed above the water table.
Before I crash into a coma, I'd like to share these pics. Right now I'm beyond tired. The last two days I have 29 hours in from the time I left here to to pulling back in. Two days, six plus hrs. total travel. I actually had a Youtube video get me this job. This customer has been trying to get me for a month. New years eve and New years day was all I could do. Tomorrow I have to go fill in a "two acre pond" and I can't wait to leave the lasers and measuring tapes in the truck. Should be easy enough to finish out the week. This guy Googled me and found my website that I built myself and added a I video to it back when I started in early 2011. This guy owns a trucking company and the worst part of the job was talking about his custom W900l's and his 379's and Cummins, and Cat, 100,000 lbs. this and 80,000 lbs. that... and M11's, L10's, antifreeze, etc., etc. Loved it, but, too much work to chat. I could learn a lot from a business man who has 20 years on his own, but the more I talk the longer the day. He has everything huge in his successful world. He wanted a huge elaborate pool and he kept making me go bigger. So, that's where we rolled in the new year.
Glad to hear you are staying busy. Looks like more good clean work.
Last two winters, I was slow for a couple months. This year has been much different. Ok, Ok, I'm done with pool pics for now. You see one, you see them all. I'll get back to the things I've experienced out on my own and different style jobs. Hope tomorrow's pond deal sounds as good as I want it to be.
Thanks, buddy...
Work looks awesome, it's like art compared to what we can do up here in the land of boulders. When do you sleep lol? Your posts are always late at night, then you're at it again early the next day!
How's your weather down there this time of year? -10 and snowing here right now. Do you see a lot of snakes on your jobs ?
You do some nice work! And looks like you have some damn good ground guys and dedicated to you. Are you the only operator, truck driver? Your dedication is impressive to say the least. Wish we had dirt like that all over to work in. Finally had some the other day, was digging sanitary laterals off the main line. All I kept thinking about was keeping my walls like your pictures. I love a good clean cut. We aren't under a lot of pressure on this job, so I took some extra time to really try to make stuff nice, even though we backfilled it right away. Just wanted the practice.
Digging pools is definitely a specialized field and you seem to do a fine job of it Fastdirt. As for starting off as a small business I remember those days and it is a ton of fun. Doing the work is the easy part, office work and solving problems for clients gets tricky. I see you have an eye for detail which probably keeps your clients from calling anyone else, keep it up! Regards, CD
Well, for the last 14 days I have been in major pain with a wisdom tooth that has got me in so much pain I can't sleep. I was always a night owl anyway. The last two days were very sleep deprived, hard to sleep with a pounding head. And yes we hit rock often and gets ugly,
Thank you. My guys are great, I just hope I don't burn them out and down. Yes, I am the only one right now. It's all me and the laborers and I'm killing myself. I'm looking for a guy that can help me out and do jobs too. Might be awhile before I can find a class A driver who can operate and is what I'm looking for. It's great that you have the passion too...pretty cool thinking about the pictures while at work. I too think about the work pics I see here a lot, and I should comment more on them actually showing my appreciation. Shear cutting has always been my favorite thing to do. Especially if you don't have to be an exact 6" off the form board like these pools. If you can just go till your cut gets perfect without worry of being a few inches too much or too little, then it's fun to see how perfect you can get it. Like digging a basement, you can shear cut like magic, because you don't have an exact cut to be at. Just an approx. 3' or 4' over dig. Doing pools you absolutely cannot over cut anywhere, it has to be right there on the line. I used to shear cut apartments on a track loader. The two story in the front and three story in the back style. I would do shear cuts for the foundation walls that could easily be 200' long or even 300' and up to 15' high. It was quite a technique to do and keep the tracks level as dirt falls down and makes the loader camber away from the shear cut. The grade foreman really had that job upheld high.. He was doubting any newcomer could shear cut the way they had done it for decades. Well, I stayed late one day and cut a shear cut by myself on the open cab 953B and did it right. It was all that 53 could do to reach up 13' to 15' high and make the shear cut. These cuts were huge, the company would leave the upper pad 4' higher for back fill dirt. Engineers would stake the building and we'd offset the stakes for the shear cut. When finished It was a couple feet over the top of the D9L when you were looking at it from the bottom, and if it wasn't, somebody did something wrong. Very tricky. The crew would build the upper pad to grade and we'd all track in the slope and then shear cut out for the wall going off the offset stakes. When shear cutting the cut dirt would fall under one track and you have to keep the machine at zero camber and the cut dirt would raise the 953 high enough to achieve a cut that it couldn't normally reach. You then have to cut that dirt out also. So, the next day on the headsets, one of the guys said " Hey, Brian (the foreman's name) did you see that shear cut Brian made(my name too).".........nothing but radio silence. I knew I did it right, he just couldn't acknowledge it at the time. The guy on the 973 quit shortly after that, and then I had the 973 doing all the finish work for the whole crew. It was my glory moment and job. Short lived though, one day I went to lunch and instead of returning to the crew I just drove home. Regretted that move months later and called the owner, and he told me he had big plans for me , but he didn't put up with people who walk off the job.... Fair, I said and I carried on with my life. I was only about 23 yrs. old or so. By the way we would have to go back and clip the top of the shear cut for OSHA standards and put up orange safety fence to avoid somebody or something going off a 14' to 15' drop. Oh, and a lot of the apartments had step downs every two units to meet elevations, which made it even trickier. I too have run laterals like you on 30 ton hoes working with 650's and 450's on the main line. It was scary watching deep cuts collapse after the double stacked trench boxes get dragged up the line. Looking back, I've really done my time and enjoyed it all, I and wouldn't trade it for nothing.
Thanks CD, I'm a fan of your thread. I am overwhelmed with the office work at times and have yet to get leveled out there.....don't even know if it's possible and I'm just a one crew deal. I have a list I've made out and I just try to accomplish it. CPA, Ins., payroll, maintenance, repairs, getting accounts set up where I buy material, etc. etc. Hard to get any respect out there from people when they know you are not a company with a lot of business for them. Even getting stickers for my doors on the trucks and such. I understand though. I have people calling me wanting a little backyard grading and to be honest, I put that way on the backburner and don't really want that work. I want repeat customers who are successful and pay their subs. Now, I feel I need an operator/CDL driver and it scares me honestly. I'll just have to be super patient. That seems to be a method for success, but there is no way I can do the work load I have this year by myself. I picked up new customers and was already busy this year. I will lose customers by way of too much pressure or just by bowing out. Lot to consider. It will work out however it's supposed to I suppose. I'm only human, but I sure wish I was a machine sometimes. I would like to use my experience I have earned out there doing commercial pipe and grading but that's a far scope for now. I realize like most who have worked for huge companies that you've done things as an employee that you could never do as a small company. Still, doesn't matter if I've done it as an employee, when the ball is in your hands it's so much responsibility and uncertainty. Even though you've seen it and done it before. Like you all very exciting. I've worked near 80 hours this week and need rest....when I wake up and put the rig in reverse to leave I don't even think about anything but my next move.
I pirouetted my little dozer almost off a lowboy. Long story short, I-beam ramps, narrow ramps, wrong setting for my track width, light rain, steel on steel, new machine to me etc. An old man told me one time that is what ROPS and seat belts are for. If it is going down ride it down and don't try to get off. Better in it than under it. I'm a believer. I only stepped off one once. It was going into the river and I was headed for the bank.
Why no ditching bucket for the pools? Would it not save a lot of clean up for the ground crew?
Do you have close relations with any other small (1or 2 man) outfits in your area? After I thinned out equipment over the past few years, instead of buying and adding crews, I simply bring on a one man independent guy to assist. He's got his own stuff, it's well maintained, and skill level up with the best. I pay him a premium, but less then the cost to hold new equipment and guys.
I agree with you. Can't ever be too careful. I unloaded Thursday in the rain with muddy tracks. I took my sweet time as you can see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnhXwdMYHoI&feature=share&list=UUwmjLTz3Ih_Uk7akHrTTieA I've never done them with anything other than a GP bucket. It works fine, but I'd love to have a swivel boom, a dozer blade, a compactor attachment, a swivel bucket, quick connect, etc.. but it just seems like any of that is a distraction and would slow me down. I don't know though because I don't have experience with a ditching bucket, but to me if you can finish with a GP bucket then all is well....not to mention the money, transport, and time involved. Maybe one day. I don't know of anybody like that, if I had a trustworthy skilled guy I could make things happen. I have two machines, two trucks, and two trailers. It will come in time I'm certain. I don't know about subbing out work in my position when I'm already a sub myself.
I somehow did about 80 hours this week. I count the time I get in the rig till the time I get out of it. I really pushed. I still can't think my equipment and guys enoigh for being so reliable. After the crazy New years job I got to the pond job on a wet freezing morning. Spent two days there slowly releasing the water to make way for a horse pasture. Then a pool yesterday that I hit a nasty trash pit on forcing me to stay on the job till 8:00. Luckily I found the trash pit right off the start and had gravel base on site to pack back in where I had to over excavate everything.
"Hey Jenaro, take a pic"...I'll look natural like it just happened. My guy walked around taking a few shots but they never get the action I have the eye for. Boy, I could get some good shots of an operator if I had free reign on someone else's job site.
Then yesterday's trash pit.. The house was bought from a builder who built this house and lived in it for awhile. The new owner was told that there would be no problem for a pool. I got the job done and done right, but I didn't stop and luckily brought my lunch. Some areas have a noise ordinance after 7 p.m., but I was far from the rural areas here. I've been stopped by the law quite a few times working late. I had to over excavate everything and walk and pack it back in. I tried borrow pits everywhere and just kept hitting buried logs and stumps. I did find some good places to rob good red dirt in the end, and I had three loads of gravel on site. One was planned for the floor for incoming rains, the other two were for a drive access.
Well this year 2014 marks a 20 year birthday for my pride and joy, The 94 L9000. It has been better than I ever could've ever imagined. I got her a trucker GPS and weighed it loaded yesterday at the truck stop. "20 years old" just has a nice ring to it. I had one lady say are "we paying for that new truck out there". I was flattered. I did a walk around video over the Holiday break after servicing and cleaning it. I need to upload it soon. It sure has been a pleasure this last week with the trailer having straight wheels and axles. I really love the alum. wheels and need to get the welder out soon for toolboxes. Oh the trailer got a new 2 speed jack straight from Eager Beaver and the decal kit came too. My truck scales around 23,500 lbs. at the quarry and the trailer is about 8,500 lbs. according to the website. Had to use it last night to get home. It is a truck specific GPS. I've been eyeing them for awhile and just never see them at stores. I recently noticed them at truck stops. It warns of sharp turns, restrictions, heights, bridge limits, etc. So nice. I just hope it finds all the addresses I enter. My last Garmin wouldn't find 60% of the jobs I put it in....so I just through out the window one day and started using my phone GPS. While it worked alright, it could be a pain. What a catch I found while at the truck stop. No chrome and all business on this rig. New trailer, and great load securement. Love the new Cat. What are we looking at....a 1/2 million bucks there.
It's nice to see a fella take pride in his work, and you sir do some mighty fine work. Good luck in the new year and happy birthday to your truck.
Happy birthday old Ford. 20 years. They made this truck for 30 years. My Dad brought me up Ford and never got to see this one, but he'd love it. Love the fact that it is an L9000 and that the trailer is a 20XPT. Actually the very first truck I drove after the F700 on my first job was a Ford L9000 about this year too. It had a weakling Cat motor. I bet this little L10 would out pull it. Since my speedo does not work I don't know the miles, and now the GPS shows me how slow I actually drive. It will run about 62 mph comfortably on the highway, but you have to plan ahead for hills. I realize that it's an extremely endangered truck and anybody who is not forced to buy a budget truck would never look back a these style trucks, but I got this truck and trailer combo for the price of a brand new Eager beaver 20XPT trailer alone and they haven't changed. The L10 is a an 06 reman that just humms so smooth. It is so smooth and responsive. I mean maybe the smoothest motor I've experienced. The little small block is a worker. Hope the turned up fuel doesn't melt her...that would mean I would have to find a wrecked L9000 with a 3406.
Awesome thread!
Didn't know the condition of the front tires when I got it going. All I had to do was watch Youtube of "Front tire blowouts on big trucks". That will make you take your rent money to the tire store if not give it up entirely. So friggin risky everyday. Before After This is a job from last winter behind a Mercedes Benz shop expansion job I got. I had time to do all the grading, all the hauling, all the logging LOL. Except I had to hire a good buddy from high school to top the trees. He swung from tree to tree like an animal. I gave him $2500 to top about 20 dangerously tall trees. He only wanted $2k, but as always it turned out to be more work that first quoted. They were so tight and too close to the building. I didn't make much on that job, but I loved doing it and it was a great winter job. Plus I got to see my friend at work swinging from tree to tree. He's about 6'4" with a big build. His guy called a cross between a squirrel and an oger. I laughed my butt off, as our necks were bent up watching him. Very professional guy. Nice to see a guy I went to school with succeed. I'd never do what he did..
More of the Mercedes shop job. http://youtu.be/MtW4pKYnwsE I'm actually proud of this video and put some work into making it. I had time at the time to capture it
I also got stuck one day hauling off some dirt. I was advertising "Free Dirt" with a sign out front and on Craigslist. It was hauling to all kinds of places to get rid of the dirt. It was the wet season and at one location I got stuck on my third and last load behind an old in town house. Stuck video. http://http://youtu.be/MtW4pKYnwsE
This is back when renting skid steers. This is what they sent me when I ordered a skid steer. I took these pics and sent them to my salesman at that place. It wouldn't even go anywhere on that wet job. That was the day I decided to find one to buy. I was just over the run around and failure of renting skid steers. I used this Bobcat once or twice. Too small for me. This guy was hired to move the dirt for me. This was a good rental skid steer, but still money gone. I had a rented New Holland for a basement backfill that busted a hyd. leak and I had to get the home builder go get me a bucket of fluid to get it on the trailer. It was my first time working for him. That machine leaked all out onto the street while on the trailer and I left at least a half mile trail of fluid out of the neighborhood.
More great work and pics,Brian. Really enjoying this thread! What went behind the Mercedes shop?
Yeah great pictures and love what you did to that dump truck looks really nice. How did you like the Volvo/JCB skid-steer? I always wondered how good they are with that one armed bandit setup.
Thanks Bigshow! Thanks lumberjack Thanks, apparently there is a lot of Mercedes repair and crashes. They needed a bigger shop, so they dedided to expand out the back and add six bays. They were really busy. I thought the Volvo was great. It's a little weird being off centered from the bucket but it has good visibility...at least the one side does. Smooth ride and the tracks were super wide.
This was early spring 2013.....After all the skid steer rental mishaps I had started saving up my money to buy a skid steer. I knew which ones were the good ones, but I didn't have or want to spend that much. Well, the ones I could afford were junk or too small...and junk. I looked around and was finding for what I was wanting to spend I could get an 864 Bobcat or a New Holland or even a Case. I was not going to buy a New Holland or Case. The 864's were in need of a lot a my budget. So, I kept saving. The same place that I bought my 312 and dump truck and trailer had one listed on machinery trader. I was a 2004 Takeuchi TL150 with enclosed cab. It was on consignment. So I got a meeting with the owner to look at it. I didn't have but half the money he wanted. I was possibly going to try to finance the rest. When I met him at his house we connected pretty quick. He had black sterling pulling a 20XPT with a Hyundai 140. A setup basically like mine only he bought them brand new. He had two Takeuchi TL 150's and wanted to sell one. He was a one man show like me now. He was the original owner and the machine was very straight and very strong. It just hadn't been washed in a long, long time. We were about the same age, only he'd been married and was going through a divorce and the greedy ex wife had won a settlement against him. Another sad story. I've worked for so many guys that their ex gets part of the company or equipment. That's why I wont get married. Anyway, the guy liked me and trusted me and I felt the same about him. He called me back the next day and suggested I give him half the money and he would let me pay him off if I could do it in less than a month. WOW!, what a blessing. Just another of many blessings that have aligned for me. I went and picked it up and gave him half the price and two post dated checks that would cover the rest. Shook hands and couldn't thank him enough. Really, I couldn't have been more grateful. He was a great guy and I hate that that money went straight to that b!#@&, but he just wanted her gone and off his back. He still had another TL150 and was looking forward to a good 2013 work year. So we made the deal and I owned a 2004 Takeuchi TL150 with cab and air. He also had one of the best bucket guards already fabricated and welded on the bucket. I always loved a Takeuchi personally, and at roughly 6 tons and 100 HP it is as much as you're going to get out of any brand skid steer and I also knew how dependable they were. It's a heck of a machine. Well during the summer I got contacted by a builder downtown. I met with him and we rode around in his truck looking at some backed up projects like basement backfills and house demos. I was excited about the work till he told me the name of his grader. It was the guy that sold me the Takeuchi. I said no way sir, I can't take this work. He said why not, and I just said that guy did me a huge favor in life and I'd never take his work. Good news was the guy was so busy he couldn't keep up. Had to put it to work before I could re paint it. This was one of the hardest jobs I've ever taken on. Trying to work full time and doing this in my shanty garage. I had to sand, prep, and mask more than I could've ever imagined. I went through at least ten rolls of blue masking tape and probably 1000' of paper. It was three colors plus the black rear light sections and the bucket. The machine was straight. No bent grab bars or anything. I had to bondo one area in the rear where a dump truck backed into it.
This really shows some more of the work in this video: http://http://youtu.be/DsxSFD6GHh8 Not sure if I would take this project on again. I did put new decals on after about a week of running without them.
Dude that thing came out great but it was clean enough to begin with! How much did you spend on the paint and supplies?
One of it's first jobs was clearing a jungle away from a fixed up house in town. The previous owners didn't maintain the yard for over a decade and you couldn't even walk around the house. I had my brother do that job and he did a great job.
Thank you. I probably spent around $800 or more to be honest. I've tried to block it out. It was a tough job....all I can say is pay a professional haha. The jungle job finished. So my guy has years of experience running Takeuchi's doing landscaping. I let him unload and head to the job while I was on the phone, when I walked around the house he had run on a slope and the track come off. Luckily there was some logs on site and we just cut one to size to get the machine up with the bucket and boom and got it back on by releasing the front idler. No harm done in the end, but I was not too happy about that at first.
Yes, it's late here and we NOT working tomorrow. It's already 10 degrees and should be in the single digits in the morning and I will be in a dentist chair sedated, getting my wisdom teeth out...not sure what sounds worse. I got a call to remove an existing foundation from a house that was jacked up on cribs in a 100 yr. flood zone. They cannot rebuild here because of permitting won't allow them in a flood zone, but they are permitted to raise their houses. A lot of houses on this street are now 10' feet in the air. The creek flooded there in 2011. These cribs were not straight either, making it even more tense. Here's a video showing how close it really was. I had to cut down the grade to get under the main beams and if I were to bucket down at the wrong time it could raise the cab into the beams. It was scary I won't lie. http://youtu.be/X6I5quQuK4w
That Cat is a beautiful machine. I really enjoy looking at your pics and reading your threads.
The tak deifinitely didn't look too bad to begin with, I understand you wanting to paint it though. Everything else looks amazing so its hard to have something that looks "OK" The weather is weird this year for sure. Have you ever felt single digits there before? We were below zero last week, 46 and rain yesterday, now its 6 and windy as hell! Keep up the great work and pics, I know I said it before but I'm just loving this thread!!
Some more very nice work, thanks for sharing it with us. Working under a house isn't much fun, no room for a mistake on that one. No enjoyment to be in a dentist chair, that is for sure. Sending you some more cooling off weather, nedley -18 yesterday high was -9 and lots of wind to make it a bunch colder.
Do you have any experience on mini exs?
We need some more work pics!!!! Im pretty excited I get to go dig some test holes today, it will be a nice change from sanding driveways!! Hopefully the frost isn't too bad in the woods.
Oh yeah, spent many days cramped up on mini ex's. I like the fast ones, but they can get you in trouble. I ran a Komatsu that was terribly slow and ran some that would give you whiplash. I plan on buying mini ex this year or I should say midi ex Video loading a buggy w a mini http://http://youtu.be/Mgl3FvVmmXk This one was way too small.
I see you haul your brush and stumps in a 30 yard can, I do the same depending on the location. How did you come out on the logs and was it worth it to buck them and haul them to the log yard?
Ok cool, im buying a takeuchi 1.5 ton. Its in much rougher shape than your ctl was. Did u buy the paint from tak or do you have a color i can source to repaint mine? You inspired me haha
CM, a lot of times it's just me.....well all the time it's just me, and if time is an issue the dumpsters are very practical. Especially with tree debris because of it's light weight. Now demo debris can get really heavy. I can dump tree trash for $60 to $70 if I haul it myself to a local inert landfill. That's a great route to go if one is close by and I have the time. $60 bucks to dump this monster. Luckily I just had only one to haul off because it wouldn't fit and I had to force it in while the swing gate was open from the back using a chain strapped around the stump. What I find on hauling logs is it doesn't pay much. I can't remember if it was $170 for two log loads or just one. I had the time and the log yard was on the way home. The good part is you don't have to put them in dumpsters and pay to get rid of them or pay at a landfill. So' I guess it can be a benefit. As far as going out to try and make money on log loads would not be very profitable. These were pulp wood prices and not hardwood prices. I'll find the price sheet they gave me.
I was actually just going to touch up the Takeuchi and it snowballed into a full repaint and prep. I started with the red,grey, and tan from the Takeuchi dealer in spray paint cans. Then I realized that wasn't what I wanted to do. What I did, was take the spray paint and painted some metal really good with the three different colors and took those samples to my local auto paint supply and got single stage enamel base line paint. Takeuchi sells the paint but this was a bit cheaper.
Do you have those paint codes? I have an auto paint supply place nearby that is pretty good. Or maybe one or two cans from tak might be enough, it is a small machine haha
Thanks Orlando I really try to keep the Cat looking good. I keep loppers and tarps with me to protect it. I am forced through a lot of tight areas and just refuse to run through trees. It only takes 30 seconds to scratch it up and it's there forever. Got a chainsaw too LOl. Really a tarp does wonders though.
Man they are some tight areas, your professionalism inspires me, Bravo on your attitude and work ethic and the condition of your equipment!
Our kubota 121 is a fast mini, if you're happy with your cat 312 maybe try a 305. I ran a 303.5 and it was a decent machine. I ran a friends tak135 and that seemed like a nice machine. I wouldn't go less than a 5 ton mini myself we have a deere 27 and after we got the kubota it sits at my fathers house a lot.
You sure would not want to sneeze or have a case of the hiccups while walking the hoe in there! Is the pin coming out of the bucket in the last picture?
Same here. Dumpsters for tree debris if it's in the city/suburbs because you can get so much more in a 30 yard than a dump truck, it makes $$ sense. If it's closer to an outlying brush dump then I haul it in dump trucks. We pay about the same for brush/stumps $55-75 per load. I have a few concrete/dirt dumps around my area that charge considerably less to dump at but those are closely guarded trade secrets. Same here on the logs. I have hauled many loads to the wood yard and only made money on pine saw logs, the rest was pulp wood price and it's marginally worth it once you add in the labor to saw it.
Great story and pics. Keep up the good work. I do agree with the hill coupler. Have put on twenty in the last two years and have not had a problem with one yet.
Just finished a very exhausting week. On Monday I hit rock and had to return the next day with my "rock bucket". I got through it pretty good, and I got some compensation for it. Then Wednesday the job started out well till I got a call from my new insurance lady. You see, I just recently cut ties with my old agent. I got my old ins. agent through a customer I was doing demolition for. It was his wife. Well, remember the trailer demo I did the day after Christmas. I got ripped off on that job. So, I cut that crooked couple off. Anyway, my new agent who is awesome, called me while on I was getting started Wednesday on a job and said my CDL was suspended when she ran my license. Reason was my medical card expired. So, I left that job immediately. I left my guys and the trailer there and drove the dump truck home. Got my fiance to drive me to get a new physical exam. I passed, but was nervous of course. Then off to the DMV and still nervous. My guys sent me a picture text from the job showing where they discovered a pipe with gravel and a lot of water coming in. Turns out it was a French drain, but slowed the job up. Finally, the DMV cleared my CDL cancellation. It all worked out thankfully. Then she drove me back to the job to get my guys, which was well after dark. They did a great job without me, but didn't finish. The next day we finished. Then Friday dragged out forever on a job, but I finished that pool dig and it kept us out 13 hours. Today (Saturday) we started another job and hit a septic system and had to pull off. I get a pull off charge, but unfortunately I didn't get it before I left. We had such an early start too. At least it was Saturday and traffic was easy. I've been stressed over getting new insurance and this new insurance lady has been fighting for me all week. Some carriers won't insure the dump truck...some won't insure the road tractor. I'm having to swap all my insurance including GL, equipment, two trailers, and three trucks. I am finally going to get health insurance too. My down payment is hefty and I just made my tractor payment on the 15th. I'm tight and my fiancé was chasing down checks for me to put in the bank. The new insurance lady finally pulled it all together at the end of Friday, but I didn't have the funds cleared to make the down payment. I still have current coverage, but I've cussed my old agent out because her husband ripped me off on that demo job, so she won't get me the proper loss reports to cancel with her. She said she would mail them instead of emailing them, which is a tactic of revenge. She was a shady one too. She didn't even have my trailer on the policy apparently. Good thing nobody stole it or worse. Her and her husband are yet another lesson learned in dirty business. Money has cleared my account and we are ready for the new policy Monday. I didn't get any pics this week because I've been caught up in the moment. I did get two pics today. I am trying to get legit all the way around, so I bought a hands free ear piece for when driving the commercial trucks. I searched the DOT fines for using a phone in a CDL truck and it's around $2,000. I tried it this morning when I got to the job. I called my fiancé and it hung up on her three times and it wouldn't stay in my ear. Took care of that problem. LOL. My friends are using the LG piece that looks perfect but I forgot about it last week when I bought this ear piece. I knew this was going to cause problems so I took care of this and the sent the pic to her for a laugh, but she already knew after three hang ups on the first try it would get smashed. I didn't even think about giving it to her till she said something when I got home Just ordered this on ebay, should work good. I don't know how I can do it without her. She will help any day, anytime, with anything.
Sounds like a keeper!
You're definitely a driven man, Brian. Most people would have thrown the towel in with all the hurdles you face, you just put your head down and bull through it,and that's awesome. Hats off to you man! I really like the pic of you and your fiancé too, that's cool. It's good to have a good woman to stand beside you!
Well, I think I just lost a big job. I had put in a price for four custom home lots with huge hardwoods to do the clearing, basement, and grading. He liked my price and said I had the jobs. Then he called recently and said the county wasn't going to let him do septic systems because of lot size and that he would have to connect to sewer instead. I messed up when he asked me if I could do sewer lines. Of course I can, I used to run laterals all day long on a 300. I've done a lot of pipe. I just don't have the utility license. They even had sewer manholes behind the lots and not at the street. I could have easily subbed it out, but I was caught up on the spot and on the excavator working when he called and I dropped the ball. I'm sure he found a contractor that could do the sewer tie in, grading, and clearing. Another lesson learned. I do plan on getting my utility license when time permits.
Well, back earlier this year after getting the Takeuchi I wanted to get another rig of some sort to pull it because my brother was half heartedly helping me and I had visions of him doing jobs separate from me. Well, he is out of the picture, but I still have plans for an employee when the time is right. I was going to pull the Takeuchi 150 with a F450...or I thought I was. I had a someone offering a great used F450 7.3L with a gooseneck trailer. I went and picked up the rig and pulled my 6,000 lb. F150 on the trailer and drove it home. Well, it'd been awhile since I had pulled Bobcats with dually's and about half way home I knew that setup wouldn't safely handle a 6 ton Takeuchi. So, I returned the truck to the guy.....Long story short, I searched and searched for a lowboy. Plan is to have the tandem and tag pull the Takeuchi and/or a mini excavator. So, I found a truck. A Peterbilt 379, that I have used but it is still not finished. I originally wanted a L9000 like this with a big block Cat, but only found one that got sold out from underneath me. Of course I wanted a 379 but knew I couldn't afford one. I was actually in the process of financing one and was saving the down payment. Well, that process took months and my down payment money was getting bigger and bigger and I wasn't far from being able to afford an OTR Pete 379. Definitley wanted the big block Cat and day cabs were too much for me to afford in one lump sum or period really. So, I found a good one from a great guy down in south Georgia who gave me a heck of deal on a straight 379 that had the big block Cat and had already been rebuilt for the sum of $28,000 from Blanchard Caterpillar. New crank, new head, new pistons, etc.. I'll barely put 20k miles a year on it. These are pictures from the ad before I bought the truck.
This is just after buying the truck. I wasn't a half mile from his house way back down some sandy south Georgia dirt roads. I had to stop and get out and jump in the air. It's ALWAYS ALWAYS been a dream of mine to have a Peterbilt 379 with a big Cat motor. First guy I worked for had a 379 with a big Cat he bought new. I took my class A test it in and would polish it all the time in hopes of driving it. That was around '95 when the 425 was king then the 550 came out right after that. I remember the brochures saying "King of the Hill" 550 horse power. It took about four months to actually get a truck. Well worth the patience. I believe I found a great truck to start with.
Here's the videos of all the work I did to it. It is presently in the shop again. It's getting a 48" flat top with windows, short tanks, and the frame is being shortened by 24"s or so. It's a 252" WB now. Also having a pintle hitch welded to the rear to pull the tag a long. The first day I got it in this video. I drove it straight to the paint shop. I couldn't believe how good it sounded. http://youtu.be/QNzpGk6AYio Along the way of getting fixed up. http://youtu.be/QNzpGk6AYio Lot of hard work here. http://http://youtu.be/QNzpGk6AYio Finished to a good point, but I realized I wasn't done soon after this point. I just don't like the hi rise sleepers in this line of work, but love the flat tops and the space. http://http://youtu.be/MJH-e1F2rQo
Call that guy back and explain the sewer stuff. It stinks but ive gotten jobs like that that i thought i lost just by making a phone call
I run into this situation all the time. In the State of AL, one has to be a licensed plumber to run sewer and water from the ROW to the building. Since I am not a licensed plumber and don't have one on staff, I routinely turn down the site sewer and water on commercial projects. I have to explain the rules here in Alabama and they have no problem with it, usually the plumber for the project picks it up. I wish I did have my masters card because it's good money. I am not familiar with GA's rules on the subject but I have to explain AL's rules to the out of state GC's I work for on every project. Don't be afraid to tell your customers what you are capable of and licensed for.
Well, I sure messed that last post up, but don't see an "edit" to click on. I actually called the builder back and it turns out I'm still on for the job. I had lost his contact due to a new phone issue and had to call the builder that referred me to him to get his number and apparently they have partnered up on the project, which is good news.. Turns out He is waiting on the sewer drawings. We will figure out a way to get a licensed utility contractor in on it somehow for a fee. Plans are going to be for two man holes and about 600' of sewer pipe for just three of the lots. Hopefully it will work out. I've inquired on getting my own Utility license, but it will take time if I can make it happen. In Georgia we have a utility contractor license and a utility foreman license. Also, need two references and two years utility experience. A couple pics from a job I did for the one builder.
I read a report from Caterpillar years ago that talked about ways to avoid getting burned out. They said to try to focus on the type of jobs you enjoy doing. I think for me it is backfilling and tearing down houses. I could do that everyday, it's definitely my choice. I've always loved backfilling basements. I remember always having to fill in the front porch stoup, but now homeowners want them for bunkers. Luckily I had my guy run one machine and we double teamed it in about five hours. The builder actually had an engineer test the garage compaction after we left. He said we passed it with great compaction. Funny, I wonder if he thought we just fluffed it in there. The Takeuchi 150 can weigh in at 7 tons with a bucket full and really compact some dirt.
The left side of the house was very tight. I had to just keep dropping in dirt till the grade came up. It was tricky, and the back was very tight too. It was a deep cut all the way around, but came together nicely.
I know nothing about excavation or thos job but why didnt you dig the hole? Or why didnt whoever dug the hole backfill it? Isnt it usually the same contractor or is there a market for each exclusively?
Some video of the job http://youtu.be/rzwNYRDu67c Getting in the whole job here... http://youtu.be/K81cAhXkfFk Finished up. It was also a Saturday, which is great news in the Atlanta area...no traffic.
Good news at the end of last week. The shop finally made some progress on the Peterbilt lowboy project. Here's a walk around video while it's in this huge paint booth....notice the wheels are covered like they should be. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRekubGC61w&feature=share&list=UUwmjLTz3Ih_Uk7akHrTTieA&index=4
Much better than this BS I got the first go around. I really don't know what I was thinking by taking my trailer to the other guy. The shop where the paint booth is, is the same shop that originally painted my Peterbilt back when I started the project. The shop that has the truck has about three huge paint booths and all they do is fleet and trailer repair for big companies like UPS, Coca-Cola, etc. Even school buses. They do a lot of fleet repair and they even have a 1940's model UPS truck they are restoring for UPS. They also do a lot of custom work to Peterbilts and KW 900's and like trucks. Their shop had four custom rigs in there now that were really tricked out. My first nightmare paint job on my newly fabricated trailer. What a bad piece of work. What a difference from this shoddy job to the job the pros did. The professional shop is going to have to remove the overspray that the other guy did and then polish them back. They were brand new and will never shine like new. Just happy it's getting done right.
Here's what it looks like now with a hi rise 63" sleeper. As some know from the other thread I plan on going with a 48" flat top sleeper with windows so that I can shorten the truck. I definitely prefer the flat top 48" in the looks department. I think I'm just gonna post it here from now on. They have a 48" on the yard that is decent but has some dents and dings on it. They say they can make it look brand new.....and I believe them from what I've seen. It will save me a lot of money to go with the one they already have compared to ordering one from a used truck parts place. Flat tops are high dollar. I probably couldn't give my 63" sleeper away. I will also be going with the smaller tanks like the ones on the truck with the 48" flat top. The tanks are going to be gloss black instead of polished. The shop also said they have a 36" sleeper that would make more since in the wheelbase department, but I think it will be too small...and where will I take my lunchtime nap. It was nice going in the 63" sleeper and getting to stretch the old body out for a 30 minute break, especially with some A/C in the summer.
