Testing the NEW skid steer on slick wet clay

all right guys let's show you what we got going on today the pool is in on this project and all the fill that when they were digging the pool they cast over here to the side so we've got to get all this out and that means basically what we're going to be doing is taking the asv and bringing the dump truck in and getting it loaded up and then over here is where it gets to be a little bit challenging it's a pretty steep grade that's a pretty aggressive slope and it's kind of wet so we're gonna see if we can straighten it up or if we can't i don't know this was not a good day for me you guys um and you're gonna see that throughout in fact watch this first bucket this material is like snot underneath here effect watch this look at that that dirt is froze solid on the top right here frozen at least the outside is and then once you break through it it just turns to this wet nasty play-doh-ish kind of clay you'll see it oh here we go this is not a good start i think i got more dirt on my cab than i did in the truck and on the ground [Music] and that's the way the day went have you guys ever had one of those days where everything just is off it's exactly what happened on this day i mean you're gonna see it by the time this video is done i have one mishap after another it just wasn't a good start to the day and it's a rather simple project actually i've gotta load about six loads of dirt into the dump truck haul that out get rid of it and then grade out the slope but i'm going to be using a special grading technique that i don't typically use and i'm going to show you what it is and why in just a few minutes [Music] this dirt is just nasty [Music] i have no clue what kind of rock that is but it's cool looking that's a cool rock so i just got the call from tim he needs good dirt out on his job site because the stuff he's got is pure muck so what i think i'm gonna do i've been harvesting around the outside and i'm finding that at least the stuff in the middle isn't too bad let's find out yeah that's not bad boy that's clay it's a lot of clay a little bit of sand but we don't have anything that's decent so what i'm going to do is i'm going to harvest from everything around here because this is just nasty that's like snot just slick so i'm going to go around the outside i'm gonna get that cleaned up we'll save tim the best stuff that we can i think i'm gonna get a little practicing on this machine before i decide to load up that next load let's take it down on this slope right here look at the boulders in this dirt you see those big stones those throw you for a loop i mean even like a small softball sized stone it doesn't grade right and when you're laying every all the dirt out in very thin lifts a small softball stone like that hits you it feels like almost like hitting you in the rib cage whenever you bounce over it you're like and it throws off all of your grades the slope was about about a one to one maybe a one and a half to one slope so it wasn't past what the asv could do but because the soil was so wet it made it kind of uncomfortable because you didn't feel like you were grabbing onto the soil you felt like you were kind of floating above it and anytime your brakes could or your tracks could break free that's what it is yeah it's definitely i think it's the cab i think it's the cab on this machine makes it a little bit difficult because i'm not used to that much glass it literally feels like there's nothing between you and the truck most skid loaders that i'm in you've got your cage in the front and you've got the side cages and it literally feels like you're all snuggled up and safe in a little jail cell right with this thing it feels like you're in a glass bubble i'm actually used to like when you really get into loading and you're having a little bit of fun bouncing off from the truck i remember i own the truck and the skid loader i can do things that you don't normally wouldn't do sometimes i just let her go just bounced it right off the truck get the bucket in the air and let the cab just touch the truck as you're loading it because the machine's lit tipping forward a little bit and it's like oh can i kiss it without detting it can i you know what can you do you have a little fun with this thing you're a little paranoid because you're like that's all glass up there if i smack that truck i'm gonna shatter the whole thing and that's not true of course it's protected but it does take a little bit to get used to that cap i'm having no luck just one i think i better call it a day and come back tomorrow actually there's a lot of days where that would have been the smart thing to do i think i'm going to do it today not even close to being done i really wanted to get this kind of light out but bad luck today i didn't have bad luck it wouldn't have any at all all right you guys we got a lot of touch-up to do but we're also going to be grading a little differently than what you would normally see today we're not going to be seeding or sodding this year at all so instead of loosening the soil up i'm going to be intentionally flat topping it or slicking it right here see how this is slicked this is designed when water hits doesn't penetrate and it sheds when you have loose oil water hits kind of gathers in the loose areas and then creates a mess instead of shedding down and going away since this isn't going to be seeded sodded or established for a year we want water to go away so we're going to grate it so water does that which is a little contradictory to what you've seen me do in the past we're going to be tweaking wet clay so there's going to be times when i'm just going to be digging in and attempting to shave a little bit off and i get a lot a lot off and i'll show you what i do to fix that let's go this is the area where i just want to take i just want to start to shave nice close shave this cab is so quiet here you can hear everything like i'm carrying on a normal conversation in the cab with you guys so i'm gonna shut up and just let you guys listen but this is what the operators here inside the cab it's just [Music] peaceful very very quiet cap a very quiet cab ah that actually is working out today you know we're not in a rush and i'm looking at that uh drip line of that crab apple tree i definitely want to