Behind the Scenes

This I actually do have a brake tool for it. You can see that there's still some life to them. We will reconvene cuz I got to dig some stuff out of here. But this is long enough for live. [music] All right, guys. We're just going to take you through a little pre-season prep, go behind the scenes, and show you guys everything we do to get ready for the season. If you're wondering why it looks like I'm pregnant, it's well, because Ah! Ow! Don't Don't bite me. Don't bite me. This is George. George likes to hang out in my shirt when I'm recording videos sometimes. So anyway, we'll take you through everything that we end up going through because we have weeks of work that we end up doing to get ready. And you know, I didn't make this video because it's not the, you know, oh my god, drama, none of this stuff. But I realize maybe for some of you guys, you just want to see what companies do when they're prepping and you compare notes or you just look and go, "Oh, that's a good idea." Or, "Oh, that's a dumb idea." I don't care what you pull out of it, but I was just hoping that maybe you'd pull something out of it. So, if you do, perfect. This is going to be mostly Zach's show. This is what we do with him. I remember back in the day though that we used to uh we used to plow and do dirt work simultaneously. I'm not insane anymore. I mean, it was so tough because you have to switch over. It's the same equipment, but it's not the same setup. When you're going to dig in dirt, yeah, you could use a skid loader or a loader, but it's completely different tools attached to it. It's a different location. It's a different site, and there's just so much that goes into it that when we finally get to the point where we're going into snow season, we just shut down our dirt operation entirely. Those were the most miserable cold effing days ever when we would be plowing and doing demolition and dirt work because you never got a break and you would just pray that it wasn't going to snow because you if you seen snow in the forecast, you'd have to take at least a day or two days ahead of time and start switching all the equipment over to the other sites, getting it all ready to go, and then if it didn't snow, You just wasted your time. Ah, that's my tone to let you guys get back into this video. All right, we're at Sky View. We're moving out. We got the first piece of equipment here. Johnny hauled that up earlier. Now we're hauling the We're unloading these two and then we're going to be hauling all this rest of the stuff tomorrow. So, just going to put you on here and we're unloading this stuff. All right, here's some more stuff that we're doing here. But Alex just got new tires. He just took off of I'm going to do the brakes on here on both the rears cuz he likes to cook out brakes. Like he likes to drive it till they're on metal on metal. He gets his money's worth out of it, but >> [laughter] >> Yeah, usually are they're nothing but pads. I'll show you when I get them off. But yeah, he went got new tires for the winter or for snow plowing. And it's going to be with a topper this year. Tory had was able to do all the salter, but he ripped we ripped all the gear out of it when we put the new plow on here. Here. I don't know if we've showed you guys the new plow. Well, I know Stan's probably did a video on it, but I'll show you guys again just for this video. Oh, but this is the new new plow that's going on Alex's truck this year. Here it's got the custom dirt monkey uh Arctic plow. These side wings move in and out for containment and it turns sideways is which pretty cool and all galvanized is. But enough of me rambling. We're going to get these brakes done. I'm going to put those on put it on a time lapse and we're going to pull this apart. So, on to doing brakes. Time lapse time. Do you guys do your own maintenance? Do you bring it to a shop? Or are you fortunate enough to have a full-time mechanic? I'd love to hear where you're at. You know, we're hovering right at that area where it would be nice to have somebody that's just our mechanic. Except the problem is it would take the hours away from the guys in the slow season like Zach that really need to keep his family fed. Kids got five kids of his own. So, when it boils right down to it, this is what we do is I just defer maintenance. We push everything off until we can finally get to that slower part of the season where we can then shift gears and put all of our effort into getting the equipment back up into its peak condition. It's definitely not a perfect scenario, but it's where we're at. And I don't know, what do you guys do? All right, for [snorts] this I actually do have a brake tool for it that that I went out and got a while ago. I have all my stuff over on the other side. Just personal stuff. So, but yeah, you ratchet it and it spreads the