Looks good. The shorter sleeper and dropping the wheelbase down so both ends of the truck are in the same zip code will help in those tight city streets for sure. I have a 190" wheelbase KW and it is still too long for some of the jobs I need to get into. One job I picked up a D-8 from a while back was a 14 ft wide gate set back about 10 ft from the edge of 1 18' wide 2 lane road, with a matching 14' wide bridge spanning the ditch from the gate to the edge of the road. That was fun to back into, then pull out of with a D-8T loaded up. I should have took pictures.
Well, I just recently got hooked up with the builder. One of the guys that actually taught me a lot at my first job about 20 years ago when we were just kids practically, got me this work. We both worked for his uncle and became lifers. He and his brother have gone on to run some of the biggest pipe crews in the state. He had just got a healthy job offer and left his current job and gave himself two weeks off. He was doing this job for a builder that was a relative of a project manager we both used to work for. They rented a machine and then passed the work off to me. Really good deal for me since the builder has more projects coming up. Here is the video of the Cat 320EL on the dig of the basement. Way too much dirt to pile up neatly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQon46zAh7U&list=UUwmjLTz3Ih_Uk7akHrTTieA&feature=share It was dug with a new 320E Also a video I just made of a day out in the one man show world. I had to go to this same lot and move 20+ loads off site to make room for the wall crew. This is a really long video but it shows kind of what an average day for me is. I had about 20+ loads hauled out before 1:00 by doing the hauling and loading myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9aejVCJkHM&list=UUwmjLTz3Ih_Uk7akHrTTieA&feature=share&index=4 Here is a pic of what my buddy Shane normally deals with. They are always on the biggest projects with huge 650 hoes and double stacked trench boxes. Very impressive, and I've worked along side them over the years quite a few times. I will get to some of their jobs soon and capture the caliber of work they do. Right now they are in downtown Atlanta at almost 40' deep replacing a sewer line from the 1920's and going under huge streets. Crazy work. Only got this pic, but I'm getting more soon.
Jerry, I feel your pain. 190" is very short, obviously it's a day cab. That's the right way to go. I've always been a day cab guy, but I had to have space. Mine is at 252" now, and shortening it will only get it to about 228" but I guess I will have to deal with it. I would've loved to see some pics of that predicament you were in. I've been in quite a few that were just horrible, but the last thing on my mind was a camera when I'm blocking a public road. Liked the zip code comment. This the proper way to get a big semi out of a tight situation here.. http://youtu.be/OJ8WKscGo8I This is my photoshop rendition of what it will look like.
The Pete looks good with the flattop. I hope the real one turns out as nice as the photoshop version. Here are a couple of pics of mine. One in its better days, and one from last winter in Northern Cal on my friends ranch.
Looks sweet in the photoshop pic. Doesn't really look like it will be much longer than a tri axle tractor,should make a big difference in manueverability. When does it go in?
So you compacted it by just tracking it with the CTL and a bucket full of dirt? What kind of compaction numbers did you get? Not sure if its the same as this side of the country, but what is the minimum required? I was under the impression CTL's and tracked equipment in general are horrible for compaction.
My ctl with an empty bucket is near 13klbs, heaped the bucket can easily hold 1.5 yards. Lift it 5-6' up and the majority of that 16-17klbs is on the front of the 18" tracks. What's the tread width on an axle in a 34klb tandem?
It looks ok to me, no reason to pick apart his work. The material looked fine and had plenty of moisture. Good dirt guy's know dirt. The next question will be if he ran a jumping jack around the perimeter of the garage. No reason to pick the guy apart for showing us his work. That is probably the biggest reason on this forum that people quit posting is because of all the armchair quarterbacking. I appreciate the pictures and the story that goes with it and that is why I visit the forum. Looking good!
It does look good! I'm sorry if my comments came across as picking the work apart. I'm just trying to learn here. I didn't know it was possible to achieve adequate compaction with a machine like this but obviously he did it, so its possible. I was thinking that maybe we have different requirements out here..... I'm hesitant to try different methods because it can get real expensive to re-do and re-test if a fill fails.
One can achieve adequate compaction with one's feet for example, compaction is a function of lift thickness, passes, weight of the compactor and manipulation - either static or vibratory. You can compact that whole garage with your feet and meet compaction, it might take you a while though. The Romans used sheep to compact their highways that are still there to this day. Rumor has it that's where the term "sheep foot roller" came from.
Good and interesting facts there, and very true about the extreme measures. You could dig a 1,000 acre lake on a bobcat if determined enough. I mean it'll do it, it'd just take ten years. But seriously LTx-7, I have always done garages with either a bobcat or track loader. You just need a bucket of dirt to get the highest ground pressure possible. Sometimes a half loaded dump truck, but that gets very risky...those walls will and do crack. I was not aware that the builder was going to test the garage and I didn't really do it the way an engineer would want. He never told me until after he had it tested, and said "oh by the way I had the garage tested and the engineer said it was packed really good". He said it got a 95. They were very surprised at how fast we did it...and I was too honestly and I think that's why he had it tested. Here in middle Georgia we have some of the best dirt for compaction. It's red clay and will pack like crazy. It can be sticky and ideal about 65% of the time, but we have sandy soils along with darker dirt that does not like to pack good. We can shear cut dirt that was just filled and compacted. In south Georgia that would never happen.
What CTL weighs 13,000 lbs? I thought the Takeuchi was the heaviest. I had a 2001 Bobcat 963 back in 2001 that was around 10,000 lbs. and then add the metal tracks. I didn't own the machine, but I had a silent investor. It was the biggest and heaviest back then until these tracked machines came along. I really haven't been keeping up with equipment stats the last several years, but boy when I started I knew the weight and horse power of every machine out there. As far as I know the TL 150 is around 11,000 lbs. The new Tak is 12,000 lbs. I didn't think even the Cat 299C weighed that much.
I have the Mustang MTL325 (TL250) EROPS w/ air. The specs say it weighs just under 12klbs, and the shipping on the bucket said it weighed 1k.
Any new project pics? My new to me mini is literally on my front lawn covered in snow, been there two weeks. Got the dirt fever and cant do anything about it
95% is pretty awesome. I have a hard time getting compaction like that with my backhoe with a full bucket and it weighs a lot more than your CTL. What do you shoot for on lift height with that machine? Having never done the math myself I just assumed the small tracked machines wouldn't have the ground pressure to compact a decent size lift.
Around here we use rock chips for backfilling garages, and most trench job spec chips when in the street. Backfill with them and no compaction needed.
Weight concentration is a more important consideration than overall weight. While your backhoe may weigh more, it still carries a good bit of weight on the back tires due to the mass of the backhoe acting like a counterweight. With my CTL, lifting the bucket to the max reach position (bucket pins inline horizontally with the arm pins) shifts a great deal of weight to the front of the tracks. Driving in reverse shifts more weight to the front. If I hammer down too hard backwards, the machine will nose over. I have achieved 95-97%stp in SC/CL soils (red clay around here). My first/biggest project using that method was an 8k yard house pad that passed every nuke test. We also had a small padfoot compactor on the job.
I have to get 98 on the current job I am on, building pad and parking lot. It's been a struggle with all the rain but we have been using chert, which is a clay/gravel mix.
Wow that sounds fun! What type of machine are you using for compaction?
CS 533E sheeps foot compactor.
Ok, My 150 is enclosed, so we basically have the same machine. I was just being modest with my 13,000 lb. weight. Theses machines will lift 5,000 lbs. and it will even pick up 7,000 lbs. but can't do much with it. So it is safe to say you can get 17k lbs. with a really full bucket, and that is a lot of weight on the front idlers. Yeah, I was just really trying lately to get my past projects posted. I had lost about three computers in the past couple years. I had removed the hard drives and was trying to extract the photos and videos from those hard drives, but I inadvertently erased (formatted) them. So, I just tossed them in the trash yesterday and will have to pick up from here. Exactly, overall weight doesn't mean it has a higher ground pressure. Especially with a loader having a full bucket of dirt compared to a dozer.
What's the tread width of your rear tires on your dump? Trying to compare the ctl pressure to a loaded dump (17k per axle in the tandem group) I am considering adding counterweights to my machine for more stability lifting as well as more dozing power. I plan on offsetting the rear counterweight with weight on the front, under the door. That will keep the stability the same as without the rear counterweight. Loading heaped buckets on soft ground can be hairy. I don't want to tip into the side of the trailer when loading out. As close as you are to 80k with both machines, it's not much of an option for you. There is a factory counterweight option for the rear, lists for $1048, but I figure I could make it out of bar stock for less. For me, I don't see much downside if I add 1-1.2klbs to the machine... some increased undercarriage wear probably. The added weight should reduce track slippage when dozing as well as stability when lifting heavier weights higher up. I do like the back guard on your bucket, thinking I'll add that to my bucket. That sucks majorly about your pictures! I suggest having a redundant back up from here on out. Lots of marketing potential in your pictures, as well as the nostalgia.
Thanks for your sympathy about my pictures.:Banghead I mean it's funny to think I'm that broken over it, but I am. Or should I say I was, this is my year for just trying to brush things off. Can't get to caught up on things. The rear tandems are 8" per tire and a total of 22" wide per dually, so that leaves 6" between footprints. Those are measurements on the top of the tires. I'm sure the loaded footprint is slightly bigger. The overall width is 8' and the axles are 55" apart. I'm pretty sure if I were to back that dump truck over the area packed by a CTL that it would compact it even more and leave an indented footprint. Unless it was perfect dirt it might hold up. The tandems do actually have a high ground PSI I'd think. You're right about the extra weight being a problem on the lowboy. $1048 is a lot of money. So, that's one less thing to worry about for me. I'll have to look up this counterweight and check it out. I would definitely suggest the back guard on the bucket. Picking up logs is by far the greatest advantage of having one. It will also pick up a whole lot more tree and demo debris and keep it off the boom and more importantly out of the cab. One thing I really like about is that it will pick up a lot more dirt. I mean a lot more. The way it is designed with the bars only about 2 inches apart and it acts like a solid plate to hold the dirt and lets you get a really big bucket. It'll load trucks much faster with the back guard...and you can see through it.
Did you build the guard on your bucket or did it come that way? Just wondering the dimensions on the steel. 3/16 x 2?
I agree on not getting caught up on things, but not learning from them would be a terrible waste. Federal Bridge Law allows 17klbs per axle in that group (governing law here), the same as our ballpark weight on the CTL. The CTL tracks are ~18" wide each, 36" overall. 4 x8" tires makes for 32" of tread width. So, assuming an equal weight, and excluding the vacillating weight transfer on the CTL, the dump truck has an ~11% advantage in contact pressure. It also has the advantage of the kneading action between the tires and a second axle following right behind it. Still, it's not unreasonable to assume that you can achieve similar compaction with the CTL vs the tandem dump truck, although it'll take more passes most likely. Tandems are used for proof rolls, so all in all, using a CTL for compaction isn't such taboo. That price is list price, I'm a dealer rep for a Mustang/Gehl dealer and can get it at cost. Still, it's over a dollar a pound, plus shipping. Also the counterweights are what appear to be ~1/2" plate cut into shape and laminated together with the bolts they hang on. 8" bar stock looks to be the correct width, 1/2"-1" bar stock is far cheaper than $1/lb. I have a grapple for logs, but heaping dirt up is where it's at for me and that back guard.
I'm confused by your math above. Ground pressure is measured in pounds per square inch, correct? So using the weight of the CTL at 17,000 lets assume with the bucket heaped in the air it transfers 90% of that weight to the front 18" of the tracks like mentioned earlier in the thread. That gives us a contact patch of 648²". 17k / 648 = 26.23 pounds per square inch for the loaded CTL For the truck the tires are 8" wide x maybe 12" (just guessing here) x 4 tires per axle = 348²". So max legal axle 17k / 348 = 48.85 pounds per square inch for the truck. I don't know about everyone else, but if I'm using my dump for compaction off road I put a few extra scoops in it. Which would put it up more around 20k per axle. So if my math is correct were looking at 26.23 compared to 48.85. Maybe the contact patch on the CTL with the loaded bucket is considerably smaller than we think? All of this is a little irrelevant because Fastdirt have proved its possible to pass the compaction test with the CTL, and that is all that really matters.
The difference in our numbers is related to the length of the contact patch. I set them as being equal in length whereas you put the tracks contact length 50% longer than the tires. Then it's just a matter of the difference in width, 36" for tracks vs 34" for tires. It's an oversimplification on my part, but my point was to illustrate that CTLs aren't impractical for compaction in cohesive soils due to COG shifting far forward and their overall heavy weights. 8"x12"x4 tires is 384sqin, not 348. It looks like that was a typo though as your psi came out correct. This was an 8k yard fill for a house pad that was tested. I start compacting with the CTL at 2:40. At the beginning you can see the marks from the pad foot compactor. My helper was on the far side taking out some additional trees. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvrbRacTEQw
As I said in the other post compaction can be achieved by many means and methods as it's all a function of lift thickness, weight and manipulation. One important factor I left out was moisture content of the material which is by far the most frustrating issue. Standard procedure written into every job spec I have worked with includes proof rolling the residual soil with a loaded tandem prior to the first fill lift. This is almost always observed by the geotechnical engineer of record for the project. A loaded tandem will find any poor spots. The majority of the time we are also required to proof roll the final sub grade under building pads, roads and parking areas even if every lift has been nuke tested. The old saying is "The dirt won't lie when the truck rolls over it". A loaded tandem is also a great compactor but is slow, I prefer a sheepsfoot that covers more SF per pass. When I am doing fill lifts I like to start at the closest point where the trucks will be entering the lift, if it's possible. Start your lift and have trucks drive/back over the lift you are putting in. This combined with whatever you are using to spread the material will start the compaction process and cut down on the amount of rolling time with the compactor. Not only does this method speed up your compaction, it gets your material to the edge of the lift and makes less work of spreading it. Less work in spreading is less diesel burned and less wear and tear on the equipment.
Yeah that was a typo, my bad. Cool video! What was the deal with that pad, did you have to truck in material that was suitable to build on? That can get expensive in a hurry.
Yeah, all 8k yards hauled in at just over $7/yard. Hauled 1k yards of cut dirt out. The site was horribly wet, at the onset about half of the house's footprint was under water for most of the year. I ended up digging a sump at the corner of the clearing with bleed ditches running to it and pumped the water across the site to a ditch for roughly 6 months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRVeueqfmTk We brought the grade up 5-7' (to FFE). We had a 10" rain last year, this will put the floor of the house roughly 3' higher than the crest from that rain. They started on the footers Mid January.
10" of rain good weeks rain so........ This is in millimeters and approx 25mm to the inch.......
Those 10" came in a couple days. The ditch running along the side of the property has 2 6' rcp running under the road. The waters crested about a foot over the top of the road. We got 63" last year, 60" the year before. 07 was a drought with 22".
If I remember correctly Alabama had met it's average yearly rainfall in July last year. So far 2014 seems to be on '13's track.
That bucket spill guard is impressive. Im in the process of putting a tooth bucket together, not sure if i want to add one to that or my flat bucket. Maybe make it removeable so i can see to grade easier? Sucks about the pictures but spring is coming, there will be more
Lumberjack, I've seen your videos. I had no idea that was you. Cool videos... coming off the side of that trailer with the mini was pretty wild.
Go away snow!! It's fun for about one day a year.
Just a job we did last week. The guy in the Kenworth used to own one of the biggest grading company's in the state. I mean they had at least a hundred Caterpillars. I knew him from back when I started because he was best friends with my very first boss. He had to shut the doors to that business. Scary world out there is all I can say. He said he had three estimators full time for two years chasing work. He's old school. As soon as the ground dries we have another dirt haul to do.
Another job from last week. This week has been a snow week and have been at home. Not normal for Georgia Had to remove and over excavate an Inground pool. They had put all the decking and trash in the pool and then filled it in. I had to sift through it all and dig below it all and bring dirt back up to grade while walking it in. There was hardly any dry dirt available but I dug around everywhere borrowing good dirt. I could only go about 3' before hitting grey dirt. The water table was very close but I had good ground when digging the new pool.
Took a lot of work to get to this point. Have to really make sure you have a deep swale around the pool this time of year or it could get ugly if the heavy rains come.
Thats a beautiful pool. Do you ever go back and get installation pics or finished pics after they pour it?
Thanks! I need to get a video of the new ex doing the same as well as walking in and out of the dump trailer. Heck, I need to put a video up of the new ex in general. Now that I'm getting into excavator mowing, I might put a winch on the back side of the car body for working on "extreme" slopes. I need to look in the service/owner's manual and see what the max continuous slope is. I assume you use a pump to get the water out of the pool digs?
I hardly ever see them again. Every once in awhile I will be back around to catch some of the work. Just some during the construction. Just kidding. I had nothing to do with this one, but it was very cool. They did this in solid rock and I saw it on the web. Some shotcrete work. That guy is tough, believe me. This is the Pebbletec process.
The economic crash back in '07-08 took a lot of good guys down by no fault of their own, I understand what happened and how bad it was to go through, as I am part of that club. We contractors are a resilient bunch, if not a little bit crazy for being in this business to begin with. Who in their right mind would go out and invest $100's of thousands of dollars in equipment that depreciates and breaks down to take a job where there are never ending pitfalls in order to make a profit?:cool2 Simple answer - because we love it. When life, the project or the economy kicks us in the shorts, we gather ourselves back together and get back at it. Yeah we must be nuts! This guy is back out shifting gears and hopefully building back what he lost. I respect that a lot.
Sorry but living here in Central NY we would call that a heavy frost! Not real snow until you are talking feet of accumulation:tong
I'd love to see it and the videos. That winch anchoring sounds very interesting... be careful but please share too. As far as water goes, I have to deal with natural springs and water tables. The builder deals with rain water because I'm only there for the dig. If and when I hit water I have to over dig and install a pump to pump out water during the construction until it's filled with water. If it's moderate water I can get away with a pump inside a 5 gallon bucket set below the deep end floor level. I just dig one bucket out below grade and set the bucket and fill around it with gravel. I usually just take the chainsaw and cut slots in the bucket. If it's a lot of water I will set a well point outside the pool and use a stand pipe usually a 14" to 18" pvc pipe which can be hard to find. You also have to cut slots in the pipe with the chainsaw for water to enter. The stand pipes are usually at least 10' deep and have to be big enough for a float activated pump. It's a royal pain. I've dug in areas that will fill with water in a matter of minutes. Sometimes you have to set a stand pipe and come back a week later in order to dry up.They will sometimes use hydraulic pop valves in the concrete shell to pop incase of too much water pressure. I hate seeing lakes, ponds, creeks, and flood zones. Got the hole dug for the pump. About to put in just enough gravel to set the bucket and then put in more gravel and backfill the bucket at the same time with gravel. A string helps to check grade so the bucket stays below grade. I usually don't take pictures when people are around. This one was on a lake and I didn't get any close up shots. Really don't like pulling up to digs on the water. Setting a well point outside the pool well below the finish floor grade and using a french drain to connect to the pool. It's a nightmare to do sometimes. Also had to lay down fabric above and below the gravel and then use a dirt fill on top of that just in the shallow end.
CM, I like what you had to say. He has my respect too, believe me. If he only knew how bad I want to learn from him. I was an operator back during the crash and felt the pain, but nothing like the owners and owner operators. It was a tough time and it still is. It's hard to believe this guy had to shut down. He had taken over the company from his Dad who started it way back in the 60's or earlier. They were old school and had older equipment but they were big and did some huge development. I operated for them briefly and it was the first place I got to run a D8. They were hard workers. The Kenworth in the picture actually came from the fleet. I'm sure there is family involved in the mix of the closing, but I didn't pry. I have been soaking up his knowledge and asked if he still bids on small jobs like out parcels and such. He said so many new companies are making the rates so low. I really hope to spend some time with him this year and learn from him. He is very reliable and is very positive. He smiles and says "You call, We'll haul".... "You pay, We'll stay". He knows everybody and can always find a place to get rid of dirt. Glad I ran across him just recently.
Random pics...
Great stories and pictures. Keep them coming. I really enjoy seeing the work you do and your great looking equipment. Gary
Hey fast. Good job keeping your machines so clean. I do not know how you have time to do it. All my machines are dirty, greasy and rusty. I know impressions are important but I normally already have the job once on-site with the equipment. Does having a shiny machine sitting on a job help with getting new leads? This wet weather we have been having has stuck me a couple of times lately and my track loaders look as if they have been run through a swamp. I cant even keep my boots or floor boards on my truck clean. I have forgotten what clean even is. Any way nice job with the clean machines. Also just wanted to drop you a note if you need help on the north west atlanta metro side give me a shout I have a class A cdl, 2 dumps, mini ex, skid, eager beaver, and 2 53's. I am pretty good at flat grading and basic excavation. I would like to learn how to form a pool , so I might come work with you for free if I have time. Let me know if you have a job over this way and you need help.
Thanks so much. I really enjoy posting and have always had a passion for this stuff. When I first started which was around mid 90's the C models were not out yet and my first boss who was about the age I am now. Actually his mid 30's, he had already spent his life grading and had a perfect 955L, 953A, and a brand new 953B. Also earned himself a brand new 379 Peterbilt lowboy. He kept his stuff perfect. He ran the 955 that was immaculate and his nephews on the 53's. I'll never forget the day the new 953B backed into an extracted stump while clearing a lot. It scratched the "Caterpillar" sticker above the radiator and smeared some paint. Well he had CAT paint on his truck and we sanded it down and sprayed it back. Then the next day he had a new sticker and we put it on. That's when and where I learned to take pride in the appearance of the equipment. He was a clean cut guy and I idolized him. I would polish the Peterbilt every chance I got and he bought me a brand new Bobcat and a tag trailer and a used F700. I got that F700 looking brand new and kept it all that way. Then a couple years later he started doing drugs and I was forced to quit. I went to the nicest Grading company in town. They had about 20 953's and they got one of the very first 953C's after I started with them. We all had nice company shirts too. They had all new red Peterbilt lowboys and dumps. I then would only work for those who had the nicest equipment and appearance. I just hate a dirty machine, cab, truck, etc. I can't stand trash everywhere and dirty windows. I just want my office(machine) as clean as I can get it. I can get depressed if I'm on junk looking equipment. Can't explain it, but I love good looking tractors and trucks. I've always kept my employers equipment straight and cleaned. I'd wash them on my own time if need be. So, now that I'm fortunate enough to be out on my own it just comes natural to keep my stuff looking as good as I possibly can. If you put me in a beater I will get depressed. I enjoy running equipment, moving dirt and driving big trucks if they are well kept. All my stuff is old but, I'm always getting compliments. I had an 18 wheeler stop next to me yesterday and say "nice looking setup"....and he was a lumber hauler in an 18 wheeler. Earlier this week a builder I am working for thought my dump truck was new. I said "yeah 20 years ago". Had a homeowner kind of gripe to the builder saying "are we paying for that new truck out front". She was referring to my dump truck. I was flattered but told her it was 20 years old. Heck all my stuff combined cost less than a new Granite. I do have a sense of pride looking good though. I will always be that way. If I were to grow and hire people I would have to let that go though, because generally people don't care. Even had a builder say he would be embarrassed to have a machine that clean. This was the first job after painting my Takeuchi. I didn't understand his comment and didn't reply to him and just got in my shiny machine that I was very proud of. Also, I keep dirt brushes in the cabs to sweep out floorboards and will even use the blower. Heck I was at the diesel stop this morning and while my guys were topping of the 312, I was using the window soap squeegee thing to clean my trailer wheels. I know right. I just really like to look at clean equipment and trucks. I'm starting to hear myself sound a bit weird writing this.. Hmmm. You did jinx me though. Today while sitting on a bench I swung a bit too much and finally got the counterweight. I've pretty much avoided that since the new paint about 2000 hours ago. Nothing bad really and it will buff out maybe. I think I can get her back. As far as helping out one day. Sure, I'm all about making connections and friends within this industry. I just need to get your contact info. I do work around your area some. Hard place for me to get rid of dirt. I have picked up quite a few customers this winter plus some home builders. I will not be able to keep up and am considering hiring a guy, but could always use a sub if things go the way I foresee them. I just saw your thread and have seen before but just now put together who you are. I love the 953's. Wish I had one...... I'm hoping to get a big mini ex next though.
Just got on this job. It's an interesting job and story.
What are the details on that job? Love the updates, we have 2' of snow on everything and ive forgotten what dirt looks like
Glad to see more pics of your work, that looks like an interesting project are you getting ready for a retaining wall?
I too am ready for the story... Looks like quite the job.
Wow. Just got done with that portion of the job. It's Sunday and I just got done today and got the Takeuchi of the job. I pulled the excavator home last night after finishing all the footings. Already got a check so I'm all smiles about it, but I had a heck of a day yesterday. Three and half days working till 7:00 p.m. Thurs., Fri., and yesterday. Today was a breeze. Just went back and used the Takeuchi to roll in all the dirt so it won't be ruined by rain when I go to back fill the walls. The house is owned by a really famous music artist...or rapper I should say LOL. The job was taken over by a builder I started with two years ago. The previous builder really cut corners on the retaining walls in the back . First off they were block walls, they were not tall/high enough, they were not filled with concrete, etc. I can't believe they held the backfill dirt. There was hardly any rebar in the walls or the footings. The footings were as thin as 4" in some places. Some other contractor demoed some of the walls but he was under powered with a rental T190 and left all the footings along with a mess. He also left a lot of the concrete in the backyard. He also over filled one dumpster and the roll off company would not pick it up. I think I took care of the builder. I removed all the existing footings along with the concrete left by the other guy. My guys cleaned up the whole lot and even cleaned the construction trash out of the house. The main job was to remove the footings and cut out for 8' footings that were 18" deep. The footings and walls have been re engineered and also require an 18" key to be dug. That will be dug by the new footing guy. The new walls will be 12" poured walls. They will average 12' high. After this he wants me cut out the wall that will run along the street. It will be around 600'. Then all the gradingfor the pool deck pavers and driveway pavers and such. There is no access to the far side of the pool deck. That will be after all the walls get backfilled.
The Takeuchi wasn't budging the footings and it had rained that night. It wasn't going to happen with out getting the excavator in there. I cut a road down to where I could reach some footings and broke up some in hopes of the Takeuchi being able to get the rest. That just wasn't going to happen. Also with the footings being so big it generated so much dirt. The ground was fairly hard too..... almost rock in some places.
Interesting job thanks for posting the pics. It's amazing the first builder got away with building such a tall retaining wall out of non-grouted CMU. Most building departments around here require any wall over 4' to be engineered and no engineer would stamp a standard CMU wall that tall. Looks like a good project that will keep you busy for a while.
I left the old footing in place as long as possible. The new wall was going in the same place as the existing wall, so it helped me to see where to cut and dig. The wall was staked by surveyors, but they couldn't stake well in the footings and we had no chance of keeping them. We could also measure off the lower existing wall to find the new wall. This was the end of day two. We got a late start because it was raining from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m. that morning, but we got a good day in after all.
Is that concrete the laborer is standing on in the first photo in post #211 the footing? It amazes me when guys do shoddy work like that and expect no one to find out.
Do you have a set of forks for the tak? Thats how i rip all my concrete with a smaller machine, much better than using a bucket but if you have the big ex might as well use it. How much concrete was hauled? I would like to see the progression of this one
I agree. I don't know how they got away with it. I really don't know how they backfilled it without it bowing or breaking either. Also there wasn't any gravel behind the wall and no sort of pipe or drainage. I really wished they had demoed the rest of the wall on the right rear behind where the tennis court goes because it is also CMU and it gets up to 10' or more feet, but it is in a corner and steps up so it might hold out. There is some poured walls on site, but most them were not. Yes! That is the original footing. I couldn't believe how thin it was there either. It was very inconsistent. I too am amazed at the shoddy work. At least it is getting replaced. I don't have forks, but I hear from a lot of people to use them for concrete demo. Being able to get all the way under the concrete and lifting gives you so much more power plus being able to pry at the same time. Also hear forks are great for carrying pieces like broken up sidewalk by stacking several pieces. I'd like to have a set one day.... along with several other attachments. I filled up two 20 yard dumpsters with the footings from the lower level. As far as the upper level I still have all those concrete footings on site. I have all that concrete just where I want it for now.... out of sight but I will deal with it on the backfill.
Do you have to pay regular gate rate tonnage at the landfill for concrete or is it a flat rate per box?
This was just yesterday on Saturday. My plan was to get an early start and get the job finished and get both machines home by making two trips because I have jobs to be on starting this Monday. It started out well. I had my better half drive the pickup because both machines needed fuel. So I stopped at the Kroger for diesel. I put $300 in the transfer tank and $125 in the dump. No traffic on Saturday should make for a good day. My 12 year old trusty Ford and the one who will help me with anything anytime. We've been together just under 10 years. I wish she could operate and move machines. Note: I filled the Takeuchi up first. Also note how big those walls are below the tennis court area. I then pulled the Tak to the gravel to tighten the belts. After I finished I told the guys to drive it back to the back yard. They started it up and it cut out with a big puff of white smoke. I was just out of sight and only saw the smoke cloud rising. They said it just died. I was thinking this is bad.
I called my mechanic. He is a young go getter type who is always working. He said it sounded like it lost it's prime and needed bleeding. He said the Tak is known for that. This guy is so helpful and I can text him pics and he will advise me. So he said to crack the rear injector line or even the screw on top of the filter mount. I soon discovered some funky white fluid in my water separator. So I pulled the line from the pump and turned the pump/key on and it was pumping out some separated fluid with the diesel. I considered vandalism. I considered my transfer tank. I just didn't know. It ran fine for two days prior. I poured some diesel in a clear container from my transfer tank and it was fine. I then went to the excavator and drained some from the fuel tank drain valve and it was fine. Left container is from the transfer tank. Right is from the Takeuchi. I sent that pic to the mechanic and he said that it didn't look like anything he had ever seen. I then tried a test bottle with good diesel and some water and it looked nothing like that. So, I am really scratching my head at this point. Pulled the fuel filter and got a look what was in there. Cracking open an injector line. That really gets it to start if you have someone to turn the key while opening and closing the line. Had to swing out the radiator after losing a wrench and also to tighten the belts. We also had to jump start it after running the starter for a while.
I was a mess at this point. Diesel all over me. We were draining fuel at the separator at the same time and we got it to start. We took it to the dirt and it worked but would smoke and cut out. I kept draining the separator and had to crack the lines when it would die. I had enough of that and needed to drain the whole fuel tank. I dug a hole to straddle with the tracks so I could fit my big butt under the machine to pull the panels and drain the tank. My fiancé got a few pics throughout this ordeal. I hadn't quite cracked the seal here but when I did it started coming out good. I then went and got on the excavator to make up time and let it drain. this was just before noon and we had got there at 8 a.m.
After all that it was running good but was a bit weak and was getting hot. I just nursed it through the day. I might have hit an aux. button or pedal. I did hit them all. When I went back today it was running fine and didn't get hot. There was residual fluid in the system maybe. My belts were still squeaking and I also didn't push it today. I just need new belts and I think it will be fine. I will also replace the filters. So back to work.
Got that footing cut out and put on grade with the laser. Had to move a lot of the dirt up top by moving it twice and a lot went out with the Tak to the right. This was the only access and was very tight.
Getting started on the lower footing late yesterday/Saturday
I just really needed to get the footing cut out so I could load the machine up. My plan was to return the next day and use the Takeuchi to roll in dirt and move some piles around.
This is right around 7 p.m. and we got it all cut out. Luckily the days are getting a bit longer. Very relieved to get all of it cut out. We then loaded the machine up.
Definitely a weird deal with the tak. Work looks awesome, an interesting job for sure. Any idea how much material you moved? You definitely have an awesome lady there, does she ever get on you about working the long hours?
Looks like water in the tak, did someone leave the fill open when it rained? I dont know where its located on that machine. Or the concrete guy is bitter and came back and sabotaged your equip. The forks are awesome, i stack concrete up like a deck of cards and stack dumpsters really tight, a good operator like you should be able to as well. They go fairly cheap on craigslist, once you get a set you wont know how you worked without them. It also saves hauling a lot of unneeded dirt. Would have made that foundation removsl under the house a breeze
Sounds like you need to find some free time and open area to let her play around with some equipment! Once she get to feel at home at the controls you'll probable have to fight her to let you run them!
I had the water thing happen to me once on a job about an hour away from home. It was in my excavator. By the time I realized what had happen I lost a whole day, a full tank of fuel, filters, etc. Never nailed it down how, maybe my transfer tank, maybe we left a cap off and it rained, but concluded it was vandalism. I went out and bought a dozen locks keyed the same and put them on what ever I can. I have a key (one key) that fits all of the locks on all the vehicle key chains. I have spent many a night worrying about equipment we could of forgot to lock at some job site to far away from home to just go and check.
There are dumpster company's that will charge about $250 plus $30 a ton over 6 tons. That's approximate numbers, but close. I never use those company's. I only pay a flat fee. The company's that do charge tonnage extras usually do it to people who don't know better I think or pull the hat trick. Thanks, nedly. I think I moved at least 30 loads of dirt...maybe 40. I could be off, but it was a lot of dirt. Thanks again, she never complains. Today I left at 6:30 and got home at 9:30. Loooong day again. I definitely thought about vandalism. I checked around for footprints, but it was just our shoes. It was also in a gated community. It's on the radar for sure Lol. She can drive it... she just can run it.
Finished pics of the work. Basically three full days.
Looking at the pictures and the stock piles everywhere, it sure was a lot of dirt and of course it was more work than I originally judged.
