How NOT to run Heavy equipment. Mistakes & red flags in a 60 ton rock truck #2

All right, guys. Well, we're back with how to run a rock truck or an articulated loader. And before we get started, I want to give a big shout out and thanks to Vobal for sponsoring and putting this on. They're not here to sell you their equipment. They're here to help people new to the industry understand how to run heavy equipment. And I also want to give a big shout out and thanks to my wife for being such a happy guinea pig. Okay, Nick, you just got done. Yeah. Driving. Yeah. What do you think? A uh a lot easier to handle than I thought. Yeah. Yeah. It is really, isn't it? Yeah. It's still scary. Is it? Yeah. Especially that hill. Uh-huh. You can't see. You can't see nothing. You can't see it. And it's And the hydraulics goes and then it just starts Yeah. It's It's scary. But the truck pretty much does everything else for you, doesn't it? Uh-huh. Other than braking, gassing, and steering. It does it. It does that. Doesn't do that. I think next we're going to be putting my wife in a skid loader. Guys, teacher Eric. All right. So, we're going to we're going to drive around. All right. Get you familiar with the truck. Okay. Um, so this button right here means that your engine brake is on. So, when you let the accelerator, it's going to kick in automatic. You're going to feel a pull, like you said, a little bit pull slowing you down. Okay. Automatic traction controls on. All right. So, we're ready to go. So, what you'd want to do is put your foot on the on the on the brake. Okay. And turn that. That's your park brake. You're going to turn your park brake off. All right. Then you're going to put it in drive. Do I do anything with that? You don't need to touch that. Then we're going to turn out here to the to the right. Oh jeez. Give it some gas. need to nervous. This thing steers weird. It's like separate. It's Yeah. So, it's separate. You It doesn't go back to center. So, what you want to do is make sure realize you're in the middle of the truck. You're not in on the right side of the truck. So, remember, you need to stay in the center of the road whenever you're driving. Just go all the way around this way. That's a better idea. can you see good out of your mirrors? Yeah. Okay. So, we're going to go up around here behind these trucks. Now, you tell me something. Move on. One thing about an articulated truck, you want to make sure you make fluid mo motions with the steering wheel. You don't want to be quick and fast, snappy, cuz that'll cause the truck to to turn to one side too quickly. You want to be fluid in how you turn the truck. So, we're going to go right around here. Look at Danny running. Danny's like, "Crap." Is that Nikki behind the wheel? [laughter] So, we're going to follow this road out right here or we go up the big hill. So, if you remember, when that Volvo symbol straight across like that, that means the truck is perfectly straight. So, think of the Volvo symbol just like this. That means you're straight. So, if you were to go dumping or loading, you want the truck to be perfectly straight. You don't want it to be cocked to one side. And the reason you don't want it cocked to one side is because when you go to dump, that weight's on one side and you you may have more weight shift to one side and cause a turnover. So, always make sure the truck is straight up and down when you go to dump or load. Go up that hill, stand, that's a big hill. That's a big hill. It's even bigger than you. Oh, it is. You start going up that hill and you can't see anything over the front end of your truck. I don't like that. Actually, if you do it a couple five times, you're fine. Yeah. Give it some gas. Come on. Oh, Jesus. Straight up that hill. Straight up it. All right. When you get about all the way to the top, I want you to come to a complete stop using that brake on your right hand side. Which one is it? One on one next to your accelerator right now. Right now. Right now. Hit the brake. Hit the brake. Hit the brake. Hit the brake. Hit the brake. Hit the brake. Stop. Hold it down. Let off. This is called hill assist. So, some of the new vehicles on the road actually have this in their trucks. And when you're going up a hill, as long as it's 10% or better, you come to a complete stop, the truck will stay stopped on the hill. So if you're waiting for a a truck in front of you to get loaded or unloaded, you're on the hill, you can come to a complete stop and the truck will just sit here. So now all you have to do is hit the accelerator and we'll move on. I can't see anything. You're fine. You're fine. Just keep on straight. All right. So, what we're going to do is we're going to go down the hill and then go up this next hill to the right. It's kind of