I spend most of my time in a CAT 980M. I must say, if that truly was your first time you did a very good job. Minor improvements could be made of course but you are far better than most I have seen. Everyone starts somewhere! Love that machine though! (Primary tip: as the cutting edge enters the pile, give it a slight lift before curling. Puts more weight on front tires for extra traction. Once you have the traction you can put the power down to get a full bucket every time.)
I think you did good running a loader, everyone had a first time, I've run one for 15 years, and I could give pointers but you did better then some guys I've seen
After watching another RU-vidr who I wont name doing a pond cleanup. I've come to see that anybody can own an excavator but it takes passion and skill to run one. Keep up the awesome videos.
I watched the other guy's video and I'm confused, Really $3K for the job (a day and a half), that operator has 20 years of excavator experience?? I watched it twice, I thought it was some prank video.
I used to operate a Terex 72-51b when serving in the British Army in the 90s These were replaced with the Volvo 4400 then some Medium Wheeled effort from Case (bag of crap). Still miss the sound of that screaming Detroit Diesel of the Old Terex such a refined Machine when taking down barricades in Northern Ireland at 2 am on a Sunday morning after another Riot in Belfast 😉 Happy days picking up cars in the 4 in 1 bucket.... “No my friend it’s definitely a write off you need to contact your insurance” Munchitty Crunchitty 😁
Hey buddy if you had one of those loaders you could move some massive amounts of dirt and brush in a day. But you might need a couple more haul trucks. Another good video Chris as always, I look forward to the new one each day
@Flexin 4VGT cool! Our county regulations an state here in Kansass and Missery are not as accommodating. Even someone who gets a warehouse job needs a cdl to use a fork truck. Contractors who use backhoes for plumbing work need cdls to operate them.
Like they say,anyone can run them (loaders)but it took me years to get good at them especially with the biter bucket and then more time to get used to the track one. I have all biter bucket on my equipment I wouldn't know what do do with two joysticks lol
That things a monster, I imagine the person that instructs people to drive this, the first thing they'd say is dont drive this like you would a smaller loader or you can get into some trouble quick with the tonage its able to hold , she's a beast
Great video. The town I live in is trading in their 1991 Michigan Wheel Loader for a fairly new Volvo Loader. Hope it's not that model as their poor 10 wheeler dump trucks would be full in one and a half scoops.
i hauled rif raf for the corps of engineers for about 2 years it was the size of a stove up to a compact car and some bigger. tore a new one out of my double bottom box but the rate i got was well worth replacing the box 2 times.
Chris, Could you send one of those to CT for me for Christmas. I've been Very, very good this year, Santa. You must have really got your rocks off chipping the paint out of the load bed of somebody else's rock truck. sdh in CT
I have to say, you dropped a couple, lol! Great machine! One thing though, what’s the depth below grade can you dig with an excavator? Like the 140 - the 220?
i watched a volvo loader burn to the ground one night at the chip mill in 2016..apparently it had electrical issues under the cab and then it went to the hydro lines and it was done for...even the fire dept said let it burn there is nothing we can do other than make sure it doesn't spread..the loader was only a couple years old...the fire chief said it was a manufacturer defect in the wiring..first and only time i ever heard of any wiring issues since the late 80's ...i used to make the harness for volvo ,deere,international,and 1 other brand that i can't remember back in the mid 90's ..i was at the solder pots just dipping my wires..i loved working in that factory but the smell was awful in the soldering dept
Jane Ames has working In that dept given you any health issues? Just wondering. I used to work a lot with wood, and always used PPE, but some of my colleagues didn’t and they are on oxygen, or dead. .
So, how do you operate that joystick control? Specificley the left one Is the transmission hydrostatic, or torque converter with powershift? do you use a foot Throttle?
volvo loader are by far the smoothest loader out their ... them and cat too but only for the big loader ! the excavator i did not try volvo yet but i will have my chance lol
It’s not full until its coming over the greedy board of the bucket 👍 like I was told when I first got in a machine anyone can drive them but not everyone can operate them
why don't they mount into loaders one operating joystick like on jcb 4cx with back forward and left right movement?Wouldn't be easier to operate the machine?
I notice alot of old timer operators use the machine's massive weight and low velocity to build enough momentum going into the pile . But they probably have every movement figured out by the mining engineers .
How would I go about getting a job driving these machines? I have been watching your channel for a while and just noticed you are in Wendell, I live in Archer Lodge. I have always thought it would be awesome to to be a heavy machine operator but never could figure out out how to be come one. Spent 15 years remodeling houses and have been looking for a career change. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
No Worries check your local community college, like Vance-Granville or equivalent. Southside Virginia Community College in Alberta VA started a truck driving/heavy equipment school at Ft. Pickett. It was the first in the state in 1998.
You can use both. The CDC (comfort drive control) is an armrest on the left which you pull down and hit a button on the armrest to activate it when you wanna use it. Then you got steering, kickdown and Forward/Reverse control on that armrest. You can still grab the wheel anytime you want, and to deactivate the system you just pull the armrest up again. You're limited to 30kph as long as the CDC is active.
1st tine i got in a modern 4 track i got a 30 second run down and off i went. I had never drove a tractor like that before so i waa timmid. 2 weeks later im hauling 120,000 across the middle of a field at 25mph to 2 waiting semi trucks 🤣
Good loading for your first day, remember loader operators shouldn't spin or slip any of the tires, that's a very quick way of wearing the tires out and not worth it trying to get a full bucket. If it's Volvo's machine, well that's another story. :)