This was about the third job of the week. Way up in the country about 65 miles away. Lot of travel this week and spent 80 hours from the time I left till the time I got home. Met the guy on the 63, he had just blown a hyd. filter. Talked with him for awhile. He said he had sold all his equipment but a few and went to N Dakota to operate on oil fields. Great story and great guy but said he was staring to get jobs again here at home. Went on a pond job to build a higher bigger dam and clear out the shore/banks. Had to one man the dump and excavator but he had 10 acres to work with it. I hauled 6 loads of soupy grassy dirt to a place I cleared out up the road and then hauled 6 loads of good red dam dirt to make a new dam. We did some fabric and rocks to hold it.
This was from the beginning of the week I got a dump truck stuck and had to pull him three times but we got the gravel right where I wanted it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqLkThUyYnc&list=UUwmjLTz3Ih_Uk7akHrTTieA&feature=share Tomorrow is 90% rain chance so I hope to get down to the shop to see the Peterbilt progress and then buy tags. February is commercial tag month/ Some more of the pond and dam. Had to pressure wash everything today. It was messy after loading the mud.
This was before. It took about 8 hours. Had discovered a rear inner tire was off the rim on the truck after the second load. I kept hauling and then loaded the machine towards the rear at the end of the day. I was 75 miles from home after six long days and was ready to get home. Just drove real slow and it got home on 17 tires. The truck and machine were coated with wet pond mud, took a few hours to pressure wash off today.
At least you made it home. Slow and lots of stops to cool the remaining tire is the key. I once had a similar thing while hauling my 330BL. I lost a tire about 40 to 50 miles from home and had to get home with what I had. I slowed to 25 or 30 mph, then stopped every 5 to ten miles to cool the other tire. I would wait until it was as cool as the rest, then go again. I figured each tire of a tandem group had about 7,000 lbs on it, so the tire next to my flat one had about 7,000. It is rated for right around 4,800, so it was carrying quite the overload. I was surprised I made it, and even more surprised that in spite of the shoulder wear it suffered, I got another year out of that tire. Patience pays off in times like that.
I noticed in your videos and pics your always crossing sidewalks and driveways loaded with trucks and equipment, was wondering how you handle responsibility of damage to these. Do you make the homeowner or builder sign off before you start? Also do have to go out and look at all your pool dig jobs I would assume before starting to see what you've got and how accessible they are.
Awesome work man, I Love your pics, and your success! I just got home from our shop, and watching your vids and pics gets me motivated to go back and work some more haha :drinkup Keep them coming.
You just schooled me.... thanks. I have to admit I was so worried about the floating tire that I wasn't checking the remaining tire. I did stop and check but was checking the floater. Unfortunately the highway home was a 70 mph speed limit and I was going very slow for over 50 miles on the interstate. I was just praying the floating tire didn't do something unusual. I'm surprised you made it too with a big load like a 330. Glad you made it. I had a trailer tire blow out on a late Friday night and got off the highway and found myself in the ghetto. I figured my chances were better to nurse it home. We made it and the tire was shredding for a long time. I just get scared of a tire fire. I've seen videos of them. Big difference between a blown out tire and an off the bead floater. Today's discovery. I went ahead and got the rears replaced with more 4310 recaps. I got about two years out of the last set of recaps and they were getting low on tread so I just bit the bullet. As far as the side walks and driveways go. When on the machine I just try my hardest to distribute the weight with the least amount of ground pressure at least when crossing driveways or sidewalks. Sometimes we will put down plywood. We will also use 6x6 timbers right at the edge of the driveway in the grass to handle the weight instead of the edge of the concrete. As far as hauling with loaded dump trucks on driveways and sidewalks, you'd be surprised how good they withstand the weight. Sometimes a dump truck will crack at the end or edge of a driveway but you can bridge with dirt at the edges also. We just make everyone aware of the risk before we start if it's questionable. A good driveway will hold a loaded dump truck for the most part. I have cracked a few though. Thanks, keep up the hard work yourself. I too love this stuff.
Also got my truck tags today. I only had my dump truck weight at 63,250 and changed it to higher weight since it scales at 67,000 with the machine. I once again used 2290tax.com to pay the excise tax. I did that last week before going to the tag office. I also changed my tags to private. I had one of them at "For Hire", but I only haul my own stuff and was paying more for the "For Hire" tag. Then went to check on the Peterbilt, then to the Takeuchi dealership for two new belts. Just the fan belt was $75 alone. I love the day cab look and always have. I was so tempted to just tell them to buy a day cab kit and seal the cab up, but I gotta have the legroom and more importantly the space for a guy and valubles. I never liked a sleeper before, but do like the flat tops. I have decide to go with a 36" flat top and shorten the WB to a 228"ish. It was at 252" with a 63" sleeper. Also going with 80 gallon tanks instead of the 130's (maybe they are 150's). Going with fiberglass rear fenders too. Definitely a rear window too. They had a factory 379 day cab in the shop that measured 216" on the WB.
Ouch. Feel sorry for somebody. These are custom fuel tanks with a divider for a hyd. tank for the wet kit. They are going on the custom 379 day cab. They have about 15 trucks in this huge shop at once. They got slammed after the ice/snow storms because they also repair DOT trucks. They are very busy working on big trucks. This looks too familiar. It is back across the street just waiting to be stolen again. I need to get it home asap and get to working on it. I might get somebody to haul it here, because they are going to be awhile and I can be doing all the oak flooring, lights, and detail.
Some nice machines at the Takeuchi dealer today. Tomorrow is the start of a big for me over excavation. I will have to dig out at least 20 loads and shuttle it to dump trucks and then take in 20 plus loads of compactible fill and compact it. I hit a septic system last week that had 10' of fill on top of it.
Fastdirt- I have been a long time watcher of your youtube videos and just stumbled across this thread. you really take good care of your trucks/equipment! Keep on doing great work.
Wow, your Pete sure does look good like that. It's a shame you can't leave it like a day cab but I get where your coming from..
Hey man , been reading your post! You def do clean work !! Real nice lines! I couldn't help but notice in your videos you were a track loader guy. Any plans of adding a nice 953 or a dozer to your fleet?
Thanks for the compliments! One of my main concerns is keeping jobs and equipment as good as possible. I think it is going to turn out very unique. I've gone a bit shorter than planned and also went with a 36" flat top. Thanks, I would like to get a 953 I won't lie. I love a good a track loader.
Nice little undercut there. Want to hear the story before I ask questions about it.
Nice work there. Looks like some really poor dirt you took out. I like where you are headed with the Pete. I am looking forward to pictures of it finished. Keep up the good work.
This was a backyard where they had the septic lines relocated to the other side of the yard. We had to remove all the existing lines and there was about 100 loads brought in when the house was built so the lines were very deep. It was about 35 loads out and 35 loads in. It was on very steep hillside lot on the lake. We had to carry every bucket up with the Takeuchi and it was wet and heavy then grab a bucket of good dirt and come back down the hill. It poured rain the day before and on day three it poured around 4:00 which put an end to the hauling. So we just graded it down and for drainage and covered it with plastic. Luckily we had enough to start the pool job. The next day it was still raining but stopped at 10 a.m. We wore ponchos to get started and had to finish an elaborate pool job before the wedding next door the next day. We pushed as hard as we could and came through. At the end I mixed a little since the fill was so dry.
I forgot about this. I dug a borrow pit which amounted to about 4 loads maybe. If it's ever possible I will always dig borrow pits, but you need access to the property and sometimes the borrow pit will not produce much more than what you are already trying to get rid of. I really wanted to back the trucks down but it was too tight and the builder didn't want dirt on the street. I had the trucks all the way down to the side of the house and could've sacrificed a few loads to finish the road. The rain and wet existing ground just made it too tough to make that happen. If the trucks could've backed up to the dump site we could've done it in a day. I will say the 150 really earned it's money though. 35 loads equals 350 trips up that steep hill with wet dirt.
Trying to beat the rain..... Again. It's going to rain us out tomorrow also, that's why I'm up late.
And the rain stopped us but did not win.
This was the next day. It was still raining that morning but we had no choice other than to finish in order to keep up with the schedule. We ended up working all day Saturday and Sunday for close to 80 hours again. As we were finishing late that day the wedding rehearsal party started to fill up the streets with cars. We loaded the excavator up as soon as the digging was done and turned the truck and trailer around in order to not get blocked in. Then when we finished we carried all out tools and trash up a very muddy and steep hill. It was very tough and that's when I really thought about how hard the Takeuchi had worked for us carrying all that wet dirt, then we spent an hour in the dark washing down the street. The next day after finishing another job I came to get the Takeuchi and it was blocked by wedding cars so I had to go through the mud. I left some mud tracks but didn't want to be working in the street and also had parked way down the neighborhood. Somebody also drove in the mud and tracked it out in the street. I got a phone call for that.
Thanks. I am really pushing them to finish the Peterbilt. They got the axels moved up. They went 30" up with the axles. So now it is around 222". It looks stumpy LOl. I think I will like it though. I decided to go with a 36" flat top. I started with the intentions of going with a 48" flat top. The shop actually has a 48" flat top on a Pete with a blown motor. I didn't realize how valuable and expensive the 36'" and 48" flat top are. I can't hardly give away my perfect condition 63" take off. I luckily found a 36" locally. I went and picked it up this weekend and took it to them. It has new airbags, new shocks, all new huck bolts, and a new panhard rod. Now we need new tanks and it is not looking good as far as time goes. We have been getting 2 to 8 weeks on shipment due to backorder or having to make them. Something will come through. They also have to install a rear window and hopefully a side window if they can figure that out. If not I will when I get it back. I might go with four bucket seats, or a rear bench seat, or a bed that doubles as side seats with a middle insert. It will take some getting used to the looks but I think once it's painted and dressed it will look right. From earlier this week. They had just moved the axles forward.
I like where this is headed. You will have one nice tractor there. I can't tell you how many nights I wished my KW had a sleeper on it. Those front seats leave you sore in the morning. With it down to a 222 wheelbase, you will be able to go places you never dreamed of with the longer truck.
This is at another truck repair shop locally. They had a new(claimed) 2013 36" take off. They also had a truck they just repaired that had a 36" flat top on it. I got inside and felt pretty comfortable with my decision. With a 36" it definitely doesn't look like an OTR rig. It looks like it should pull a lowboy or something similar. This one pulls a tanker. This company is local and has several Peterbilt dump trucks. They've brought me gravel a few times. They have 70 trucks according to the shop manager.
After loading it up on the trailer I borrowed. The shortened Pete and the 36" flat top. They are together now. It's been a long time coming. Picture of the old sleeper. Luckily I didn't trade it. The guy was going to give me a $1000 for it. I actually put it in the back of my dump truck earlier this week because the guy who had the 36" sleeper offered me a trade discount. I left my guys at the job and went to pick up my old sleeper and squeezed it in my dump truck. I didn't have time logistically to get it done that day. The next day I left my guys on the job again to take it to the shop. He wasn't even there, so I hauled it back to the south side of town. It was a lot of wasted time and cost me several hours of work. Turns out I damaged the sleeper extenders anyway, but most importantly the new sleeper did not come with shock and airbag mounts. So glad I kept it.
What happened to your youtube channel? I just tried to watch some videos and they were gone.
Once again nice work FastDirt. That S185 looked maxed out. And as previously asked what happened to your youtube channel?
I just deleted the "Fastdirt505" channel The guy on the S185 is something else. He was like a ram. He would square up to the pile, then back up, and charge. He also cranks it up and shuts it down on full throttle. Makes me squint but I'm not the bobcat police as much as I wanted to be but he sure was helping out to beat the rain.
Hey man, I've been reading all your posts, I thought I was the only one on a fanatic level! I'm basically a one man owner operator, my business is also my hobby! Here in NYC area there's nobody except for one small 2 brother operation that takes it's to a whole new level like I do, and like yourself I idolize them and try to carry on the same tradition , my tri-axle doesn't even come outta the garage if it's cloudy! I'll put up some pics if I can figure out .just redid my 953. 77y ser, 1983. Looks like it did off assembly line in France! I see your 312. I have a 314c lcr. A 2005 , long stick quick coupler with blade! Greatest machine I've ever owned, had a 97 312 bl that I replaced it with .marco
Thanks, good stuff there. I'd like to see some pics of your machines and that garage kept tri axel. The 953 is one of my all time favorites and I love the 314..... just not the tight cab but you get used to it. I ran a 135 spin ace for years that was a good machine but a bit tight in the leg room dept. If I had my pick of any machine for what I do it would be a 314 LCR or a new 312E. I love the dozer blade. It just adds to much weight to my master plan of hauling both machines. I have noticed the reach and dimension specs are the same. Yep, I do love the 314 LCR with the blade. They are high dollar though. I'd have to get rubber tracks too since I'm dreaming LOL. Speaking of rubber tracks. I have finally found a set of rubber shoes for the 312 which also fit a 314. These are the mount on. Where you remove the grouser shoes and mount these to the chain. I just bought one and shipped to me to check for fitment. It looks good. I think I am going to order a set. It will take 6 weeks for them to get me a set unless I can by chance find somebody who stocks them. I doubt it though, I have been looking forever. The good news is they are only $115....the bad news is I need 92 of them. There will be many benefits for me. No more walk boards to lay out or carry around and they will be much better for side loading onto the lowboy. Oh and I will finally be of legal width. Right now my 312 has 28" shoes that make it 8'10" wide. The legal width here is 8'6". The rubber shoes will be 24" 600mm which will put me right at 8'6". They do offer 500mm (20") but I want the balance and stability. These rubber shoes are 46 lbs. I wonder if they are less or more than the 28" triple grouser on the machine now.
Pics Hey man send me. Your email address! I'd love to show you my stuff. Mine is deliacorpny@ yahoo.com I'll send you a bunch of my stuff! Later-marco
I got your pics Marco. All I can say is awesome! You need to start a pic thread!
Yair . . . Deliacorpny Boy oh boy!! I think you might need a bit of competition to sharpen up your thinking! (big grin) I can't imagine being in the dirt business and being able to think like that! All the best and cheers.
I guess if you can afford to go about it like that, good for you. I have to work mine regardless, and with the hours I run to make ends meet, it gets washed when the rains come. Nothing wrong with pride in your gear though. I would like to keep mine better, but it costs in either time or money to do so, and both have been in short supply since 2008.
Any new pictures FastDirt?
This guy I was working for rolled a new Kubota over in a hole I had dug the day before. We were working on two jobs next door to one another. He yelled my name and when I looked over that way there was no bobcat to be found in sight until walking up on a big hole with a flipped over bobcat in it. It was a rental with 15 hours. I pulled it right back over and drug it up on level ground. We let it set for a minute and checked the oil and then it went right back to work with zero damage. There was just enough fill in the right places in the hole he fell in to break the fall. Perfect. He was wearing his seatbelt and killed the motor right away.
Now that will get your attention!
You're gonna have that on the big jobs.
u are going to have to watch where you dig them holes from now on, someone could in there!!!! :lmao :falldownlaugh glad nobody got hurt tho & maybe learned something from it..
I bet he needed a fresh pair of underwear! lol
Brian, loved your youtube videos and was sad to see you had taken your channel down. Are we going to get to see more of the amazingly clean cuts you make. you are a true inspiration for guys just starting out. John
Any new pictures of your great work FastDirt?
If you haven't already purchased these pads you should try giving carla at superior tire and rubber in Warren, PA a call. Disclaimer I do work there as an engineer on the trackpad team but have been a member here far longer than an employee there. Tell her Joe M sent you.
Hey, thanks for the contact. I gave them a call but just missed them. I'll give them a call in the morning just to see. Thanks. The pads I ordered we're supposed to arrive this week so we'll see. I've searched a long time on these and have only found two companies offering them, so I'd be very surprised if Superior had them. I'll give them a call in the morning just to see. Thanks. The two places I found thus far we're from just cold calling suppliers so it's possible they might offer something. There is another rubber pad by Tufpads, but they mainly make a shoe for asphalt planers and such.
Monday marked three years in business and I'm going into my fourth summer. Things are going so well that I am expecting something bad to happen. But really it's been great to be out there on my own and making it happen. I always wanted to do it and always thought I would but nobody can truly predict what the future holds. I really didn't have a solid business plan as far as the work load I could handle alone. I thought my brother would've been great if he stuck it out but that's not going to happen and I'm looking for a man to fit in with me. I have picked up customers as time goes by, but I can only do so much and found myself under cooking some customers because of the pressure to stay on schedule. Not under cooking my work, I'm referring to putting certain customers before others. I have had the choice to stay with the better customers and lose some. I just didn't know how to say no to work until recently. People will call and ask if I can dig a pool, or do some grading work and I just can't give them an answer because I can't promise them anything. My plan now is to be honest and say what my plan is instead of sounding uncertain or unprofessional. If I were to get a request and was available which I have been, I will pounce on a job. My plan is to get two rigs going for now. I've been working on this for awhile. I have a dumptruck with a tag trailer, a bobcat, an excavator, and the lowboy. That's two machines and two trucks and something is always sitting. I need to get somebody else out there moving dirt and helping me with the work load. I know there is a lot to consider, but I really want to grow. In three years I don't owe anybody other than a few payments left on the 312. So my plan is to tell potential customers that I am going add to my work force but currently cannot accept more work load until I have another crew up and going. The Peterbilt project is getting close to being finished and has been in the shop basically since I bought it just under a year ago. We're getting close. I really haven't been taking a camera or gopro to work lately. Cell phones take pretty good pics these days if needed. Had a track go bad a few Fridays ago. Got it on the trailer luckily. Wasn't expecting that one. I picked some up locally from Rubbertrax Inc. Was told by my mechanic they we're great tracks so we will see.
We had just come in and out this driveway laying down walk boards. Rubber tracks sure will help here. Was forced to use the Takeuchi here. No room here.
A little after hours fun. Went out back to dig a silt pond on the Takeuchi for silt control.......... really just wanted a mud hole to play in. After the rain it filled up quick. That's my brother on the left, his buddy in the middle, and on the yellow bike is one of our best friends. He got me into dirt with his uncle's company when I was just a kid. He now runs some of the most impressive jobs you could imagine. He is the project manager for the pipe and grading going on at the new Falcon's dome in downtown Atlanta. He talks of just crazy deep pipe and grading going on down there. Tomorrow is a rain day so I'm going to try to get down there tomorrow. Beautiful dirt after it got roosted. Sometimes HEF flips my pics.. I took the old Takeuchi tracks and sawed them in half. I made a strap for it to pull it behind the four wheeler. It does a really good job dragging the dirt down. It sure is heavy to pull though even though it doesn't look it, but that's what it takes. I was going to get a crosstie or fence or something to drag and would have to weight it down to be effective. I could actually set the track on top of a piece of chain link fence to weight it down....hmm that might work even better. Pretty sure the track is about 500 lbs. before cutting it in half.
This week started out with some granite rock. I had to return with the wrecking ball. This is a college university apartment pool. So much friggin dirt here. I moved every bit of it behind me. The site work guy had a JD rubber tire 644...maybe smaller that was struggling and broke yesterday and then he got on a New Holland skid steer. He was eating the pile from behind but never ever even came close to me. I just kept climbing the pile and moving it. I had to move some of that dirt four times.
This was from today or yesterday seeing how it is 2am. Was getting a bit tricky at the end. We were running out of day and it was starting to rain. See the kid on the rubber tire.
Couldn't quite fit to get back out so we had to one track it through. Getting ready to head home around 8 p.m. and we got rained on for the last two hours. 50 miles from home and it poured the whole way home.
Great pictures as always FastDirt!
Nice work. I don't think I would have the patience to cut those pools out.
Yair . . . Fastdirt . Excellent work and photography . . . good pictures just don't happen. To my eyes though the elaborate shaping of the puddles is in stark contrast and clashes with austere straitlaced appearance of the buildings. Do you know if there any purpose to those false fronts or is it an exercise in styling? Cheers.
I'm really enjoying the photos, they bring back some memories that's for sure. I was a pool trimmer back in the mid-late 70's. We dug them all with International 100E's.
Thanks RC. CM, Thanks. It actually makes the day go by fast but it can be tedious at times like a lot of things. Scrub I agree. I'm sure it's main purpose is for styling. They development is built for college student housing. I kept looking at those buildings trying to figure out how they get to the top two stories. No steps anywhere on any sides. Turns out it is a 3 story unit sitting on top of the first story. Wow, a three story apartment.. they must have about 6 or 8 roommates living in those. Well JNB you are a tough son of a gun then. It's one of the hardest most physical jobs out there I don't have to tell you I'm sure. I've seen some good on the job quits.
It's Sunday. Shouldn't you be working .......?? :tong:tong
I'm sure it helped to be young and dumb, with a strong back and a weak mind. At the age of 57, my backs shot. Since they say that the mind is the first thing to go...I'm getting a bit worried!
Got to go see the flat top for the first time. It really looked good all back together.. I have only seen the truck about once a month. It's been there for six months and I'm dying for them to get it done. I ordered the 90 gallon tanks w straps from Alumitanks and they worked out good. I was very limited and to get the length measurement right by stabbing at it. I really didn't get much help from the shop or from all my searching to see what tank size fits aesthetically nice under a 36" with minimal space. I ordered fiberglass double hump rear fenders. The shop mounted all the fender hangers and the fenders have been painted. I went down there to meet the tire guy to get new drive tires but the outer aluminum wheels I ordered did not match the Alcoa wheels on the rear of the truck. Those big hole new wheels just don't do it for me and the front wheels are not the same as the rear. I hope to get that swapped. If you order Accuride wheels you will get a wheel that has holes cut out big enough for a paint can to fit through. 2.75". They got the frame tapered back to the original look by cutting "birds beaks" out of the frame and heating it down. So good to see the rear window frame installed. They are working on mounting the two side windows I ordered from Peterbilt. The plan is to put a 24" x 24" in frame tool box in that opening.
Nice to see your truck finally making progress. It is looking good.
They've shaved the roof. I told them to go ahead and remove the antenna too. The visor has also been painted black to match the roof line. The plan is to get these slider windows on both sides and be symmetrical. I've also told them to paint the aluminum trim ring black along with the door trim.
Good looking truck project! At some point could you show some more detailed photos of the spill guard on your Tak? I like it.
You mean like these JNB? look to this post, 108, and the next few.
Ahh, there we go. Thanks!
Thanks, Jerry. Scrub that was funny. It is raining today so hopefully our weekly rain is done for the week. JNB I figured I'd take a few pics since it's sitting right out the window. I had the same guard on a 963 Bobcat back in 2000. It is a must in my opinion and especially on the big ones that can spill dirt over the back of the bucket. It holds dirt in great when loading trucks and you can see through it just fine. You can carry logs and culverts so easily with the guard. You can get a big ole bucket of trash too. I will always have one. The guy I bought the machine from had them on all his Takeuchi's. So I got very lucky. I hardly ever see guards on other CTL's. Another great advantage is safety. It will stop good size rocks from coming back in the cab when loading trucks. The steel is 2" x 3/8" I think. I measured it and it's definitely thicker than 1/4". Vision is fine from the cab.
Thank you for the detailed pics, I really do appreciate it!
If you need a company for the in-frame box my friends have been using a company out of Iowa called Bryanbilt. I'll see if I can get some contact info on him, google doesn't show much. If nothing else, call Eldon Jaeger Trucking out of Worthington, IA, I'm sure someone there can help you get in contact with him or the guys from the Midwest Pride In Your Ride show. He did some deck plates for them with lighted logo's in them and a few custom pieces for their trailers, definitely high quality parts and the guy is really down to earth as well. Talked with him for probably an hour or more a couple weeks ago at the Midwest Pride In Your Ride show in central Iowa.
I don't wanna give away secrets of a fellow pool digger but a grader bucket does wonders.. look into getting one you will love it... and nice thread I went thru every page..
Great pictures and good reading. Those pool pictures are impressive.....it's almost a shame to cover those holes in concrete. I'm enjoying the truck pictures as well. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the kind words. Slopecarver, I got in touch with Carla. She said they could make pads in about a week. They were priced right in the middle. The only problem was the design. They didn't look like they were designed for dirt. More like pavement machines. My tracks should be here tomorrow, so hope everything works out. These are the Maximum pads by Superior Tire.
I couldn't find anything on Bryanbilt. I definitely want to check them out though. I saw an in frame box while searching that is really deep with a notch for the driveshaft. Looked very interesting. I would love to see him in action. I assume a grader bucket is smooth edged, wide, and shallow like a clean up bucket. Really, I try to dig as I grade. I don't pile dirt up, I grab a bucket every lick. Or at least try. I would assume you would need a quick connect and a GP bucket and have to swap buckets and carry two buckets everyday. I try to minimize my tools and supplies. I'd love to compare and try it though. My instincts tell me it would add time to the job and day. I just use a GP bucket and it grades fine, so I'm not sure what a grader bucket will do that a GP can't. Last week we did six pools in six days. If I can get more home time I'm all for it.
Called the shop last week to see how the sleeper windows were coming and let them know I had new wheels coming their way. He said nobody had touched it in a week. I told him to throw everything in the cab and I would send a wrecker truck to come get it. That dang shop had my truck for 5 months and at their pace it would be at least two months more. I was also ticked about the fender brackets they welded on crooked some other shoddy work. I swear I cannot catch a break with this truck. I think it's cursed. It's been in that shop for 7 months total, it's been stolen, a so called polisher did a number on the stainless amongst other things and I haven't even had the truck a year if that.
I took the truck to the shop that I bought the 36" sleeper from. Hopefully they can remove the crooked fender brackets and fix the tail of the frame. The old shop did a crappy paint job on the sleeper and it has several runs. The runs will have to be sanded out and re painted. They painted it before cutting in the windows and mounting the air bags just to rush it and it didn't come out right. I also paid the bill on that crappy work. I hope these guys can take care of it. At this point I should've just driven the Peterbilt out to the Texas Chrome Shop or Chrome Shop Mafia or similar. We really don't have a place locally that customizes trucks solely. Mostly just collision and repair shops and they are all slammed right now. Had to deal with this while having one of the busiest weeks I've ever had. Luckily I was able to leave my guys on site and make the journey on Wednesday to retrieve the truck and then on Friday I had to get another job started so I could break away to get the sleeper and fenders. I told them to keep the old tanks. I just wanted to get out of there. It was about a two hour drive away. It was a brutal week. I made those two big trips and dug six pools last week...and then worked on Memorial day. Ready to have this project done already.
You're going to have a large fortune in the truck it seems like!
She is definitely one sweet rig.
do people always weld the fender brackets onto the frame? I am setting up a truck and making my own fender brackets and I am welding the bracket to a plate and then bolting plate to frame! That is going to be one nice ride Fastdirt looks like you are doing it right!!! Jerry
Man, unfortunately I don't have a "go to guy" on custom trucks. It's all what I find and research myself. So I don't know the norm. I think the brackets should be bolted on personally and the front brackets were actually bolted to the suspension bolts. The last shop could've just welded them on for what ever reason.... my guess is it's the easy way out. I never asked Talladega Fiberglass what the proper mounting method was. Thanks for the compliments too.
Last Saturday morning at the fill up with nobody around and a pretty sunrise with great color. On site hauling Prototype digging mirror number one. Tomorrow I'm trying a new bigger mirror that is not a convex mirror. I mounted it using one of the magnetic mounts for oversized load signs. If it doesn't work good. I might mount it on a sliding pole mounted to the upper outside of the cab. Also have an idea of using a backup camera mounted on a magnet that has a long wire so I can use it when I need it. Had no idea a Dodge could look so good. One of my customers just got a special ordered Laramie. Blacked out, Cummins, lifted, 37's, etc. Just a beautiful truck. Loved the clear cab markers. Couldn't believe Dodge runs a rear four link on coils.
Tracks came in Thursday. Had them shipped to my brothers job and picked them up on the way in. Saturday we had to use the ole splinter boards on last time.
That is soot from the Cummins when pulling the machine. Since all the wheel companies have gone to these large hole Navistar looking wheels I had to get Fleetwheel to find the old style to go on the 379. They specialize in rare wheels. Not the ones on the roller, the ones on the floor.
Looks good. Now what will you use to chain to when loaded? Maybe weld some D rings on the track frame?
Pretty tight fit next to that house.
Did you Armorall those pads? or are they just wet?
You're going to lose a bit of flotation (about 10% maybe?) with those new shoes, they're significantly narrower than the steel ones. This could affect you if you're working on really soft ground.
The cat looks cool with the rubber pads. Were you able to back your bolts out or did you have to burn them off?
Armorall.....not just yet. They were just new and we washed the machine after making a mess of it. We used a lot of simple green on the body and it could've cleaned the tracks as we washed it. Armorall my tracks haha. I'm not that bad am I.. actually I might do that in the future so I should probably not laugh. Thanks Nedly, The chains were replaced two years ago so I kind of figured we wouldn't have to fight them to hard. We had to sledge hammer tap about 10 out of 368 bolts. I had my welder help because I don't have anything over a 1/2" impact. He used his 3/4" impact. His 1/2" impact didn't budge them. We only tried the 1/2" because we didn't have the correct socket. I had to run to Napa for a 15/16" 3/4 drive socket. I had to get a non impact socket because of thickness. The recessed holes were tapered not allowing a thick impact socket to fully grab the bolt head. I sure wish I had pressure washed the tracks first. I was the nut holder and that impact was blasting dirt in my eyes, ears, hair, mouth, etc. Lot's of fun.
Perhaps you already explained it, but what is the story/plan for the "digging mirror'?
Thanks, Jerry. I have experience chaining a similar setup but this setup was a bit different and that method didn't work too well. At first I looped around the shoe because there is a lot of clearance between shoes where they round over the sprockets/idlers. When I released the chains this morning I saw some slight damage to the rubber. So I was not going to do that again. I had to really think about how I could make it happen. I cross chained the rear but obviously the bucket won't allow that method on the front. I really don't like cross chaining because I think the shorter the chain the better. So I think the method on the front might be a good solution. Take a look and see what you think. This was how I did it the first time. Won't do that again. This was a much improvement. I felt ok about this. It would require more time also. These two pics show how I solved the front chaining. I felt really good about this. It got tight quick, chains are short, and it's not that time consuming which is a plus but not a priority. All we had left was a strap for the bucket but I already got a chain to replace that. Let me know if you think chaining to the steps is wise. It feels good and I'm adamant about load securement so I want the best scenario. Actually the rear cross chaining doesn't even contact the rubber shoes and the front does just slightly. This might be my best bet.
When digging a pool you can't always walk around the pool and cut the walls by positioning the machine to see exactly what you are digging. A lot of time I will be forced to dig out of the deep end and when you are up on a 8' shear cut you can't see what you are doing so my guys guide me. We can't afford to just gouge the wall because the builder will have to pay to shoot that over cut with shotcrete. It's frustrating for me when my guys guide me with hand signals and then when I jump out to look over the edge it's always like dangit we got 8" to trim by hand or just keep guiding me. Might as well be blind. A remote camera would be wonderful. I'm just looking for ways to make our life easier and more productive. BTW the non convexed mirror did not work well today. If I could just slide the mirror out on a pole about 5' from the cab it'd work great. A lot of times I'll stand up in the cab bent over leaning out of the cab to see deeper down but You still just can't see it all. Today I actually got a little ROI for having rubber tracks. Just unloaded in the street. Several 100' of driveway and just drove up it like a car.
Nige, they are 24" compared to the 28" steel shoes. I would have to say that the 312 at roughly 15 tons with an L undercarriage on 28" pads is about as low of ground pressure as any excavator. It was really stable and would really float good. 24" steel pads vs. 24" rubber pads would also be a significant difference. They almost leave a sheeps foot imprint in soft dirt. I was going to take a picture because they left a very significant imprint. The dirt squeezes between the shoes and leaves a huge imprint in fluff. Plus the middle is also recessed so it has two contacts per shoe verse a steel flat imprint. You could fill each shoe imprint with about a half gallon of water when in soft stuff. The good news is I can get good compaction which I have to contend with almost every day. Especially with a bucket full. I'm thinking a bit more than 10% increase. Good and bad I guess. Also, now the machine is not considered a wide load by my state laws. 24" rubber pads are very rare amongst this class. Must are 22" or 20". They took 6 weeks to get. It think the stance looks good. I was hoping it would still look like a wide track machine and I think it does. We are finally legal width and they will be gentle when side loading off and on the lowboy trailer.
DONT CHAIN IT DOWN USING THE STEP!!!!! find you a better more secure chunk of steel to hook to.... JMOA
Thanks for the explanation about the flotation. I can that you already had it figured out. Another vote for NOT chaining to the steps. Personally I would weld 2 D-Rings on to each track frame, right next to each step between the step and the end of the frame, with the "ring" of the D pointing upwards to meet your chain coming down over the top of the track frame.
Here's a job we got on this morning. It's nice getting a change. Got an early start but had to make a second trip. I'll be really glad when the Peterbilt is finished. Had to make a pipe run also. 40' of 24"
My guys really took care of business while I went to pick up the pipe from the property owners other piece of property. He had me tote his UTV back and we also had to go to the pipe supply place and pick up another 20' section. While I was gone the trucks were able to come in the original entrance and dump in the huge hole that was created to get the cows down in the creek. I could not have asked for better dirt. It compacted great.
28 loads total. About 16 in this hole and 12 loads at the new entrance. Dirt is done. Now to grade the driveway and gravel it and pad for the new construction house and barn.
Owner wanted his drive along the creek behind the trees to avoid dividing the pasture with a driveway. Definitely not the easy route but it will be nice in the end.
Trying to make the smallest impact possible on the land. We got the limbs and problem trees piled up. Be back tomorrow to finish. The 312 barely wanted to hug the 150 but after having my lowboy stolen I will at least give it an effort.
I'm with getting some D rings and having your welder put them on. I have chained to the step before myself, and I have also gotten jammed up in a bad spot and ripped one off (not proud to admit this). Seeing how easy it ripped off made me realize it was a bad securement spot. The driveway job looks fun, how much do you have to pay per yard for your fill and trucking? Keep the pics coming!!!
