How NOT to Plow in a Skid Loader- Hazards, Patterns & beginner mistakes 4 k video

[Music] [Applause] [Music] all right you guys don't laugh at this next one today we're gonna be learning how to snow poorer parking lot in a skid loader but we've got to use a model of the parking lot we're actually going to be demonstrating in and this is the best I could do you guys this is the building this is the entryway in this is the parking lot light pools sidewalk cars and the reason we're doing it like this is because we snowplow at night and I can't you can't really see anything any other way so we're gonna be doing a combination of live action while we're there Plus using this model to demonstrate the pattern so we have a zero tolerance this does not look like it's zero tolerance this looks like somebody got lazy so all this has to be cleaned up oh look at what is this I mean I'm my own worst critic this is not acceptable okay here's a big pile of jig right in my lot you can't leave jig in your life you can't jig your lot just don't do get in your life I'm just gonna tell you right now don't jig in your life because a big sure the success of your snow plowing isn't just in equipment that's a part of it but a lot of it is also in the pattern that you use in a skid loader offers you the versatility and flexibility of using different patterns then you can get in a snow plow truck so you can plow the same lot with a skid loader entirely different than you do with the plow truck and we're gonna be going over that today in detail plus showing you some of the things that guys royally screw up on so when you're in a loader you may be on detailed duty you may be on mass moving duty or you may end up doing both detail duty means your job is to go into an area like this back drag everything away and then another piece of equipment their job is to come in and just move the mass piles of snow now when you work in a team like that you may be tempted to pull out do your job and then assume your teammates coming in and doing their job and leave your dribble piles behind if this does not get picked up if your teammate doesn't do their job and this pile gets left behind it may not look like a big thing but this will turn to solid ice and it will freeze to the lot and then you are not going to be able to get that off from the lot so if you're on detail duty don't just assume your teammates going to come in and know where all of your minor piles are your job is to double-check with them and then your job is to go back after the fact and make sure that all of your piles got picked up and if one of your piles didn't get picked up put it where it's got to go just do it just get the job done don't call up your teammate going right way where where where where move the pile let them know that they missed a couple piles people make mistakes move onward and upward but it's going to be just as much your mistake as it is your teammates mistake if you refuse to pick up little tiny piles like that and you want to point the finger at somebody else and blame them for it don't be that person alright guys so this represents the lot one of the lots that we actually plow snow on and the pattern that we use with our skid loader is going to actually be similar on this particular lot as the pattern that we use in a snow plow truck now this piece of equipment is going to represent either a truck or a skid loader in today's video and this is the entryway coming in so one of the first things we need to point out is the pattern takes precedence when you're plowing a parking lot one of the main things that we need to point out is we need to locate exactly where all of our push piles are going to be now in this parking lot the push piles are located on the opposite side of the lot from the building that means everything gets started at the building back dragged away from the building and pushed in one direction which is actually not lending to the strength of how a skid loader can work but it's still dictating the pattern that we have to use just because we have a skid loader that can push multiple directions doesn't mean we always get to that's the unfortunate truth about some lots how they're designed and how you'll be forced to operate whether it's in the benefit of the piece of equipment and you the operator or it's just one of the ways that you have to do this parking lot so this big fluff a cotton down here represents our existing push pile and this just demonstrates the sidewalk with the cars next to it so in this case we're gonna pretend like all the cars have cleared out so that this gives us a wide-open parking lot to come into now I shouldn't have to say this but I've seen operators do this time and time again you always find you always start from the furthest point from your push pile the reason you start from the furthest point from your push pile is because otherwise you'll be duplicating your work let me demonstrate I've seen operators have to clear this parking lot and so they'll work their way around the light poles and then they'll push this snow up their work their way around this light pole push this snow up then they'll back drag all of the snow away from the curb lines and then they'll push this snow up what happens is if they've left any snow up here by the sidewalks and adjacent to the building