How To Think Like A Good Heavy Equipment Operator

In today's Down & Dirty we're talking about how to think like a good heavy equipment operator. What should you be doing when you have down time? How can you improve your productivity?
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[@devinbarnes7891]

I tell new people this everytime, never stand around there’s always something to do 99% of time and it makes you look so much better to you’re supers.

[@DieselandIron]

Absolutely. With enough time in the industry you don't need hand holding. You are expected to look around and do the things that need to be done.

[@UAL012]

100% accurate on so many levels. As an operator, you want to make every movement count when you're in the seat. Regardless of what machine you're on, always keep busy and productive. Like you said, lazy operators suck. I've had a few of them work for me and they don't last long. I love the fact that you're multitasking on this project. Stripping topsoil, cleaning up haul roads and knocking down truck piles make for a busy day. It doesn't look like you have a whole hell of a lot of room to run a bigger dozer (MAYBE a D-5 at the most?) or even a blade on that site.

[@DieselandIron]

Thanks for the comment and for the support brother! I agree, lazy operators suck and bring down the production of the whole job.

[@UAL012]

@@DieselandIron Yes they do. If you're still doing videos and would like to do some kind of Q&A, shoot me a PM and we can discuss it.

[@Team_Banchamek]

Had my excavator licence for 16 months now and finally just landed a job on an excavator today. Went in for the induction, signed loads of paper work and got my PPE and tools of them. They even give you a brand new spade for digging your tracks out! Ha they just sent me my first job before for the site tomorrow, am on a 3t mini digger 🤔 am like bro, you really going to do me like that lol bit gutted am on a machine so small but am just glad am of the dump trucks! The company trains you up from scratch so they don’t expect much from me so no pressure at all. The company is called D Morgan, they are in England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@DieselandIron]

Well congrats on the new job and take care of that nice shiny shovel! You'll move up on the bigger machines in no time if you can prove yourself

[@Team_Banchamek]

@@DieselandIron 👍👍👍

[@scatter1390]

Good luck, mate. You'll be in the big toys in no time if you're proactive and keep an eye on the little things on-site that will make your co-workers jobs more effective and time saving. Keep in mind the boss is always assessing your performance whether he's on-site or not. Word of mouth from other operators always gets back to the boss, so keep them happy and you're laughing all the way up the ladder of success. All the best.

[@alexdesamsonow822]

The cool thing is, the minis are more difficult to operate smooth and efficiently than the larger excavators. You’ll see..

[@haske5438]

Couldn’t agree more! It’s such a pay off when you can do more things at once rather then leaving all the hard work to look forward to each time

[@gibsonlandscapeconstructio7984]

I think a good percentage of operators are not excavators There is a big difference between an operator and an excavator Anyone can pull the levers (operator) but an excavator can see the whole job Thinking of his next 5 moves before doing the current task Good video Bryan👍

[@DieselandIron]

Thanks james! I will lay a little bit of the blame at the feet of the industry. A lot of foreman and superintendents don't do a good job of teaching new guys how to think about things. A lot of kids get into the industry without any experience and simply don't know how to think like a dirt guy. That being said, there are a lot of lazy people in this industry that don't get to use an excuse.

[@gibsonlandscapeconstructio7984]

@Diesel and Iron agreed my friend

[@xXBMXSAINTXx]

No chance. Running dozer is way more difficult than running Hoe.

[@KrasnayaArmada]

You right. Especially from a perspective of a boot, your machine is a great gift of power. A true gift of advancing a project in significant way every minute, use it well everyday.

[@neilshearer7688]

Wish younger generation would think like you!

[@DieselandIron]

We as an industry have to do a better job of teaching them! This is by no means the root cause of the issue but for a lot of the newer generation they simply don't know what needs to be done and the industry does a pretty poor job of explaining this. We just expect everyone to know.

[@alexdesamsonow822]

Ain’t that the truth!

[@JohnnyGlad96]

Good advice, give it to us straight. No sugar coat. Laziness has no place in construction.

[@DieselandIron]

You certainly won't make it far as a lazy operator! Thanks for the comment Jonathan!