No fans of chaining to 1/2" steel welded by Caterpillar. Great, my welder will probably charge $500 to weld a good tie down point. He will be here tomorrow. In two days I have 36 loads of dirt hauled in, 10 loads of trash loaded out, and 3 loads of #34 stone. About 50 loads I had to handle along with keeping it spread out and clearing at the same time. We will return as soon as I have an opening to gravel the drive and pad the house. I believe the house is in a bad area. It looks like a flood zone/plain. The creek is about 7' below the proposed house site. I don't like it one bit and have tried to talk the owner up the hill along with the driveway. He's not budging yet but I'm not done with my case to him. I have to go get the excavator tomorrow on Sunday and will try to convince him its gonna be a bad idea. Dirt showed up as fast as the gravel did. It was all I could do to keep them moving and they were moving.
There is actually a creek hidden in there. I didn't get any pics of the actual water but it's about 8' wide and runs along pretty good. the trucks were on top of me. Property owner added that work to me at lunch. I finished around 8:00 again and was mentally exhausted after grading it all out and keeping up with the trucks.
Back tomorrow to get the hoe. Took a few pics at speed but was so ready to leave.
Isn't funny when you want the trucks to run slow, they run balls to the wall, and when you want balls to the wall, they are slower than molasses
Probably all came back at once too.
Good looking work as always man! Yeah, those trucks will try to kill you sometimes. I was putting in a gravel parking lot over geo textile a couple of years ago. My supplier sent truck and pups, and end dump five at a time trying to cover me up. I mixed and spread 15 loads the first day and 10 the next before noon, all with my 35hp tractor and box blade. It gained a ton of respect though...they treat me like gold!
Quite a website there jnb, nice job
Last year, on a decent house pad project, we had 6 tandems and an end dump running a 1 hour cycle. Pushing out with a Tak 250, kept up no problem. 3 of the truck owners came out to watch, saying their D5 wouldn't have been any faster.
Thanks! I do the best I can with what I have.
Thanks Y'all. JNB I like your website too. Looks pretty effective. I built my own on Web.com and have got some work from it but it's not how I want it and it needs an update. I had a dollar general fall in my lap two weeks ago from the site but can't take on more work till I have help. Got some house demos, pool digs, pool demos, backyard excavating, etc. from my website. I don't have time to follow up on calls right now. I got a great call today from a guy who found my website. He wants to excavate about 15 truck loads out from underneath an existing house. Hmmm, I thought. Could be very interesting. Got a few pics from Sunday when I picked up the machine. It was beautiful and peaceful out there and I just took my time and hung out alone soaking up some goodness. Scheduled to return Saturday to clear and grade the house location. I tried to post some pics of some finished work but they keep getting flipped upside down and I'm not going to try a third time.
Nice work, neat and clean. Stay away from the dollar stores - both the brands. PM me for more info on that if you are considering it.
Cm is all about the strip clubs though
The demo of the "entertainment center" was for a dollar store.:cool2
I guess it didn't go well? I read that whole thing
Project went OK, the problem is on the payment end..
Cm, we just finished a dollar store last fall. Looked at a few more this spring, probably would of done at least one more if we didn't have work all ready. Does the GC,s name you worked with start with a P and end with a X ? Just wondering if it is the same people I worked with.
No it's not the same one jmac. I don't want to highjack Georgia Iron's thread so I'll post it mine since it has pictures of the job in question. HeavyEquipmentForums However the GC is from Georgia Iron's neck of the woods..
I would never be bothered if somebody carries on a mile long conversation here. This place can be just like if we were all hanging out over the bed of a pickup truck telling stories. Calling me by someone else's name however is bothering. HAHA, just kidding CM. I got this call from a GC in S.C., the guy(PM) said his regular site guy work had padded his price way too high. Well, That could be because the site work contactor was getting flooded with work and bidding all his jobs high or the Dollar store work was becoming a pain for the site work guy and he was not interested in putting up with the Dollar store BS he had been dealing with. Either way I was flattered and excited and if I was sitting at home you can bet I would've taken that job for many reasons. He even was willing to tell me where I needed to price it. It wasn't my time and my future plans for doing site work will come in time. I actually went to work for a Dollar store site work guy about eight years ago. It was way down in South Georgia, He wanted a guy to do it all and we hit it off pretty well. I was going to have to stay in a hotel and travel to each site. All of them being Dollar store jobs. The first thing I noticed was how skimpy the blue prints were along with the storm drain plans. Bare minimal construction on these jobs. Makes since though. I did not stick that job out.
Damn, I'm getting old - the mind is the first thing to go, I think...lol I liken these dollar store projects and the developers of them to the large national homebuilders - they promise contractors and subs all this work and then work them like a mule until they wear out or realize there's no money in it. Now I'm making a broad statement and that's not the case unilaterally but just my experience and from talking to other site guys who have done these types of projects.
Hey like my mom always said, "Call me anything except late to dinner!"
I have always been able to get a natural high from getting on a roll with work. I have been going hard and don't plan on letting up. It seems like it's been several 14 hour days mixed in with regular long days. Moving machines late and on Sunday and even digging on Sunday. I really wish I was riding in my lowboy but that will come. I am trying out guys and track loaders.
It wasn't me. They hauled in some dirt here. Dump truck driver backed in fine but wacked the Goalrilla (they aren't cheap) on the way out and taco'd the square tube. I felt giving that day. We had to use the 6' breaker bar and some sledge hammer action but we got her close. I am a die hard Ford guy but this is just one beautiful truck that belongs to a customer.
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Rains come fast and heavy. The 379 finally has all three windows in the 36" flat top.
What's the scoop on the loader?
I am consistently amazed at the amount of work you have! Looks like there is a lot of work going in your area. Makes me think I need to move. How far do you normally travel to stay busy? Nice work as always!
Great looking work as always! Is that your track loader? Keep the pics coming. Chris
Well thanks guys. The story with the track loader is that I want to buy it or one with an enclosed cab. I have bitten off more work than I can do so I am really trying to find a guy to hire that can operate, grade, excavate, and drive the dump truck. I am about to have my lowboy back so I will have a full rig and a machine. I would probably rent the 953 for awhile to get adapted to the extra work load and then purchase a good used C model. Right now I do not have a guy. My brother can run the heck out of some machines but he is unmotivated and has led me on too many times. I have a lot of work I could take on such as house demos and spec home lots. I could even get into some overload work from some. Bottom line is I don't have a right hand man right now. It's a shame too. I wish I could find a guy like myself when I was 20 years old. I have lost a lot of work from really good customers too because I can't keep up and it affects me in many ways like my attitude. My reputation has become that I am only a one man show. I want to change that. I spent my whole working life as a finish grader and foreman on all types of jobs. I have confidence, I just can't back it up. I keep myself full up and cater to my core customers but something has to give. This current job just escalated into a huge job. I discovered a huge trash pit below the house and garage. It was from 1973 when a tornado leveled the place. They buried all the trees. I have gone down to 16' and still haven't found virgin ground. Had to pull off to keep my schedule up. Builder is waiting for a price. Really have a good bit of other jobs needing to price. I'll probably loose them. Oh and I 953 hyd. pump went out. I had 40 stumps to extract and think that might have played a factor in it.
nice work , although i am surprised to see people in buckets
If I was out of school and had my CDL already I would pack my bags and be down there in a skinny minute. That really sucks that you can't keep up with all the work you are getting. Look at is this way at least you have more than enough work rather than not enough. Hang in there man.
Good looking jobs Fastdirt. Look on the bright side, having too much work is much better than sitting on the couch, waiting for the phone to ring. Been through both and choose being busy. It's going to be a problem (as I am sure you are aware) to find a guy like you are looking for. Finding a kid with your drive and determination at that age is like finding a needle in a haystack, not saying anything about todays young workers, just reality. You might want to consider finding an older guy with experience but that comes with it's own issues too. Finding good employees is difficult and only getting harder. Have you kept in touch or have any contact info for prior guys you have worked with? That might be an avenue to pursue. Now a question on the job you posted above - What's the process for clearing a lot in your neck of the woods? I see you are on the job after the trees have been cut and the vegetation ground but the stumps are still in the ground. Do they salvage the valuable timber and chip the rest? The reason I ask is it's done a little differently here. The clearing contractor clears everything including the stumps and grinds it all. They load it out and usually sell the chips for boiler fuel. BTW - I love the silt fence on the high side of the lot that will never receive any run-off. I know it's probably a city required item. Actually I see this on commercial plans all the time. Run silt fence the perimeter of the job regardless of terrain. On our current job we ran 100'+ on the high side of the project that gets no run off. It's silly but I charge them and put it in.
They are out there! I would have loved to find a guy like you when I was looking for work. Sounds like a dream job to me demo, grading and whatever else. I sure miss that stuff. I work at a mine now so a lot of repetition. Cool jobs and pictures!
Your work is inspiring! Keep up the hard work.
That goalrilla is 2500 and takes five guys to assemble, i did one a few weeks ago haha. Wish i had an excavator! Im in the same boat looking for a guy, its definitrly hard. Keep at it.
Read the whole thread, excellent photos. Your work speaks for itself, meticulous...
I think you should start doing videos again I sure do miss watching them.
What he said...
I really appreciate the compliments. Makes it worth posting. A lot of times you can't get people/friends/family interested in what we do. I for one will always stop and talk about this stuff. Every now and then I'll get to talk to other graders, truckers, and truck drivers. We got this house foundation cut out and on grade. I towed the Takeuchi and Caterpillar home yesterday. Another 70+ hour week and we're going back at it in the morning for a new week. Thought I had an operator until I googled him and found his felony conviction. Nope, I had enough trash to deal with this week. I hit the biggest trash pit I have ever seen on this last job. After hitting the mess I needed to take a walk. I walked to a neighboring lot where a one man show guy was clearing and grading on big house foundation. He had a Case track loader and a Case track hoe and would swap back and forth. Any way I learned from that builder that the seller or a previous owner had mentioned a tornado ripped through there in 1973 and they had buried all the trash and wasn't sure exactly where it was. Well it was everywhere on my lot.. I went about 16' deep in one place. I started digging it all out and loading it on dumpsters and tandems. Finally the soil engineer said to get below grade and cap it with good dirt. Gladly I said. I had already over cut a lot. Apparently they are going to use helical piles instead of digging it all out.
We worked through a couple of bad downpours.
There was really good fill on top of the buried trash. Well decent fill.
Kind of why I got off of You Tube it's just more trouble than it's worth. Like this post has flipped half of my pictures. I also have to manually resize every picture in order to post them. This has taken over 45 minutes. Takes all the fun out of it. My luck I guess. I'm sure I'm the only one who has to resize their pictures and gets their images flipped. I'm addicted to this site and sometimes addictions are bad.
im glad you take the time to post the pics of your work.. don't see any pools done that way around here. most are holes then a plastic/fiberglass shell dropped in it.. keep up the good work
I admit an addiction to this site as well. I have a photo thread elsewhere on the net. The uploader on the site has been screwed up for a couple of months now. Since it only lets me upload one photo at a time, I rarely put photos on there any more. Keep posting...I really enjoy this thread!
I have to resize also, it takes me so long I rarely post pics anymore. I really enjoy following this thread and following your work. Cant wait to see the pete back in action!
Hey Fastdirt, Great looking work, you move a lot of dirt with a 312. I bet that was some hard digging in the trash pit. Keep posting!
Fastdirt, don't know why your pics are turned upside down. As far as sizing goes, I use Mac but I found an easy way. Pic your photos you want to resize, click export, choose size and send them to HEF picture file - they all get resized in batch. JNB you should be able to upload 5 pics at a time. Back to the thread. Fastdirt that's a nice looking foundation cut, I bet the footing crew likes to come in after you. Interesting those logs haven't rotted much in 41 years of being buried.
I had to join after reading this thread. I used to watch all of your youtube videos and you do great work. I wish you would put the video of your Pete driving through the mountains back up
That backblade work!!! Glad youre busy. I rented a tak 130 last week and want one now
Well. I appreciate it all. Sterff, I will definitely do some videos of the 379 when it gets back. I feel like I'm in an out of body experience waiting on it. Especially when I have to make multiple trips with my tag along and the lowboy will haul them together. I imagine it is going in the paint booth any day now. Still have to floor the lowboy and install the lights, decals, wheels, etc. but I can do that in a weekend with my level of determination with this project. I loved that video too but we are not done yet. Landclearer, I appreciate the comments. The 312 has a 40" bucket and a long stick with the L undercarriage. It is an amazingly balanced and capable machine and I am picky, but it never has me frustrated for the level I'm at right now. I've put 2500 hrs. on it since I got it two years ago and it has been a winner all the way around. The fuel consumption is outstanding too. It will run two full days on a tank. It has a big heart and is like a loyal Labrador always eager to please. It is going to Yancey Brothers to get everything tightened and back to new. Just got to rent a replacement and make it happen. I know what you mean on the logs being hard to excavate when buried. I just don't get too greedy on a problem log and work around a problem log till it frees up. They can feel like rock way down there all locked in with others. CM, I don't know about the flipped pic thing either. I'll figure it out soon. Now as far as the footing crew goes they are going to have fun with the surprises they find when shoveling and staking. You know I learned awhile back that logs will not rot when buried if they are sealed from oxygen and water. From my experiences I have to agree. A good trash pit will produce logs that are as strong as live ones. sometimes harder or even petrified. Just my thoughts there... I did find some cool bottles, street signs, a transparent set of plastic blueprints, and beer cans. I started collecting bottles lately. I've heard they can be valuable if you find a rare one. I am getting old too Lol. I get around and have let too many go. Especially when digging pools in historic districts and downtown Atlanta. I've also learned that historic districts and Atlanta mainly have a thicker than average amount of rich topsoil. Thanks, Bkrois, Nedly, JNB, Sawdus, Fservice
I'll try to load these the right way. I was really proud of the finish grading. Of course it's just a foundation cut but I always slick down my sites. Well 85% of them. This was a new customer and it was a main corner. I really wanted to leave a nice presentation for the builder and potential buyer. My guy has a pretty good background running a Takeuchi so I never even touched the grade. I did see him back dragging in a random method after he had it all on grade. I like straight lines so I took a about 20 minutes to keep it looking square and clean cut. It probably rained before it was seen and they wouldn't know the differences anyhow, but I'm in it for the attention to detail. Not to mention the tracks leave foot prints for rain puddles.. and it rains daily lately. This was one nasty eye sore of a pile for all to see. It was the dirt between the logs and was littered with sticks and such. The hoe sure does hide it all though.
Today's job. Ok, me and the longtime woman split again so I am keeping busy. So I might over post here for awhile. I used to not love this undersized ex county Mack dump. Now I love it, it will get in some tight places and I work with him a lot. He never complains either. It down poured on us two times today. I never stopped. We hauled out about 10 or 12 loads and made a mess of the driveway and streets. An ole fellow walked adamantly up to me while on the machine and said "make sure you clean up "MY" streets when you leave"...at first I was like who the heck...and then I read his shirt. He was the city inspector. I changed my tone to super nice guy immediately and said yes sir we will as soon as we finish.
Absolutely beautiful dirt work. I picked up the term "paint it and sell it" back when I was a pool trimmer. You've got that down! Back in the 70's we where digging a couple of blocks from the beach in Santa Monica. We had to move everything out of the dig at high tide since it would start to fill with water. Everytime the water went back down there'd be a new stash of old bottles. I still have most of the cool ones from that job and still collect them. I like all kinds of old stuff like that...especially if its got that nice rusty patina.
The pool work is very impressive. we've done a bunch of pools on jobs, but never anything that intricate. once the batter boards and stakes are in, its tough to get the deep end square unless you have enough room to walk around and cut it in from the back. generally we'll put 1.25" stone on the bottom then on the sides they put a plastic type material with metal webbing (attached is a borrowed picture of it) that gets sprayed with gunite.
Great looking work! I have done a good number of commercial pools but nothing like that. Takes a good operator to do that!
Well fast it looks like i have just been hired to dig my first pool. I am so excited. The price did not even matter to me, i just wanted to get the first one under my belt. I have never dug a pool, i normally dig footings and i build building pads. I can pretty much build a house or building from start to finish. I am skilled in almost everything besides building a pool. Of course this is all my wife wants. So it is time to learn. The owner called me because he knew i was local and they needed some one to remove the dirt from the site. We got to talking and he asked if i thought i could dig a rectangular pool about six feet deep. He wants it long and narrow, something like 15' x 40'. I am not really even sure how many loads will come out of the hole. I figure my 11,000 lb mini excavator (takeuchi tb145) with a two foot bucket should get the job done. I am guessing 2 to 3 days? Looking at your pics it seems i will need shovel men to clean and help prepare the walls. Do you have any advice? Whats a quick way to estimate how many tandem loads will come out of the hole? Will my mini get me through this job? I plan to start on the low end and work my way backwards toward the deeper end?
Thanks, JNB! That sounds like a pita job you did at the beach. Bkrois, that dig looks so strange to me. It's crazy how different the methods can be. I know what you mean about being able to move around all sides of the pool. Landclearer, thanks you gotta love the commercial digs.
Man I wish I could come help you. If it's 15' x 40' and all the dirt goes off site it will be around 8 loads. You can usually lose dirt on site if you have build up. Always dig from the deep end out of the shallow end if you can. It's much easier. Add 1' to all sides. So you will form a 17' x 42'. Form up the sides and the deep end leaving the shallow end open to get in there to dig. Trim the dirt 6" from the form to allow for 6" of shotcrete. Treat the 17' x 42' box like a building pad. Focusing on the three sides to get level with your laser. The set the forms using 18" grade stakes . You will have to set a string line. You will also need to get the square root to square it up. 17 x 42 will be a 45.31 diagonal measurement. Stting the elevation can vary. If it's close to the patio just use 1/4" of fall per foot. Usually you will have 2.5" or 3" of coping to allow for. Your form board will have to be 2.5" or 3" below coping finish. Call me anytime. I will help anyway I can.
15'x40'x6' would be around 12 tandem loads (15 yards) around here (30% swell). Hogging the dirt out (excluding trim time which is dependent on style of pool) and loading would take roughly 6-8 hours in favorable conditions here with my KX057 excavator. If conditions/the job allowed, I would dig with the ex and load with the CTL as loading tandems from ground level isn't much fun with a mini excavator. Cutting down on truck loading time (hourly) would pay for bringing the CTL out, as well as grading the surrounding area for the pool deck and such.
Been busy as ever. Had to get back on this job and excavate all the buried trash. Had 13 trucks going for two days before I had to pull off and pass it to a fellow grader. Did 52 loads one day and 45 the next. About a two hour turn around and was just mixing the soil with the stumps and logs. It was not fun at all. There will be around 170 loads out and the same amount of good fill back in The pressure started early. About 7:15 a.m. and I can see five trucks
It's definitely not 12 loads. We can take a wager on that. LOL!! It's not 6' but just in the deep end. Id assume it will be up to 3' in the shallow. I never get too technical with a % on swell factor and all that. I just go from experience. Digging with a mini takes forever too.
Sorry pics are random Last load of the day for him. He got his bumper while backing in and being held up on the phone so I helped him straighten it. Good looking Pete.
Some more pics taken since my last post. We've been steady at 70 hour weeks Good drinking oak water there. Full of protein to get you through the hot summer days.
Oh my god what a massive excavation. This is for a private residence? They pick up the bill for this? Are you there by the day or load or what. Im stressed just looking at that. They must have had some big equip on site to bury all that initially. Seems easier to just leave it or burn it than to go through all that trouble
Won't leave it curled and crowded up again. I left it there for awhile and took a break and went to forming. The tooth hit the light.
Finished that long day
Nope not this way. Love a good driver. Everybody was taking pics
Got a late notice to remove a tree. Sawed it then plucked it
Finished Another hot one from last week. We usually get two bags of ice and a lot of waters and Gatorade.
I didn't consider the shallow end, just the info he provided. I don't get fancy with the swell factor, but I use 30% to acknowledged it's presence.:lol: With your overdig, my swell, and 3.5' average depth, I get 9 loads.:notworthy I don't have a dump truck nor your experience so I try to get as close as practical and err in my favor. My dump trailer can only haul about 8 yards. Minis are slow for sure, I'm hoping to add a 12-16t in the next year or two as I keep growing. My 5.5 ton mini is fantastic for tree work (not clearing), which usually is a bigger portion of my gross revenue. How are the rubber pads holding up? At this point I figure I will run them on my future, bigger ex.
Wow, wow, wow. Looks great. Thanks for posting the pics even after long days in the heat !
It was very stressful I will say. I was glad to give it to another grader but I would also like to have a guy down there making money because it is a lot of work and they have a lot of lots in town. All that trash came from a tornado that hit Atlanta on March 24th 1975. I researched it. It killed 2 or 3 people and ripped the roof off of the Governor's Mansion while he was in the shower. This entire lot has trash under it. I'm sure it was a hole and they just used a 977 and pushed it all in. Looks like the road was built up and that created a massive hole by looking at the rear existing slope. It will be a 2 million dollar home with an elevator. The builder finally got extra funds from the lender to deal with the extra work. They have to remove it all and get it signed off on by the geo engineer so they can sell it without an issue.... well still an issue to me. They are asking to layer the floor and walls with woven fabric before filling it back in. Really wish I had an operator so I could overcome the one man show thing. I have had several calls for my ad but nothing to fit in with me yet. 1975 AJC in good shape. post tornado. James bond. Opens today! I got some great bottles too. Worked on the 4th of July but couldn't get started till 10 due to holiday work restrictions. This was hard ground but would fill with water.
Lumberjack, I like the way you think. As far as the rubber tracks. I'm pretty happy so far. One issue is that sticks and rocks can get stuck in between the tracks while making the radius and can either come full circle and scratch up the paint if it's a metal piece or the rocks can cut the tracks. I try to baby them on the pavement and in rocks. Really I try to baby them everywhere. They are great for unloading on busy streets though. See my bucket marks. I always lift the tracks when turning. You can also see the rubber laid down at the pivot points. They still have the lines. Not sure how long they will stay like this. This was great. We had to park the rig up a street and it was a breeze getting from the trailer to the job. One thing that I notice is when turning on pavement it can really ware the treads. I mean not really because I over check them daily. I always lift the machine and raise the tracks but it still puts all the weight on a few links.
Last Friday. We definitely had a two day dig so we left at a decent hour. I got in the truck with an unloaded trailer and put it in the wind. About 1000' from the job I checked my right mirror. Smoke was pouring off the tire. Dangit, I didn't let the brakes fully air up and one wheel set was stuck on the trailer. Oddly enough it only left one mark instead of two and ruined a near perfect tire. So the next day I had the commercial mobile tire company come out. I asked them to bring two tires just incase. Of course they mounted them both and while I was on the job working. After signing the ticket I looked at the tires and was like WTH man. "FIRESTONE'S" c'mon. I don't put premium tires on the tag a long trailer. Before getting my trailer aligned and converted to hub pilot wheels I ate through 20 tires. They always brought me Hancock's or Sampson's or other price friendly tires. They got me. The job we were on. Pretty good idea here using a ground rod. Super hard digging here.
Nasty dig here in some hard rock dirt. Almost slick head rock. It was a pain digging into the deep end at 8' deep plus a 2' raised wall and dealing with rock dirt and a spa. It also rained us about four times on this job. It's history though.
As far ar the tire issue i usually try to back up a little before i take off.If the brake are quite released then they will usually release when you back up,if they are going too. You will have to watch you parking with the bucket in the air now with you new digging teeth.Good luck
Thanks for the info. I still use the old school transit that you look through. What is the technique for "focusing on the three sides"? How would that be done with out a laser? What do i need 18" grade stakes for and where do i put them? To build a slab i square it up the use corner boards set to my level marks. I then run my string lines off these corners boards for the perfect final square. I set my forms to my lines and bingo. Also, What is your guy doing with the tapes on the circular form? Thanks
Work looks great as always, I still can't get over how perfect you get everything! What are you paying an hour for hired dump trucks?
If you want to upgrade from a one man show i would take one of your hard working labors and train him to be you other operator to get more done.At least they look like hard workers???? If they have been around for sometime ,they know what you expect from them and how you operation works.Big plus right there.I know it takes time to train ,but i see to often new guy that says he can do the work doesn't like doing it your way,but his.Which more often then not isn't your way.Where as your labor or labors do know. I know loosing a good labor will hurt for a while,but the plus is if he labors now he would still labor if you didn't need him on a machine where as new operator will just want to run a machine,and no manual labor!!!!!! Just a few thoughts. Plus also great work.Good luck
I agree, on the next wide open lot give one of your guys a few hours of seat time. If theyre smart they eill pick it up enough to load trucks or dig holes. They wont carve pools like you but they will get better in time. I had to run out to do something with two guys on site. Threw them the keys and said dont break anything. Two hours later they were doing much better than i expected
I agree with the last two posts. Sometimes your best operators are also your best laborers. I also see where it is really tough for him to do that. You do a lot of work in really tight areas and with close deadlines. It can be really hard to let someone learn in those conditions. But if you get the chance to give one some seat time, I would.
Nedly, The good ole boys charge $70 hr. some charge $75. Some of the big fleets charge $80. I always prefer the good ole boys at $70 hr. Thanks for the compliments and advise about training my laborer to operate. Actually my lead guy is great on the machines. He had an extensive background final grading residential lots on a Takeuchi. Now he is really good on the excavator. He goes slow and builders will say he is slow and I love it. I tell him to go as slow as he wants as long as he doesn't scratch anything. He has caused a few battle scars but nothing touch up can't fix. I'm really happy with him. He can load trucks, dig pools, put pads on grade, final grade, etc. It works really not ton a level on doing layouts. I can get jobs going and he can definitely keep it going. Couple easy ones this week and we needed it. Gotta love loading up when the sun is high in the sky
Ok one more from the week. I'll lay off the pool posts for a bit. Ok ok I actually have some great jobs coming up. I have five houses to demo and cut foundations and walls in from different builders. Really looking forward to it. One demo is huge at 5400 sq. ft. and four sides brick. I've had a decent amount of other residential new construction prospects too.
More great looking work. Looking forward to seeing some demo pics! I guess the rectangle pool was a piece of cake for you to do. Chris
Same here on truck rates, tandems $70-75 and tri's $85. I know ya'll don't have tri's over in GA. Looks like you already have good help.
Hi guys , do the truck rates of $70/75 per hr have any other charges to them as over here in nz I get $nz 115 for a 6x4 400hp tipper ( $ usd 97.50 ish) . We have a road user charge of around 38 cents per km and diesel is around $ nz 1.50 per litre. Seems like you get trucks for a good rate, if you don't mind me asking what is your 312 rate per hr? I have a 311cu and charge $115 nz . A lot of areas get higher rates than my area too.
Ps you get a great Finnish without a tilt bucket , you don't see many diggers here without a quick hitch and kit of buckets but the art of working with a dig bucket to the standard you get is being lost! Well done and thanks for all your pictures .
Yair . . . nzpatch . Same here . . . I doubt if you would get a gov't job with a hitch and tilt . . . yet our friends in the US go for thumbs in a big way but I seldom ever see one. You would wonder why, the work is the same where ever. I am no excavator hand mind, just an interested observer. Cheers.
My thoughts too, I guess that we end up spending more and do the work faster so you have to wonder if we have it wrong.? A new hitch and tilt is worth 15to 20 k here for a 12to 14ton digger.
That's a flat rate for the trucks I hire, no other charges but we don't have a road use charge and diesel is averaging $3.69-3.89 per gallon. As far as the tilt buckets, the only ones I see are on state/county excavators used to clean ditches on the side of the road. I would like to try one but you won't get any more money for the machine if it has one in my area. For clearing and demo, a thumb is an invaluable and cheap attachment and I wouldn't be without one.
Yair . . . Gotcha CM1995 , I shure can see how a thumb would be handy but as I say they are pretty rare around here . . . typo of course in my #433 post it should have been "without" a tilt and hitch. I was watching a big Hitachi stripping top soil in some rough country the other day, about a six foot wide bucket and in the ten minutes that I watched I don't think he had it level, quite impressive actually. I see also that with advent of the wide tilting buckets "excavator finish" is acceptable on batters (slopes) and the nice shiny grader finish of my youth is pretty much a thing of the past. Must say that some of these blokes are pretty good, they stand off on the flat and with the tilt bucket drag it down at about forty five degrees. It struck me that the pattern left may be considered an advantage to help counteract early stage erosion . . . it would be interesting to see how our friend Fastdirt the pooldigger would go with a tilt and selection of buckets, his skill with the basic machine is wonderful to see. Cheers.
We have a 5 ton mini with a thumb, coupler and 2 buckets, one of which is a tilt bucket. It took us a long time to bite the bullet to buy the tilt bucket, but its worth its weight in gold. We have diverter valves to turn it on (thumb off) and vice versa. Someday I will have a 15 ton machine set up the same way.Not sure what I would do if I was forced to choose between the thumb and the tilt bucket, might just go drive truck instead lol.
Yair . . . Gotcha nedly05 . There must be several different detach systems. The ones I see seem to be a universal mounting and any bucket or attachment fitted can be utilised with tilt . . . pretty heavy and bulky though and it looks expensive. Cheers.
Ours is a kubota, and it uses the kubota coupler. The bucket has its own tilt mechanism on it. I have looked at the type you are describing, the helac power tilt specifically. From what I hear from guys who run them, they arent as cumbersome as you might think, very expensive though.
Whats new man, i know you have some pics and stories, its been almost a month. Hope all is well
Just been slammed. Today I turned 39 and had plans of a vacation but I can't break away. I did. take the day off but it was chasing parts, invoices, deposits. I love it though. So fortunate to be working and keeping busy. I still plan on putting a man in place but in time. I just got the go ahead on a big house demo and re grade. I hope I can keep everyone happy. Actually have a few coming up. I've lost/turned down several grading jobs lately too Sometimes I just find myself in unusual circumstances. Looked easy but they wanted to keep the block walls. Well they moved when I started grabbing the wooden frame work so I had to take it super easy really strategize.
Figured it was best to get out the chainsaw and cut the timbers and frame before it all went south right at the end. Had already lost some cap blocks. It was a quick job. Loading an L9000 and found a rock shelf at the end of the day. Wasn't sure I was going to get it out without returning with the wrecking ball but I finally pryed it out and it wasn't as bad below the main rock. The neighbor however came over before I had told anybody I hit rock and asked "what are you going to do" I wasn't in the mood and didn't even know what he was talking about. He returned again and said "how are you going to get the rock out" He was at the property line behind the fence and couldn't even see the rock. He said " you better not dynamite that rock out" " If you do I will sue you for disturbing my foundation, I'm an attorney and I will sue everyone of you". Great neighbor huh.
Cabover with a little smoke to entertain me in morning traffic. Got a little rain here. Came back to 3' of water after leaving it on a Saturday last week. Wasn't up for staying all day that Saturday so figured I'd return Monday. Big mistake. It was severely flooded. Pulled off and returned this last Saturday after letting it dry. This was that job after the flood and drying out
My dream garage. This customer owned a local roofing company and had all the toys in that garage hidden back on 20 acres. After leaving the flood job in downtown Atlanta I hit a nasty low limb with the visor of my truck while pulling the machine. The next day I discovered that same limb broke the rear window. They just don't trim trees downtown. They let the trucks trim them.
One morning we dropped the oil filler cap while adding some oil. It just disappeared and we could not find it. We took off three belly pans and 45 minutes later we found it. Hard to believe it was so hidden in there but it sure was.
Fastdirt, super impressive as always. Don't you just love when the neighbors come over for a visit Thanks for posting and keep it up!
That lawyer's neighbor's gonna have a helluva pool. I think my sarcasm would have kicked in and asked him why he wasn't chasing an ambulance or something.
If you chased a few more ambulances, you could have a pool this nice:bouncegri
Fastdirt the detail in you workmanship is impressive.
Great stuff man. Offer to bury him if he doesnt shut up next time
Do you want to be an artist or do you want to maximize profits? I started in the early 80's with equipment from the 60's and 70's. I love my attachments/tools/technology. Save being an artist for hobby time.
Fastdirt, great postings. You really seem to pour your heart and soul into it. Try an excavator mounted concrete densifier for concrete foundation demo. They make short work of it, more so when there is rebar. Keep up the good work.
Thanks LC!! I got a call from the pool builder right after that. I gave him the look. I have a look that can trump words apparently. This much I've learned over the years. I have to be on my best behavior in these environments. I can't go all redneck as much as I want to. Happens all the time to me. People look down their noses at my type, wave my speed down in their neighborhood when I'm only going 20 mph, throw their hands up if I'm swinging a turn wide, say I'm shaking their windows when I compact dirt with my bucket. I have noticed some neighbors might be jealous of their neighbor who is getting a pool. I won't even go into the abuse I get every morning and every afternoon on the streets by cars who refuse to let me over, or speed up to get in front of me to turn, etc. etc. Thank you so much. I give my trim guys all the credit. He was a funny little feller. I've never heard of it. I can't complain about my 2 ton wrecking ball. It can pulverize and expose re bar pretty quick with minimal impact on the machine.... other than flying shattered concrete and debris.
Yair . . . Cheers.
