How to run an Excavator for Beginners. What you Need to know to get started Pt. 1/2

All right, guys. We are going to be talking about everything excavators and we're going to be talking about how to run one of these. Now, I'm going to be coming at you guys from the point that I've been doing this for 27 years with no formal training. The only thing I've got to say about it is I've been able to survive that many years running an excavator. But I wanted to call in a pro, somebody that actually teaches people how to run excavators. And that's where I got Danny from Volal. And Danny, hey buddy. Thank you. Thanks for doing this. Now, Volvo is the one putting on the training for us today. By the time you're done, what Volvo hopes to accomplish and what I hope to accomplish is that you guys can hop inside one of these, be familiar and comfortable enough with the machine that you can safely get through to the end of the workday without hurting yourself, without hurting anybody else on the job site, and without hurting the piece of equipment. So, this guys is going to be a very thorough training video series. So without wasting any more time, Danny, let's get into it. Do it. Okay. What's the main components of an excavator that these guys need to be familiar with? Okay. Well, we can start at the front of the machine. Okay. Okay. So, boom arm, stick, bucket. Got it. Okay. Um, then you get into your underc carriage, which is your X frame, undercarriage, and your tracks. So, if you guys are buying your own machine, you want to kind of as a rule of thumb, you always want to look at where your idlers are because the machine is designed to really be used over the idler [Music] idlers in the front, which is this sprocket here. You can see it's a smooth sprocket. Okay. Okay. That's how you know the front of the machine, cuz typically you're going to be digging over the idlers. Why is that? Okay. It's designed and reinforced in the front, okay, for the digging purpose. And also, you have your drive motors in the rear, which are these with the sprockets, okay? And it has there's more weight in the rear. So, you have to look at the look at like the excavator. Here's your counterwe. Okay. Here's more weight with the sprocket. The machine is designed to really be used over the idlers, right? Typically, yes. I mean, it's not I'm not saying that you can't dig anywhere else, but typically that's where you would most likely want to want to be digging your operating machine. Okay. For the for the maximum stability. Oh, good to know. Is the the cab on the excavator. Then you of course have your access points to enter to check your your your engine oil. Um, which is basic basic entry to that. You have your power disconnect, turning the batteries on and off. Uh counterweight. On Volvos, we typically have a rear camera, which is standard on our equipment. And also, if you look, there's a side camera on it as well. Okay. And then you have your hydraulic tank, which is here. Okay. Okay. You have a sight glass in here. So, typically when you're around a machine, you'll check check your fluids as you go. And this sight glass Danny is what is the hydraulic oil level for the for the machine. Okay. So there's guys when you're running an excavator there's more than just engine oil that we've got to worry about. All of the cylinders on the machine run off from hydraulics and that has its own separate oil reservoir. Correct. Okay. Yep. So that's something good to know about. So the oil So the oil level in the tracks is separate. Correct. It is totally totally separate. We should probably cover that for these guys as well. So, when you guys are out looking at your own machine, make sure you check all of these individual components cuz it's all part of the process, right? It is. Y All right, guys. We've done the pre-tri. You're hot and ready to get in the seat of the excavator and you hop up there and maybe it doesn't feel quite right. There's two control patterns that we need to discuss. The first one is called SAPE. The second one is called ISO. and they're not the same. Imagine this. If you've ever driven a stick car, take the stick and have it on the right side and then go to a different country and take that same stick and put it on the left side. You'll be totally bass backwards before you know it and upside down and in a ditch if you're not careful. But most of these excavators as well as backho have a pretty quick and easy way of changing the control pattern on our machines in the in the cab. When you're in, you can look at the bottom right hand corner of the the screen and it'll tell you what pattern. S A R S O. If it's not in the pattern that you want, you'd have to get out. And basically what you do is you pull this out and push. Well, let me swap hands. And that's basically from one SAE to ISO. Before you start learning how to run an excavator for your very first time, be familiar whether you're in SAPE or ISO. cuz once you learn how to run it in one pattern, you're not going to be able to switch over to another very easily. Okay. So, whatever you start out with, you're almost going to be stuck with that for the rest of your life. So, Stan, can I recommend one thing? Yeah. I would recommend ISO pattern because no matter where you're at, that's a well-known pattern. Typically, SAE is going to be a backo loader pattern. Okay. That's what I learned on like I hop in an ISO machine and I'm like, "Oh my god, I can't somebody save me from this thing." Okay, so now we've covered the main components of the machine, right, Danny? Is there anything we missed with that? I think it's pretty much the the main components. So, we know what you're getting into, but before you fire it up, what's the basics we should be doing? Okay. Things that you want to do is is check all your fluids before you start your work there. That's that's the main thing you want to do. Other thing is a lot of guys want to grease their machine each day before they start the operation. Okay. Okay. So, let's go inside. I see a big red lever. This