Payloader Basics for beginners- how to run, operate & understand Heavy equipment part 1

All right, there she is. That's the uh What payloader is that, Chris? Level L120H. L120H. What size is that? Basically, this is about a 4 and 1/2 yard loader right in that area. What we want to do today, Chris, is get people familiar with what to do and especially what not to do when they're first running a payloader. Now, I've owned and operated payloaders. And Chris, you got 26 years experience, don't you? Yeah, I got got quite a few since I was young. Real young. I watched him when I was filming other videos. This dude is like a guru of payloaders. So, um, my wife Hi. Doesn't she look excited, guys? [Laughter] Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. I have a sense that she's lying to us. Basically, we're going to try what we're going to try to do is we're going to go over to the stone pile. We're going to try to fill the bucket um as efficiently um and full as possible. Um we don't want a bunch of stone spilling over the back, but in the same token, we want it fairly full because the the main part of being productive with this machine is getting as much material into the truck or wherever it's going into to its destination. Okay. Um so, some things you want to look at, you want to make sure we're always going into the pile flat. So, we have the cutting edge flat on the ground. Um, if it's tipped too far forward, then we're gouging into the ground. And basically, if you have processed material, the customer basically wants that material. They don't want anything else um contamination, anything like that. So, I'm going to show you how to use your bucket level. Uh, most machines have either a mechanical bucket level or an electronic. Um, some if you see some that don't, you want to pick a reference on the bucket somewhere. So in our case with these machines, this part of the bucket, if this is flat, this flat part here, that's parallel to your cutting edge. So you can kind of look from the cab and see that if this part looks flat, then pretty much your the bottom's flat, too. So you won't be gouging into the ground. the guys coming in. Even if your machine has a electronic bucket level, it's not a bad idea to try to figure out a mechanical cheat system as well because sometimes it just is easier. Whatever whatever is easier for the each individual operator. Absolutely. I mean, some there's guys that like to run just by feel. So that visuals cue is very important. If you want kind of like a reference point, if we had to set the bucket, we always want the cutting edge completely flat on the ground. And then we look to the back of the bucket here. There's wear pads. You want to have those wear pads about, you know, two inches above the ground. Okay. But you would never see that from the cap. No, you won't see this. This is something I mean, if you're really conscious about, you know, keeping your material from getting contaminated, then this is something I recommend you do every once in a while. I mean, these settings, whether it's mechanical or electronic, they stay like the machine will remember that the electronic for sure until someone actually goes in there and physically messes with the button or pushes it again. Mhm. Um, and as far as the the mechanical, it's, you know, you tighten it down good. It's really nothing you have to worry about. So, you want to get up to your mound or whatever you're digging and then set it. Once you get up there, so as you as you approach the pile, you'll you'll set your bucket down on the deck. You'll go in you'll go in and start going into the pile. Um, you always want to kick the machine down to first gear. Um, most loaders have an automatic feature that'll do it automatically and as well as a manual. Um, so it really depends on the operator's preference what they want to use. So most operators when they get when they get to, you know, a higher a high skill level, they'll do it manually because they know exactly when by feel and the sound of the machine exactly when they want that power if delivered um to push the machine forward. I would say the next thing the next most common um thing I see is a lot of people when they put the bucket down on the ground, they push they just push they push down and then you start rocking the machine up, you lose the wheel, you lose your front wheel contact on the ground, then you start spinning tires. Um, once you start spinning tires, basically your momentum going into the pile and your ability to crowd the bucket of material is lost at that point. Um, in addition to that, when you back up, you're going to hit this big giant pothole that you create and you shake everything all over. Um, and then, you know, you have to drive through that the next time in and it it throws everything off. So, we really want to make sure that as soon as we make contact with the toe of the pile, get the bucket, we do an initial lift. Um, that lift is generally like, I don't know, 5 to 10 in high. And what that does is what we call set the tires. So that'll actually get good pressure down on your tires. Basically, your front tires and your rear tires are that's what's pushing you into that pile. So the more pressure and contact we have on the ground with those, um, the easier it is and more efficiently we're able to fill the bucket at that point. Where the hell were you yesterday, Chris? I was explaining this with the skid loader, and you just did it way better than I did it. That's for sure. This was exactly what we were talking about when we were talking about