Noobs Guide on How to run an Excavator pt 2

alright guys it's all about the excavators today you've never ran one you're in the right place because today we're gonna be walking you step-by-step through the basics to help you understand what it's like to be an equipment operator and the best part is is there's going to be a lot of experienced equipment operators watching this video so if you're brand new make sure you read in the comments down below because these guys are a wealth of information and a big thanks goes out to Volvo because if it wasn't for them this video wouldn't be possible and they sponsored the entire thing to make sure that you guys when you're getting started had good information so what are we waiting for let's go run some excavators okay so now we've covered the main components of the Machine right Danny's everything we miss with that I'm like it's pretty much the main so we know what you get me into but before you fire it up what's the basics we should be doing okay things that you want to do is check all your fluids before you start your workday that's the main thing another thing is a lot of guys want to grease their machines each day before they start to operation so before we get into all of the grease zerks because on an excavator we probably have about 20 different grease zerks and there's instead of showing you every grease zerk because every machines going to be similar but different what I want you to do is I want you to get into a mind frame of where's the pivot point on a machine it doesn't make a difference now this rule is going to work for whether you're running an excavator a dozer a skid loader pretty much anything so tell us about when we talk about a pivot point Danny what am I actually talking about so you're looking to look at like a pin okay the you know you have pin secrecy on this one just looking at this is one two three four pins so those are pivot points typically there's desert the greaser two each one of those pivot points so if you look at your excavator wherever there's a pivot point typically there's gonna be a greaser how much grease should a greaser take before a greaser casts too much grease so it's so basic least and you want to put you want to put your grease gun on the greaser to start pumping and look at the joint you can see this joint desert it's gonna be this joint here and when you start seeing grease protrude that that means you've got enough grease in it but now there's one grease zerk at least on my machine you get you don't grease unless and you just you know what I'm talking about Dani all right Ranger the ring gear you're gonna think you want to grease that but you can over grease you can over it's one of the few that you can over move let's go look at that real close that's here this one here and it has a sticker on it you can see it is every 250 hours so this is your ring gear for when you spend okay on your table so if you over grease that it will actually push the seals out of it and cause more damage to your excavator so that's over 250 hours typically the buckets hinge points they like to do it daily most guys do it ever okay every other day something like that there is a recommended chart for that so this is the racetrack so you have you have a 50 a 250 500 a thousand and if you go around you can see what you're supposed to do at those hours so now you may be wondering why are we not actually running the piece of equipment on the job but everything that I'm showing you now and coming up in the next few minutes is signs of a good operator this is what's going to impress a company if you go to work for one and if you go to buy a piece of equipment the little things that you're going to see next are going to keep it running long term so make sure you pay attention to this stuff it may not be the most exciting but I think it's some of the most important show us where do we check the different fluids and what they are like about your machine okay he just said something that was pretty critical think about your machine when you open starting up in it you can check stuff like your windshield washer fluid that's a visual as you can see you're gonna enter the engine compartment where you can pull the dipstick to check your OL but while you're going we try to put stuff like that where you can see it as you're going also check your air filter we're right here typically on a Volvo the way we do our air filters you don't you don't open up the you never open up our air filter okay we have it to where the computer when it when it yet starts getting sub much restriction it will tell you at that time the air filter needs to be served so going into a lot of detail in this section of the video because I want you to be more than just the lever puller in fact thanks the Xbox and Playstation the younger generation is coming into the construction scene with eye-hand coordination giving them an edge when they first plop their butt into the piece of equipment in fact what I've noticed an experience by hiring some of the younger guys that they catch on much faster than I would have ever given them credit for but the problem is that doesn't make them a good equipment operator the first time a piece of equipment goes down or makes an odd noise they kind of look at you like a deer caught in headlights they have no clue what's going on and knowing you piece of equipment inside and out is a true sign of a good operator the reason we do that is so it doesn't contaminate the Machine more opening it up and checking it every day that's because it's a new machine you guys may be buying a used machine you may be buying something completely different you've got to check this because you're working in dusty dirty conditions now I will say you got to check in at least once a week now this machine out monitors it continually but if you were working in very dusty conditions you check it every single day if you're demolishing a building and the dust from the building is coming down that's the way your machine is breathing and that's the way that you can quickly destroy a turbo right you can destroy an engine if it gets even worse than that because you're doing too much restriction you're making the machine work harder check it every day if you're in dry dusty dirty conditions the other thing if you're working in demolition like you have a cab cabin air filter which is here on the back of the cab that's something else you want to be - you want to be as operator breathing that clean air as well okay Danny what are we looking at button okay so on our machines has a clear reservoir for the coolant which is in the engine