Fast Dirt, she (the 379) is coming together nicely. I use to follow your youtube channel months ago, and then you just disappeared. So last week I got the bright idea to google your screen name, and tracked you down here. I was just looking at 379's on youtube one day, and found the video of your 379 going thru the Mountains, that video is awesome. I would love to talk to you about what Turbo your running on that 3406E. That, and the 6NZ are two best big block Cats ever built in my opinion (other than the rare 3408E). A couple of years ago I sold my 95' Ford LTL9000 which had a 3406E, and it was the best running Cat I've ever had the pleasure of mashing the Fuel Pedal on. I have kicked myself in the rear hard for the last year over that bone head move. I was wondering if yours had an "other than stock" Turbo, and if you've had any codes loaded into it??? Yours has the most distinctive turbo whine I have ever heard, man that thing is awesome. I really wished you hadn't closed your channel down. I know a lot of other people besides me loved your videos, and would like to see some more of the Truck. Don't get me wrong, all the excavation work is very cool also. I think I finally have seen someone who is as "freakish/passionate/dedicated" as myself, and one other friend, about keeping your Equipment/Trucks/Tools looking good. If I ever hired someone to do something for me, and they showed up with their tools/equipment looking like junk I just simply would not use them. When a guy like you pulls up on a job, people know you take pride in your Equip. which means you take great pride in yourself, and your skill set. I have found that means a lot of repeat business, and word of mouth to other new/potential customers. You are a very skilled Operator, looking at your work is great. Since I tracked your postings down here on Monday, I have read all 31 pages, and checked out all the work. Looks great! Would really like to talk to you sometime about the 379. Keep up the great work, and keep the posting up. Really like to see the Pete some more.
Hi David 427. I was brought up around my grandads diggers in the late 80's , he had 3 cat 215's and can remember the time it takes to change a bucket with no hitch ( I took a long time as only I kid at the time) hitting pins in and out isn't a fast job so on some jobs that needed a dig bucket and a wide clean up bucket some times 2 diggers got taken there so no changes were needed, you can't do all jobs with just a dig bucket( trenching , cleaning ditches , ripping etc) by the time I was driving diggers for a job New Zealand had fell in love with the quick hitch and tilt bucket and you just can't go back. The speef that you can do a very tidy job and change to other buckets is the key. Both my diggers have twin ram tilt buckets and quick hitches (cat311cu & 305ccr) and you just can't be with out them here as contractors run them here. Yes they cost a lot more over the digger cost but they both speed up the job and keep the finnish tidy . Most of the guys I've had work for me don't see that a dig bucket can get the finnish that fast dirt can get so it's nice to see someone doing a mint job with just a dig bucket, the art is being lost over here! But a artist or making money thing is hard to see as i think that your work ( tidy and arty ) will get the next job or keep the others away from you customers that you all ready have as "quality is remembered long after the price is forgottin " well that my theory . It's very interesting to see trends from different parts of the world to get the same type of work done. Thanks fast dirt for all your posts they are mint!!
Hey Coal Roller, thanks. I can't believe you sold that LTL with a 3406E. I'd love to have that truck. Hopefully Ill be able to make some new vids when it gets complete. I started a thread on it and need to update it. I haven't done anything to the turbo or codes yet. I have plans for all that but the turbo that is on it right now sounds incredible. I do have a power box and straight pipes. Hope to get the exhaust manifold, injectors, trim codes, etc. going soon. Really liked what you wrote. Thanks again.
House demo and basement dig
The digging was extremely hard.
Pretty long one. The neighbor borrowed a friends 450 dump truck and got 10 loads for free. Little different... Flashing the pool walls and floor in case it rains. I was in the backyard working on a berm and was really focusing on back dragging the turn to make it sweep smoothly and whacked the heck out of a pine tree. There was 26 stumps right here that were cut all the way down. It took awhile.
Dont you love people taking the dirt! Probably not as big of a deal to you but when i can find someone around here to take dirt ill deliver for free. Pools look great, dont envy digging in that weird rock dirt though
How are the rubber shoes on the excavator holding up..?
I'm looking to get a 312 to replace our 120 in the next few years. Do you find it's enough machine for most of your jobs? Ever demoed one with the dozer blade option? All your work looks top notch and your equipment as well!
Nige, the tracks are holding up well. It does take extra care not to damage them. You have to be watchful in bad conditions like rock or demo work, but they are holding up well. The plus sides of having them are great. 90plow, I always find the 312 to be enough for what I do. It's a great machine that I'd definitely recommend. I rented a 140 with the blade for a about a year and really liked it. It's nice having a blade that wide for many reasons but it's heavier and can sometimes get in the way on tight jobs.
Doing a house demo right around the corner from home.
Loading out the C&D in Tandems? We use 30 and 40 yard cans here. What's with the wrecking ball? Do you swing that puppy off the back of your bucket? I had a 307 with rubber pads like yours, they sure were slippery in the winter. Prolly work great out there. Is there much rock? Thanks for posting the pictures. Regards, CD
Nice work Fastdirt. You sure do leave a clean site. I like the way that you use the wrecking ball. That sure beats a swapping to a breaker when you just need it now and then. Pick it up, drop it, BANG and whatever is under it is likely broken, then just scoop it out. As long as it don't roll away down a hill you are alright.
Good job. Nice '70's architecture. That looks similar to the house I took down a couple of weeks ago. Do you sort your metal? I sorted the metal on the last one and got 7K lbs of tin across the scales for $825. I load it in a 30 and pay the haul charge.
Good lookin work as always. Worked out pretty good having the slab in the basement to pile and load the debris out of.
That's a good looking T800 tandem, is he a guy you usually use? Those un-poured CMU basement walls can be a PIA trying to keep them intact while removing the framing and keeping the debris separated. Depending on how the sill plate and joists are attached to cap blocks, you can pull half the wall down trying to remove just the floor system.
Hey CD that's the first time I've hauled C&D off in a tandem. I always use 30 yd. cans too. I believe on this one it was 6 cans for just the C&D and 7 tandems of concrete. I had to put the last of the C&D on a truck. I hired the tandems to haul the concrete. We have a big recycle place that takes the C&D for $35 a ton and clean concrete for $25 a load. I got 3.5 tons of C&D on the truck for a $120 dump fee plus 2 hrs. truck time @ 70 hr. = $260 a truck load total. I just wonder how many tons a 30 yd. dumpster will hold of stricklty C&D. I think around 6 maybe. A dumpster here maybe $375 to 400.The wrecking ball I use in two different ways I pick it up with the thumb and drop it or chain it and swing it in but only for walls swinging it towards the cab. If you have a foundation wall and get on top and swing it in it will destroy a foundation wall quick or even rock. You don't even have to bang your bucket one time on any concrete if you have the ball during a demo. It saves on the machine and body abuse. We don't have much rock. Probably about 20% rock around here but it will get me through rock. Hasn't failed yet. Thanks it balanced out easy, about an hour to finish....lucky really. You're right, if that ball was any more round it could get bad quick. CM, those houses are always stripped by the time I get there. I did load my truck up one time with tin pretty full and I remember it only paid around $200 bucks. Separating is a huge pain. I've had to do it on the last few and got a big brick basement coming. This last one was a breeze separating in the basement and the fact that it wasn't brick. I use that guy in the T800 all the time used him yesterday. I luckily get the chance to work a truck from a guy who gave me a job 15 years ago. I love the truck and the driver is out of this world. The driver is old school from a company that crashed after 30 years and they are hanging in there now. They kept a few pieces including that truck. So he has some good connections and we've made a great team.
How are the tracks holding up fastdirt?
Got to ask this, has the ball ever got away from you on a hillside? It looks like most of your work is in hilly areas, and I was thinking about how it would go if you went ten-pin bowling with the neighbours' trees.
where you been fast dirt it's been a couple weeks
Do you layout the form work and location of the pool? Or are you able to come in and just get to digging?
It's been almost a month are you ok
I think quite well. I am pleased this far with the durability. No. It has not yet. I did some searching a while back and found news articles of a run away wrecking ball in a downhill city street environment that went horribly wrong. The ball is designed like a tear drop so it won't roll. I will build a dirt dam between the tracks and the rock and where ever needed to prevent that. The worst part is the transporting of it. It's 4,000 lbs. Can't be careful enough with that process. In the truck the Cummins L10 can feel the extra 2 tons when going up hills. I do all the forming, layout, location, etc. Every job varies. Could take hours, could take minutes to get started. Just been out there trying to do two things at once. Good news is I made my last payment on the Caterpillar Friday. I don't owe on anything now. My goal now is to have my trucks and trailers in use by Jan 1st. I am still looking for a hire who is passionate. I have been looking patiently for awhile for a Ford F450/550 with a hauler bed. I was looking for a diesel 4x4 crew cab with a 7.3. I wanted black on aluminum 19.5's. A 7.3 never surfaced....... and this one did. Drove to South Carolina and bought it off the original owner. It's the 6.0....6.0....6.0. I have been avoiding those like the plaque. I couldn't pass it up and couldn't be happier with what I got for the money. It rides like my dump truck but it's exactly what I wanted. The plan is to put a removable 13 hp compressor, diesel tank, and two tool boxes. It will tow the TL150 also. Had some brake issues on the way to this one. Had to come home without the trailer and fix the issues. Had a front brake chamber go bad. Also had some rear brake work. Turns out the front chamber went bad due to an offset clevis. The original clevis should not have an offset. It was only on the side that went bad and was the cause. It's always nice to discover the cause.
Here is some good ones. I have two life long friends who happen to be brothers and they are the ones who offered me my first grading job. They have gone on to be serious project managers and do some of the most technical jobs in Atlanta. One brother is completely in charge of all the pipe and dirt work at the new Atlanta Falcons stadium and the other brother is always digging 30' deep in just mind blowing circumstances and they'll shoot a picture once in awhile. Offers always there to stop by. Got a video the other day of them lowering the mini down into a deep project. The day I stopped by was a rain day unfortunately.
Just another morning on the job when unloading crane parts off of a flatbed went horribly wrong. He said they ran like hell. It just cleared the dome and nobody was hurt..
Good to see you back Im no expert but i did take my 6.0 from 100 to 200k with no huge breakdowns. Loved the truck. Just sold it. Read up on the ect eot delta. Check that first. Also do an egr delete.
Is that how you change the oil on the engine? Would think they would put a drain plug in the oil pan!
Good to see you back and posting pics. What part of SC did you pick the truck up from?
The 6.0 is a decent motor (I own two). Change the coolant asap that's the cause of all problems on these motors also get a new oil cooler to ensure that it isn't plugged with gunk from the stock coolant. Very impressed by your work and your trucks I hope to grow the excavating end of our family construction business. It's been a tough road so far.
Thanks LC, I've just had my hands full. That truck came from Greer just east of 85 from a fella named Lex. Thanks 90plow, I will definitely take your advise. It leaks oil from somewhere but I will get to that whole truck project soon and really check it out and fix all the issues. I have been hitting rock and water a lot lately.
took out two dishes and dug in a new 8'x'8'x'3 foundation for a pole. We set the studs.
I got all of the rock out behind the machine with the wrecking ball. 12' on one side
Congrats man! that is a good feeling! Keep those goals going. One of the most important things to do in business' like ours. I just heard a guy last night say "most people don't plan to fail, they fail to plan" Goals short and long term are amazingly productive, just write em down and watch them come true. Keep up the great work!
Some more amazing detailed work, thanks for sharing the pictures with us.
very inspiring story. im in the process of trying to get a start in the dirt moving world right now. thanks for sharing
Well thanks for all the good words. Got hung up on this one. Went in and hit rock and water. Had to pull off and return with a hammer. The water and rock were as bad as it gets. It was near Rock Springs Rd.
Hey Fastdirt, liking all the pics. We just bought a track loader. Main jobs for it will be grading gravel pads and pushing a brush rake. Just wondering about the compaction. I always figured we'd have to get a packer to get things tight if we ever went to tracks.
Is the Hyundai your machine or a rental? Looks huge next to the Cat.
Shimmy that's a great machine you just picked up. As far as compacting with a skid steer you have to have a full bucket of dirt so it puts all the weight on the front and it works for me but it's not for everyone. That Hyundai was just a rental. It was over 70k lbs. My sales guy said he was sending me a 320 that weighed 73k. I said back that he needed to know a 320 weighs 45,000...... he quickly got on me as he set it straight... Oh. That was a pretty ugly job but we came out of it with the help of two pumps. I couldn't use the wrecking ball because of the water springs. It just stayed muddy and that won't work dropping a ball. Here's a video of it when it arrived. I've used this driver a few times and he is a great guy but he is a bit on the reckless side. I've heard stories of him running a dozer off at the equipment yard. Then when I dropped my truck off at the first shop I saw his KW W900 cab in the yard crushed. He used to run a nice KW 900 7 axle lowboy set up. He was pulling two mini excavators. Went around a left curve and lost the right tires off the pavement. It got pulled over by the trailer. Nobody got hurt. http://youtu.be/WdiTOO40IXI The 94 L9000 squeezing in. Cutting limbs with the chainsaw as we go. http://youtu.be/hVV_GG1_2lQ
Rock Springs Road...hehe.
You went from one extreme to the other, rock and water to pretty red clay. Must be fun getting in all those tight little spots. We will dig commercial pools but not residential ones, to much headache around here. Looks great as always!
Your new hauler is a bomb waiting to go off. If you use it with a programmer, kiss the motor good bye. I bought my 6.0 new and it is sitting right at $25,000.00 in repair work done at the dealer under warranty. It is still under warranty for another 20k miles. Mine has had 4 injectors, 2 egr coolers. 2 oil coolers, injection control module, turbo, numerous egr parts, 2 sets of head gaskets, etc.... The down time was so bad that I built a 2nd 7.3 auto f550 into a 4x4 manuel truck. Took me 5 weeks to get it right. The 7.3 is programmed and it is all that you think they are. I looked for 2 years for a good 7.3 most all of them now for sale need motors. I just bought a non running truck, built the motor , put in good running gear with that bad boy zf6 and 4.88's and a dp tuners tow tune. As Optimus prime says let's roll!. I know you have a tl150 and will be pulling it. If so there is a company that can machine rings around Cylinders to help stop the known head gasket failure problems. That with the egr delete and arp head studs would be in order. It will cost about 10 to 14 k to get that motor right. I have the machine shops info if you need it, just call me. They are up near road atlanta. From what I understand the cab has to be pulled to do the motor. Every time I have went on a long trip my 6.0 has failed me. Including my last trip to get my tl150. I drive it hard and it breaks. We had another 04 model 6.0 that was a fine truck till it got totaled with about 180 k on it. F350 manuel 4x4. Two injectors was it for it , we only used it to pull buildings and it hauled it's whole life. Never programmed and never used to pull serious weight like that 150. We got that truck new also. The truck does look like you though. Very well kept. Good luck with it.
I wouldn't worry about the 6.0. I put 158,000 on my 03 before I got my 6.7. I changed the serpentine belt and 4 injectors in that time. If you are religous about the maintenance you should be fine. The first thing I would do though is put a coolant filter on it and service the whole truck.
Great thread Fastdirt!! In the last 2 days I've read every post in here and your work on those pool bases is almost unreal. Keep it up and the pics flowing. PS good luck with the 6.0. I've seen people drive them forever and I've seen them go with less then 5000 miles on them. The ford mechanic back home told me once that the majority of the 6.0's with problems are those with the manual transmission. Apparently, people shift too early bog them down and they just aren't designed for that low RPM grunt like you would assume a diesel would. I personally am scared of them and am still rocking 2 '99s with the 7.3
Welcome to the Forums amstall!:drinkup
Sounds like you've been **** hard by people who don't know what they are doing when working on your 6.0. ARP studs, Ford gaskets, egr delete, new oil cooler, blue spring kit, stc fitting, dummy plugs, updated degas bottle, and a few other things and you're set. If your FICM maintains 48v and the truck has good batteries your next concern is injectors. The average truck would be $4-6k to be turn key reliable and more fun to drive the a 7.3. If you're programming it, then SCT with tunes from Gearhead are a good choice. You can use the SCT as gauges too.
6.uh oh I have 06 f550 6. the term "throwing good money after bad" is what would best describe a 6.0. It's studded, injectors, ect ect. no matter what the truck looks like the engine is pure :Banghead. IMHO any machining, headstuds whatever you do will not make it any better. Don't make the $$$$$ mistake I made I've read this entire thread. Impressed, you do some nice work
I have had 2 06 6.0's. I sold the F550 with 214k miles on it. The 250 has 133k or so... Main problem with it is I've replaved the 550 with a 6.7 550, and the upgrades have the 250 headed to the block this spring or summer. Both got studs and Bullet Proof EGR cooler.
I had an F250 with the 7.3. It was a great truck. I know a few people who've had 6.0's without any of the problems that go with the reputation. I don't know if I'd spend $4,000 in mods to prevent a $5,000 problem that MIGHT occur (just making up numbers here). Granted, I might spend $4,000 in mods to make it faster and tell the wife that it was to prevent an imminent $5,000 problem. The trucks look good, Brian. I have to say, I was slightly jealous watching your video where you pulled into that driveway nose first with your trailer. :tong Around here, there are a still a lot of driveways with 8' wide gates.
Thanks so much for the nice words. I know that shamed 6.0 is a Ford nightmare. I swore against it myself. My brother's 6.0 went out twice and it was the nicest truck he had ever bought for himself. I felt horrible for him. I bet the insurance companies have red flagged the 6.0 trucks against insurance fraud. I recently heard a story about a pond and a 6.0. I still love this truck like voters love their candidates though. Ford should reimburse those in my opinion. It's wrong but it's going to take more than one motor to stop my passion for a Ford. I bought this truck for every single thing about it but the motor...the wheels, 4dr, 4wd, hauler bed, XLT w a vinyl floor. Have you ever heard of a C9 or a Black Mamba 7.3 in a super duty... LOl. I don't want to tow with it as much as I want a work truck for diesel, tools, air, etc. It's so much safer to tow the tl150 behind the L9000 anyway. My mechanic says around $5000 to do the work and he says he's done quite a few and loves the motor. I will get to work on it here in the next couple of weeks. I still haven't tagged it so I haven't been using it other than moving a 46' 8 ton gooseneck around my house in which I have gotten in two situations where I had to lock hubs and reverse uphill off road before bottoming the trailer. I was impressed. 4WD is a necessity at that point lol.
I have an '05 F-250 with 190,000 miles on it and (knock on wood), have had only to replace 2 injectors. We live in the mountains and receive an average of 300" of snow a year and have a 1 mile road to our house. I use this as both a plow truck and my daily commuter. I think the biggest problem is people use these for "cars" and don't work them. I drop and flush the coolant every 60-75,000 miles,change oil every 3000 (use only motorcraft filters and Mobil synthetic oil) and never let it idle too long or avoid small trips. It has the 6 speed manual and in the summer gets 22 mpg on highway. I did put a bulletproof EGR cooler in it and use Motorcraft fuel additive every tank. Hope I can get 300,000 out of it like my last Ford Diesel with the N/A 6.9.
Hi Fastdirt, This is a great thread and you have some lovely equipment. I am a new member and have to confess that I haven't read all 35 pages yet, hopefully I will get there over time. I am just curious to hear your opinion and experience of the CAT 312cl, I think they are a fine machine, I have looked at a couple of 2007, 2008 models for sale and I liked them but I have very little experience of them as Hitachi is the main player here in Ireland. I am just wondering if it gave you any trouble or is it a reliable machine? I know you may have covered it in the thread already and apologies if you have.
Fastdirt, just basically read all 35 pages of this thread. Thanks for taking the time to post all the great pics. I'm just starting up my excavation business on my own and it's very motivating seeing how you've grown your company from the ground up. Keep up the great work! Also, I've owned several 6.0s. They're one of my favorite motors, and I know them very well. I have dealt with many problems with them, but like several of these guys have said, maintaining them and doing a little bit of work to them make for a great, powerful motor.
Thank you. I couldn't read 35 pages of anything either. Maybe a couple pages before boredom but I'll post as long as people read it. I guess it's getting long. I've ran as many excavators as anyone could want to run. I am very picky about equipment. I have been on many excavators that I had negative issues with balance, speed, power, etc. I think the 312CL is one of the best machines I've ever ran. I've put over 3000 hours on it and it's been a great experience. It's never failed me. It's a long stick with the long undercarriage and it's designed right. It's just a great operating machine. It will hold a full bucket way out over the sidetrack with no issues. It has a great cab with lots of room. It is great on fuel consumption. I can get two good days of work in on a full tank. The controls feel great. Tracks pull strong. I really have no complaints whatsoever. It has done me wonders in the aspect that I have not had to focus hardly any of my attention to this piece of my business other than maintenance. It's also capable of doing jobs in a tight situation or on a big scale. Well thanks. I am still very much on my new business high. It was always something I thought about as I was out there working for other companies. It's still new to me and everyday is a new venture to better it.
I've just spent two hours plus reading this thread. Your work is impressive. A lot of the homes you are around are impressive as well, some look huge. I would think margins must be better down that way which is great. Seems like there are 20 backhoes in our county that has 20k people. Room for expansion around here is tuff. Some guys are or seem to have unlimited income and can buy any thing they need. The soil you work in looks pretty nice compared to what we have. It varies so much here , you can dig 10' deep in one area go 1 mile up the road dig 4" then flip rocks for 3 days. Its discouraging at times. I can sympathize with you on hiring of help , take a look at my thread under job site coordination. I got a good guy I could send your way. To here him tell it he'll work 90 hours a week and can do anything but I betcha at 2:30 he's headed home to drink coffee and watch TV. I give it to you for building a good business. And you put in the time , you earned it and deserve to have a good living. One thing I noticed you seem to have an abundance of tandem dumps there. I've been on the hunt for a decent tandem dump for 2 years , I don't have 60 grand to pay for one. I've dug several pools , the guy uses the kits with the galvanized walls and grout in the floor with the vinyl liner. He says around here where we freeze and thaw the ground moves so much and that's what works best. Your pool excavations are most impressive. Sometime I wish I had some of your work ethic , I don't mind to go , but I'm in your boat , owner , operator , secretary , bill collector , bill payer , problem solver , CPA and I cook some nights. More to it than some think. My wife walks in sometime and looks at me and says well I can see your in a bad mood , she's right , someone didn't show up to pay me , tire issue , job site problem , lost a job , it affects my attitude more than it should. 12 bud lights a night helped for a while but that got old after a while. I've got an established business , started on my own in 2005, started dirt work mostly backhoe in the early 90s. Just now feel like I have a foot hold , I know nothing is guaranteed , but where there's a will there is a way. Its gratifying to do a job , settle up , happy customer , that's what keeps me going. I landed a NRCS job for a local farmer today , old customer from the old days , at least 6 to 8 weeks long. What gave me that gratification on this , he went to NRCS office and passed them a letter assigning me to handle all the affairs concerning this job. He's well off so to speak , owns almost 2000 acres. One reason I do his work , he see's my face there daily , deals with me , watches me operate a bit and goes on his way. And I detail his bill down to every last screw. That's one he likes , he's a dollar and cents guy. Keep it up brother and post pics when you can
Brian, been keeping up with you on the gram, love the pics. Couple questions, are all these jobs for one pool builder or a few different ones? I'm sure once someone hires you they see what a pro you areand never look elsewhere but getting that first job is crucial. Are you advertising for any work on your own? Whats working for you? Also why all the different skid steers on site? The shop and the pete are looking awesome. Congrats on finally getting it going
Great looking pools as always. Glad to see you posting pics. I think the foundation turned out great also. Reminds me of growing up in KY. Unfortunately no foundations around here.
I've ran as many excavators as anyone could want to run. I am very picky about equipment. I have been on many excavators that I had negative issues with balance, speed, power, etc. I think the 312CL is one of the best machines I've ever ran. I've put over 3000 hours on it and it's been a great experience. It's never failed me. It's a long stick with the long undercarriage and it's designed right. It's just a great operating machine. It will hold a full bucket way out over the sidetrack with no issues. It has a great cab with lots of room. It is great on fuel consumption. I can get two good days of work in on a full tank. The controls feel great. Tracks pull strong. I really have no complaints whatsoever. It has done me wonders in the aspect that I have not had to focus hardly any of my attention to this piece of my business other than maintenance. It's also capable of doing jobs in a tight situation or on a big scale. Thanks for the reply. I hope you do keep posting because since I posted here I have managed to read the rest of the thread without realising. You're work and equipment is very impressive. It is very interesting to me as here in Ireland trucks like yours are not seen. Also swimming pools aren't popular with our climate. Lol. We are farming here so we use agri tractors to haul and most of our work is agri based. I'm glad to hear you're 312 has been a success. They don't have the best rep over here and aren't very popular. I think myself that it is mostly opinion rather than people speaking from experience. I don't think the dealer backup is great from cat here especially for the smaller setup so that is an issue. Hitachi is king over here but a good zaxis makes 5 to 10k euro more than the competition. Keep up the excellent work and the posting. Thanks.
We are a lot a like, it's all relative. Where you have 20k people and 20 hoes around we have 2 million people and 200,000 hoes around here. Sleep in two days around here and you WILL be replaced. It's just go, go, go. Luckily I was taught that way and it's become my personality. I'm not much of a conversation type when I get to work. I just want to get after it and go all out till it's done. I've become cold after spending 15k to 20k in a cab. Plus I concentrate so hard and focus with my eyes so hard that anything that is not progress is a distraction. Then after finishing everyday I tow my loaded down rig on overpopulated streets. When I get home it takes well over an hour to settle down and download my thoughts if it's a long day. I do love to pull equipment but it's tough around here with all the people. Yes when I get home I can be wound up or stressed out too. I hear you on the Kentucky rock. Man oh man all you have to do is drive through Kentucky and see how at so many exits that had to blast in all the roads. It looks very very rocky from what I saw. Now I did see some of the longest straight dumps I've ever seen up there. Some had around 7 axles.....I've heard them called centipedes. They look wild. Heck a tri axle dump is a sight to see if you're from Georgia. All tandems here. Hope you find a good one. Thanks again.... RJ I work for many various builders. I've swapped work amongst other excavators and such. It's just like anything else. Lol, thanks for the compliments. No I don't do hardly any advertising..... but I will and have chased work. I will have my truck done soon and have a new guy starting tomorrow..... so we will see. I am not afraid to hunt work if I can back it up. We're working on it. The skid steers are just helping to shuttle dirt to wherever. Just like the hauling, I'm giving the work to someone else. Hoping to change all that. Thanks again RJ Thanks, LC. I love a good basement dig in moderation. I was having trouble uploading pics here but I think I have always had my camera setting on high quality and they wouldn't upload. So we'll see if helps.
This was a job for a renovation company. Had to haul out 8 loads of wet trashy dirt. Through an 8' porte cochere downhill. Then we were finished and the builder asked if we could spread gravel to cover the mud while constructing everything. No problem on New Years eve except the big quarries closed early and my guy couldn't get a load of 57's to me till near dark. Then in reverse uphill in the dark with minimal gravel so as not to spill out when reversing... It was tough. I never once took that run for granted and had to look with my eyes at both sides every single time while reversing. I could've spun in the street but I hate doing damage to the tracks. We got done right before 7:00 and the neighbors had already called the builder to complain. It's only legal to work 7 to 7 in the city limits. Then it was off to dump the rental machine off after hours. Had to cross the lawn to get it behind the gate.
One of my pool digs. Not as technical as some of yours. These don't pay well either, around 1000 to 1200 bucks.
Nice. Yep that's what they pay around here. I've only done about 10 vinyl pools . It's more work than it looks too. This is the backfill on the little demo and dig we did.
Am I going crazy or did you delete your instagram?
Always fun dumping down hill like that, trying not to flip forward into the side of the truck! These are jobs that separate champs from chumps. Nice
We knew we couldn't back the truck in because of it being so steep so we brought the Takeuchi to shuttle the dirt to the truck. That is always a pain so we decided to do whatever it takes to avoid that. It worked out with the help of the swing gate and we got pretty good loads out. Caught these guys working last week on the side of the road. This is the local company that I bought the 312C from. They went with these smaller JD's. All they do is utility work usually road side around all the other underground. The 312 had a small 24" bucket on it when I bought it. Just thought it was an interesting story. I'd like to think it had an easy life with a lot of idle time doing this work. This was a bad job with a good view
Nothing like the challenge of a tight site surrounded by expensive homes. New pool? The 308 and PC88 sized machines are growing in popularity for the ease of moving. They won't hog dirt or take on a large demo with efficiency like a 320 sized machine will but they pack a lot of power in a small package. I would like to add one to the mix in the future for the smaller jobs and for ease of mobilization.
Some mornings have been in the 20's. Way too cold for us but makes for good shoveling weather.
It was a pool job. I guess I'm the pool digger but thankfully I get to change it up here and there. It seems I always have a house to demo or grade in the works and I look forward to those jobs a lot. Heck those mid sized excavators are pricey too. They are good machines. I sure hope the PC88 has gotten quicker. I ran one about 10 years ago that was painfully slow but then some of these bigger mini's will give you whiplash they are so quick. Which one would you go with? I might try to get an 8 ton sized excavator later this year because I rent them from time to time and paired up with a skid steer they can get a lot of work done and you can haul them together on a 20 ton tag.
The last machine I rented that size was 2 years ago on an auto parts store, a 308D. Had some tight digging for a storm sewer between property lines. It was quick and powerful for it's size, lifted and set a 4x4 knockout inlet box which surprised me. I haven't ran an PC88 just my friends 78 which is a 2005/6 model. If I were to pick one now, I would go with a Cat, not for blind brand allegiance but for my relationship with the local dealer, product support and knowledge of their product. Yeah, they are pricey. Compare what a new one costs to a larger sized used machine with low hours and it'll leave you wondering. They also seem to hold their value well, considering original new purchase cost and what they're bringing in the used market. Tells me they're popular, if nothing else.
Did they buy fixed boom Deere's or swing boom? Job is looking good, as always Fast? You didn't happen to get a timelaspe of all that dirt shuffling, did you?
We got an 8 ton Kubota. I think they have a new model of it out but ours is a good machine. We got a 24 and 36 inch bucket for it and it handles the 36 fine. I have set precast boxes and it did good. Something to take a look at.
Great looking work Fastdirt. Still can't get over how well you have kept that 312 with all the tight spots you get into.
I might be guilty of the blind brand allegiance . Redneck and ignorant maybe If I could've afforded a Cat skid steer comparable to the TL150 I would've gone that route but there was no comparison in my price range and I always thought the Taks were superior in my experience so I guess brand allegiance only goes so far when making such serious decisions. I think the 308 is going to be too big and pricey for what I need it for. You're right about the price thing I've seen 325C's go for less than a pricey 308. I'll patiently be seeking a deal on mini but I can live without it too. Thanks, CM. I'm not sure on the swing boom. Swing booms are great but they push the cab back and impair vision especially on the Takeuchi 1140 I demoed for a week. I hope to get some time lapse one of these days. ..and thanks again!! I've heard nothing but praise on the Kubota line up. Nothing like a mini with a 36" bucket huh! It'll sit a lot so I got to keep it reasonable with this move. I Have to put some money in the 312 here soon and finish the lowboy project first so it'll be a bit before I squeeze into a mini....and I mean literally too. Those things sure make me uncomfortable. Thanks Sawdus. I'm glad to say I haven't caused any metal damage in almost three years on the 312. A few scratches. The two good scratches came from my guy running it while I was gone but it's only cosmetic. I keep loppers in the cargo box on board at all times. I also will chainsaw any limbs or branches in my area. I cover the machine with tarps too if I have to squeeze through trees and brush. It's just taking the time to prevent the scratches and such. My customers are used to my obsession and they respect it but they are not used to it from past experiences with other operators. Most people just expect you to bulldog through branches and such. I'm not that guy lol. Here's some fun pics from today. It was a rain day here in GA so I was passing through Atlanta while looking at a commercial pool for the city I'll be digging in the next week down in the ghetto of Atlanta. I stopped by my old friend's job and got to play around on the 650 (2900 hrs.). They had just finished assembling it after having it transported with a beam trailer. They will start digging tomorrow 30' deep to repair and tie into a 109 year old sewer line and bore under an access road. Just mind boggling what they do. They have a 51,000 lb. man hole coming from Newcastle . He said they will remove the bucket and re program the hydraulics for the lift and set. Of course they will bench down I'm sure. There is a hook at the top of the stick for that. My friend is about 5/6 years older than me and we took our CDL test together in his Uncle's 379 back when I started. He drove the lowboy to the testing place on a learners permit with me shotgun. We both passed luckily. He also showed me so much on the 953 and just general grading when I was green. He was born into and I remember seeing his Grandfather's occupation as "Heavy equipment operator" on one of their birth certificates. I know I might mention this often but if it wasn't for the key people in my life I might be somewhere else...maybe better, maybe worse, but I'm in a very satisfying industry that I love and give all the respect in the world to those before me and along side me. Nothing for granted in my eyes. Him Always some action on these jobs. I kinda miss commercial dirt work. Me
Got bogged down here after discovering about 20 loads of bad dirt had to be dug out and we hauled in 20 loads of good dirt. I didn't capture any pics of the huge hole I dug out but it was pretty big for this job. We got on a 3000 sq. ft. commercial pool for the city of Atlanta. The contractor had a heck of time here before we showed up dealing with bad soil conditions but they built out the pools walls (roughly but on grade somewhat). We had to work with some wet material but we got through it. I don't count on anything for certain but we were told we will be getting the rest of the swim/pool parks in Atlanta where we will demo the old pools and re dig new ones. Sounds good. I am overwhelmed with work and have regular new work coming to me. A lot of it demo, clearing, and grading of house lots and pool builders. Even requests for bidding/proposals of small comm. site work. Help wanted!! and we shall grow. Lol, I've had many surface but I'm just too picky I reckon.
Looks great as always. Don't worry about being picky, it is your equipment and your reputation. It is hard to find guys that really care but you will find one sooner or later.
I see a sany in the background I know you asked about it ?
Well Clint I wanted to rent it from the guy since I noticed it came from a popular rental outfit and I knew he didn't own it. It didn't quite work out though but he was willing. After seeing the operator in there with the windows closed and a 100 ciggy hanging from his lips all day I was ok with towing mine through those crazy streets. I was more afraid of vandalism after seeing broken windows in their machines from rocks. The job took Friday and half a day Saturday and I hauled it home Friday.
