Payloader Controls and operation for the beginner -What its like in the cab. Heavy equipment Intro

[Applause] [Music] Okay. So, what are we looking at, Chris? Okay. So, the first thing I would tell an operator when we when we get in here is I I'd like to have her get try to get comfortable in the seat. Okay. Um, so we would need to turn the machine on, I guess, to to to power the seat. It's an air suspension seat, so we need to adjust that. Um, but for I guess for the sake of continuing on, we can continue with the controls and and and and get going here. Um, the first things you really need to know is how do we how do we stop the machine? How do we make it move? Um, so we have two brake pedals on the floor. Um, they're both they both do the same thing. And then also an accelerator pedal all the way to the right. It's where your brake is on your car. It's your accelerator. So So it's just set up now. Is you got two brake pedals? Is one an engine brake and one a wheel bra? They're they're both brake They're both brake pedals. Um, we do have like what we call transmission disengage. So a lot a lot of guys if they're stockpiling, they'll they'll hold the brake on and and hit the accelerator to get faster lift response. Mhm. Um, we have a setting in the machine that basically when you push your foot on the brake, it kicks the machine into neutral. That way you still have braking power, but you're not attempting to drive through the brakes. Um, so we can use either pedal to do that. Um, but basically the reason why we have two pedals is some people, you know, will still drive like a car like like an automatic car. They'll use one foot to do both. Um, but as you as you get more seasoned and up in your skill level, you'll absolutely want a two foot. you know, use, you know, a foot for the accelerator and and a foot for the brake pedal. So, that's why we have them in two different location. So, one of the things Chris mentioned and I want to explain a little bit clearer is as you get a little bit better, your hydraulics are activ. So, what'll happen is as you go into a pile, you want to stop, but you want your hydraulics to keep working at optimum speed. And so that's where that that disengage comes in because it allows your engine to run higher, your hydraulics to run higher, but your wheels not to turn. So you don't have to technically shift out of gear to do that. You can just use that all with your foot brakes. Was that a right way of putting it, Chris? Yeah. I mean, we we the technologies come along now. We have what we call load sensing hydraulics. So you don't really have to use the accelerator as much. It's really I mean it still has response without using you you know using the accelerator but um sometimes when you're in really really fast applications and you need just a little bit extra then you can use the the accelerator to to give it that bump. But basically most machines nowadays they used to be gear driven pumps where you absolutely had to rely on keeping the RPMs high. So Chris is dating me is what he's doing. He's saying Stan you run old equipment. Yes Chris I do run old equipment. I don't have a 200. How much does it a payloader like this cost? Cuz roughly several hund several hundred,000. I was going to guess 250,000. Yeah, that's Am I close? Yeah, you're close. Okay. So, and we're not here to sell. We're here to educate, but I mean I'm just part of the education, right? So, unlike a skid steer, you don't have to accelerate into the pile. The arm actually scoops. Um, no, you you'll still drive into the pile. So, you are going to be using the accelerator to push the machine into the pile. She wants the machine to She wants to just come up to the pile, scoop it out, put the material into my bucket machine. Yeah, we're not we're not quite there yet. Maybe in another 10, 20 years. Hopefully, we see something like that. But for now, certainly, um, yes, we'll be pushing into the pile and you'll be using, um, you'll be using your levers over here. And I'll get to that in a second. I next want to show you I've showed you how to start and stop the machine, but I haven't actually showed you how to put it in forward and reverse. So, basically, is a lever like a lever? Lever. Lever. Yes. Yeah. Lever. Sorry. Sorry. I like Chris. I got to give him crap. So, since I like you, I'm going to be giving you crap this video. Just warning you. All right. Let's have Let's have it. Let's have it. Oh. Oh, the the challenge is on, guys. So, basically to to put the machine in forward gear, we're going to use this lever lever here. So, forward, neutral, reverse. Uh-huh. Um, there are a couple different ways to do that. Um, we can also we can activate a button over here and then we can just use our fingertips to go forward, neutral, and reverse. And basically, again, this becomes an operator's preference. Um, in addition to