compartment so you can visually look at it see if the levels are correct as indications on the side of the tank you can pull the dipstick which is down here check your old level each day now on our excavators tube we do have sensors on the engine so it will tell you if the oldest low but we recommend still getting visual okay okay we also talked about dusty dirty conditions a radiator well with you guys is right here I like this because you want to check to see if your radiators collecting dirt as it well it will and wilt collector so you got to blow it out and clean it right yep and typically on some of our excavators now we offer a hydraulic reversible fan so after a trends for so long it'll reverse for like fifteen to thirty whatever you said at that time it'll reverse and clean the dust and debris out okay so basically what he's meaning is it's continually sucking air into the engine then occasionally it'll block that yep on your turntable there is a whole level you want to check typically the guys don't check it every day but they do pull it from defensively just to just so you know your machine that's the key no your machine no your fluids we recommend with the fuel is after you think you get finished at the end today fill the fuel at that time because you want your your tank topped off that way you don't have condensation in in the field okay so do it at the end of the day hydraulic is here but the sight glass is on the ground so that's sealed because you shouldn't have to add it unless you have a ruptured hull unless something the leak or something like that right how often do you change hydraulic oil Danny it's it's on the racetrack okay typically I think it's around 2000 hours okay the reason I ask you that question even though we know it's on the racetrack and it's gonna be different for every machine it's not like engine oil no it's completely different but this one doesn't require the same level of maintenance as an engine oil correct what else should we know about Ray didn't hear Danny because they see a lot of to me vital components so these guys that may be all foreign material right so this is typically your your pump compartment so you have a number of things going on in here when you're doing your walk-around you have the water separator which is this filter here if there's any water in it you can actually see it you can see the the color of the diesel fuel is kind of an orange color if it's water you can see in the bottom and at that time you can actually drain the water off this filter as you do your walk-around okay so one of the things I want to point out is guys make sure that you check all of these things because all machines will have this they may not have them grouped as nicely as this in fact this is the nicest group of totally honest with you having everything right here is pretty awesome my other machines I've had to actually dig down and around and hang upside down and try to get at them yeah not fun that's not fun doesn't make servicing and maintaining it very easy so this is pretty nice but you guys you've got to do this you've got to be aware of all these things another thing you've got all the hours written on every single filter exactly right yep so not just it's the date as well as the hours because a lot of times you want to judge how long the oils been in there even if the machines been sitting or and also how many hours is on it you may have changed it a month before but you may have also put 500 hours on within that time you mentioned 500 hours so that's typically when you want you'll want to change your filters and stuff like that here whole it's 500 hours so now you said something that I want to make sure we talk about three points of contact us let's do that I'll just show us what that means have two hands on and one foot on that's your three points so you can't swing like a monkey from the monkey garden okay guys that may sound like kids play but after years and years of running on construction sites one of the things that happens is the bottom of your boots get muddy they get slippery and they slide I can't tell you how many times that I've gone up here and went like this and had my foot slide off and guess what that hurts your shins cuz that's the next point of contact it's not the bottom of your foot it's your shin but when you're holding on twice when your foot slips you can grab hold three points of contract keep your shins in shape that's a dirt monkey hot tip for you all right guys before you actually start operating - you need to actually keep yourself safe by grabbing some of the right gear well you have to be aware of foot job site wherever you're working at you may want to have some steel toed boots boots like what stan has on you may have to have a safety vest okay you may ever be required to wear a helmet safety glasses well realistically for you guys inside the machine it's not as important as for what I call them the ground pounders that's the guys that are operating outside the machine this stuff just lets people know where you're at so whether you're going with we're not trying to be OSHA compliant here we want you guys to do your own research but whether you're going with bright green or you're going with orange it doesn't make a difference you want to know where people are at playing it simple don't know this this hard hats coming like a whole bride got one that's a cowboy hard hat I mean they can look like just about anything so feel free but still be approved stick it on your head be that much safer just be smart guys just be smart yeah ha see I wasn't lying one of the things that I want to talk about real quick is traveling across the site now you wouldn't think oh there's actually any common sense that goes along with it but nothing could be farther from the truth when you're working in a machine that has a big giant I've seen a guy that was traveling across the site with his boom up in the air he snagged a power line it destroyed his machine and he nearly lost his life I think I'm gonna wear this more often Dan the man's got the plan for traveling across the site so typically what you would like what you'd want to do is just be aware of your surroundings okay what like what Stan was saying you want to watch for any any power lines that's one of your phone line escape anything like that you want to be aware of stuff that's in the ground like it it's a large sign around a housing developer or something their septic tanks there there's all kinds of underground stuff that you could damage with a heavy machine so you really need to track out the way you're going to go with the machine to knock