brake pad apart. I'll get you guys zoomed in on that when I start doing that process. But I got one of these. So, a little more light in here. All right. pry off the brake pad, not cook ourselves cuz Alex just rolled in with this thing. You can see that there's still some life to them, but not much. New rotors on the rear end here, buddy. But let's go till I pull the boot off. It's actually not too bad for grease. Lube it up a little more [sighs and gasps] with some fresh grease. And I forgot to grab a paper towel. Yay. Always have your paper towels handy. Zach's actually not a bad mechanic. I've got some guys that tell me they're mechanical and when they pick up a set of tools, I just cringe. I know they're not mechanical. In their mind, they are. >> They may know how to, you know, use which end of a wrench, but that doesn't mean you're mechanically inclined. Zach, on the other hand, yeah, he's not too bad at some things. You got to give it to them. It's being a mechanic is one of those things you either know or you think you know, but you can always tell the difference between the two. Oops. Forget the most important part. Go underneath the hood and pop and pull the thing off so air can bleed out. >> Zach's not that old, but every time he gets up, he gets up like an old man. No having to do with C clamps. Well, everyone has their own thing, but [music] this boot off. That one again ain't too bad. All right, for comparison on here's a brand new brake pad. Here's the old brake pad. had like you see there's that much life left to it compared to that much life. So they're about halfway I'd say but I'm assuming that the other side is probably a lot worse. [music] Yep. We got the loader up loaded up on and going to take that up. So, we're going to unload that, put that back over there, and then we're going back for the sledge and all the other stuff. So, Got to find your gloves. >> Yeah, but some some short leg had the seat pushed all the way up here. >> It's like it's like what was Sammy driving this? >> All right, I'll get everything ready. All right. >> When we're bringing our equipment out to the site, we have to bring a variety of attachments for the equipment because we do more than just plowing snow. We also do loading and hauling. So in this case, you'll see us bringing buckets and pushers both out to the same job site. [music] >> All right, we got all the pushers up here that go up here. This tiny one and two big [music] ones. I wanted my my medium one, but that was overruled. But [music] we'll probably be bringing that up later cuz these these big ones are nice, but they can't get into some of those spots that the small ones could. [music] But yeah, if I take the small one and throw it on my loader, I can move mountains when we get the new tires [music] in. But that's here nor there. So, all right, on to getting the sledge. [music] Heat. All right. Sledge is up here. Pushers are up here. Just missing the K Cabota skid, which that'll come up here once we're done using it it for the for the season. But yeah, all done with that. Probably just I think we just got to get the big pusher over to Sky View, but that's tomorrow cuz the big loader is coming tomorrow. So, on to the next thing. On to the next thing. Basically means we've got to clean up the yard before it starts snowing and everything freezes in place and then we're stuck working around it for the winter until the spring comes. All right, we're wrapping up for the done for the day. Everything's got all the garbage loaded up. That's going out Thursday cuz the new loader I think will be here either tomorrow or Thursday. And I got my plow on my truck. Oh man, there is nothing more beautiful that I like to see than this 250 with a fat tune on it. It'll have snow tires here when it starts snowing and and then this F14. By far the best thing that I've ever It Yeah, it doesn't angle. Ola, you got to do some stuff to angle it it to be to window, but she will move snow and I love it. Best combination. Very powerful truck and this plow. You will move a lot of snow. So, this and then Alex's new one I think are comparable to what they are, but Alex's can do a lot more stuff, which I have yet to run in one like that, so I won't I don't know yet, but I love using that one. And I will die on the hill of Arctic and snow power. Those are your best snow removal. everyone else. Yeah, you everyone has their own type of plow, but I love snow power and arctic. Those are hands down my favorites. But that's that's my opinion. So, all right, enough of me rambling. Next >> You get it? >> Yeah. It's cuz this thing's a 250. >> What's up? That's cuz this thing's a 250. >> We used to have a 300. It could lift anything. >> Yeah. [music] >> Yeah. Got her on the trailer. Now she'll ship out cuz the new loader will be here today at like one some time. We might just haul