as they're pushing it over the area that they've already cleared they're leaving potential work behind so the way we address this is we typically will have one skid water going to the lots and smack drank all of the curved lines before the bigger equipment can come in that way the big equipment with the snow pushers can just start moving the snow rapidly and not worry about the detail work now most people don't have multiple pieces of equipment that will do cific functions so if that's your case then what I'm going to recommend you doing is back dragging I do along the curb light next to the buildings first before you start to worry about the detail work further out into the parking lot so you start your detail work at the furthest point away from your push pile and then you start to do the mass moving and detail work as slowly as you move out toward the push pile what I'm saying is this area as they move the snow from here all the way to the push pile is going to inevitably leave drips and so one of the things that should be a no-brainer but it's not a no-brainer and you guys probably comment down below because I'm sure some of you guys have seen this firsthand you've told the guy the right way to do a lot you've showed them the right way to do a lot and still time and time again they don't get it that's why we're making this video so if we come into this lot we're gonna come in and we're gonna start at the door this is the building this is the doorway we're gonna pull all of this snow away and we're gonna we're not even gonna take it all the way to our push pile unless it's a large amount of snow up we're talking about massive events we move it all out on smaller events it's okay just to start clearing the snow and getting it away from the corners now now there will come times when all of the cars have not cleared out of the parking lot when that's the case you always yield two cars or active traffic you can have your sirens on you can have them flashing and technically us but they're supposed to yield to you but that doesn't mean you can be stupid and cut in front of a car you always yield to cars and pedestrians it's just an easy way to stay out of trouble and as a snowplow operator here's a giant red flag you will have cars that park behind you while you're operating intentionally I've seen cars that want to get hit they want to collect the insurance money that's a high that happens that just happens now in this case with a plow truck here's where we're gonna get separation or difference in their ploughing pattern with a plow truck we would then push forward back up push forward back up push forward and back up if we were going to be plowing the same lot with the skid loader we have the ability to push sideways spin push sideways spin and then if we have a plow on that skid loader we can angle everything over now the truck if they wanted to do the exact same pattern would go forward then backward forward backward while they're going backwards they're not typically moving snow they're just backing up to go in place the distinct advantage that a skid loader has in a situation like this is its ability to turn 360 or 180 go plow the reverse way and then spin again see the edge of this sidewalk this is not okay this is a dome this wasn't us though this was the sidewalk crew so the sidewalk crew comes in after us and instead of pushing the snow up that way pushes it into our lot and leaves this behind meaning we've got to come back and clean it up so if you're part of the sidewalk crew work with the people plowing the lot don't work against them don't think they're gonna come in and want to tidy up after you because a lot guys we don't want to clean up if this sidewalk guys and lot guys don't put your snow on the sidewalks those sidewalk guys got one heck of a hard job it's harder than our job I'm gonna tell you right now truck any sidewalk guy will trade jobs with any plug I he'd rather sit in a plow truck where he's nice and warm he can listen to the radio he can sip coffee and he could complain about the sidewalk guys that's what a sidewalk guy wants to do they're out there busting their butt in the cold shoveling and moving snow but that doesn't make an excuse for you sidewalk guys to go dumping your snow into the lot for Wow guys the cleanup either so a little bit of give and take now if you are running a pusher don't expect to be able to do a whole lot of detail work around obstructions in the parking lot now this pusher does allow us to do a lot more detail work we can go right up to the islands we can back drag with this thing and that's exactly what we're doing right here as we're going up to each Island back dragging away so that we can get all of our main pushes our long runs consolidated and so as he works the detail around each Island he's getting it set up so that he can go in and then all of the snow from around the island in one push out in the open part of the parking lot [Applause] [Music] whereas he comes around this corner the bush pile is actually right there on his left but if he pushes that snow up into the bush while he is literally covering the exact same ground that he's going to have to do the long run coming up in the next swipe so there's no sense in double tracking or double pushing any ground it's you can do it but when you're