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Stesso

Develop Equipment Operation Skills

1:47
9:58
8.4K views

At 1:47 in

Q & A Construction, Landscaping, Lawn Care- How I got started pt1

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What happens here

Gain hands-on proficiency in operating heavy equipment commonly used in hardscaping, such as excavators and skid loaders. The speaker recounts his own experience learning to operate a 'track excavator' (specifically a 1977 John Deere 450 model with a front bucket and tracks like a bulldozer) at a young age. This involved challenging tasks like crushing cars, demolishing silos, and digging ponds under his father's close supervision. He also mentions the difficulty of manually adjusting the transmission with wrenches on early machines. This foundational skill set is crucial for performing hardscaping work effectively and safely, even before owning the equipment.

Goal: Become proficient in operating hardscaping equipment.

Tools and materials

  • Excavator — Digging, moving earth, demolishing structures, crushing materials, and general heavy-duty excavation
  • Old farm truck N/A — Towing the heavy equipment trailer
  • Skid Steer Loader
  • Tilt-deck trailer
  • Wrenches N/A — Adjusting components within the machinery's transmission or other mechanical systems

What they say

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my dad threw my dad threw me on an excavator everybody I remember one of the first jobs I had when my friends were out running their lawn mowers at that age I had to go crush cars without without flipping the excavator over and he lit her he lit literally told me to take the excavator and drive it over the cars until I crushed him flat and I mean he was up there watching me and I did it so well then we had a tilt deck trailer behind an old farm truck and that's how we used to get the excavator around and it wasn't an excavator with a boom arm it was it was called the attracts comater so it had a bucket in the front like a skid loader but tracks like a bulldozer and that's what we started the company with there was a John Deere 450 I think it was a 1977 model yeah and so that's what we started it with but it was just a it was a really tough machine to operate two levers for steering would sit between your legs and then you'd have to just manually adjust the clutches so we'd have to open up the transmission case and I didn't actually literally wire take a hard wire and wire the wrenches on to my wrist so I could get the so I could get my hand into the transfer case into the transmission and if I dropped it it would wreck the transmission you pull the whole transmission of the machine so it was just a really bad setup because you're out there trying to adjust it every 25 hours but I got so good at crushing cars at that age that he would have me drive the tracks comater up on the tilt deck trailer and a tilt deck trailers not a fun especially an over the tired tilt trick tilt that trailer it wasn't up between the tires tilt deck trailer which has a lower center of gravity this was sitting over the tires now so you drive this excavator up in the trailer go BAM slam down and you'd have to stop immediately what you have to do is you have to find tweak the machine so it wouldn't slam down so you'd get it up there and you'd slowly drop it down and between crushing cars and not flipping it over myself between driving it up on a tilt deck trailer without driving over the top without flipping off the side demoing silos digging ponds for the DNR no my dad he'd sit out there and you know what I kind of in the beginning Andrew I kinda thought maybe he was being lazy or kind of skirting his work but as an adult I realized he was watching over me making sure that I had the education the skills the training necessary so that I could actually do something even if I wasn't…

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