that's important. The reason I pointed out before we even get started, do you notice why it's big and it's red? Tell me about that. So, you'll so you'll notice it when you get in. Um, so when it's down like this, if the machine is running, these are not operable. So it it basically locks out the hydraulic controls so you can enter and exit the cab safely if it's running. Okay. If it's up in this position and running, these will become active. Okay. Okay. So like I was saying, Danny does formal training for uh Volvo product training. I've done 27 years of running and one of my rule of thumb is anytime somebody comes my way comes near me in my machine before I'll do anything carrying a conversation or even say hi to them I flip that down. The reason I flipped that down is because it's easy to have somebody come to the side of a machine and you can't hear them because it's running or somebody else is back there and you lean over and that whole machine starts to move and all it takes is one small mistake that can change a person's life forever. So, this is automatically just flip it down, carry on your conversation, wait till they're outside of the swing radius of the machine before it gets swung up. It's never any other way. That's worked for me. It very good principle. Okay. Absolutely. So, I did something, right? Yeah. You're on. All right. Dan the man and I, we're gonna go for a ride to take you guys with. So, let's start running an excavator. All right. Dan, what? Okay. Okay. On your left control for ISO control. If you push it forward, the the stick goes out. If you bring it back, the stick comes in. If you move it to the left, it will get rotate the cab. If you go to the right, of course, it goes to the right. On your right control, pull back is up with the boom. Forward is down with the boom. If you go into your leg, left would be curl the bucket so it can hold material in. If you go to your to your right is dump the material out. Okay. Okay. So, that's the control. Okay. So, the power modes, Danny, we're talking about hydraulics and power modes. Uhhuh. You've got I which stands for idle. Yeah, like idle or warm up the machine basically or if you're lifting. F is for like lifting, fine grading. You need to be slow but prec precise movements. G is for like general loading. Okay. And you can use it setting a dial here. So you have G1, G2, G3, and G4. And it's just general everyday loading type applications. If you're in a hurry and you're wanting to load faster, you can go all the way up into H is heavy. You have a lot of flow, but you don't have max pressure. If you get in a bind where you need to bust through hard rock, hard dirt, you can basically push the button here on the joystick and then it it will actually turn on high flow for 9 seconds. And then you can dig through that hard that hard material. Then it goes back to flow and you start your movements back fast again if you got it. That's typically a Volvo excavator. Okay. And other excavators will have other controls, different um different meanings to them. So just get familiar with you're going to have more power. You're going to have some have power, some have precision, but there's a balance in almost all of them. Exactly. So basically, we've already walked through the controls. Okay. What they do that's basic on all excavators. The other thing is your controls for your tracks. Mhm. So basically you have you can run them with your with your feet forward and reverse. Um or you can control it with your hands. So basically, you know, you're going to move one track, keep one steady, that's going to turn right, that's going to turn left. Just depends on which way you which way you Okay. So Dan, what were you saying about the track drives and climbing hills? Okay. Typically Stan, when you're when you're going to climb steep steep grades, Yep. You want to put the track motors in the front because remember we talked about it earlier where it's it's weight in front and you want to when you're climbing the hill, you want to keep your boom and stick in front and low to the hill so you can all your weights in the front which keeps you safe on the hill. Nice. So the track drive guys, let's go back. That's that's back here. Idlers are up front. Yep. Climb a hill, Dan the man. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Okay, Dan, I want to qu I got to ask you a question. That wasn't a very steep hill, so you could just drive right up that with your boom arm in the air. If it was a steeper hill, would you tuck that in and spread it out to try to get your weight forward of the machine? You would want to spread Yes, you would want to put the bucket out as far as you can if it's real steep. I've seen guys get a scoop of material in the bucket to help hold the front end down. Okay. Now, you came down with the drive arms in the back or the drive uh motor in the back. Exactly. Okay. So, but notice how I had my bucket in front of the machine and had it down low to the ground. Yep. Um, that way if the machine starts to tilt, it's basically just going to hit the bucket. The bucket will slide along the ground as you come down and you you're fine. Heat up [Music] here. [Music] [Applause] [Music] All right, guys. Well, covered a lot of ground today. A big thanks goes out to Danny, the crew from Volvo. Thank you so much. Without these guys, this wouldn't have been possible. And if you guys want more information on Volo equipment or Volbo excavators, go to their website. I'm going to put a link down below to this. Make sure that you stick around because this is a two-part series. So, we're going to be covering so much ground. We wanted to make sure that we got everything included for you guys. So, check out both parts. Now, this guys is not replacement for training. Make sure you go out and find training, right, Danny? Absolutely. Or refer to the operator's manual. Okay. Refer to the operator's manual and have somebody else walk you through it in face to face. But this is a good start. Exactly. Yep. Thanks for having us.