[@alexdesamsonow822]

Right on !!! 👍

[@kincetown]

🎉🎉 Great video 🎉🎉 Thanks brother!!😊

[@DieselandIron]

Thank you!

[@Coasty_Kai]

Best advice I give alot to!

[@DieselandIron]

Thanks for the comment!

[@lycanthropeleader]

thank you for taking the time to explaine what supervisors won't I've been in the industry 2 years but only the last 6 months were spent in a proper company doing mass ex and moisture conditioning in the dfw area so far I love it thank you again for all the videos

[@andrewruggiero7023]

he's full of knowledge. check out the live stream he does sunday night 7:30 east coast time

[@jesusrides4654]

What company is it ?

[@DieselandIron]

Thanks for watching! Don't ever hesitate to reach out if you have questions about a particular area of the industry.

[@DieselandIron]

Thanks for that andrew! You are the man

[@jesterofatlas5749]

It's hard work to pretend to be busy vs. just being busy.

[@DieselandIron]

Absolutely

[@nicsanta1928]

There’s always something to do like in a loader always things to clean up piles to move preparing pipe never put the handbrake unless its lunch time lol

[@DieselandIron]

Loader is one job in particular where you should never be stopped.

[@jadenmead1928]

Awesome work man, been watching ALOT OF YOUR VIDEOS haha :) I'm currently in the process of purchasing a case 320b :) first piece of machinery ever!!! :) Would love some more skid steer videos, I just love perfecting technique in any application with a four in one bucket :)

[@DieselandIron]

I saw your other comment that your new skid arrived! That's awesome stuff. I don't have access to any 4in1 buckets (and I hate them...). Anything else you'd like to see when it comes to skids?

[@jadenmead1928]

@@DieselandIron thanks man appreciate the positivity :) Oh dang, what don't you like about them bud? Ummm I'll get back to you after work :) flat out at the moment :) Enjoy your day buddy!! :)

[@DieselandIron]

@@jadenmead1928 your good man! I feel that you lose too much capacity on the 4in1 buckets. They are also extremely heavy which takes away from your lifting capacity. About the only application I've seen someone be really effective at using a 4in1 bucket it is on asphalt and concrete paving jobs. In those applications it absolutely made sense to give up the capacity for the clam shell ability.

[@jadenmead1928]

@@DieselandIron oh wow!! I have only ever used 4 in 1 combos. Would love to try a clam shell design 😁 I guess the only thing with a clam shell that I would like to see is have to pick up the very last bit of material? Or would you just level it out with a back blade? I use 4in1 for every application, it's also great for grading to a degree, open bucket 1/3 of the way, angle forward slightly and adjust height as U feel it, material seems to gather in the bucket on high spots and falls out the bucket into low spots.. I'm on a wind farm way up in the mountains hahaha, so any option I have is a good one :)

[@jadenmead1928]

@@DieselandIron oh and I love the 320b series, always ran them with my employer, he's the one that has given me the opportunity of buying one at a very low cost with only 1500 hours :) fresh paint, fresh running gear :) good deal for 45k new Zealand dollars :)

[@D64nz]