I can see why you stay busy , the work looks as good as it possibly could. Up here some people don't care about keeping clean sites , they look at the bottom dollar on the bid. Don't matter how long you been in business either. I have held my onsite waste water license since 1992 , I had a new start up get 2 jobs that I had, for the same money. When I say new start up I mean less than 1 year in. This happens a lot , usually I get a repair call a year or two later. These guys don't like repairs do to it being a little nasty. You know the saying , smells like $.
Fastdirt.. Nice work.. How long do you think it will take them to lay that re-bar? That is one big pool. John
Thanks, acidoil.. The re bar crew could do that in a day. They are really good at what they do. This was a good way to start out the week. It started to freeze over as I was loading up in the dark but I was happy to get it all broke up, removed, and hauled off. The wrecking ball ran great all day.
One section was around 40" and the ball broke it up good enough to load in the truck. Icing up with wet streets gets me on edge.
Looks like the wrecking ball works great. Heck of a lot better than beating on it with a bucket. The last pool demo I did, I used big chunks of the pool as a wrecking ball. Did you do the whole job in one day?
This is my baby.
Yes that was a one day job. I always try to finish in one day. The wrecking ball is like cheating though. Even with house demos I always aim to complete in one day and move to the next job. I usually schedule five jobs a week and usually get them done. Then all my free time is trucks and tractor maintenance. They are like my children LOL. After that pool demo it was home to meet the tire guy to fix an inside floater. When I got home the tire guy had his service truck all stuck in my front yard against a power pole down hill. Had to tow him out. Then we pulled the wheels off to re mount the tire. It's a full time gig and I really do love every minute of it. This was really really cold at this point. Some more jobs from this week. All I can say is it was cold for me. The last job on Friday had me coming home at 7ish with flurries and sub freezing temps. I HATE being at >70k lbs. thinking the streets are about to ice. Black ice is my kryptonite. This the last job leaving at dark with flurries and we were in North GA where it can get slick. On edge with lots of brake checks. This is nothing to those used to it but I'm ready for spring.
953 Hey man we spoke a while back and I know you said you were thinking about eventually buying a 953 or a dozer? Any luck on one? Still lookin
Hey, I appreciate every word of that. I still believe in good manners like "thank you" "please" and "you're welcome". They are still a part of my life even though most these days people say "yep" to a thank you or nothing at all. They can keep the head nod too LOl. So thanks!! Also I had a new start up company yank a job from me. Well they were a landscape supply company who jumped into the grading and demo market. I had already locked in the job with a repeat customer of mine. It was a demo job. The builder said this other company simply searched the demo permits in public records and emailed a cheaper bid to them on my demo and haul off bid at $16k. It was a huge all brick full basement house. They offered to do it for $13k. The builder told me I could match the price but I passed on it. I was a bit ticked off but now I'm going to dig the basement for the new house this week on that lot. I didn't ask what happened but I'm sure the super intendants will clue me in. I'd love to get a 953C. A good customer of mine recently bought a 953C for a personal project building his new house, pond, clearing, etc. I've moved it for him and he said he would sell it to me when he is done. Here's a pic. I think my next move is to move the L9000 though but I change everyday with the wind. Some days all I want to do high end residential grading only, some days I don't ever want to go grading again, Some days I want to jump into commercial grading because I have the experience. Some days I just say ah, I'll just dig pools till I die. Either way I'm always progress minded though.... although I would never get into dump trucking LOl. But I think you should own at least one dump truck or even a dump trailer. See there I go again thinking a dump trailer would be a good thing. Oh yeah all that takes reliable decent operators or drivers.
That 953 looks like it belongs behind what must be the nicest L-9000 dump truck around.
Dang!! Thanks, Jerry. I have been searching for a wrecked L9000 with a big Cat because I'm about over the L10. I actually found one that isn't wrecked but it's a set back axle. I might sell/trade it if that doesn't work out, but I would let my mechanic do an engine swap once the Peterbilt is done also.
Here's some more from the last week. This was a fun job. I had a lot of dirt to cut out and covered the Bobcat up as he was loading trucks. He broke a track. The owner went and got his old track and was back in 30 minutes. While waiting the boom went up and wouldn't let the door shut. It won't operate unless the door shuts. It was a mess as it came off the hinges. I had to mount the new track for them. I just released the grease fitting and popped the front idler a couple times with my bucket and it went all the way in. The track went on easy after that. I didn't get a pic of all the dirt on the roof because he would wipe it off occasionally but he never cleared the dirt off the back. I wonder how much got sucked through that funky Bobcat fan system. Finally got married last week for the first time. We had a rain day and were running errands and were just going to stop by the court house for a marriage license. Decided to just go ahead and do it there on a Wednesday afternoon. I was in my work boots and she was in the safety orange company shirt. Then on Saturday we did get cleaned up for a suite down town. Wasn't planned but what do you know if we didn't end up at the SX race. More dirt. We plan on a real getaway soon.
Even though my bucket is about to fall off we put a new set of teeth on this week. My guys found this rod on a demo job and it has been a wonderful thing with the locking pin removal and installation. I am working on the remedy for the bucket, linkage, bushing problem. The Cat rep has been great. He has done all the leg work and even came to my house to assess the repair. Of course his quote came in at $11k including the used bucket. They had a 42" bucket on the yard and I grabbed it. It will avoid some downtime. My 160 bucket needs repair so this Cat bucket will go right on once we get the rest right. I might stick with it but think the 160 bucket is better. We'll see. I've got the price down by going with an aftermarket H-link and hope that's not a bad idea. I also got on the local line boring guys schedule but he is covered slap up with work. Cat wants around $1100 per set up on the line boring. The local guy is about $400 less a bore.
I'm married and can't be looking at other hoes!! The Hyundai 160 bucket is definitely heavier/thicker metal everywhere. It also has a tapered design to avoid dirt sticking in the bucket I assume. The Cat bucket is much more square in design. I will miss these spaced out big teeth when digging but not when grading and definitely not when stripping grass. I'm more worried about losing penetration force with the seven teeth on the Cat bucket. I'll get the Hyundai bucket fixed in time. Too bad it wasn't fitted properly when I bought the machine but the 24" bucket next to them is what was on the 312 when I bought it and I had to have a bigger bucket in a hurry. I had to use the local do it all equipment yard for that. It wasn't from the lack of greasing it just wasn't fitted properly. Well the little flat bed has been nice but it seems every load I pick up is money spent. Next will be the air compressor. Thinking of the Ingersoll 2475F13GH. Yes I have a sleeping problem, always have . One last pic from the week. Just getting some compaction and playing around.
Congrats on the marriage!
That's the way to get hitched! Keeps the reception riff-raff crowd down. As long as you keep that Tak you'll never get to experience being trapped in or out of your machine. I blew a drivemotor hydraulic hose with a brush cutter hooked to my Case...on a bank with the arms blocking the door. I had to push out the rear window to get out. PITA!
Hey Fastdirt, Congrats on getting married! I was all excited when I saw the 53 behind your truck Great machines. If you ever did buy one, I think you would be very happy with it. As for wanting to do something different everyday, keeps you from getting bored.
Congrats on getting hitched Fastdirt!:drinkup Now you can be as miserable as the rest of us married folks.:tong JK, I wouldn't know how to live my life without my wife, the one I love above all others. I've got a similar model IR compressor on my service truck, expensive but it's 10 years old and still running strong. Makes a lot of air, you'll be happy with it.
congrats on getting married fastdirt.. keep up the good work
The Hyundai 160 bucket isn't bad for a factory bucket, get some side cutters back on it and replace the wear plates with some a little beefier when they wear out. I've worn out 2 160 buckets and a 140 bucket
Just read all 38 pages and it was great :notworthy i too want to go out on my own and i hope to do so by about the age of 25. Im 20 at the moment and whilst i do consider myself pretty good at operating i dont quite think im ready to go it alone just yet. And i need to save for equipment. I mainly do residential, (driveways, house pads, landscaping etc) but have also done subdivision work and currently doing demolition. Its great to see you are doing well, and it gives me inspiration.
FD, congrats on getting hitched. A good woman is golden in this business and lifestyle, mine is always willing to help or do what she can in any circumstance with a smile.
Yep, I'm too old for a another marriage with my old friends. Luckily I was the last one of us and they were counting on the party but they'll get over it. The whole swing door on a skid steer is not the greatest idea. That story of yours popping out your rear window sounds horrible and potentially very risky. There was a guy locally who went off in a pool on a skid steer and drowned. Don't know the details but the story came across the radio when I was working around a pool. That hit home. Plus on a nice day it's nice to slide the window up out of the way. I did have a window one fall on my head once due to shot out roller guides. Ouch! Thank you sir! I started out on 953's digging basements and clearing lots for various companies right before the C models came out. I was working for a company that had 20 953's all over the metro area during the huge housing boom. They got one of the first C models in the state and I was dying to get in the seat of it. At that time and for many years I was just a loader operator until getting around dozers and track hoes. It took quite some time for me to not think a track loader was the king of grading. I even had a job running a pristine 973 doing apartments. I love track loaders and will definitely get one some day. Lol. Good words there CM. It was both our first time getting married. At 39 and 35 we were the type that never ever wanted to do what our parents did ... the D word. I couldn't do it with out her like you said. I tried once and it was bad, LOL. Yes those compressors are pricey but I'm handicapped not being able to mount wheels and don't want something that will die in a couple years. Much thanks! Yes it seems well built. I can't use side cutters for digging pools because they will gauge the walls when trimming. Thank you. I wish I went out on my own earlier but I wouldn't of gained the experience. I have experience I will never use on my own but I have the confidence. I think it just takes the desire more than money really to go out there on your own. I said I would do it by age 35 and just barely made that goal. Set a realistic age goal and set out for it. One thing I am extremely grateful for is working for so many different grading and pipe companies. I wouldn't stick around at those companies long and always thought the grass was greener on the other side and would go to another grading company. I know several people who have 10,15, or more years with the same company. While that is admiral and great you don't learn how others do it. It's great experience learning the so many different ways that grading companies can do things. I'm guilty of going to the companies with the nicest equipment for employment though. I really wish I had taken pictures but nobody did that then. Thanks, I truly believe that about the "golden" thing. My biggest fear was what so many people I've worked for dealt with. Divorce and she owns half of the Caterpillars. I've had some bitter bosses due to that.
Congratulations on getting married! My wife and I did the court house thing, too. I don't have any marital advice that you probably don't already know, but schedule your honeymoon ASAP. For me, it's nearly been 15 years and I still haven't found time to go (if you bring the kids along, it doesn't count. ) Don't wait for the senior discount. Lol All the best. -Joi
Good advice, that's funny. Monday I went back to the pool demo lot I did a couple weeks ago to dig a new pool that was fortunately bigger and deeper which would get us in virgin ground. I had to leave the job to go look at another job. I was expecting my guys to be finished and ready to load up when I returned. On the way back around 5:00 I got a call saying the machine wouldn't start. After checking all the wires I removed the starter. It was after 6:00 and of course we couldn't finish. I was at Cat waiting for the doors to open the next morning and got back to finish the job and then 40 miles to the next one. It was another big one but we finished it somehow and stayed on schedule. We were so close. The next morning. I don't see how mechanics do this. It's painful a lot of the times working on these things. It was in stock $450 and the core charge was about the same amount
This was Tuesday on the next one after installing the starter loaded up about 6 loads and piled the rest up. Wednesday's job. It was a heck of a week and I was told by everyone it was going to rain all week. We got wet a few times I have to say and did get rained out 1/2 day here and completely on Fri. We through out some Portland to harden up the dirt for the rains.
Saturday was fun and we didn't finish but should tomorrow. I started an instagram recently to keep from posting here so much "digrig379" and even started a FB. Hope to get a new website going soon too. I'm always going to take pictures and I'm going to start doing time lapse also. A lot of times I just can't take pictures and videos but plan on keeping it going. It's actually a lot of work but it's my passion so I get into it a lot but just can't do it the way I want to because of limited help and time. Hope to finish this one tomorrow Monday. This was the way I did just one load to cut the grade down in the area where I really wanted the truck so I didn't have to make turns and just back up. I was running back and forth to the dump truck and running the TL150 while my guy was loading it.
I keep my eyes peeled for your posts fastdirt. I just commented on your latest instagram pic have a look.
Hey Fastdirt, I did not realize you had that much experience with trackloaders. I can't tell you anything you already don't know. When I grew up in KY, every job had at least one on it. Around here, nobody will even think about running one except for us. You brought up a good point, you have to give mechanics a lot of credit. They have to work in some tough places. Work looks great as always. Is that granite fines you are putting in the one pool?
Oh I hope I don't come off as a know it all. Grading and riding dirt bikes are about my only strong points in life. I don't really claim any other skills and those skills don't amount to much in reality. Track loaders are just my roots in grading and I spent years on them day in and day and will always have a place in my heart for them. I don't have the best social skills I will say though. This line of work and the way I was taught has left me with a pretty intense personality and the funny thing is I don't really like being around intense people. Hmmm . I am actually pretty humble in person.... and laid back when not working. It's all I got man LOL!! Just kidding Track loaders are huge around here for residential grading and every commercial crew has at least one on site. If I had to pick one machine to take with me to a private island it'd be a track loader with a monster winch of course just incase. I do wish I had one for this monster basement I've found myself doing today. Mechanics definitely have my respect. It's mentally tough to troubleshoot and then bend your arm and body over and in between burning hot or freezing steel to get to the problem. It takes the right person for that job and I don't have it that way but I can fix a lot of things just not the serious stuff. Thanks again As far as the fines, I hear it referred to as Portland mainly. I usually don't get involved in that, the pool builder employees usually do it but if asked I guess I have to do it. I guess it could be granite fines. I believe it's just fine quikcrete or mortar. It will actually harden from the moisture in the dirt and hold the walls a bit if it rains. If you're using it then usually a rain is coming and the dirt will have enough moisture to activate it. A rain can cause the walls to cave off if it's bad dirt. We also do gravel floors a lot in the rainy winter months. Brian:thumbsup
Brian, I didn't think you were being a know it all. I just didn't know you started out on trackloaders and had that much time on them. I apologize if it came out that way. As for the granite fines question, I am talking about the stuff you are putting in the bottom with the 312. It is hard to tell from the pics but it looks like washed granite fines. Just curious.
Same here, track loaders dominate the residential market. They're so handy to have. I have two projects going on and one needed the track hoe to dig the hole for a retention system on one site and undercut and fill on another. The loader worked the undercut and fill like a champ with just one machine. The 953's are fuel pigs though..
No no, I definitely didn't think you were coming that way at all. I was spe asking in general . A lot if times I talk too much when given the chance after being in a bubble at work everyday. Yes to the granite fines. I was thinking about the other pic. The builder had the fines there to lay pavers and asked us just to use it in the floor to help the plumber and steel guys out. I thinks it's M10 maybe. CM I don't know from much from first hand about the fuel coming out of my pocket but as an employee I totally agree that the track loaders are huge fuel pigs. Last job I had I on a 963C I was amazed at how much fuel it burnt daily. Pretty much the whole tank in 8hrs. That has to hurt. Like the automatic dump trucks they too suck it up staying at full throttle. I'm actually about to shoot a picture for you right now on site that I sure could use that loader, this is a little big for the little Tak. Have a good day all.
I wish for a 953 on a lot of the jobs I do too when I'm feeling like a small fish in a big tank. But...I've been floored when talking pricing with guys around here. Hourly, they're only getting $10 or so an our more than I get for my CTL. The vast majority of my jobs are bid price so it may be a moot point, but that's just crazy!
Speaking as someone who has been fooling bosses for over 44 years who think I'm a mechanic I would love to work on a machine you own! You sure know how to take care of a machine. Makes me sick to see the way some machines are abused, especially excavators some look like the rear end is being used as a dozer blade! I know accidents will happen but come on! We had a big brother to yours delivered to our quarry a few years back forget the exact model about a size below the 350, probably 345. Anyhowit only had a couple hundered hoours on it and before we used it we had to drop some of the belly pans under the engine to repair them, one was so bad we replaced with new. And don't get me started on skid-steer loaders and ROPS!!!!!
https://newjersey.craigslist.org/hvo/4925795523.html You take care of your machine better than this guy! Great work as always fast dirt.
And that's far from the worst I and I'm sure other see everyday.
I saw this the other day and it made me glad that even though indont have a whole crew the 1 guy i go working for me takes care of the machines like it was his
btw fast dirt ill be honest i love your setup and how clean all your equipment is
Good, I didn't want you to think I was being a jerk. Sometimes writing things sound different that saying them. The reason I asked about the fine was because that was the first time I think I had seen you do that and was just wondering. That is a big foundation and it turned out good. Nice to see clean crisp walls and edges. Makes me wish I got work in clay
Fire that Pete up and head west, gotta use it in the morning to prep a pad for a proof roll but it's free for a couple days after that. A 953 is my favorite machine to run, more so than a track hoe but not by much. They use the fuel but can be so productive in the right situation. Good looking foundation cut and dry dirt! We've been dealing with mud for 2 months now, last two days of sun and 80's have really dried things up. That's a deep foundation, 10' walls?
Gee Fastdirt your instagram has taken off. Still busy i see. Demo starting to slow down now due to asbestos hoping civil kicks in soon.
Thanks. It's not always easy, but it's always good. Just thankful and fortunate to be able to work for myself and do things the way I like it. Thanks, I'll be honest each and everything I've bought has been very good to me. I definitely already knew what was good equipment but didn't think I could afford it. I got lucky, fortunate, blessed, or whatever you prefer. Sometimes I just stop and give thanks for the Cat and the dump truck starting every day even when I don't want too. Especially on freezing mornings or scorching hot days, digging in rock, going towards a 70 hour week on a weekend, etc., etc., They do all the work over and over. Everything I own is 10 years or older but age doesn't matter as much as condition I've learned. The 312 is getting some major love currently. It's funny you say that because many days while operating I think how do they do it in the sand. For instance here you can literally build and pack the right clay from the existing grade up to 10' or more with just packing it with the machine and then go back and shear cut it and it will hold. Of course you have to treat different than virgin but it's possible here. We are lucky here but there is some super hard digging here too. It's always something different though around here. I sure move around from day to day and just never know what kind of dirt it will be....and yes that foundation was huge. I just took the job on and was surprised at how big the house ended up being. But yes the good red clay is great to work with. I really love pulling up #1 red clay with just the perfect moisture and consistency. Should I get that excited about dirt....I think so because sometimes you dig up wet brown dirt or sandy dry dirt and it's a bit deflating LOl. That is extremely generous to offer up your 953 . I'd like to just come runs yours for the fun of it and I just wish I could fire that Pete up period. I am just not finding the time to finish putting it all back together. It's all there I just need to push a little harder but I'm spent after work lately. Maybe if I'd turn this computer off It'd get done. Now I will say the last time I borrowed a machine wouldn't you know a hose blew. I tried to fix it but struggled because of access and time and just limped it on the trailer. It was on an ASV Cat skid steer though and it was one of those ridiculous hoses that runs externally down low to the drives in harms way of all kinds of danger. That ASV system gave him fits and finally traded it but I hated that feeling. We'll see if I hang around there. I used to post videos and such and then so many people would just be out of line and it would get old so I deleted it. I like seeing others work sites, equipment, trucks, etc. and knowing there is so much greater out there. I do like how everybody keeps it respectful here.
Finished that big foundation earlier this week. I had no idea it was that big of house but got through it and got myself behind in the process but the frequent rains have everybody under pressure lately it seems. I didn't realize going into this that the builder's # priority was to fill in the massive ravine in the backyard to get a bigger back yard. I kept hauling and pushing dirt back there and it never ended. Maybe 100 loads. I lost count. Then after putting the basement on grade the builder said he wants to lower it another foot. We had already got into super hard ground so I had to break it out with excavator. I wasn't thrilled about doing it twice but what can you say. I still had to dig detached three car garage. Plans said 10,350 sq. ft. of potential heated space. It measured 120' across the front and that's not including the garage.
This was not from site dust. It was from slinging dirt in the truck and never coming out of 1st gear. I hardly ever haul with this truck and might need to blow the air filter out now. I overloaded the truck every time and kept having to back in the soft fill. I got un level a few times and hate that feeling. I like to back over the edge to prevent a machine from having to always push off but couldn't get to greedy. I only had to get towed out once. Poor truck worked hard but was crucial in order to get the job done. The full locking rears are priceless. Builder was insistent on us cutting the back porch down 6" so he laid it out and we did it. Cutting the garage foundation walls down to virgin ground.
Have you been thinking about getting a bigger machine? Looks like you could use at least a 315 size machine on a site like that and maybe a smaller 9 ton mini for your pools?
Fastdirt, Started reading this thread and all the youtube videos arent there anymore. Did u take them down or start a new page. Very interesting thread and story . Look forward to seeing some videos of all that was posted earlier. Keep up the good work.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Although, by the looks of this job a 20 ton machine would look right at home. I don't want to plagiarize CM1995's signature (he always seems to post what I'm thinking before I manage to write it, lol) so I'll just say that I'm a big fan of the "one machine = one payment" business model. That said, Brian if you ever need any advice on how to spend your hard earned money on your business, I'll be glad to help. :tong
LOL, I got the tag line from a Southern Culture on the Skids song named "Dirt Track Date".
Man finally finished reading all of this thread. Sucks u got rid of your youtube videos . Would love to seem all. Pic are great but videos are even better. Cant let the haters get to u on youtube. U could even get ride of comments on there. Any where else u got videos. Got my answer to my question earlier about why after reading the whole thread. Whats your facebook page and instagram? How the Truck coming along. Almost done? Keep the post going , great to read.
At this time I'm really not interested in a bigger machine for what I do and I really can't take on those bigger jobs anymore at this point because I am behind and stay behind with my pool builders and they put a lot of pressure on me constantly. It's been like this ever since I started really. I've lost a ton of work because I try to do too much and just can't do it all. I want to do it but I just can't do it and until recently I had a really hard time telling builders "No". I turn down one night stands with ease but when a long term relationship with a reputable builder would inquire I would just say "Yes sir, No problem". Then I would get overwhelmed then frustrated and would end up being rude, disrespectful, and pissing builders off to put it bluntly. It sucks to lose work but I've lost more than I'd like to mention because I take on too much and can't give them the respect and time they deserve. Now I've realized this and I'm changing this. My response now is 'No sir I cannot take on anymore work at the time but I am planning on adding another crew and would like for you to keep us in mind and maybe give us another chance in the future for your business when we are set up more to handle it". So, I'm going to lay off the house demos, basement digs, etc. as much as I love to mix it up and do different things I just can't do it alone anymore. I turn down pool builders too. I will just progress into the future and I have my sights set high but I'm going to take a more realistic and practical approach instead of biting off more than I can chew. Now as far as a mini or an 18 ton excavator digging a pool it's just not productive and the only reason I or any of the local guys ever dig pools with those smaller excavators is because of limited access. You just need a 15 ton machine to be efficient at it if you're going to do it full time everyday. The truck is coming along but other mechanical projects/problems surface with more importance. Sorry about the broken links. I'll try not to do that in the future. The youtube vids are all consuming and take up too much time really, but I'll post vids of the 379. Instagram is "DigRig379". FB page is my company name which I don't like to post on this forum because of search engine links. It's in several pics on my doors though. Joispoi, who doesn't love big yellow toys but just not there yet. I will in the future grow but no payments is nice right now. I am looking at getting a newer dump truck. I'm just patiently searching for the perfect one. I will sell or trade my L9000 and end up with a pre emissions 379 or W900 with a big block Cat. I like to have pride in my ride and must love every single thing about the truck. Mainly because trucking is mentally tough everyday and it's nice to enjoy the truck and be in love with it. I spend an average of 3 hours a day in the truck pulling a machine and that's on top of the actual work I do . I picked up all the parts from Cat. The product rep guy was great in getting everything I needed. It wasn't cheap but it's everything I'll need to get the job 100% done right. Everything that involves the stick is getting replaced. I will have to line bore a couple of holes but have the local line boring guy coming way as soon as he finishes two more machines. Finally moving on this and looking forward to the results. I also got two new pieces of glass and some other parts to get the 312 100%. Thinking of a high tech stereo and tinted windows too. This was yesterday's job. A beautiful Saturday with perfect red dirt and the best access possible. More pics on instagram That truck drinks more fuel than the machine just getting the machine there. Luckily it's $2.65 right now. Now they feel like big machines again.
Pool looks great as always with nice red clay. Sounds like you have a good business plan. I know it might get a little boring but if you are slammed with pools and making money, why not stick with it. I also agree that the 312 is just about perfect for your pools. The only thing that I would want if I were you is a Helac tilt and rotator. The reason I say Helac is because they will tilt 90 degrees and with your skills, you could just about dig a pool with no labor at all One day you will come across a guy that is willing put in the effort and pride and you will be able to expand. No sense in hiring people you have to follow around and cleanup after.
If only you didnt live in Atlanta Fastdirt. Can't stand that place, my brother lives in Suwanee and I dont think you could pay me enough to live there. But hey money talks right?
That's good advice LC and I'll take it. Thanks. Luckily pools are far from boring for me. The time flies by and it's always a different deal everyday but I will say I used to nod off digging basements LOL. I do love various commercial grading like cutting curb stakes and running finish dozers and of course who doesn't want to grow into that :beatsme. I will stabilize for awhile longer it's still new to me even though I'm going into my fifth summer. I read something recently about starting a new business and they said a lot of people get to a somewhat accomplished level and just get comfortable and plateau out. I am having fun out there but I just don't enjoy the pressure and stress anymore of taking on more than I can do. You're right you can't force the right person into the job. Now, that tilt rotator looks fantastic and too good to be true. I think if I ever buy a new 312 I'd get one on it but would have to demo one first. The youtube vids of them in action look great. Sawdus we'd get along great because I too hate Atlanta. I live in Suwanee back in the woods and it's far enough from Atlanta. I've lived here my whole life and have seen it turn into a completely different place. I do work in the metropolitan rat race 75% of the time but get to work in the country a lot too. Growth means jobs but there is no heart here anymore and I hardly ever run across people from here. Georgia is still a great place.....barely. My parents, friends, and wife are all Georgia born but that's rare these days. It's all about the money like you said .
How are your rubber track pads holding up?
I know what you mean. The old Mercedes that I had was tiring to drive. When I got it, I only planned on keeping it until I could save up for a nicer truck. It's tough getting in the truck at the end of a 10 hour day when you know that there's an hour + of traffic to get through before you get back to the yard. With the amount of time spent in a machine or truck, the condition of the equipment really contributes to the quality of life while you're at work.
They have been holding up good. I am completely careful with them. I got stuck on a nightmare rock job recently and it was fun keeping all the rocks out of your path. I rented a mchine with steel tracks this week and it reminded me of the hassle of putting down walk boards on concrete. All in all the tracks are doing great. From about a week ago. Rubber tracks are a huge help here.
Had to get this done. Finally got a compressor and a 1" gun. I put brakes on the Eager Beaver 20XPT back when I bought in the summer of 2011 before ever using it. I had to actually do it at the dealer I bought it from using their impact and compressor. Now it was time do it again and it was nice being able to dismount and remount my own wheels. That was a long tough day chasing down everything from an oversized hose, fittings, brake shoes, axle seal, hub seals, etc.. but we were ready for the next day.
I was looking forward to this job till I hit rock.
Hey Fastdirt, what's the project in the last set of pictures?
Can't do it without the 2 ton ball
Rented a 311 because all the 312's were out on rent. Swapped my 42" on there and it did well. I will be dropping my 312 off at Cat this week and getting a 314 till they finish the line boring. Really wanted to try out the 312E but soon enough.
Maxed out trying to trade rock for dirt. I'll be back there Monday morning to fight the rock some more. It moved some dirt pretty quick with the 42" bucket.
It is a 20 x 50 pool 9' deep. I thought it would be a fun job but it was rock and took all the joy out of it. I left my machine there after three 12 hour days to get caught up using a rental and I'll be back there tomorrow.
You sure are knocking out some jobs. I hate to see you hit that rock like that. I would not want to dig through that with our 300 So how do you like the 311 and how close is it performance wise to your 312? I hope you do not get spoiled on the 314. The boom and stick look pretty close to a 315. You are going to have to let us know what you think about it. Good luck on the rest of the rock and keep posting pics.
Fastdirt, Your "fun" with the rock reminds me of when were were starting to build our house. Hired a guy with small backhoe and little dozer. He started at the southeast corner and right off hit a large stone. so he took it on himself to just move the foundation hole a few feet to the west. This would be no problem as we have a 5 acre lot. All went fine till he got to the last part on the west side of the foundation. Guess where that first rocks twin sister was hiding! He tried digging a hole just out of the foundation area to push the boulder into but his little JD dozer said "No way". So my dad borrowed the IR compressor and pavement breaker from the quarry we worked at and along with my brother we spent that Sunday chipping away at that rock till it was small enough for the little dozer to push out of the hole.
Have you ever thought about a hammer! We have ALL rock here and couldn't get by without one. I see the KTM decal on your truck, but probably no time for that,huh? Our whole family rides and we are planning a fall trip to "America" in the fall and are going to Washington and Oregon for a 2 week dunes and log road trip. Nice work!
Work looks great as usual. I like that little red kenworth. Why didn't you use a tandem there?
Right now I would like to have some rock to dig in, yeah I know that sounds crazy but let me explain. The two sites were are working on, one finishing up and one under way both have the nastiest silty clay we have to deal with in our area. On both projects we had to undercut, use geo-grid and bring in rip-rap and surge stone in order to get a stable working surface anywhere from 3-6' below finish grade. The engineers fancy prob rod with a resistance meter didn't register anything as it easily sank through the muck to the T handle.
Got to love that dont ya. The more you work on it the worse it gets.
Rock is just horrible on the moral, equipment, production, etc. etc.... but what can you do. Take the good with the bad I guess. I liked the 311D but it came up short a few times with me on reach but made up for it with the new smelling interior and just being all around brand new feeling and snappy quick (170 hrs.).. It handled the 42" bucket surprisingly well. I took the one pic above side tracked with a full bucket sitting on a good angle. That was about it's tipping point. Same width as the 312 and 315 at 8'10". It over hang on the 20XPT 2" on both sides. I bought that 42" bucket for my 312 and knew it was going to struggle in hard ground with having seven teeth and it was hard to get it in the ground with the 311 on the hard stuff. My 312 is stronger and has more reach and balance but the 311 did awesome. It was a great machine. I can't hurt my 312's feelings so I have to stop there Lol. But it is 10 years old. It does great though. The Cat rep did say many people trade in after renting these new machines Lol. The 314 is the same as a 312 in reach, depth, HP specs etc. but that's on paper. It just has the close radius cab body, but the 312 doesn't swing out much so I really don't know that it will have any advantage over a comparable 312. It looks cool I'll say but I think the 312E looks great too. I'm going to end up with one of the two eventually but I just can't stand that little 314 cab..... and it's overpriced IMO. It's a specialty machine I think for road work. I sure know CW Matthews has them all over these road jobs around Georgia along with the 328cllr's and like machines. Of course CWM company is like the Caterpillar showrooms on all their jobs. Of course they have all the newest, nicest, coolest, smallest, biggest, CAT machines of anybody I've ever seen. Fun to see. I'm sure they are in your state too along with many other Southeast states. I have only rented a hammer once since purchasing the wrecking ball a couple years back and that was because of the rock being mixed in with natural water springs. Can't drop the ball on a watery, muddy, rocky mix. It will throw that stuff all over the site including the cab, windows, houses, people etc. I'll just rent a hammer if needed. Nice call. Yes I am a huge KTM fan and love to ride more than anything. I used to race hare scrambles and ride a lot before starting my own business. I've ridden dirt bikes my whole life. I sure love those KTM's. Last year I bought a RZR but sold it quickly to buy the service truck. Now that was fun. I have a KTM 250SX currently and ll my friends still ride all the time. They rode today but they don't even bother asking me anymore because I just don't have time. I worked on my trucks all weekend. They do call and give me post ride reports.. Just so happens our riding buddy broke his ankle today out there. Not good at all and makes you think twice. Be careful out there. I'm jealous of your road trip to go riding. I am going to be doing one myself this year. At least that's my goal anyway. Well thanks RJ. The little red KW flatbed belongs to the same guy that has the big red KW tandem. The T800 was busy that day so he sent the flatbed. I only had two grass loads and a sidewalk to haul off. It worked out perfect though because I didn't have a thumb and loading concrete in a tandem without thumb is no fun at all. Careful what you wish for. You just might find some rock too soon LOL. I feel your pain. That all sounds like a mess CM. Seems you deal with bad conditions a lot. Sure wish we could see some pics......cough cough. I understand though taking pictures is a lot of work. Now don't you just hate the sight of a probe rod. I like wearing sunglasses while those certain whoevers bring out the probe rod and push it down to the handles and then immediately look in the direction of the operator expecting a reaction. It's always a fun awkward moment to ignore. I know in your work it's all serious but in my work I say hey isn't that probe rod designed to go down so you can find the septic tank and such. I googled probe rods the other day to see if there are ones designed to penetrate easily by having a biiger tip than the rod itself and then one where the rod just has a sharpened point. I think I saw L&L tools on his rod handle so after he left I googled that company to see if there was two types. I didn't see two different types so I just went back to digging. It's been awhile since I've been around "soil guys" I hope you get that dirt tightened up. Imagine having to re do it all. I've seen that a few times after a fail. Ouch.
Nice pics and great work as usual Brian!
