Builder said:
Pretty basic fare. You pull the boom towards you, then just before it hits the top, you pop the stick forward, let off the stick and it locks in place.
Here's how I learned about Case, I believe it was a super M. I've got a relationship with a company that has in excess of one hundred backhoes at any give time. Nintey five percent of those are Cat. Most of them now are 420D's. OUr relationship is a lot like the old one hand washes another thing. I do some of their welding and when I need a backhoe for a day or so I make a phone call and then go pick one up.
After one such phone call I was directed to the Case. The boom was up in the locked position when I arrived. I had a dual tandem gooseneck flatbed with dovetail behind my truck. When I headed up the ramps the first thing I found out was you had better have the FEL as low as possible or you better be good at steering with the brakes.
A couple of days later I was done with the job and pulled the Case up to load it back onto the trailer. I pulled the main boom back and it wouldn't lock. I figured I had clay blocking it open. So I cleaned out the clay from where I thought it might be the problem.
It was still blocked so I cleaned out everywhere that clay could cause an issue. When that didn't work I attempted to load the tractor with the boom unlocked. Even with the FEL down the front wheels weren't close enough to the ramps to get slapped much less kissed.
It was late in the evening so I called a friend that I thought might know a little bit about this contrary beast. He laughed and told me to pull the boom back. And just before it hit close to home shove the lever forward hard and fast. It was a Case.
It worked first time I tried.
I've loaded quite a few Cats, 416s and 420s, on dual tandem goosenecks and never once felt like there could be a problem.
The closest thing I've found for thrills like that on the loading was a Drill King pier drilling rig a friend let me use on occasion. No steering wheel, joystick because it's an articulated machine. By joystick I mean a floor gear shift lever between your legs. You shoved it left to turn left or right to turn right. Did I mention it was super sensitive?
It hasn't had brakes in years. Not a problem because the machine is all hydrostat, forward and reverse on one pedal like on a Kubota. You push the pedal forward to go forward and rocked it back to reverse. To stop dead in your tracks you just put the pedal in the neutral position.
12X16.5 R4s and a machine width of just over eight feet. And oh, the fun part, six cylinder gas Ford industrial motor with a pull throttle. And the only way it had the power to load was to give it full throttle and have about thirty to forty foot running start.
One time my brother was working with me. When it came time to load he walked away and told me to call him when it was over. His nerves couldn't take it. It was exciting because you only had one shot and it had to be dead on.
