Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Most Difficult Heavy Machinery to Operate?

Finish roller on Pavement


Or small dozers

YOU got that right
That being said every body so far is right but lots of guys have a NATURAL ability on [ ] and it's a ball to run them. the level of difficulty comes in acessing the lift, material to be moved, condition of soil [ site]steepness ,draining the swamp, keeping the machine above ground , or the crane on its outriggers,, not getting yourself backed into a corner and in lots of cases haveing a machine on site BIGGER THAN YOURS just in case

norm

in the OLD days a 2 handed sledge hammer for drilling holes in rock for blasting ---- one poor trusting bugger held and turned the drillsteel as you hit it with the sledge ,, just remember you trade places a lot during the shift



norm

Somebody ate something.
Prolly some sandy sushi.

You can buy them in the same isle as a Mexican backhoe...

Kent

Worst I had to run was an old D-6 in the winter here. Just a miserable job, start to finish. Those damned ponys could be hell to get started. Get the engine running and pray you see everything capable of making you toss a track.

Road grader cutting finish grade.

Please tell me you did't check the oil on that one???

Cable tool?

I ran "blue tops" as a kid while working on on a Rock Crusher crew. Them guys could sure raise hell if you caused them to pull one up.

Of ALL the equipment used in that operation, the "steam" shovel operator was paid the most, then the dragline guy.

I drove an International Payhauler and an end dump Euclid.

Running blue tops was the only "whiteman job" that ranked under those two.

Well. I'm not gonna start talking about tossing one off.
That's just morbid.

But I will tell you about two dumb assed masturbaters that got the big excavator stuck in the mud.

Supervisor drives all the way out to the jobsite an just shakes his head.

"You stupid bastards couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions printed on heel. This machine can lift itself."

He waded down through, climbed aboard, swung around stuck the bucket down in the mud and pushed that 9 ton sonofabitch up on to dry land.

He crawled down off, shook his head, got backin his truck and drove away.

Yep, you guessed it.
Them two fum duckers didn't get a pay raise.

I haven't operated a dragline or shovel but I never could get the hang of running a grader. Backhoe isn't too tough to learn.

Y'all keep saying that, and it's true as far as "running" one goes. Even I could probably learn to dig a neat grave, for instance.

But... to watch a top notch OPERATOR of one get the job done with no wasted motion and no collateral damage still impresses the hell out of me.

I don't know if they even use "blue tops" any more, but we used to have to fine grade to them. They were 1 inch square stakes driven into the crushed gravel (road construction ) and the grade foreman would run in front of the grader. There would be two stakes, and the grade foreman would signal the grader man as to how much to cut and fill at each 50 foot station. As soon as the grader man got the signal, he'd nod his head, and the grade foreman would run to the next station and signal the grader operator when he looked up. It took a good grader operator to cut grade to the nearest 1/4 inch all day long. I plowed snow with a grader, but never cut grade, at least not much. Did run blue tops though.

I've run a lot of different equipment over the years. With the new controls on cranes, they are pretty easy and accurate to control these days.
Just about any heavy equipment has its quirks, but with a little time just about anyone can be taught to run just about any heavy equipment proficiently. Backhoes and excavators are just about the easiest to learn, IMHO.

Sometimes it's the small stuff that is hardest to run. Anyone ever try to run an optolyth? Or try to get a scissorlift into a space30 feet up and only 1" bigger than the lift dimensions without damaging anything in the process?

Bob

Everyone things they can run a hoe But there is big difference in digging s ditch or hole and digging flat , strait and to grade . Very few can dig to grade with a track loader

My BIL has been an equipment operator for many, many years. He once told me that the guys who are really good on a road grader are damn near artists.

Cranes are the worst for me, with a Gradall second.

Road Grader, had a fella that had ran one for 30 years tell me, "I am still learning things."

I'd go with a grader cutting finished grade.

Crane is pretty simple, the trick is not killing anyone with your load.

On another note, ya'll have obviously met some folks that operated equipment, you don't exactly have to be a genius to work one, how hard is it really?