it out tomorrow. Oh, before I was so rudely interrupted by the battery dying, we're done with the season. So, I got to pull all my toolbox and bulk tank out cuz short bed, which I like my short bed. I don't care for the long boxes. Extended cab cuz it's just too long of a truck. Single cab, long box, sure, all day long. Not a four-door. I I don't particular I used to like them, but now I don't. But yeah, now we're getting ready. You could probably see, but I need to be able to take the VSSI system or the small salter, which we might be doing salting cuz we got an event coming tonight. It But it's so warm and the ground is still like Yeah, I can still kick the ground and manipulate the dirt. So, it's not frozen. It's just [music] more or less it's going to be rain switched to snow. So, it's going to be wet and heavy. The ground isn't even frozen [music] yet, so it probably won't stick. And then if it warms up, it's just going to melt, but might be going out salting, but [music] it I'm not sure. That's not my call to make. But I got to pull all this out. So, I'm going to take you along for [music] the ride on that one. And then we'll probably just transition into the [music] snow plowing stuff. All right, that's pretty much it. It got my bulk tank in here. That will go back behind that once we get that loaded on the other side. It's just it really heavy with just one person cuz it's a steel one. So, Oh, then I got the V uh VSI shifted over so I can grab it with the forks. And I got my salter turned sideways cuz it was spun that way. But that way I can grab it, haul it out, plop it in the truck or the VSSI. Hey, depending. And that one used to go in Alex's truck, but we ripped all the all the stuff out of Alex's truck cuz we're not sure cuz he fell in love with his topper. [laughter] No, toppers are nice, but it's like can't really throw a salter in there without having to rip the topper off and all that other stuff. then that's a big hassle. So, still got plenty of room for the VSSI that can just slide right in. I'm going to go blow out the back of my truck. Probably put you on a time lapse for that, but that won't take long. So, and then that's it. Probably be turning this card into Danny. So, All right, everybody. It's uh officially winter here in Minnesota, finally. We got snow on the ground. Linda and whatnot. It was came in so fast. So not and I didn't have a camera for this side. Mine was down at the yard, but then we had to flip-flop vehicles and all this other stuff. So I didn't get a chance to get down to the yard. But now we are in maintenance mode where I got to go through and grease this up, fuel this up, grease it, fuel up the loader and grease it. Sledge is down right now. Oh, it didn't go out last snowstorm cuz the turbo blew up in it. it before the season even started. So, oh, at least we didn't run it until it blew up. But no, it was going over checking everything right before the uh our first storm hit it and then it was blown up. So, we didn't go out for that one. It wasn't enough to trigger us. So, >> All right, got everything fueled up at North High. Now we're down here at Sky View. Got to get that fueled up. That fueled up. That is one of our guy. Uh, not it's part of our who we're subcontracted for. That's not one of our loaders. There is This is ours. So, unless I'm told otherwise, I'm not touching that one. But I got this, which this is auto greased. And then I just got to go through grease up this and that. It So that's what I got to do. So we're just going to get to it. Winter hit overnight. It was in the 40s one day and was warm and sunny. And then the very next day, the temperature dropped down into the teens. A storm blew [music] in. everything started to freeze, which is good because doing maintenance when it's frosty [music] cold and your fingers are are freezing on you sucks. So, I'm glad we got a a little bit ahead of this system, but [music] we didn't get totally ahead of it because we didn't have the anti- gel [music] in all of the equipment. I we weren't assuming I wasn't figuring that if the temperature was going to drop that fast that quick. In fact, the black skid loader you seen earlier in the video that was cleaning up the debris that gelled up. The temperature just plummeted overnight here in Minnesota. I don't know if you're from Minnesota, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. It was in November and everything just switched on a dime. I don't know if that ever happens where you're from, but it definitely hit us hard and fast this season. But that's it for this video. So, I hope you guys had fun going along for the ride, hanging out with Zach, and seeing all the stuff that happens behind the scenes to make sure that we're ready when the storms do hit. That's it for this one. God bless and go get them, guys. We'll see you on another one.