How to dig gravel out of hillside

[3 Horse Ranch]

Worst was mucking out a pond. I thought I'd try and reclaim (use elsewhere) what I was going to dig out. It worked for a couple of trips (on-property) a ways away and then I gave up. The weight was insane: I had water sloshing around. Poor tractor was grunting. I still loaded up the trailer, but the haul was only about 50' away.

Worst for me was a water treatment plant in Ferndale WA on the Nooksack river. The wet clay muck would self level by the time we made it to the dump site 10 miles away, we had to put load locks on for the trip. After dumping there was a 2 inch layer, front to back and 30 inches up each side. The operator kept wanting to load the trucks to the top. One driver weighed in at 137,000, just a smidge over his legal 105,500. After that we would count the scoops and pull ahead or pull out without waiting for the beep. We would just let the muck stay in the boxes, but then they started asking to bring in clean 3/4 drain rock,,, oh joy.

 

[DieselBound]

Ferndale, up the "road" from me

Clay sticking to the bed, ugh. I was finishing with one load and needed to drop the trailer when done- it was getting late. Dump's battery ran down. Shoveled it out, all the while wondering why I had a "dump!"

Anyway, gravel is sounding a lot better!

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

Ferndale, up the "road" from me

Clay sticking to the bed, ugh. I was finishing with one load and needed to drop the trailer when done- it was getting late. Dump's battery ran down. Shoveled it out, all the while wondering why I had a "dump!"

Anyway, gravel is sounding a lot better!

I worked for Cowden Gravel. One of the last jobs I worked on was Lakewood High School west of Smokey Point.
Sometimes it took 30 minutes of hard shoveling to clear both boxes at the end of the day. They pretty much had to be spotless because we had no idea whether we would be on the same job the next day or not. I'm glad my shoveling days are over, the dirt here is easy digging, dry and powdery and it never leaves our 20 acres.

 

[DieselBound]

Small world! I had a good friend who had a house just up the road from the school: he rented out the house; he'd offered the school some of his property to build their track on- I believe that's what the story was. I have another friend (my equipment rental guy) who just bought property up there, a mere block away from where my other friend's house was.

I was looking to get property up out of Colville. I was wanting to distance myself from rain. Ended up completely opposite of that plan (I blame it on my second/current wife- no regrets, she's perfectly fine with all the rain): 100" of precip last year and nearing 95" this year. Lots of the necessary ingredients for making mud here!

 

[yanmars]

3 horse ranch. Nice work. Some here do a vertical drill for geo. A 3 foot diameter hole. Less ground torn up but then almost everything here is clay.

 

[dirttoys]

That's why experienced operators don't have to carry insurance! STUFF happens. Yes, it can more readily happen with a rookie; but, lots of rookies survive and become "experienced."

Long ago I mentioned to my dad that I was going to rent an excavator (never operated one before) and he told me I'd end up spending 1/2 a day just trying to figure out how to operate it. I was productive within minutes of climbing on. My dad wasn't considering the educational power of the Internet! (he was also a bit gunshy after once operating a backhoe and bending the boom) Anyway, a basic understanding of a machine along with a good understanding of physics AND a great set of balance (being able to feel the slightest of movements/shifts) CAN get just about anything done. KEY is speed: caution often is a better mindset to have than "experience" [I approach everything like I'm going to f-up, wihch forces me to concentrate extra hard because I'm a sum-a-b tyrant of a boss to me]. I might have 75 hrs running excavators; BUT, I've done a fair amount of different tasks such that I believe that I could do just about anything with an excavator (that's a common task). And, yes, I've got one amply stuck: but I got it out; not far from me a huge excavator got stuck and then the salvage company's excavator got stuck- not sure how it all ended up, but in these two chapters of the story I'm betting that an inexperienced operator might not have done worse.

Heck, even a/my dog can operate an excavator! (she picked up on it after riding around for several hours as I cleaned up some ditches)

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I have that same x with closed cab, don't see too many, sadly my dog won't ride in the aquarium with me.

Best,

ed

 

[rickyb01]

I was able to haul a few loads of gravel yesterday. As I get more comfortable with machine and don’t have to think about what motion controls bucket, arm and boom. I’m far from being smooth but at times it all goes right and I look like I knew what I’m doing. Then i do something stupid like dump gravel to quick. I try and grease the excavator at the start of the day. I haven’t greased the ring gear. The machine says grease it every 250 hours. What are some thoughts on this?

 

[Rockbadchild]

Thanks for the replies. I went to a big gravel pit today and watch them dig. I think I have a pretty good game plan. Will make a bench and work my way down. Want get to high with bench.

yes that's the way and it also ensure the excavator is working on a level base ...

 

[Clintock]

I was able to haul a few loads of gravel yesterday. As I get more comfortable with machine and don’t have to think about what motion controls bucket, arm and boom. I’m far from being smooth but at times it all goes right and I look like I knew what I’m doing. Then i do something stupid like dump gravel to quick. I try and grease the excavator at the start of the day. I haven’t greased the ring gear. The machine says grease it every 250 hours. What are some thoughts on this?

Grease is cheap... I have my guys grease everything everyday. Lot less breakdowns due to grease worms.

 

[3 Horse Ranch]

As I get more comfortable with machine and don’t have to think about what motion controls bucket, arm and boom.

I was surprised at how fast I got used to the excavator I used in the above mentioned trenching project. It became not much more difficult than telling my arm and finger to scratch my nose. It was like the machine was just an extension of my body and my brain learned it quickly, Within an hour or two the only things I had to think about were the depth of the trench and where to put the dirt.