under the gun and you've got a lot of snow to move cover the same ground twice in addition so in this case on this lap what we're going to be doing is literally grabbing the snow from the furthest points and moving it and all the way across the lot now here's a couple of the big things that I want to draw attention to storm sewer inlets you may have a storm sewer Inlet in the middle of the parking lot you more likely will have a storm sewer Inlet along the curb lines and potentially one along the sidewalk those storm sewer inlets need to remain clear at all times it's storm sewer inlets and handicapped spaces are always a priority in a parking lot they create both of those things to serve very specific functions and it's not to stockpile snow the reason you don't want to cover up a storm sewer inlet is simple when you bunch snow over the top of a storm sewer inlet during the freeze-thaw cycle in the spring the water can't run down to the storm sewer inlet and escape instead what will happen is that will back up and create an ice sheet over the entire parking lot but when you keep the storm sewer inlets clear that allows the water to run down and the snow to actually melt faster creating a safer parking lot so once we have cleared around the islands and the obstructions from the furthest point away from our push pile we're gonna go back and start our main run now in this case we'd back drag the snow into the plow zone and then now we're picking it up the pushpot that way we only cover a one single area one time [Music] so there's little things like that another big giant no-no when you're snow plowing is dribbles you never dribble you never leave any snow behind and what I'm actually talking about is as you're pushing snow you're gonna notice that you get just a little tiny bit left and then you're gonna be tempted to move over a space and keep plowing and move over a space and keep plowing and just forget about that dribble that so you may have this happen you may get your area all cleaned up and then the city comes through and leaves a nice big wind row right at the end of your driveway don't get discouraged just get used to it it happens and it is our job to come back and get that cleaned up if you're still on the site when the city plow truck leaves that wind row behind that's on you that's our job to get that cleared first and foremost you go ahead and leave I think somebody else is gonna clean that up or these people are gonna clean that up you know before they reach for a shovel you know what they're gonna do they're gonna reach for the phone and say can you come clean the end of my driveway up and then your boss is gonna call you up and say hey why did you leave that weren't you still on site when that happened or maybe the he won't say that I don't know what your boss is gonna say but it doesn't make a difference because if you would have cleaned it up in the first place you would have had that conversation period this slop that dribble is a potential slip and fall that dribble is the actual mark you leave behind as a professional snow plower so your job is to never leave a dribble behind even the slightest dribble your Lots should be completely bone dry clear that also allows the next phase the salting to work even better if you have a lot filled with dribbles when the salt comes in it's going to clear everything else then it's going to start to try to melt those dribbles those dribbles are going to melt on to the all right on to the other areas that are salted washing the salt away and making it in effective so it's important to start with a clean lot have it done wiped out before you get to the stage where you're salting so this is where he's got to be careful he does not want to back leg over the landscaping we're really careful because right here is the curb right there and this little bit of skull is easy they hit that and there to destroy the landscaping so he comes up here he's gonna be hyper careful how he does we were he would have got all these rocks and drop them into the parking lot so this is another big joke don't come up into the islands too far [Applause] while we're on the subject of don't don't ever put snow on a fire hydrant just don't don't ever put snow on a fire hydrant or a mailbox you put it in the mind of a firefighter that house is on fire that house behind me is on fire and he's got a hook up to this is he gonna want to try to shovel snow away or is he gonna worry about getting hooked up to that fire hydrant and getting that fire put out that's his job his job isn't to move snow that's our job so don't put snow on fire hydrants and don't put them in front of mailboxes mail guys got enough work to do as it is don't make their job harder either all right you guys that's our video for the day he put it in the comments don't blow all the things I forgot following a parking lot it was a ton of stuff to cover I did the best I could to get the basics covered but I know I didn't get everything so read the comments down below and have big things with us at now and then software for helping sponsor put this video together recently I started to work with element and into my company and I want to share that with you guys as well and they helped sponsored videos like this what big things goes on to them god bless you guys and go get [Music]