down Virginia loose okay typically when you're traveling you want to keep like you can see the boom I have it I'm kind of tucked down with the bucket everything closed and everything's low ok so right now he's in standard operation we'll put in travelling mod dan the man so you can see him bring everything down now he's ready to go that thing that really helped you have a machine that has a camera okay you have the side camera and then the rear camera so I can see to my left I can see out front and then I can see to the right with this camera here it's a split screen and I can see behind me so I'm aware of if there's any operators or any machines approaching me I'm gonna be aware of in the sleep 360 around this machine okay so a Dan's talking about is in this very particular Volvo which is a newer machine both brand new it's equipped with cameras that allow you to see everything around you now you may not have the opportunity as a new operator to go hop your butt into a hundred two hundred three hundred thousand dollar piece of equipment and so you may get stuck in the old rusty piece and junk once when I grew up runnin and trust me there's no flippin cameras in those so operator awareness is a key factor to keeping yourself healthy and successful long-term but more importantly not hurting anybody around you ain't I look good in this all right guys we're gonna show you how to turn an excavator into a 30 foot level so what what Danny's got going on right now he's got his bucket set to where he wants the ground level to be I know what he's gonna do is he's gonna simply take this all the way around glad Danny as we follow the bucket around you'll see that the he's not changing the height of the bucket it's the ground that's changing honey so right here you can see start to hit the ground that's telling him as the operator that his grain is starting to go up now if the ground started to disappear underneath it that means that the grade is going down after you get your machine left the grade that you want to keep and then you work from that level this was a rule of thumb and excavators actually meant to dig forward to backward and it's not meant to to grave dirt side to side but it's okay to level out a spot so that you can create a flat point for your excavator to sit on so that as you're digging the dirt forward to backward you're not angling you're not at an angle yeah that makes sense okay so there's a number of different configurations that excavators typically come in you've got a conventional tail swing model and you have a zero tail swing model and Dan's gonna walk us through that right now this is a conventional so basically you've got the counterweight extend it so when we turn the terminator' sideways the counterweight is going to overhang the track on a zero tail swing model that does not happen because the it's designed so that guys aren't rubbing their butts up against banks or in trees or buildings or obstructions because you'll see it so you can see right there now he's kind of lying now you got a camera in your cab but if you didn't have a camera in your cab when you guys are looking and you see excavators and it looked like somebody's been robbing them this is why so how about the front Dan what do you want to show me about the front as we as we turn is going to go over your tracks as well so you have to see the corner of the cab don't worry retreat yeah there was a track rap where it is now so you have to be aware of that to not only your tail but the front so it's easier to know where the front is because the spatial awareness from the back so a lot of times you'll see the back speed up and the Front's perfectly fine guys you gotta look behind you sometimes too if you have the cameras where you have the split screen we can see out the left side we can see out the front as you can see in this picture here we can see out there outside and the rear so we can see 360 degrees around the excavator for that the expander has to have that off all excavators don't but realize that you have mirrors there's mirrors that you can set on all excavators to where you can see around you so obstacles are one thing to be aware enough but there's something called knowing where your team is at it's been exactly these guys half the time they assume that you see them that's why we recommend wearing bright green but that does not keep you safe all right it's story time guys and here's a true one for you I actually had a ground pounder that decided it was safe to stand between the tracks of my excavator as I was running it now I had been turned sideways while I was digging it and if I hadn't caught him slide in between the tracks of my excavator as I would have turned the excavator he would have been sliced in half common sense isn't so common and so for some of you experienced operators put in the comments down below some of the crazy stuff that ground pounders have done that you've seen and if you are certain a good your butt into the seat of a piece of equipment with great power comes great responsibility these machines got a lot of power what keeps you safe is making eye contact before approaching a machine you wanna make eye contact with that operator when you're walking that what he knows you're gonna you're entering his own guys if you're on the ground like I am right now do you see what Dan did he flipped the switch down while I was talking to him you have to treat that you're working to talking out the front to that can mean the difference between life or death with someone in a dream in the trick yes so you want to make sure that if anybody is around your attachment this is down if that bucket moves even I put exactly they lit literally guys that's all it takes and I mean one slight bump let's uh let's climb up here and I'm gonna go to the right go stand so let's just bumping you can see if we measure that that's probably over a foot that's on idle to view or if you if you idle this up so if you have it in operating mode like you're working and you papa it responds fast couple things that keep you safe keep you working into your old age so you can be gray like Danna night how about what do we got right here on this on our excavators are saying he said light what lie lie lie powers is set up where you have a small console that controls like your camera Center temperature control in the cab and also your light package okay so you may have different lights on the boom on the machine itself on the cab on the rear on the side different work lights so they're set up different in different machines you have wiper controls radio bluetooth is everything here your…