grabbing a load yesterday. So awesome explanation. So, let's do a quick walk around on the machine and get familiar with the different components of it cuz I'm going to guess that everything you say to her is going to be brand new. And so, a lot of the guys and gals watching this may be brand new to them as well. So, let's explain what it is. Let's just talk about this machine real briefly so guys know exactly what they're getting into. Okay. Well, well, like I mentioned, we have our bucket. This is the the component we use to fill and move the material. Um, next we have our lift arms and we call this our our loader linkage. So, basically we have the lift arm system with our hydraulic cylinders that lift the whole the whole frame. And then we call this our our loader and bucket linkage. So, this is the the the portion that tilts the bucket. So, we have a a hydraulic cylinder connected to that as well that'll actually tilt and curl the bucket back. These are universal systems, but if these guys aren't running a Volvo loader, they may not find them in the same spot. Just so people know, the linkages can vary. The lift arms fairly standard. I mean there's some if you go back years and years ago we used to have they used to have like mono booms like a single boom that that that a couple different manufacturers use but but more more or less now in this day and age everyone's using like a two arm design and then you know depending on the the manufacturer um they use really two different styles of linkage a parallel style linkage like we have now and then uh we also have what we call a Zbar linkage. Next, as we walk back, you can see we have the loader is articulated in the center. So, we have basically um two different portions of a frame. We have a front frame. Um and the connection between these two frames are made by two two pins. This is what we call our articulation point. Um so, we have um pins here and pins and bushings up here along with our steer cylinders um which actually turn the machine. So they'll turn the front of the machine. Next we have the rear frame. So the rear frame houses the engine. um the mo the the bulk of the drive line um to to to power to power the machine and and and move you forward. You can see the cab is positioned in towards the rear of that so you have really good visibility over what's going on. So if you we we literally can cut this machine right in half. If you look straight down here you can see that the cab is on the back side of it. Right there is the framework. This is all the front portion of the machine. Um, and then you just marry these two components together during the manufacturing process and hook them up. Yep. One thing that this this will behave a little bit differently than a car. So, or or like a truck with a trailer. You think it has two pieces like you think you're towing something, but actually these wheels will track in the same line. So, when you turn, the back wheels will follow the front wheels. So, it's going to it's going to turn a little bit sharper than an automobile. Um, and also the steering characteristics are a little bit different. And we'll we'll show you that once you get in there. Is there anything on the other side of the uh the unit we should look at? Yeah. Yeah. Why don't we take a walk over there? Okay. So, on this side of the machine, we have our our batteries. Also, we'll have um most machines, just about all machines now have a filtration system for you in the cab. So, this filter system filters the air you're breathing cuz I mean, as you can imagine, these machines get get themselves into some really dirty, dusty environments along with our our air filter system for the engine as well. All machines are going to have basic checkpoints. You know, you have to check hydraulic fluid, you have to check your oil, your coolant, all that. And then finally, in the rear of the machine, we have our counterwe. Um, and depending on what we're doing, what type of application the machine's in, we may have more or less counterwe. Um, so like material handling, like rehandling of material, generally we want a lot of counterwe on the machine because we're lifting different densities of material. So, we want to have that this counterwe basically counters the weight that you're going to apply to the bucket to keep the machine stable while you're operating. Now, there's going to be two basic different kinds of payloaders basically built the same. One will be more for mining and harvesting materials in an application like we're at right here. And another one would that be for more off-road digging and excavating and and just general purpose? And so the counterweights would be different on those two machines. Like a a mining machine would have more and a and an off-road machine have less. Or am I wrong with that? It really depends. I mean, if you're I mean, with a general purpose machine, we we tend to like to to provide the counterwe as well, the extra counterweight, cuz we never know what the customer is going to do with it. The main counterweights on all our machines are they're at a set weight. And then we have what we call our rehandling or logging counterwe that you see that bolts on under the there. That's what that's what we'd add for additional counterwe um if the customer had a high density material or or they were using you know using machine for rehandling or anything with that you know the upper levels of of higher density material. All right. So next do we go into the cab and get familiar with that? Absolutely. Let's do that. All right. Let's do that.