I’m 15 and just learned how to run tractor and pan bout 2 weeks ago and have been doing so ever since working full time for my Dad. Love the scraper vids, keep em coming👊🏼👌
Love seeing the videos from different parts of the world. You should come out to BC to see the coastal/interior logging equipment. The bunchers, yarders, processing...
I'm a Colorado boy ive been in the mining industry in the high country for 10 years now but Ive got quite a few friends that work or worked for Ames construction all over Colorado all the way down to Texas. Amazing man great video and the best piece of equipment besides a excavator hands down is a scraper!
Thank you for explaining the versatile, all around BEST and will say Fastest mover of Dirt. A Scraper (Turn-a-pull) as what I was told they were called when I grew up. Watching them do the big cuts for the main highway being built. You see the big cuts as you drive, then a Large Lower area ahead of you. For years on the highway they cut that hill out, then the versatile scraper would move that dirt, dump it to fill the Low land built up for Highway. In my Humble opinion the ONE engine Scraper is cheaper to buy than TWO engine power. The overall maintenance and Diesel is a Huge saving on overall contactor costs to BID Job. The thing people are seeing now on so many site work is Excavator and the Ruff Terrain Dumps. Everyone forgets about how scrapers are STILL so important as a Earthmover tool, for moving cut Dirt very FAST So glad you explained about them. Not many Big Companies makes that great earthmover anymore
The singles (631) need a D8 or 9 to push them through the cut, the twins (627-637) do push-pull where you hook up to a partner. Twin push pull will out perform any single. The fuel use is justified as The pair is independent and can haul 60 to 70 yards per lap if they overload.
The only outfit in Colorado that uses 631s is bemis and they've got a couple dozen of them. Every so often you catch them overroading at 2:00 in the morning with a train of 15 scrapers going up the highway.
Ran 627 and 637's on the east side of Denver for a couple years. Look south from the airport, we did all that land and put down building pads. So much work out there.
Watching these as an Aussie Scoopy (scraper operator) is fascinating, the safety officers down here would have a heart attack seeing a grade checker in an active cut! Is having grade checkers a fairly common practice in the USA? Here in Australia just about everything in the dirt world gets fitted with gps, even the ancient D9N that’s pushing me in my 631G has gps installed. Cheers from down under!
7:10 Aaron talking about the soft and kinda unstable ground there... 8:30 claiming it looked stable enough (with standing water besides the non existing road) to drive a SUV with street tires on there 🤣 I love this sense of humor how you finally dealt with it in the end
I love in Colorado Springs, CO about 60 miles south of Denver. I used go commute to Denver for several years. I have always wondered why they would scrape so much of the earth prior to construction. Very interesting for sure!
Love your videos. I was a haul truck driver and operator for 27 years. But nowadays I see heavy equipment at work and I'm completely against all the constant building and building and building. I hate seeing empty land turn into subdivisions.
Come out to Arizona and do a video with Markham. I am a finish 23 hand out there, I'm the fastest in the west but talk is cheap, let me know when you're ready
Wish I could post pictures.. we were 75' down out in Ft Lipton gravel pits when we hit the clay under the sand. For weeks we cut sand that no man has ever seen. The patterns and colors were incredible from champagne pink to rust color clay. That's the best part of cutting earth, sometimes your the first being to ever lay eyes on it.
@@jamescaliendo1030 Pangea I’m thinking. There’s a good video here on RU-vid showing the migration of Colorado throughout time. I just wish I could remember the name.
@@johnsheridan6452 dude that's amazing. Knowing you're the first person to ever lay eyes on that, on top of the fact you're exposing it to the first time it's seen sunlight in millions of years...just incredible man
Awesome! Aaron my uncle Marty is head in estimating at ames construction. We are at deer camp together now. I hear you are filing the north Carolina site ?
@@blueman5924 where do you live that is so much better I’m sure you haven’t infringed upon any already existing animal life throughout the course of your life? Please explain
So in Colorado most of the dirt there is clay based. As a result, the dirt is VERY expansive (to the tune of about 20-25%) when it comes into contact with water/moisture. The idea of an Over Excavation (which is what this is) is to expand and then compact the dirt properly so that a house foundation won't be threatened/damaged. It's basically a way to prevent future expansion. Ironically, I used to work for Ames/Bemas as a scraper operator YEARS ago. I have since moved into the management role as a superintendent (different company). In Colorado, There's a really good chance I've worked on a road you've driven on or a neighborhood you're familiar with.
to me it just seems like a lot of work and money to just get house blocks , don't get me wrong i love to see how it gets done but isn't there more suitable ground around that doesn't need some much earth work , what would an average size house block cost in an estate like that before you put a house on it .
YES by my home when they build where large blocks of former FARMERS Land, the Farmer retired or Died. A Development corporation buys the plates. What they do by my home is called (Pre Loading) they bring in a 15 to 20 foot high layer of Large rocky gravel. The material from another Per Load or just the extra from a Rock Pit. It sits for 6 months (Lowering itself into former tilled soil. SINKS into the ground) The former ground had been turned over for years by Farmers. Very soft. They then Remove the Pre Load, just down to the grade they need, pre Load is moved to another sit being prepared. This former Farmer tilled soil has "0" stabilization. Have seen Fire Hydrant when done. The underground contractor has to pour huge cement block forms around Hydrant just at below grade, Base of Hydrants or Hydrants would start to SINK. Have also heard Contactors doing power Repairs by my home talk about the direct burial of Main power cables at a huge Mall/ shopping center, having to be replaced/Repair, from corrosion eating through power cables. The Developer was cheap, did not want to put in conduit. The City allowed Direct bury. The Farming SOIL was very corrosive.
It's called subexing. We dig out 25 to 40 ft down, then do lifts as we water each lift and compact it to rebuild all the way back up to grade. It's the only way to build in Denver or the house was sink in 20 years.