that, for really high productivity applications where you know a guy's loading trucks all the time, um, a lot of quarry and a applications, we'll use a joystick steering. That way the operator doesn't sit here and he's not turning the wheel and doing this all day long cuz what what we come up with is basically when you're doing that all day long and doing this, it's it's actually fatiguing the operator. So, um, the limit this limits movement. I have I have a question for the nurse. Would that be considered tonitis? Because that would hurt your elbows after a while. Tendonitis. Tonitis. Is it not tonitis? Okay. Well, I'm I'm a Polish dirt worker. Just it's a tonitis for you. Would I mean, is that what it would be considered when you get that tennis elbow, right? Cuz I've gotten that, Chris. I mean, when it's boiled down to it from all day long doing that, either my shoulder is shot or my elbow's killing me. I mean, and you have guys that that literally run these machines day in and day out for that length of time, you know, that that repeat repetition of movement's going to it's going to find its way in, you know, and do something somewhere on your body, you know what I mean? So, um, this will help limit that. Um, just about all manufacturers have some variation of a joystick control for their machines. Um, but what this will enable you to do then is instead of using the steering wheel, you can steer the machine here with this lever. Um, and then forward, neutral, reverse. And then I mentioned we wanted to be in first gear every time we we go into the pile. So, we have a couple different ways to put the machine in first gear. We can use the button right here. So, and if we're traveling below like 2 m an hour, we push this, the machine will kick down manually into first gear. We also have that button over here on our lift lever. So, there's two different ways to kick it into first gear. This is very advanced technology. You can either use the steering wheel or you can use joystick controls to control the machine. When did they start implementing that? Joystick controls have actually from a Volvo standpoint, they've been around for quite a while. I mean, early '9s uh maybe even a little little before that. The is it as an option? It's an option. Yes. Um, I can tell you from from from my point of view being in industry, um, the first time I was ever, you know, subjected to this or experienced it. Um, we were doing snow removal and, you know, I was loading trucks out cuz we got such a blizzard. We had to start moving the snow. Um, and I just I literally the first time I tried it, it was it was insane. It was crazy. Um, I I just like you're so used to a steering wheel, you know? It was so hard to unlearn. But after using it and forcing myself to use it, I I I don't use anything but now to be honest with you. So it really does. You don't use the steering wheel at all? Um only if um if I have to transport the machine um at like a high speed, if I'm driving it down the road or going somewhere, then you know, you'd want I I like to have the control of a steering wheel for that. But basic basic work, driving around on a construction site, anything like that, absolutely using a joystick. When you first teach somebody, do you teach them both simultaneously or do you focus on one or the other? Um, no. I I I allow them to kind of choose what their preference is and then I'll introduce them to this kind of secondary. I I want them to feel comfortable at all times. I don't want them running like scared or anything like that. So, um I want to make sure um they're comfortable at first and then we would introduce the joystick afterwards. With the way things are going now with the new generation of, you know, video games and all that stuff, this is it's it's fairly easy to teach people. Absolutely. Oh, I tell you, some of the new operators that I've hired on that have never ran equipment, they get in it and because of video games, hand eye coordination off the charts. Oh my god, they're good. Like jaw-dropping within a couple hours, I'm like that would have taken me 5 years ago or 10 years ago, that would have taken me days to get that person to that level. Yeah, it's uh it's it's a lot different now. So it's it's kind of good in that regard that we have that skill being built up in every just about every home in America. So So all of you video gamers, you have to get off your butt and then get back on your butt into the seat of a payloader and then you can make a living. It's not much different than playing a video game. Is this little dial first also? Yeah. And and that's dedicated first gear. So when you turn this in first, it's going to the machine will stay in first gear. If you were like at a higher one, but then you wanted it first, it would just go to first if you hit one of the marks. Depending on, remember, it's speed