tight. You You go slow. Okay. Good. You're doing fine. I'm good with this. [laughter] Nothing like getting your heart rate working in the morning. Uh-huh. So, so now you feel the engine brake kicking in. Yeah. See there? It really kicked in. Am I supposed to stop on the brake here, too? Cuz I'm not. You can a little bit if you want. Or go to the right. Slow fluid motions. You're doing great. want to hit a brake or anything here? No, it'll kick in. Now, if you had a load on, you'd want to and you were going fast, you'd want to hit the brake, but you don't have a load in here. You're enjoying the hills, aren't you, honey? You probably make me nervous. I'm not a truck driver. If I was, it's probably really cool, but Oh my gosh. You guys doing okay? Great. Now you can give us some gas. You got a straightaway coming. See, now after you've gone through those hills, doesn't it seem a lot more relaxing just driving? Yeah. I mean, cuz it's like this is nothing but a giant pickup truck. [music] You're starting to feel a little more comfortable, aren't you? A little bit. My heart rate's coming down a little bit. [laughter] Now, the real question is, wonder if I can convince her to back up it. She's doing it. She's backing up that hill. That's nuts. My wife is backing up that hill in a 60tonon rock truck. She's not even a good driver in a regular truck. Go man. You go. That is awesome. Look at that. She did it. She just did it. She backed up that flipping hill. She backed up that hill. Well, if nursing doesn't work out for her, I know what else she can do now. [laughter] Holy crap. That's awesome. Okay, Nick, you just got done. Yeah. Driving. Yeah. What do you think? Oh. Uh, a lot easier to handle than I thought. Yeah. Yeah. It is really, isn't it? Yeah. It's still scary, is it? Yeah. Especially that hill. Uh-huh. You can't see. You can't see nothing. You can't see. And it's And the hydraulics goes and then it just starts Yeah. It's It's scary. But the truck pretty much does everything else for you, doesn't it? Uh-huh. Other than braking, gassing, and steering, it does it. It does that, doesn't it? So, yeah, it's not that difficult to drive one of these or No, not if I can do it. They're more intimidating looking than they are actually once you're in it, right? Yeah, that's what I thought. True. Did we cover what not to do in a rock truck? I think we did with with Lyric, right? I don't think you I don't think so. Oh, no. You didn't. Let's do that. Now, what are some of the don'ts in one of these? Like the things that a newbie maybe get into and just what are the common things you see that very sharp turns loaded. You want to take a real gradual turn. Don't try to take char sharp turns, especially when you're on a grade. You want to keep a straight line as long as you can until you need to make that turn. And when you start making that turn, make it slow sweeping turns. Don't jerk the steering wheel real fast. And then when you're dumping, you want to make sure that truck is straight, as level as possible, as level as it can be. And you don't you don't want to have the truck cocked to one side when you're trying to dump or load. Those are the two big ones. Absolutely. slow sweeping turns and perfectly level ground at all possible, just like the truck is sitting now. That's exactly straight. You want those tires straight with each other. Look in your mirrors and make sure your sideboards are perfectly straight with the truck. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat up here. [music] Heat. Heat. All right, now you're going to watch another one of those things that you don't allow to happen to your rock truck. You don't let them load you heavy in the back. You just don't let them do that. Your load needs to be equally distributed over the center of those two tires and forward of the cab. Putting a heavy load on the back is a recipe for disaster. So add that to the do not do that. The reason we're doing this cuz we want to see those green lights go on. And it's hard to actually get 60 ton of rock to uh six rock to get to 60 tons in one of these. We're trying to get this truck to 60 ton and it'll be it'll indicate on the lights right above the mirror. So, this truck has its own weighing system for both the loader and the truck operator. Hopefully, we're going to see it. Look right above the mirror as this load goes on. Hopefully the yellow or the green light. Yellow means we're getting close to full load. Green means we're at full load. There we go. Close to a full load. That's crazy. Still don't have a full load on that. Watch those mirrors, guys. It's going to tell the operator just when to quit. So, there's your don'ts. Hope this video's helped you out. Um, I think next we're going to be putting my wife in a skid loader. What?