Over the years I came to think that there are two kinds of lazy. There's the efficient, no-wasted-effort lazy, and then there's the unproductive lazy. Don't be that second kind. No one likes that. There is a saying that goes "give the hardest job to the most lazy person and they will find the easiest way to get the job done." So long as it's up to standard, and not taking bad shortcuts or pushing any of the work onto others, that's fine. When I was a teen I came to the conclusion that the best forklift driver was the guy who could do just about anything from the seat. I found simple fast ways of getting apple bins perfectly square to each other, could pick up small stacks safely without coming to a full stop, and worked out how to make the shortest paths to the bins I was using, and the water bath they were going in, so when it came go time it was a short fast manoeuvre and I could go back to other things like loading/ unloading trucks and tractor and trailers, and still have some time left over. I got bored easy so optimising the yard became a bit of a hobby. Roll on to later on in life and I wasn't lazy enough. I was a backup driver on a 12 ton loader in a warehouse that we called the raw store, which held up to 45000 tons of raw sugar. Through a series of holes in the floor that would feed a couple of underground conveyors that would run the raw sugar into the refinery. So I thought I should try to clear the edges of the store so the day guy can just push the centre of the pile. Helpful right? Not so much. Well turns out, as good as those intentions were, I was making more work for myself. It was far more efficient to start from the middle and then work towards the edges otherwise I'm having to go around the pile to get to those edges. Sure I could keep up with the supply but I'm wasting fuel and working the loader harder than it needs to. More so, I have this massive mountain of sugar, over 10 meters high, and if I take away just the right bit at the bottom a whole lot will collapse in over the hole all on its own. So instead of having to carry say 100 tons in an hour I could maintain the same level of supply to the refinery, and only show about 50 tons moved on the loaders' scales. The rest would fall in by gravity alone. Then the material that was too far from the holes could still be efficiently carted back to the hole in shorter movements by a more direct path. Where we used to keep the face of the pile as a straight line, it's actually a bit more efficient to have more of a semi-circle starting from the hole and going out. Hopefully that all makes sense, and sorry for the long comment. As a driver, on many sites you have a fair bit of time to think. Maybe use some of the time to review what you're doing and why, and how you might be able to do things better. For anyone curious I got some drone footage of the refinery. The Raw store is the big shed up the top of the hill. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eneYlqambK53Z9Esi=TjGRT2UYZ5eIXdEN

[@DieselandIron]

You are spot on. There is a huge difference between "I'm lazy and I don't want to work" and "I'm lazy and would rather finish this in 2 hours instead of 3."

[@anoaiquiocho6160]

Who makes that exhaust stack!

[@DieselandIron]

That was an after market exhaust, I have no idea who makes it. It was on a D3

[@DesertTuna]

Ken oath thank you very good worth ya money

[@DieselandIron]

I do my best!

[@TheLeverMonkey]

It bugs me when my ground man sits and watches me dig a set instead of going behind me to make sure I have all the centerline marks I need to stay on line. I don’t get to play with all the fancy toys you get with gps and what not.

[@DieselandIron]

It is frustrating when you are in the groove and then you have to stop to wait for something silly that should've already been taken care of.

[@wadecohagan2388]

@@DieselandIronexactly

[@ronniejones8508]

Bro! You are calling it like it is.You have operators that's only going to do the bare minimum. Like you said, the operators that do what others won't do, will be the last one on the job.

[@DieselandIron]

There are a lot of guys in this industry that like to sit around unfortunately. That mentality really irritates me

[@constructionduru5195]

There should NEVER be down time on a jobsite. Everyone and every machine should always be doing something! If not money is being lost like crazy! If you're just starting out in construction and you've just finished what you were told to do you should offer a hand to the other guys or ask your Foreman what's next. Initiative and work ethic are few and far between these days! Be the hardest working guy on your crew and ask questions, ppl will notice and even the older guys will respect you.

[@DieselandIron]

100%. You touch on a really important part of it. If you don't know what you should be doing, ask. Don't just sit around until someone prompts you. You need to be proactively looking for other things to do or asking other people what you should be doing. Thanks for the comment!

[@Northeastohio]

What about haul truck operators

[@DieselandIron]

Just get that truck under the hoe as quick as possible! There aren't a lot of extra jobs you can do with a haul truck

[@excavator22]

When your off road breaks down, which it will because they all do, ask to do something else, whether its holding a grade rod, getting on a roller, look for something that other people don't like to do and do that! Your super's and foremen will notice even if they don't verbally tell you that and you'll move up! Just remember, look for other things to do and be patient!

[@dee73]

About time thank you for calling out these lazy operator this just ate four operators it's all trades I'm a general contractor but I'm a working general I sweep floors I dig ditches if it's a job it's got to be done !!! Truth

[@DieselandIron]

Thanks for watching!

[@jacksonalonzo4903]

That dozer is really loud

[@DieselandIron]

It's because it was an open cab machine so you didn't have any sound dampening.

[@vince6056]

All those jobs and doing a KZbin video. 😂

[@DieselandIron]

Absolutely 😂