dependent. So, you have to be going slow. The machine will protect itself. Basically, if you're traveling like 15 mph and try to ask it to go into first gear, it won't. It'll it'll see look look if I go into first gear, I'm going to I'm going to break myself. So, it's oversp speeded protection is what we call that. The machine will behave just like an automobile. So, in fourth gear, it's going to be a fully automatic transmission just like a like a car or truck. Um, and it'll just shift as it needs to between, you know, second and fourth gear. The machine will always start out and pull out in second gear. Um, unless you tell it otherwise by pushing the the first gear kick down. We got the motion. We know how to start. We know how to stop. Um, now let's look at operating machine. So, over on your right here, we have our levers. We have a lift lever. So, if we pull back on this, that the boom or the the loader arms that I talked about, they'll raise. So, we pull back to raise. We push forward to lower. And then the middle lever, um, basically what that'll do, if you pull back, it'll tip your bucket back, you push forward, it'll dump the bucket. Okay. Um, this third lever, basically what's that what that's there for is if we had like some form of attachment that required like power like uh a broom, a sweeper, miller head, something like that, that is for we call third function. So this will p like run auxiliary hydraulics to power an attachment. So, that is basically in a nutshell the quick version of how to begin to operate the machine. All right, go load a 60 ton rod truck, honey. No. No. All right. We How about drive around the yard a little bit? Okay. Are we ready for that, Chris? I think so. Um, we can I mean, if she runs a little bit, we can then talk about maybe some of the switches. Um, we do have quite a few switches over there. Um, the top four are basically engine and transmission. The next eight buttons are going to be your hydraulics. So we can that's we talked about the bucket level. So we'll have bucket level. We can actually set a boom level too. So if you're loading the same height truck all day, you can set that height and basically all you have to do is pull back sharply on the lever, let it go, and the machine it'll just raise on its own. And then also return to dig, which is the opposite. We can have it go to a a low point. So after we back away from the truck, we can shove the lever forward and then the the boom will just stop at at a predetermined point. So, one of those nice things when you're putting in if you don't if you're the owner operator and you're putting in just an operator that doesn't have his money invested in the machine and you want it to do the same functions over and over again. This is almost like trying to idiot proof the machine. You can absolutely. And also by using that, the operator doesn't have to sit here and manipulate the lever. So, it actually makes the machine it makes their cycle time faster. Um, so cuz they're not sitting there finessing the lever and trying to force it where they want it. The machine will just go the where they want it every time if they just take the time to set it up. So when you first did it, did you have a learning curve on that, Chris? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, getting used to using those buttons. You have to be aware of your your distance relationship between the truck. I mean, cuz it's it's it's literally moving on its own as you're approaching the truck. So you want to make sure you don't get there too soon or it won't be high enough. So it's it's really spatial awareness and just practice. a little bit of practice to take that to to a next level and get to utilize it properly. For sure. So, is this the one that sets it flat to the ground? This is the one that sets it flat to the ground right here. So, basically, we'd have it flat. Um, all these switches, by the way, down is off universally. So, middle it means the functions activated. And then if we wanted to set the bucket, we would push and hold. And then you'll hear a beep in the cab when the machine's running. That's telling you the function has then been set. So, we get our bucket level. Push and hold. Beep. Set. Done. All right, guys. This gets better and better and better because she loved running the payloader. I mean, I'll tell you straight up, of all the equipment she ran out there in Pennsylvania at Volvo's corporate headquarters, the payloader was by far the one she enjoyed the most. And so, make sure you guys stick around because in the next part of this video series, she's going to run even a bigger payloader. But I'm serious. Just this this was phenomenal. This is her second scoop, right, Chris? She's doing a lot of the things we talked about. She's doing the initial lift. She's set the tires. This is literally her first probably 10 minutes of driving.