Thanks for your input on the 311/312/314. I agree with you on the compact radius machines. It does not seem like you are gaining much over the standard machine. I can't say about he zero tail swing cabs, I have never run one. I can see sometimes where it would be a big help. I know you get in some tight spots but if you hate sitting in the cab all day you are not going to like the machine after 10 or 12 hours. If teeth were not such a pain change a set of penetrators would help out in the hard digging. We have penetrators on our 320 rake and they work great but not really something I want to change to often. One more thing I forgot to mention, I really liked the one piece pool removal
LC, I'm so glad you noticed the pool removal. I was quite proud of myself LOL. The pool builder insisted we bring masks for the airborne debris when we broke it out. So I made an early morning stop to get some. Then when I got to the pool I started thinking maybe I can do this. So after removing the concrete deck I just went around in a pattern and lifted up till it would start cracking. It took a bit of a strategy and I really got caught up in the challenge. What do you know it worked. Once I dragged out of the way I just smashed it up. Saved the guys from wearing masks and I didn't have to pick up hundreds of pieces. Was a first for me. Well turns out I had a misunderstanding with the Cat guy. I'll be getting a 312E on rent tomorrow. That's the one I wanted but he said the 312's were all out on rent. They had two brand new 314E's up there last week that weren't even cleared for rental yet. Who doesn't love a yellow bucket. Good news is my C model is getting line bored finally.
Saw four of these T880's on lowbeds heading up 85N the same day. Definitely not Georgia trucks with those axles but somebody is getting four matching blue dumps. I really like these. Thought I was gonna get to run this for a week but it went out quick.
Those 299's are beasts. We have a few at work, and they will push almost as much as a dozer will. If you ever get your hands on one though, I'd go for the backup camera option, cause it's a big blind spot out the back. Ran a 314 a few times last spring, and honestly felt like it was a bit underpowered for what we were doing. Course, we use mostly 321's so that could be why.
Getting that pool out of there like that is pretty cool. I showed my 13 year old stepson the photos and he said, "Uh...how did he do that?"
That was pretty slick and worked out good for you. I am not a big fan of pool demos because like you said, all the little broken pieces. I will be curious as to your opinion on the new 312 compared to yours. I personally think the c series were the best excavators cat ever built. We had some 320c's and a 322c. I loved the 322. It was fast smooth and strong. If I were to bet on it, I would say those are going to be Blue Max trucks heading to Charlotte. T880 , not the best looking trucks.
Jim, that's a good shot of the Cat and that slope. Looks brand new. Sound like you get to play on all the nice Cats. That 299 is nice but geez it's just too much $$. I did see one this week with metal tracks and it looked great on grousers. You see the Cat CLR's mostly on road work like your picture around here also all brand new. JNB, that's pretty cool your boy liked it. I know I did at that age. Well LC, I really really liked the 312E...... but I love my 312C still. It'll be a minute before I make that change but it was an awesome machine and I really liked the looks of it. It does appear to be top heavy visually. I wonder if it actually does have a higher center of gravity. That goes for all E models vs. C or D models. On the tag along trailer is where it had me thinking it has a high COG. Still looks good and bulky in the dirt though. You can't see a thing behind you whatsoever and that could get aggravating in a cramped up back yard or in the trees. No camera on this one so I got the full E experience. Not that I'd trust a camera when within 18" or so of an object. But pre looking behind you before swinging is useless. But yes I'd love a 312E when the time comes. It didn't feel as strong when digging but that could be this new bucket I was using on it. I removed the 36" rental bucket. I used my 42" with 7 teeth I just bought but have yet to try it on my 312. Tomorrow will be the first time using it on mine. Some shots of the 312EL. It was a good one. The day before taking it to Cat. Got to leave this nightmare rock job but still have to come back one day when it dries up to load out 20 loads of rock. Great news for me. None of the holes needed line boring. First time going to a Cat dealer. They treated me like I want to be treated and took care of everything from sending a rep to my house for a thorough estimate/assessment and getting me a discounted rental. I made a new friend and connection with the Cat product rep. He has ordered me some injectors and a marine cam for my Peterbilt and got me a line of credit with Cat and also with the dealer. Best treatment I've felt since being out there on my own and getting kicked around by others.
I would not like squeezing my personal machine through here. I took it as easy as I could. Today after swapping them out and bringing mine home we fitted the new to me 42" bucket and I did some painting. It had some burns from cutting out the bushings. A total of 6 pins, the relative bushings, H link, the two links and it feels tight like new. Very quiet too. My monitor has been out for a year. They fixed it too, it was just a wire. I'm in love with her again. I bought some new glass for it but they told me I'd be better off having their sub contracted glass guy just come to my place. They gave me his contact info. Everything new here. Replaced the stick to boom pin and bushings along with the upper pin and bushing on the stick cylinder Taped off the roll pan and coated it with Cat spray paint all the way around.
Bet she feels almost brand new again, you really keep that machine shining. How many hours? I wish the other guys at the company I work for would care for the equipment even 1/4 as much as you do.
That is a beautiful excavator you have. Wish most people would take care of their equipment a tenth as well as you do.
Looks great. Not having to bore is a testament to your grease schedule! Saved a lot of $$$
Thanks fastdirt, that 314 was fresh off the factory floor on that job, but honestly it felt a bit small for most of the tasks. Company I work for runs cat excavators (though the Volvo dealer apparently made us a pretty good deal, cause a few oth those have snuck into the fleet:badidea), being one of the largest Heavy civil contractors in the Mid-Atlantic we do have a few nice toys to play with :usa
Thanks. I've always liked a clean straight machine and always will. Although when I had a few jobs going at one time in the past and damage was happening you tend to say heck with it it's all about just getting it done at the end of the day. I currently am just doing the one man deal and have complete control so I'll keep everything up as well as I can. In the future I will progress but not at the moment. She has 7500 hours right now. That is twice what it had when I bought it exactly three years ago. After renting two new machines this last week I feel even better about it. I though I might get bummed out when I got back on it but that is the furthest thing from what I'm feeling. I really do love it's performance. Thanks. RC Well I was ready for the line bore ordeal and was getting ready to take a hit. I already had the estimate and was just removing the bucket so I could take it to the shop and I noticed the bushings were still all there. I was thrilled to find that because I thought for sure it was in need. Great Pics. I love the Peterbilt lowboy shot hauling that Cat. I'd probably run off the road rubbernecking if he passed me LOl. We have a company locally around here that dominates the DOT work. They did over 500 million in 2008 with the DOT alone. They have all those brand new Cats scattered all over the state. I think Cat just takes them off the trains and boats and just drives them straight to that company then sends an invoice. I see Cats on the side of the road that I didn't even know came out yet. Maybe once the Cat reps sees those Volvos on the jobs he'll drop his price LOL.
Glad to hear how good everything worked out for you with the repairs and not having to bore. With the new pins and bushings your 312 feels like new and it sure looks like new. It says a lot about you to have a machine with 7500 hours look like yours does!
Thank you sir. It ought to serve me well for awhile longer. I idolize d digger and his 25K hr. 330L but who knows what the future holds. It is tight though. I will pop the bucket up just to hear the thud like on those newer rentals I ran instead of the super loud clang heard from several streets over I was used to. Recently I saw those two new 314E LCR's at the dealer and posted a pic or two. Funny thing. My buddy who actually got me into dirt about 20 years back is a big time super intendant for a specialized company around here who is growing to the top of the chain locally. They've done the new Falcon's stadium amongst other phenomenal jobs. Well he says they just bought two of them. I told them I saw them at the dealer and wanted to check them out when he got them. I had a job close to his job in the city today and broke away to check them out and take a break. One of them was going at it in the street and the other one was at the staging area. Both were fully equipped with blade, rubber tracks, QC coupler, aux. hyd. lines, etc. They have 90 pieces and are growing stronger by the day and I think Cat is going after some of their business because of what he said they paid. I played around on the one for a minute.
This is another one of his jobs from today at a State Farm site. Here are couple of my humble little recent jobs. From today. Could only get out two loads because of nowhere to efficiently dump due to wet ground everywhere. I had dirt piled everywhere. Way too much. This was a pleasant setting out in the country.
Every time I see one of your pool excavations Fastdirt I am amazed to see the material stand up vertically like that. Definitely different material than we have around here. As usual, very nice work!
It's a sharp looking rig to say the least. With all the hazard lights and strobes going, it's hard to miss too, hah.
Yes a tight machine is s pleasure to run. 25K hours is a pretty high number but look at it this way, you are 1/3 of the way there . Looks like you had that Mack get into a tight spot for sure, how many loads came out of that pool total. The job on the farm looks like a nice change for you, out of the neighborhoods. Nice site with nice dirt. I am jealous, I have to go to an apartment complex and dig one tomorrow. I will get pics of that mess for sure.
Oxbow the dirt will hold really good. Some better than others. One thing you can't do is gouge it over dig it and you have to be super careful not to break corners off getting in a hurry. Sometimes you have to push first then pull and vice versa. Also many times I have to bring the dirt up to grade. Sometimes to 4' or more but usually around 3' or less on average if the yard slopes. Everybody wants to walk out of their door and onto the pool deck without any steps and the yard can be way out of grade. I'll have to pack it with my bucket and that is rough on me and the machine. It is painful but you can shear cut it if packed good. This was from earlier this week. It shaped up great but I was having another fight as I was running out of space to sit as I was getting to the end. Had to make a stepped down bench and then ease my way back up there so I could see. I also had a 50 year old retaining wall right on the property line about 6' tall that I was pushing my luck on. Plan was to haul out the dirt and they ordered a truck but I told them I needed the dirt to sit on as I worked my way out and off the grade. Loading out dirt. I talked them in to keeping the dirt. Did a load or two...hit the overhang/gutter or spill dirt on the neighbors patio.... Some nice dirt though for shaping made up for the headaches No wonder neighbors get ticked at new development.... It's the one's that have already torn a house down and rebuilt a monster that give us grief. This is in prime downtown Atlanta. What a difference in size. Nice view for the neighbors. I don't understand people. Give me acres.
Jim, I love that 379 with matching frame to the 4 axle lowboy. A 10 out of 10. Thanks for posting. I've worked for several big grading outfits and most of them had over the top long hood Peterbilts with a couple of them running KW 900L's. All of them spec'd to the max. I did get to ride shotgun moving a D9L once at one of the companies. I think that's why I am fascinated by them still. LC, she has never once let me down. Lot of those hours I like to think are idle hours but either way I've missed the low hour sale/trade so it's in my best interest to run her. Maybe one day I'll let her go but it's really a great machine and no need to. I do love the country jobs. I get to mix it up a lot. This week I did five pools and one of them was out in the wide open. The others not so much and really tight. We had to leave all but two loads on the one job you mentioned because of mud at the dump site. It seems at least once a week I'll get to dig on an estate with several acres. Now those are my dream homes. Not these million dollar 1/4 acre houses. I had to go to Chattanooga for two digs. It was a haul. Left at 5 am Thurs. got home at 9:30 Friday. Poor ole dump truck got rung out on the way home. For a ministry here. This is where the hotshot former land owner/land developer/jerk had us dig the Baptismal pool in the wrong place. He had a major chip on his shoulder and found the worst place on the site in 2' of silt. Long story but he left after about 20 minutes of pushing us around. Loved the truck and was all over it... tri axle, black, 550 Cat Then the Pastor showed up and wanted us to put the Baptismal pool under the crosses on the top of the hill. That's more like it and where we all thought it was going. That was mid day that we started over. Still didn't understand the jerk former land owner's problem earlier that morning. He was just acting as an advisor for the pastor but the pastor is so busy I understood and had no problem. Really enjoyed the scenery and myself on that dig and decided not to charge for it. The pool builder was my favorite builder and he was donating it so I just followed his lead. It is 2.5 hours away though. We also did another pool just 10 minutes away the next day.
Friday in Chattanooga The pool builder had his 287 around to help make short work of he extra work. Now this is what $181,000 looks like. Same company as the day before. The drivers sure loved their job and we talked as long as we could. He said the guy in the T800 the day before was getting his T880 as we were talking. He said they were out of Chattanooga and had 38 like dump trucks. This one was loaded. He showed off the trash gate after dumping the gravel. He said it had a Paccar 500 motor with 13 speed autoshift. WOW!!!! How do these guys do it!!!! $180,000 for a dump truck. I could buy 10 L9000's for that.
Far cry from the T880 heated memory leather seats and auto shift but this is more my speed. I have been looking at this LTL9000 for a few weeks now. It was in Cleveland Tennessee. Just 30 miles from my jobs. I knew if I had a chance I was going to break away and take a look. It has the 13 speed and a 3406E that I want in a Ford..so now I can put my 3406E in it. As we were wrapping up the last job I broke away.....I got there as they were closing and didn't get to drive it but at least got to see it. It actually had a 3406E... That is super rare in an LTL. The 3406B is rare in them but the E is super rare. I have been looking at them hard for years. I am really attracted to them compared to the newer big money trucks.... at least for now and this is up my alley. I really want it. I do need two trucks. I would sell my L9000 after getting the best parts off of it to put on the LTL. Then I would pull the 5eK# 3406E @350hp and put my 475hp 3406E in there with a 600hp tune. I would also swap beds and have to do some chassis adjustments. It's a plan that may or may not come to pass. Having two trucks is part of my plan for now. It helps to keep maintenance and top care possible instead of running one truck into the ground. Plus it's a hobby and interest for me. Seeing an ECM in a cab that was designed in 1970 is wild. This truck has the fly by wire fuel throttle pedal....roller and all....and of course the CAC or intercooler I like to call them. Photoshopped the bed off It needs a good home to straighten her out.
No doubt FD, especially at $85 per hour. I see brand new Stars, KW's and Freight Shaker tri-axles running around here too. Paid less for a 321 that gets more per hour and I don't have to drive on the roads with all the idiots...:cool2
Looks good fast dirt. What's the reason for getting rid of your L? I had a brand new ken worth tri axle show up and threaten to walk off the job unless I cut the bushes down next to the driveway so down they came. The GC couldn't understand why the guy was worried about scratching a truck. I asked him if he owned any $200,000 trucks and he gave me a blank stare. Site work looks good as always keep up the good work.
We are the same way, most people just think its a truck and who cares but like you said, when you pay that much money you take care of it.
Same here. A lot of people including builders don't know the difference between the T880 I posted and my L9000. For me I treat mine like a brand new one though. I'll pull in driveways with my machine on the trailer sometimes and trim overhanging trees. I am very particular about my machine and I get asked to squeeze through all kinds of stuff. I'll ask/tell the builder I'm going to cut the trees. A lot of times we will strap trees back or worst case I always carry a tarp and just cover my machine then walk through overhanging cypress trees. Like the one earlier this week. I had to tarp my machine to get through. Most of the trucks I use will bulldog it through and I just shake my head. It takes less than a minute to do permanent damage. I always have loppers too for the counterweight and such. This took awhile to tie back the tree on the right and on the left I used the tarp on my machine. I get this all the time and they know how I am. I don't care about the maples, dogwoods, boxwoods, cypress trees, etc.. I care about my machine and truck. Every scratch on my excavator and dump body are from either prized landscaping or uncut trees on city streets. I still have a broken rear glass because of untrimmed city streets. Should've got a picture but I was trapped inside with the tarp over the cab. The trucker didn't even think twice. Plow thanks, I need more power in the L9000 bottom line. I've done my time with the L10 Cummins and I'm sick of the abuse I take on the roads.
Squeezed into another and didn't get too much done before the uppity hag next door got us sent home. If you don't work in the city consider yourself lucky. At least once a week I get the pleasure of a city jerk. I say that because it never happens in the burbs or the country side. One guy called the cops on me three weeks ago. Two weeks ago I got bombarded by angry neighbors wanting to know if we had a permit to work. It goes on and on but yesterday this lady pushed hard. The inspectors showed and checked us out but left. They then returned and said to stop work! It was a two day job and I sure need the time off but we will have to return when it gets smoothed out. There she is. I now take pictures of the people taking my picture or acting nuts.
Yeah, I've met some "interesting" people out in the field. Last auto parts store we did there was an alley that ran behind the lot and then houses. The alley went both ways as the side streets are laid out in block fashion. We had to position the backhoe in the alley and it temp. blocked it to set an inlet box. A woman drove by in her minivan and complained to one of my guys that we were blocking the alley and that it's the only way for her to get out. My guy said "Ummm, the alley has two exits." She exclaimed -" Who told you that?". My guy - " Umm I can see the other exit standing here?". Well turns out this lady's husband is on a city council of sorts and has a little pull. About an hour later an officer stopped by, super nice guy and asked us if we would be blocking the alley again and try to keep it minimal because the crazy bitch (he didn't say that but meant it) had been calling city hall and PD all day. He then filled us in that she has pull at city hall but she's basically a nut case. As we were talking, I told the officer that she's really not going to be happy tomorrow because the city is digging the alley up and replacing the pipe under the road in order to tie into the new junction box we set that day. The officer laughed and said -"No problem, I'm off tomorrow". Just another day.. What were you putting in? Rain harvest reservoir?
People are nuts! Back in my former life as a concrete contractor in SoCal, We were replacing parking lot aprons for a super market. We had one demoed (about 12" thick) and blocked off. From across the parking lot I see a lady park in the street, move my barricades and drive right in the hole. By the time I got over there she's screaming at the top of her lungs. I ask her why she drove into the hole and she says...I've been using this driveway for twenty years! So I say...Well ma'am, I guess you can figure out how to get out then too.
Looks like one of them new plastic septic tanks. It is complete BS that stop work orders can be handed out. I myself have been hit with one. I won't exactly tell how I handled it ,but the job was completed on time. Our property rights and personal freedoms are being slowly taken away. Rights people in my family bled for. Money and control now seem to be the bottom line. Seems like every other job a customer is getting stuck by the county. To close to the property line, in front of the house, 100' foot set back from all lines, metal structures not allowed, engineered letter not allowed in lew of inspection, slit fencing, we need elevations and floor plans for a metal carport, drainage surveys, site plans, driveway permit, that gravel road you helped make is now county maintained and we get 80' right ways and you need a driveway permit to attach to it. etc. Give me a magic wand and there would be big changes.
We get the same stuff around here with people complaining and taking pictures and so on. Several years ago we got a stop work order on a job because we were taking all the trees down behind a bunch of high end houses. We were shut down for about 3 weeks, went back to work and nothing changed, still took down all the same trees.
Well on this subject of "People Doing Stupid Things" a couple years back at the quarry I just retired from the blasting company had just finished loading a shot when someone noticed someone walking across the loaded shot. We have a 6 to 8 foot chain link fence with three strands of barbed wire above it that surrounds the property so I don't recall hearing how this guy got in. This guy has complained often about the blasting. Of course this quarry has been here and active since the mid 1960's so it's not like we moved in the week before and started making the noise. Also not sure how long this guy has lived here but too often it's the people who move in after looking at a house on the weekend then get upset the first Monday when the plant starts up. Boss chased the guy off and called the State Police who I believe read him the riot act and he has not been back since. If he had been a few minutes later he would have got the ride of his life when the shot went off.
Those are all very interesting stories. Some funny. CM there is something empowering about a minivan to a stay at home Mom. Throw some city council connections in there and you better watch out. Sad really and a dang shame. It's not like they are respectful to us and they treat us like a second rate citizen. Which is the farthest from the truth. Hypocrisy really. Like LC said you'll just return and pick up right where you left off after all the huffing and puffing. Screw em, they don't have any respect for us. The week ended up much better than it started. Still a 50 hour week but with much better neighbors. Went 55 miles out to the country, another one about 20 miles into the chaos and had to unload and load up on a busy street. That always gets me anxious. No pictures of that but I walked it down the street in traffic. Much better environment So much work though. Demoed an existing vinyl pool and deck. Lowered the grade 3' from the old existing pool. Hauled all the dirt out to pasture about 30 loads. 2 Loads concrete decking to inert landfill. One load debris to C&D landfill. On site 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. plus a 110 miles round trip at 67,000 lbs. Found the trash and had a cave in at 5:00 on Friday. This is as I was bringing it all back up. Wish I had a quick sheeps foot to grab and I think I'll start looking into it. Luckily had prime red clay from the opposite side to compact back up. This was premium dirt and everything went good. Loving the safety orange shirts. Since I always have to work around two guys it's nice with the orange. All my moves have to be around them everyday all day. You want to hog dirt but you have to curl in and curl out every time around them to keep the balance going. Oh and yes CM, that was a rain harvest reservoir. You're pretty sharp you know it. You'd think the neighbor would've realized it was in her benefit too.
Nice looking work as always Brian. Do you use your truck on site at all, or does it primarily just pull the trailer? I just bought a 94 L9000 myself. Going to get it today after work.
Pools look great, I would love to do one in your dirt. A couple things done different from GA to SC. The guys I dig for put three stakes and a kicker for every stake they put in. I am just assuming but I guess you dirt holds the single stake much better than ours does. The other difference is when I have a cave in they put a piece of plywood in and shoot the shotcrete to that and like you said in your post you put the material back and compact it. I know just what you mean about bringing the stick in and out to move around the guys. On the last one I had 4 guys to look out for.
Thought it was as the house was in the city. The muni's are getting more and more restrictive on run-off when developing a commercial parcel, now it's found it's way into individual lot residential construction here. One city requires detention if you tear down an existing home and build a larger on on the lot. Was the rain harvest reservoir a requirement or just what the homeowner wanted?
Nedly, I never haul dirt and avoid it at all cost really. I just use it to pull the machine to the digs everyday. That's why I bought the Peterbilt and lowboy. I'm not sure what my plan is with hauling in the future. I'd really like to see your 94 L9000. Is it a dump? I know you have that fancy Granite so whatcha got going on there now. .... LC, we really do have good dirt around here for just hammering in an 18" stake and moving to the next. If it's not ideal you can usually strip it off and grab some better dirt and pack it in and drive stakes. If we use kickers it's usually a bad day. We can move along quickly usually if grade is close and the dirt holds up well but with that we can get into rock sometimes. That staking going on with your digs is very extensive. We use kickers only in bad situations. Most the digging here in the piedmont region is nice. Now trying do pools below the fall line in the coastal plains would be tough.. I've always thought that. Yours actually are much better than what I thought would be possible in sand. Tomorrow I'm going 85 miles North towards the Appalachians. Could get ugly. Cm, all the residential construction in Atlanta pretty much requires cisterns and rainwater reservoirs or similar with the whole impervious disturbance regs. There is money in it and lots of work for that type of work for sure. I get talked into it a few times, "since you're already going to be here with the machine". I didn't get the details on the last one but I think it was just the homeowner choosing to do it instead of a requirement. It was not the city of Atlanta but right there next to it. I'll be back there soon enough. Got some much needed forks. I hate borrowing stuff. I borrowed my neighbors and he needed them back before I could finish using them. Also picked up a seal kit for my track that leaks down on the TL150. Should be an easy fix unless I need a piston. My friend who recently bought the two new 314's just bought two new 336F's. Man, that's growth and I would love to get into some of it. I Just hit four years on my own this week. I am setting my sights on one more year of this then I'm going to make a move into site work. The project Peterbilt was not a great move for me but I have to finish it. Soon enough. Today's fun
My "new" L9000 is a dump, a little tandem. I sold my single axle and bought it, it has a 13' box and I can haul 13 ton on it. 14 fronts 40 rears. 3306C cat @ 300 HP and a jake with a 10 speed. It was a one owner truck with 88,000 miles. It needs a few things, mostly tires and paint. Getting tires this afternoon, and I hope to get the box and frame painted this weekend. Its a sweet little truck. I will post some pics on instagram, shes ugly right now, but I will have that resolved in no time!
Well post some pictures of the L9000 Nedly. I'd like to see it. Lucky for you it has Jakes and Cat power. The first tandem I drove as L9000 with the Cat 300. My L9000 doesn't have jakes and I sure wish it did. We worked for it this week. About 470 miles total and 5,000 sq. ft. of pool digging but one was 3k sq. ft. We also did a 9 yd. slab for my brother across the street . Nothing special here but this was about 5' of build up on the back side. Lot of compacting. Up on the Catoosa River.
The smallest one this year came in the same week as the biggest one. On the small dig my stick/H-link finally got down to the chamber lines and punctured a hose 5 houses away from the job and the brake started dragging. I have been meaning forever to get the trailer cross members fixed. It came like this when I bought it and before I met my current welder I had a shoddy welder. He patched it with angle iron and it didn't hold and the stick finally worked it's way through the boards but it did take three years. Of course the 20 speed bumps in that subdivision didn't help. I left the job and got new lines and fixed it back up and turned the boards around. Should hold till my welder can fix it right. I'll have to get some new oak boards too. Somehow we did this 3000 sq ft in one day. Well we really got after it though. Took 12 hours on site and 3 hours of travel.
I just barely got the dirt pile out of the dig and behind the forms but my plan paid off. I was hoping to not move the dirt twice and until I was finished. I got on the pile at sunset and pulled the dirt back away. Hottest day of the year so far and a little sunburned. The driver swung the boom and moved forward and reverse over and over and laid all 9 yds. right where it needed to be. We didn't have to pull or shovel hardly any. I am not a concrete finisher. I have tried it a few times and I don't have the experience. It was for my brother and neighbors helped. If we needed precision I'd make a request for that to a builder but no need here.
I drove redimix trucks in my youth and it does take some skills, of course back then the work was always behind us, in the mirrors. That would be just to easy.
Love front chute mixers... Saves a man and the drivers I've been around did a good job.
Those front discharge trucks are great. Once a person has worked with one, he will wonder why the rear discharge are still in existence.
Jeeze you must of been haulin ass to get that 3000sq ft done in one day! Real tidy job too. Do you still have your instagram? I havent seen you post in a while
You did real good to get the 3000 sq footer done in a day. You were moving some dirt. Turned out great as well. I guess you can look on the bright side, your air line broke in a neighborhood and not on the interstate. Stuff like that is just a pain. A good concrete truck driver can save a ton of work. Like JDOFMEMI said, I am not sure why rear discharge trucks still exist.
Here she is Brian. Not real fancy, but she does the job. Great visibility and maneuverablity. Id like the convert the steers to hub pilot, and get some nice aluminum rims with a wider tire. Everything in time.
That's a nice looking L9000 Nedly, congrats.
Nedly that is an awesome little truck that is exactly what i am looking for currently
Hey man, nice find. Looks like it will get it done. Yeah, everything in time. Tough trucks I'll say. My whole dash, doors and everything is solid and still tight. Good trucks....
Im super happy with her, shes been working steady since the day I brought her home and she hasnt missed a beat!
Nedley, nice truck. Fast that concrete sure looks familiar : ) I was shocked to see the deck of your trailer. Seems like everthing you keep is in tip top shape. About ten years ago I had a tressured hk91 that I wanted a carry handle on. When I slid it on it ruined the finish. Then I got a new truck and it was wrecked twice not being my fault. Then the truck got creamed loading the case skid steer on a hill. I have completely changed from who I was. I don't wash my trucks, but I do keep the mud blown off the machine since it is corrosive . I don't like to buy many things new, guns excluded. I like new barrels. But all the rest of the stuff just seems to get banged up working so I have just given up. One day I will be one of those old guys that you know are tuff, but you grew up wondering why he has holes in his pants and drives a beater. I am beginning to understand those guys now. At this point I don't like even getting in a clean truck because I normally am too dirty and have to worry about messing it up. My family said to me, how can you go out like that, I bet the restaurants hate to see you coming. They have a point cause most of the time concrete or mud is stuck to my boots!
those blue t880 quad axles are blue max in charlotte they bought something like 60 in 2014 and about 40 so far this year they have all but totaled a couple all ready. run into the back of each other pushing engine and transmission out they are around $185,000.00 plus F.E.T allision automatics paccar engines but they set to low for my taste I measured the cross member on the front lift axle only8" off the ground.
Any updates fastdirt? Haven't seen anything from you in awhile.
:agree:update he did just get hitched may be still in the honeymoon phase :beatsme
He deleted his instagram profile too
Well I have been on a mission to finish my truck. I have been spending every single waking second outside of work on this. I've been leaving my guys on the job here and there so I can head back to the project but only a couple times lately. Just ready to be done with it. My days usually start at 6 a.m. about the time I'll hear the Cummins start up in the driveway... Then usually a one to two hour drive. When I get to the job I start the machine on the trailer then I'll shut the truck off. Then it's usually 7 to 10 hours on site. Then start the truck when finished. Load the machine up and shut it off. Then drive the usually miserable ride home. Pull in the gravel driveway at home 12 hours later and kill it after a few minutes. Finally peace and quiet. Sometimes I just sit there for a second and soak up the peace and quiet. It's brutal out there in this heat on the shovel in the sun. I don't even close my cab or run the A/C. I do have a factory fan that stays on me. There is too much ground work for me to just shut the doors and watch the guys sweat their hearts out. Anyway just a thought I had recently about diesel burning and engine noise the entire day till I get home. Zzzz....Zzzzz... waiting on dirt all day. I figured my guys could remove the track adjuster. When I got back they removed the front idler from the carrier. I couldn't for the life of me get the bolts to go back in. Sad thing is you don't even have to separate the two pieces to change the adjuster piston. My old one was pretty eroded and wouldn't hold any more. It's back together and hopefully I'll never need to separate. While he was there
I keep ending up digging pools for the owners of grading companies and one guy said it seems they buy a new machine every week and hire on another guy. Another owner shows me a pic on his phone of three brand new D6N's side by side they just got. That company strips and fills and does all the landfill grading for all the landfills around here and out of state... Then just Friday I'm sitting in the middle of a 400 acre paradise. One of eight farms they own that size. That place belonged to one of the biggest bridge and highway builders in the state. The week before I was digging for yet another business owner. He owns one of the biggest companies around for connecting water/sewer service lines. Interesting for me anyway to meet these people and see their riches. They've already forgot about me but it's motivating for me. These two Bobcats teamed up on me but I kept them going while digging and laying it all out at the same Couldn't squeeze the 312 into the backyard so we rented a JD 75... that thing was like 7'6" wide. We had 2" clearance. This guy's company has so many pieces of big equipment I bet nobody even missed these pieces. 400 acres of paradise on the surface...nothing but rock out there. This one was tough. Brand new 963D just sitting there with paint still in the bucket.
Hey Georgia Iron, was that you?? But I hear you on that last post about staying dirty and going to Frontera still in your work clothes. It's also funny as you mature you quit worrying about how others see you. I know that trailer needs some love. I'm going to re paint that trailer and put the decal kit on get the DOT tape right and I'll get the boards right. After painting it the first time I was rushed and instead of putting the minimal DOT tape on it I just wrapped the whole thing at about 6 a.m. one morning just to get on the road. I've been kicking myself ever since. I'm still updating this thread clint, sawdus. I've just been buried with this truck project. I do have instagram I just made a couple changes. I'm just not into the social crap. It's a lot of deceit on there but when the 312 king and letsdig start calling each other heroes and all that it's a too much... :beatsme
Yeah, it seems like out of the 300 some people I am following there are about 6 accounts with alot of followers, and it seems like all the do is talk about each other, gets pretty annoying after a while ointhead I always enjoyed seeing you pictures, could you pm me your new username?
I always enjoy your pics too Brian. Id love to get your new IG username as well.
I too would like your IG user, your page was my fav.
Myself as well
Well thanks for the interest from yall. I really do appreciate and enjoy seeing other peoples jobs, equipment, etc... As much as I love seeing the big stuff, I like the average size contractors doing all kinds of work or the little fry like myself the most.. It would be under Parr!$h Exc@vation.. I will be releasing my summer line of apparel with my username on it....hats, t shirts, belt buckles, etc... LOL Joking. I'd never.
LOL!:thumbsup I've never been fond of groups or organizations who just pat each other on the back and give each other awards. The same people and the same awards, day in and day out. Great work, btw.
With all your t-shirt and hat money you may be able to buy another truck to haul your low boy haha. Looking good as usual! Where did you get all your info on turbo sizing vs injectors etc?
Not saying buy one now as they are absurdly expensive, but a tilt rotator on a 14 ton zero tail machine would be perfect for your work, barely any hand labor with one...
Yeah, but it looks like his machine doesn't have aux. hydraulics, so it would be difficult to put one on it. Maybe on a new 314E
I just don't know about a tilt bucket. My machine does have aux hyd output It's just not plumbed. Can you stick a 42" GP bucket on a tiltorator and dig rock???? I've seen $17k for them. I did just pass one year on my rubber tracks and that was the best $10k I've spent. I'll be getting a new machine next year and will be doing my research on tilt buckets. I need to talk to a guy who has dug through all types of earth and rock for at least 5000 hrs to get a real world idea of how they hold. Of course I'd love to have one and see....
I'd love a tilt rotor accept it costs 20k nzd for the unit then another 10k nzd to Fit. And thats for a 5t machine. If I was you fast dirt id get a hydraulic tilt hitch, that way you can change buckets quickly, and tilt all your attchments. Probably a jb powertilt or similar. You'll wonder why you never had one.
I know of a company near me that runs helac powertilts on several of there 15T size machines and they've always been happy with them. I know a couple of them have had 6K hrs on them when they traded. They do all sorts of tough digging and rock work. They are a nice unit, and add a lot of utility to a machine. A rototilt would be awesome, but its just a ton of extra money. I love the tilt buckets that I have, they make grading and clean up work so much more efficient.
Yep helacs a good brand too
Hey FD, very happy to see you posting pics again. Definitely some nice scenery you were working in. Sad to hear you are only joking about your clothing line though seems like some of the same people have invaded youtube as well. I like rototilt it's but they only tilt 45 degrees. As far as I know Helac has one that will rotate and do 90 degrees on the tilt. The 90 degrees is what I would like for digging the walls of the pools. If you do any investigating on them let us know. At one point in time Geith and Helac were going to do something together but I heard that fell thru.
Hey fast dirt , you said your getting a new machine next year ? What do u have in mind ??
On the tilt bucket/ tilt hitch thing, my two cents on the matter is go with a normal hitch and a tilt bucket over a tilt hitch as when you go to lift sum thing heavy you don't have the extra weight on the end of your stick( drop off your bucket all together or lift with your dig bucket) when you go to dig rock you have more crowd power without the tilt hitch ( a contractor here had a tilt hitch and was mainly loading river run and digging boulders and it fell in two after a few years on a 320 cat) when working in trees you don't have the two extra hyd lines running all the way down the stick. I have run a tilt bucket on my cat 311cu for the last 5500hrs and find it good ( 311,s don't like any extra on the end of the stick than you need to run) I'm very impressed with the work that you do with a dig bucket but can see that you would just love the job you will get with a 1800mm or 2000mm smooth edge tilt bucket! Ps only get a twin ram tilt bucket as a signal ram one will tilt faster one way than the other and it in a pain .imo. On the new digger thing I'm looking to change my 311 soon ish , will look at the new 311f I think but have done a few hrs on a mates new 312el and am very impressed with the 312e very smooth.( done my apprentership on a 312bl and 320l so have yellow blood a bit! )
Oh on the past 45deg thing you can cut the walls to any angle with the side of the bucket , I e if you need more than 45deg you tilt the other way and use the cutter bar or side of the bucket as both tilt bucket or tilt hitch that go to 90 deg you still only have as much dig as you have slew power to keep it cutting! Hope you get what I mean ? Hard to write what I'm thinking some times!
I dont think the extra 300 or so mm extra difference between a std hitch and tilt hitch matters too much. Tilt buckets become a pain in the ass having to hop in and out all day taking off and putting on hoses, and easy to catch a hose on something too where as the tilt hitch hoses are all tucked behind the front ram. Bonus thing about a tilt hitch is the fact you can tilt any attachment, clean up bucket, rock bucket, ripper etc
Trentnz Yes the getting in and out to change hoses is a pain but I think the extra 300ish does make a difference to your breakout power, yes the hoses are out there but most of the time when dealing with trees( when hoses get stretched most often ) you run a tooth bucket anyway. I guess it's a 50/50 choice?
We did some tough ones this week Showed up to 10 stumps on Monday. Looks easy but it was brutal digging. It was almost solid rock but looks like dirt to the builder LOL. I put on new penetrating teeth and it helped a little. I made the mistake of grabbing onto one of those teeth and burnt my palm. Ouch.
Finished a week of doing what I love with something I really love
Yeah I would say those were tough ones. The digs look great as always. Not much room to spare on that last one for sure. How many yards did you move out of the last one. However many it was it was a lot to move with a skid steer one bucket at a time.
So it looks like you were run out of town on a rail!
what's up with the kubota?
Do you pull the skid and the 312 at the same time on the tag trailer?
Khasen we were definitely on the wrong side of the tracks. Funny how a glorious patch of woods can be in the last place you'd ever expect. There are a few guys who find the areas on google earth. The one guy spent three years cutting in singletrack and we got to ride it. The thing would walk itself. If you pushed or pulled the track lever/pedals they wouldn't zero back and it would keep walking. I asked and I received. It helped a bit in the end. Things changed. Original plan wouldn't allow the 312 to exit but we moved the pool in a foot thankfully. I wish. I thought about getting the skid in the bed to save me a trip but that was just a thought.
some guy's around here put ramps on the front of their trailer and haul the skid in the truck and 953 on the trailer I have never driven one like that but I would think that it would ride and drive better with a little weight in the bed and on the steer axle. they just welded ramp about 2' out the front of trailer just before they would hit when jack knifed and then made the rest fold back over but low enough that the barn door would clear to open the door fold the ramps onto the bed floor back right in.
What I am wondering the most is, has anyone ever blamed any foundation cracks on you bringing your 312 through close to it? I don't personally think it would do anything to it? :beatsme
That thought has definitely ran through my mind many times. What I think would be ideal would be if you get the tailgate to hinge at the bottom and fold down onto the trailer creating a bridge ramp and let you drive the machine up into the bed. Not yet. I do get close to basement walls but I'm aware of cause and effect. Back in my track loader days I was told to walk right next to a basement wall to carry dirt from the back to the front with only 10' of clearance. It was a side basement wall 10' x 40' with no tee support walls. It cracked mid day but was not on me since the builders ordered me to do it. Here's a shot from last summer. I had a conversation with the builders saying I didn't like it and would not be held responsible for a crack. A good builder would've put tee supports knowing that an excavator would be that close. I wore my seatbelt just in case a worst case scenario. No cracks..
Here's some fun from last week.. My guy went to check the oil at 6am in the L9000 before our two hour trip. Pulled the dipstick out and no gauge at the end of the dipstick. Made the phone call and then dumped the oil. Pulled all three drain plugs and got some lights and magnets to hunt down the gauge because he said it was there on the first pull up of the dipstick but not the second time. After no luck finding it I decided to dismount the dipstick tube which actually bolts on with a plate. Got if off the block and could shake the gauge around in the housing. It broke off in the tube between two bends. Got it back together and ordered a new one but wasn't in stock so I had to find the capacity of an L10. We usually use nine gallons so that's what I put back in. Rough start to the day... I asked the loader man if he would run mine and I would run his... he laughed. Heck of storm came across the lake. Come back tomorrow. Other jobs were same ole same ole.
on dropping the tailgate down. I have done that before (years ago)to haul brush the trouble with that is two fold you have to make sure that the latch pins and bottom of the gate is made /shaped correct to be able to fold down past flat and not hit (have seen them snap the pin's off) and then you have to deal with the weight of the machine driving on the gate and bending it we are not talking about a motorcycle but a 9-10,000 pds skid steer then you have to lift the gate back up some how . I think thats why a swing gate works better
That'll sure slow down your day. Any problems with the red dirt splashing up and staining things, like stucco or grout?
You give my welder the bucks and he'll make it happen. Of course you'd have to create a hinge by moving the pin to the back and designing a lock. If you're putting the skid in the bed then you would obviously have a machine on the trailer to lift the gate or even a tight chain from skid steer to gate. Reinforce the gate it's only 4' . It's possible. It'd be a 3 way gate then. I'd never do it but it's possible. My rig weighs 67,000 lbs and the Takeuchi adds 12,000 lbs so it probably wouldn't scale. That's why I bought a 35ton rgn to haul both on those days. Soon enough. Anyway it's just a challenging thought.
I see it all the time around here and it drives me nuts. Not sure if it's an issue on a fast paced build but I see existing houses a lot that have that issue. Nasty splash about 2' up the siding. The grout I think would stain but I'm sure they acid wash it.
This one went smooth.....good with the bad. Had an audience all day and was hiding from the camera. Happens a lot doing this. People will watch you for 8 hrs. straight. Can't even take a wiz....
I hear ya! Every once in awhile I'll have a customer ask if they need to be home the day I do their job. I tell them no and that I actually charge extra if they are and double if they want to help. I'm joking with them...kinda.
Some days it does not pay to get out of bed. I have never seen a dipsticks break like that. My brother had the end of the fuel nozzle at the truck stop break off in the tank. Of course it was alum so no magnet. Had to go fishing with a coat hangar. You might have enjoyed running the 953 but I am sure your trimmers would not have had a good day with the loader man on your hoe
These are the breaking even days.. Fired the truck up last week one morning and I had no running lights. The trailer boards pinched the wire harness back where the bucket sits. This was a problem I kept putting off. When I bought the trailer the area where the stick sits was a mess from neglect and I didn't fix it right the first time when I put new boards on. The lights going out was the third strike. The first two were broken air lines because the boards broke through. It's fixed for good now. Luckily my welder guy was able to come that day. The local welding shop sold me some pieces of I-beam and channel. Then the local lumber yard had some 2" saw cut oak. Then we had to take care of the excavator. 30 gallons of hyd. fluid, a few cases of oil, all the filters from Cat and a box of grease. Plus a full wash. You can see the F150 is full because I'm still waiting on the F450 to get finished. It's taking forever.
Couple of job pics. I just haven't been taking pictures lately because I do the same thing over and over.
I must of missed it. What are you having done on the F450, deletes etc?
Just another day here. Also did a pad for a 40'x 50' slab. We graded it, formed it, and dug the footings. We will not be doing the concrete however.
JNB, I took the F450 to my mechanic. They had the heads re done and ported and did the delete along with some other stuff. They are also replacing the whole front clip and painting the whole truck along with the hauler bed. Hopefully it'll be home soon.
to a late model front end ?
Yes
here's a wedding cake for you my middle boy found it on instagram today and I thought about you. my wedding cake had a JD850C on it and we gave away a wooden toy dozers with a bride and groom in the operators seat
Looks good :thumbsup Usually when we dig footings the excavated dirt goes on the outside, any particular reason for putting it inside the forms?
Clint, that cake is hilarious and it's totally me. The dozer on the cake is great too and giving away the wooden dozer just tops it off. I guess you just can't deny it and all the friends and family know it too. There are worse addictions I'll say. Movindirt, Since we went with 6" forms instead of the 4" required forms we threw some dirt out and some dirt in and re graded the pad. It's not something I do often but we pulled it off.
You always impress me. The footers and pad look as great as your pools. The rubber track pads seem like they are really working out great for you.
Thanks LC! The rubber tracks have been great. Used them a few times this week. They have saved us so much work, time, damage, and space. Couldn't be happier with them. On a good hot day you can literally still smell the rubber from 20' away Lol. Took a few shots of them coming off of a driveway onto the pavement. This was another one just a few miles from home. The yard backs up to a main road. Over the last few weeks I noticed the backyard had trees taken down and wondered if they were getting a pool. Fortunately we ended up doing the dig.
Some grading from this week. Had some visitors while backing in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SrS-n8XcnE
FD I'm jealous of that red Georgia clay you get to work with.:thumbsup
The ground you get to work with is great, but the work you do is always top notch. Love stopping by to check the pics!
And I'm always impressed to see an excavator that still has paint on the counterweight! Guess it makes a difference who is paying for a machine! Then again I have worked on equipment in the company where I retired from where operators were allowed and even encouraged take pride in their equipment. Bosses attitude goes a long way in affecting the attitude of the workers. I'm sure your customers appreciate how good your equipment looks when on their property. If you take care of your equipment they should know you will take care of their property.
Thanks Kshanen. I try my hardest to keep the paint on. It does make a huge difference when it's your stuff. I agree with you on your thoughts though entirely. Yes we sure do get some good red dirt to work with a lot of the times but it dries out and turns to dust quick just like any good dirt. We have been really busy lately and blew through several jobs last week but nothing too different. I got a few pics though. This was not any fun here. Somehow I got selected to take down the trees between the 2 million dollar home and the 55' setback from the golf course. I have not been carrying the thumb around so my control of laying down trees is loose. Had a couple close calls but managed to get them all down. If I have the thumb on I can dig round the stump and then from the side swing them down and clamp down with the thumb all at the same time. Without it just a push and a prayer. One of them was starting to die that I wasn't aware of and it snapped down around the stump close to the roots. The biggest one of course. What happened was the trees were bigger than I was told and I was also told I would only be taking down the little ones. It started that way but then they wanted them all gone so the vanishing edge would visible from the golf course. I almost went home to get the thumb. Should have but absolutely no harm done. I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think I could. On another job. Pretty tight and high up.
Really tight Went up to Tennessee and had to dig with a 304 Cat and Bobcat. It was fun loading trucks. Those new Bobcats are strong but tight in the cab. Saw this massive D11 up there. This is on the Job my friend is running. Now this is massive. It takes 4 months to setup, 1 million lbs. of counter weight, and 112 trucks to transport it. They had to grade a 6' deep base for it with three separate layers of different material and stone.
Now thats a Crane!!! I bet it could lift that D11 like a toy.
According to Manitowac's site just one of the 4 crawler tracks weighs 117,000lbs. Also has 2, 600hp Cummins QSX's for power with 600 gallons of fuel. The 2,000 ton rated block assembly weighs over 87,000lbs. Depending how your setup is their one diagram has it setup with 686ft of boom.
Didn't intend to post twice. :Banghead
That's insane. He said he'd get me in there when it's done and I'm definitely going to take him up on the offer. Cool facts Mark.... I think we all love and appreciate power
So Fastdirt, have you put your order in for one of them. Never know when you might need to lift up one corner of Georgia to shim it up on a project!
Thanks for the Pics of the 31,000 series. The 21,000 using a 4 track system like that set up in 4 days with 580 ft of combined stick and jib. Its amazing how these machine will turn with the tracks turning opposite directions. These are assembled on mats and will never be moved anywhere where they are walking on mats.
I think that is how it always goes, you get a job you really don't want then it always winds up being more than what they say. I would rather hit the buffer than the house that is one nice thing about having a stiff leg thumb because it only takes a minute to take it off and it sure is nice digging with no thumb.
Been awhile Fastdirt, any updates?
:iagree
Hope all is well. I really miss your updates
Sorry for not responding earlier. Lot's of rain and nothing pretty to see lol. Nothing like a good spring time picture but not lately. This was the very last dry dirt of 2015. It's been saturated back there ever since but wanted to share this if anybody has a track this works great. It's a TL150 track cut in half and used for a drag. It actually has those teeth on the under side that rake well. It's really heavy and is a lot to pull with a small engine. If you took both track halves and stacked them on top of each other it would be even more effective but would probably take an F150 to pull.
I hear you on the "nothing pretty to see" comment! Around here it's been a struggle just to get jobs done let alone make them look good too. Lots of ground water and wet materials. To paraphrase a sig by one of the guys over at LS..."If it looks like crap when I get there, it's gonna look like smooth crap when I'm leave." I like the track drag! A few months ago we moved further out in the sticks, and I need to work on an arena for my wife when the ground permits. I just may try your idea out.
FD I made the same type drag with a T250 track for prepping large areas to seed. The problem we had with it was the front edge would dig in, flip on it's side, eventually pulling a large C laid on it's side. We fabb'd some metal plates, attached chains to it and then pulled it with the 5 and T250 - did it behind both. Have you had the same issue?
CM, I have great luck with the track drag. That's pretty cool you've done this. I can pull it around all day with glass of sweet tea in one hand. It's like a zen garden. The track is just cut in half perfectly and looks to be about 7' or 8'. You might have had it tied to the back pulling the front down. I tied the strap through the sprocket holes about 1/3 apart on the front half. Best thing about is that it contours to the terrain and you can scrub trees and such. Now doubling it up would be super effective. They are about 600 lbs for just one track. Well, rather than trying to explain check it out here.. https://youtu.be/xTV69qGu_pM
Attachment points too far apart? Chain too long? Maybe the weight of the chain and plates are keeping the front too low? From FD's video, it looks like the front of the track is staying elevated.
FD thanks for the video, I see where where our engineering experiment went awry.:tong We drilled and bolted metal plates with U bolts to attach the chains to the top at the center of the track. It pulls from the center of the track instead of the front like your straps. Haven't given it much thought until I saw yours and haven't tried to use it since then. We though the weight of the track itself would be enough to keep it level but it was not. Anyway, we had a week between jobs getting permitted and I wasn't going to send my guys home with the sun shining so we went to work on that experiment in addition to general service work. Now I know what to try next time.
Fastdirt, congratulations on your business. It's great to see hard work pay off. Having done some attempts at videos and pictures I appreciate the time and work that go into that also. Even if the work has become routine for you, it's still impressive and I do hope you do keep posting pictures. I might even be inspired to keep my Ford LTL 9000. 3406 c? 1989, 13 spd. Creature comforts like ac and the radio aren't functioning, but truck has always ran great.
Oh, I love it.. "engineering". I am going to invent a real pull drag one day soon. I have a vision of a four part drag made up of a blade like a box blade with a fold down assembly much like a root rake that goes over a regular dozer blade only I'll fabricate five or six shanks that take bobcat teeth. Then behind that maybe a skid steer track drag or similar. Then finally a heavy roller to help seal and compact. Mainly for motocross track maintenance, OHV trails, and general dirt trails and roads. It'd have to be pulled by a dozer. I go ride at these off road parks around here and the main trails haven't been graded in years understandably because it takes a very long time to re grade once you start cutting in. Just a thought and maybe one day I can make it happen. I love the results of pulling like a motor grader does and I'm a fan of back dragging too. It'd have to be a one pass deal. It's probably already been invented I'm sure. You could even scale and size them for four wheelers, UTV's, skid steers, dozers, etc. I've spent my entire life off roading for a hobby and I hope to do it till I'm gone. I have a track out back where I took that video and play around back there all the time changing it up. It's very enjoyable for me. I guess I pretty much spend my life in the dirt but I love it. Maybe I'll create this creation and offer my service to these places. Maybe an attachment like the motor grader skid steer attachment with fold teeth for hard pack and hyd. ripper style rear function that pulls a float. That way you could reverse and turn. :idea:idea These pretty granite rocks came from the Mall of Georgia where they blasted for months. I put this together quick and tried to stagger them in the most challenging way but need to make a few changes. It has since poured rain and is off limits till dryer days of course. Man, I REALLY appreciate those comments. I am really fired up about 2016 and ready to make things happen. It does get routine sometimes but it's definitely more fun and challenging than routine. My biggest problem I've had since inception is not being able to keep up and keep my customers as happy as I want to. Heck, even keeping customers when you are so spread thin is a huge challenge that I have not fixed. My fault completely, but I know once I go in like that I'll have to give my life to it for a few years before I can take personal time. I hope to focus on that this year and do whatever it takes to overcome that. Now, onto that LTL9000... I love those trucks and wish mine was an LTL but like you said it's always ran great. Your whole setup is great. Looks dead serious and ready to go. The hood and grille all look well taken care of the bud wheels are great also. I've had my truck near five years and use it everyday and it has never failed me. Yes, videos and pictures are very time consuming. The youtube regular uploaders and such have to spend so much time. I tried it but didn't have the drive to continue. A picture from yesterday. This is how I keep it fun. Had to dig several borrow pits and demo this gazebo. So I dug my pit right there and kept under cutting it. When my hole ran out of good dirt I just pushed the wooden top structure off to back side and then pulled the concrete down in the hole. I was hoping for a cave in but I started wasting time and might have come off like I was playing. Got everything demolished including all the decking, the entire 20x40 pool, a couple 40" stumps, etc. etc. Found a 2" gas line and a four cable power line to the garage. Shut the main gas meter off at the street and carried on. Owners said they cut the power off but I don't trust anybody and have one of those Cline pocket testers. It was dead. Will dig the new pool as soon as this rain stops. Got two loads of #3 stone ready for the floor and had to push both dump trucks out. We filled the entire hole in and compacted it so this rain wouldn't ruin the hole. Lot of extra work to do that but I think that will pay off.
I sure am glad to see you posting again. I always enjoy your pics and descriptions. Don't feel bad about having a hard time keeping your customers happy. I think if you sat and waited for one customer to call you and you were there within the hour they would still find something to complain about. It is pretty hard to find someone who will do the quality work you do. Keep the pics coming!
For several years I have had the problem of not being able to keep up. I bought the 16G in 96 with the plan of doing terrace work. Made it work, and then got known around and swamped. What makes it harder is terraces are in cropped fields that have crops on them a lot of the year. Terraces fall at 3 tenths of a foot per hundred feet so there not rocket science, but to get that under full production mode is what I try for. Have lost a lot of work, you can only work so much. When it got to where I couldn't catch up if I ran 24/7 is when I figured that out. I've studied the problem, tried things, hoping to try gps instead of laser and maybe then help will be able to do the job, But the answer I get most often from successful people is raise my rates, work less, make more money. Saying no and raising rates is hard for me to do. Best of luck balancing work and personal time.
Glad to see you posting again FastDirt, how is the peterbilt coming?
I've been going through the same thing for quite awhile. Even keeping up on calls for new work is tough most of the time. I'm blessed to have all of the potential work coming in and I'm not complaining, but I worry about my rep as I'm sure you do too. Like Zhkent mentioned, I tried to get things under control by raising my rates. A little at first (which helped for awhile) and then a little more, but then the snowball started again. Raised them substantially and it only took a couple of months for it to start all over again. I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep on truckin'.
Here is what we use to drag haul roads didn't know if this was something in a smaller version what you were talking about or not Fastdirt
Well zhKent and JNB it's a good problem to have but I don't know if there is such a thing as balance. One of my best friends is running some of the highest profile jobs around like the new stadium, the old GM plant, and they have many other jobs like Clemson Univ. and have many coming in. They keep winning jobs and keep adding foremans, operators, many new machines, and they are still hiring desperately. Some days I think man I could get $25 an hour there.... In reality I guess everybody faces an unbalance in one way or another. Always a chase for something. Just a bit of their work from recently I did get the F450 back after 8 months. Still learnin, that thing is super impressive. Love how it has a stinger style v blade that bites in first and then rows it back. Very cool.... and very big lol. RC, updated the thread.
Glad to see you back posting. The 450 is looking good, as all of yours usually do.
Good seeing some updates. What happened to the 450? Are you currently on instagram or youtube at all or quit cold turkey?
Hey Jerry, RJ, Thanks for the F450 compliments. I sure put a lot of love into it. Had an entire new 2006 front end put on. Painted the entire OX bed and cab. Bulletproofed everything, new Ford injectors, glow plugs, deleted oil cooler and egr, and every single thing that needed to get it in top shape. As soon as it got done I looked at and said Hmmm!? What's wrong with this picture? Well I loved the look of the 2005 and up 450/550's because of the fender flares up front and wide look. Well it's not just fenders. The dang trucks have a widetrack front axle. Coil springs I knew about but I never realized the "Fatboy" axle was near 6" wider(hence better turning radius due to more clearance). Well the truck looked funny to me and I'm adamant about stance and looks. So that was heartbreaking and the mechanic didn't even know about the differences either. I just couldn't fall in love with it. I took it on a road trip to Windrock Park for a 3-day weekend. Truck did awesome. Now the deal breaker news... I stopped and weighed it on the way back at a truck stop.. 28,000 lbs. with one RZR in the trailer. WHOA!!! and to think I had my brother, his RZR, girlfriend, and more gear all packed in the rig the weekend before. We had to be 30,000 lbs. I could only find the Ford GCWR to be 26,000 lbs. Well, I sold it because of the GCWR. Being legal is my top priority and a lot of this venture stems from being burned out on my Peterbilt project and work. So it's all sold now and I've got my sights set on my Peterbilt full force along with work. We're only human. A lot of times I'll be asked to demo/remove existing concrete patios that are beneath a balcony or deck. The kind you have to fully extend and track forward. You just can't get too focused on the concrete or you could hit the balcony with the stick trying to pull the broken concrete away from the house. It's a fun challenge. Got a buddy who hauls for me to buy one of my visors...looks good up there.
Looks like you just need to get the Pete done and pull toy hauler with that! Always love to read your threads Fastdirt! Jerry
I love having Peterbilts on my jobs. Great job site here and even some dogs to love on. Got questioned by the builder why we charged extra time for this dig. I think any dirt guy can clearly see why.
Nice little clearing job we did. Loaded out nine 30 yard dumpsters. Sidewalk couldn't hold up to the truck...owner said for us not to worry about it beforehand. Mikey always having fun. Tight loading here.
Nice work, as always. The toy trailer looks good behind the 450. Too bad the weight does not work out. I am looking forward to your Peterbilt update, My new to me lowbed truck is a 2013 367 Pete. One thing I will say if you want to pull the toy trailer with your Pete, reinforce the hitch, because the ride is brutal compared to my 8 bag KW. I have decided to keep pulling my toy trailer with the old truck instead of the new one because of this.
Thanks, Jerry the 450 looked good from the side LOL. the front view looked awkward. Big Peterbilt update coming I'll say after selling those things. I have the toy hauler for sale now. Sold the RZR. It's just not an East coast hobby really, out West it'd be much more usable. I broke my knuckles on a new dirt bike I bought earlier this year. I sold that bike because I had trouble holding onto the bike after that and went to the RZR but none of my friends would join in. Back to dirt bikes, hope I can hold on now. I crashed that bike hard in 3rd gear in the woods and the bike's throttle stuck wide open and it attacked me with a stuck throttle in 3rd gear after I'd already taken a beating from the ground. Stuck my hand up to stop the bike and stuck my hand in the wide open spinning tire and it broke my knuckles. Luckily the left hand. ..... sometimes I talk too much I think. "367" you say!!! I almost bought one and I might still buy it. It's one of the Baker Hughes trucks that have flooded the market. They have let hundreds go. They all have 38k miles and high hours. Hours equivalent to 500k miles like 15k hours or so. This one has a an ISX 485, 8LL, 4.33, and 230". I like it because of the 36" bunk with windows which is what I'm building. More of a crew cab to me for work and exactly what I want. The Baker Hughes trucks just pulled frac trailers and sat still. They have PTO's but I just don't know about this type of use on a truck or if the PTO's were running. Do you have any input? Does yours have an ISX? this one is a 2009 CA compliant. Is that ok, good, bad? I was also told 4:33 will have to changed. It'd make a great work truck. The one I almost bought. I went so far in the deal I had to tell them to stop because papers were printed and I got cold feet. Any input on these trucks from anybody would be greatly appreciated. They are all over the country now. The local dealer I bought my lowboy from even has two of the 365 SBA's (not a fan). He's got them at Ritchey and said I could go drive.
Lets see if this works: This is a pic of the new truck. It is a 2013 367 day cab with a big rear window, an ISX 600, 18 speed, 4 way lockers, 4.10 rear end, 205 wheel base, 46K rears, 22K front What I know so far is that while it runs good, it is barely stronger than my 550 horse 3406E, and burns 25 to 30 percent more fuel to move the same load. When it does the regen, the fire waiting for a place to happen, aka the DPF, aka the exhaust filter, smokes like the truck is on fire, and heats the cab up enough I had to turn on the AC the other morning when it was in the mid 50's outside. The ride is bad. This truck with Pete air leaf suspension is like a 60's pick up compared to my 8 bag air ride KW. It even shakes the mirrors bad enough it is hard to see. Other than those things, it seems to be a good truck. As for the ISX you are asking about, I know Cummins had less trouble than most when "upgrading" to the new standards. The frack tank pullers will have little wear on the drivetrain, but lots of idle time, and I have heard that is not really good for the emissions engines. I am not really sure why though.
Nice truck! That's a heck of a spec sheet there 22k fr, locked up, 18 sp. 600hp nice....and Geez 205wb that's getting you in the post office. Truck makes complete since. Hate that you have to drive a bumpy inferno, I'd be so on edge. I've heard you can remove all that junk. Of course you can't obviously being in CA. Also not sure what the difference is in the 485 and 600. I'm sure if you removed it all and flashed it it'd open up.
I know on the pickups with egr coolers idling them carbons up the cooler core. Probably doesn't help the dpf either. Ambulances and whatnot have troubles with this no matter the brand. You'd think with all the full throttle blasting around they do it would clean it out but doesn't seem to be the case.
Fastdirt the only good thing to come out of the oil patch is the paycheck. It's a rough life for man and machine.
Thanks! Coming from you that means a lot. Well, the 205" wb is just OK, considering I came out of a 190", and the wheel cut is sharper on the old KW, so it feels like I need 40 acres to turn it around compared to the old one. I guess I was just spoiled. When I think I can get away with it, I would like to turn it up, but then again since I am getting busy, I will end up hiring a driver for the new truck, and when I can afford it I will rebuild my KW, not quite to the extent you are going to, but make it nice again, and make that one a fire breathing dragon again.
Sorry to hear about the F450. Lots of work in that ride. Looks like a trimmer's nightmare! I think it's obvious that you're an excellent sculptor with a machine, but that's a lot of hand work.
You should have been fine with your pickup and the toy hauler. As long as you had the license for it, it was plated right, and your tire/axle weights were within spec you should have been fine. If I remember right things like the gcwr set by the manufacturer is more of a limit for themselves and eliminating potential warranty problems. If guys had to stay within the 26k gcwr all the guys running 450/550 trucks pulling 5+ car stacker trailers, big flatbed goosenecks, etc and running for hire would all be running illegally. They've often got trailers with 10k, 12k, or even 15k axles. They'll scale 25k on the trailer and 15k on the truck and still be legal as long as the axle weights, tires, etc all check out fine. Guys with the 1ton dually's pulling 20k trailers will end up over the 26k gcwr and be fine as well. The idle time plugs up the egr, dpf filters, etc due to not enough heat being created from the motor to burn everything off. When you're running 55 down the road weighing 80k the motor is working a lot harder and creating more heat and much higher exhaust temperatures keeping the filters clean then when the truck is sitting idling or at 1000rpm using the pto for hours and hours on end. The carbon then plugs things up and it needs heat to regen and when idling even in a regen it still doesn't do nearly as good of a job as it would have doing a regen while working the motor.
Well the 450 wasn't a huge loss. I mean I lost money overall but it sold for $7k more than I paid and I think the new owner loves it. The extra work on that dig came from 5' of build up if you look at the existing earth lines. Had to dig a big borrow pit to get dry fill. They hauled in about 7 loads a week earlier for the fill but it got saturated by the heavy rains and we had to bury it. Yeah Mark, I just don't know about all that stuff. A guy came by in a 2015 F350 and his manual stated a GCVWR of 30,000. The older trucks from the 2005 era just didn't have the numbers. I'm keeping it all and will use the Peterbilt in the end. Now the whole regen thing is just something I'll stay away from for now. I can definitely see your point about idling and clogging. I liked that 367 but not enough to deal with it and I really don't need a new truck. I like older trucks really...or should I say I like older truck prices lol. No, but I really like 379's, W9's, and LTL's for now. I did do a little research about doing an EGR and DPF delete but it's illegal to do in this country from what I read and it can also create more problems if not done right. Weather has been so nice around here and I sure wish it would last a while longer. View attachment 152130 It's not often you get jobs next door to one another. We took on this little mess. The company bought a 53' trailer for extra storage. They overloaded it so bad that it collapsed. When they loaded the trailer it was backed up to their loading dock so they just ran pallets from top to bottom, front to back and then had the trailer moved out to their parking lot. The parking lot was on a slope and off camber. We took on the challenge and were prepared to demo it if we had to, but we took our chances and unloaded it very carefully. It was pretty sketchy picking up pallets on the top of other pallets on such and angle.
Some great looking pools FD. I still cannot get over how complicated the digs are. Yeah not to often do you get to walk the excavator from one job to the next. The red Pete looked good with the visor on it. Nice to see the clearing pics as well. It turned out great.
Thanks, LC. Just out there enjoying the good weather while it last Well, hope everybody enjoyed their Easter! I spent my weekend driving across the Southeast to Central Mississippi. It was over 800 miles round trip and the search is finally over after years of searching. I've been looking several times a week for years on CL, Truckpaper, and Comm. Truck Trader for these specs on an LTL . I saw it Friday night just two hours after it posted and I jumped. It's a 1996 LTL 9000, 42" flat top bunk, 3406C, 13 spd., Jake brakes, lockers, 212" WB, dual stacks, dual air seats, tilt wheel, a/c, Neway air ride, sliding air 5th wheel. Absolutely no rust. I kept true to my promise of no projects and this one is good to go to work. It could hook up to the lowboy in the morning and go to work. Made it back home over 400 miles in the rain with no issues. A/C and wipers worked fine and kept the windshield clear through the storms. It even has wiper delay unlike my 94 L9000. Also has 24.5 hub piloted wheels unlike the 94 w stud piloted. It also has 10 of the Ford cut Alcoa wheels with that fancy 80's pin striping. I have the stock fiberglass visor from my L9000 and I thought about keeping it true with the wheels and the factory visor but I know It's going to go a different route. It was cruising at 70 mph at 17,500 rpm's....
Nice score!
The new rig makes a nice addition to the fleet! It must have been somebody's baby.
Good looking truck! Where did it come from? It's geared tall as heck; my Detroit will only do 2100rpm.
Not sure I would be wanting to get close to a 3406 turning 17,500 RPM's Someone must have messed with the governor
Either that or it's a marine engine....it's okay if the valves float. :tong
Thank you very much gentlemen. I was quite proud of the find. Smartass comments like this are why this will be last post to HEF. I was actually a little off in my excitement when I claimed 70mph at 17,500. It's actually 16,000 rpms 70 mph and 75mph was about 75,000. A huge improvement in my world. My L9000 is 2,000 at 70, so I go 60mph... Regardless, I spill my heart out on here for those who appreciate it and for those who would like to go out on their own. I am at my five year anniversary for being self employed and it's been a heck of a ride. I've loved every bit of it and can proudly say not a soul on this earth has given me a single dollar or helped in any way that I didn't personally earn. I don't understand people like khansen who look at every single post I write but don't add a thing except when he can make a **** poor weak comment like that. You dang sure don't post any reality of your work. I'm all over the google searches with my threads I've added here on HEF. I think my work and these truck projects will be fun to follow and the 379 project I had on HEF in another thread is really coming together. For the quality folks, I'll be out there on Instagram and FB carrying on with the adventures. Just look me up, shouldn't be hard.
are sure he wasn't trying to be funny. 17,500 is different than 1700 rpm. I think u just got the comma in the wrong place.
Fastdirt, I was just trying to make a joke, lame as it was. I have a sarcastic sense of humor, but I never mean to hurt or offend. I'm sorry if that was the case. Regards, Joi
Fastdirt, I'm sure the comments were made in jest. I hope you keep posting here as I find your journey interesting and I'm too old for fb, tweets and all that other stuff.
Sorry if a poor attempt at humor failed so miserably. I will try to not make any more comments in the future. And I have manged to offer advice to several people on HEF, including the loan of tools to someone rebuilding an engine in a track loader. If I make a mistake in a post I hope someone feels free to point it out, either just a matter of fact explanation or by poking fun at me. Again I'm sorry if my little comment rubbed someone the wrong way.
Brian, did you delete all social media and YouTube videos?
Kshansen and joispoi, you have no need to apologize as your comments were obviously made in jest, an with good humor. Fastdirt, it will be a shame if you quit contributing here; your ability and ambition are admirable, and your thread has been interesting to watch. You have thrown tantrums like this on other forums though, in which people were just trying to help you. FYI, the whole world is not out to get you. People often tease their friends, and I believe that is what was happening here. I hope that you can get past this and continue to contribute, but if you choose not to, good luck to you in the future - I'm sure you will do well, and nobody has suggested that you have not earned everything that you have.