stay away from that that's a chunk but all right we don't want to get it too fat not all at once because even though this machine floats it'll still compact and if you don't think so put your toes under the tires and tell me if they're not compacted when we're done okay for one don't do that and for two it doesn't have tires it has tracks just saying thin lifts and i want to work it into the soil so i'm actually attempting right now to kind of marry it into the existing soils kind of like play-doh you guys remember play-doh when you push it over the newspaper and you put it in real thin over the newspaper and then you peel it up you'd have the newspaper on it you'd always do the bunnies right at least i always do the bunnies i mean why would you do anything else but they're funny anyway this isn't much different than that you just spread it real thin and you work it right in and pretty soon it becomes part of the topography which is why it's called earthwork i mean thoughts will stand man but the results that we maybe around for a hundred years or more nobody may come in here and regrade this for decades and decades who knows i don't know that's kind of one of those thoughts that i think when i'm going through it and i'm like all right i take the time and do it the way i really really want it or do i get on to the next job well how do i want this to look in 15 years when people are having weddings here and family events and enjoying this land they will never know but i'll know it's me i'll feel better about what i did you do your work right nobody should ever know you did it you know i ran i actually started running excavators uh tract excavator which is like a bulldozer with a bucket right that was the first piece of equipment we ever owned and we didn't own any other equipment besides a farm tractor for quite a few years you want to talk about slow and monotonous oh my god tragic attract excavator so slow compared to the skin motor i mean it's got its place you guys it's not getting let's not just bash it but customer is going to be coming out in about 20 minutes to check this out so i kind of want to have something cool for her to see [Music] what do you guys think that is you guys see that let's go check it out that don't look like something i want to hit look how shallow it's buried all right yeah it's been gopher stated multiple multiple times flag look at the gas line is it we don't know that they didn't have this line marked you guys seen it when i first walked in look how shallow that is we get i don't know where you guys are but in this neck of the woods they always do these things so shallow i just don't understand it all right i'm gonna let you guys just watch for a while so i'm gonna pop i'm gonna pop you up on the top give you a little better review of the bucket and let's get some stuff done right so the reason i don't do real thick lifts with clay and personally i don't like to do thick lifts and a lot of materials but especially clays because i don't want the subsoil and the clay that i put on top of it to be separate because that clay can move as a mass especially on a steep slope because that side slope is pretty steep you know one to one or one and a half to one so then if you get water a thin layer of water from the soil that's in the bank and the stuff you stick on top you can get the entire mound of soil to move down what i want this to do is i want these to marry together so that as the water comes down to the surface it hits the top of it and if i can get a nice sheen on it the water will hit not penetrate and run off all right guys we're going to start at the bottom of the hill and we're going to look at the grade from the bottom and the top because i don't have a laser here so from the bottom you guys can see that everything flows right down here it kind of comes this way it comes this way and it's meant to come straight down here which is pretty much where we wanted her to go i wanted her to go if i could say that any more awkward i probably could if i tried um so this grade let's take a real quick look at this okay you guys because this is not the great i'd leave if this was gonna be a yard this is clay right and i did this on purpose i hard pack this clay because next year i can come in power rake it i can use the sr3 on it i can use the hydra bucket i don't care pick a name anything that tills something up i can then till this back up and put the black dirt and incorporate it down so these guys can grow grass but in the meantime they're not going to get their entire yard washing down and into the street this surface is going to really protect it so there's still a lot more landscaping to do out here but we're not gonna be doing it a guy named bobby jensen i guess he's a famous guy on kare11 news local um she's worked with him before so we're her excavator he's her landscaper i guess is what it is we got plenty of work anyway we can't keep up we just blaine just threw his back out and sam's trying to build a 14-foot tall retaining wall blaine can't pick up a single block alex is out doing fall cleanups frankie is up north putting a second story on the cabin tim is out doing a french trade french grading french drain job and here i am so we're spread a bit then but we'll get through her always do and i'm sure you guys are spread then too man i think we all are right it's that time of the season and it's one of those worlds anyway that's all we got for you today hope you enjoyed it hope you picked something out of it let me know what you think in the comments below let me know what you picked out of it if it was just fun cool being said i just had fun i went along for the ride if you learned something let me know that too and we'll just go from there hopefully we'll see on another one god bless go get them you guys if i don't leave here i'll never leave here i'll just stay here and work and work and work i know it i mean i cuz i see that ridge i kind of want to take that out and i'm going to fill that in and then i want to put a little bit of dirt right there and i want to bring it all around but problem is is this isn't the finished grade that's not till next year so sometimes you gotta know when to say no you gotta know when to hold them know when to fold them all right that's i'm done singing um so on this particular slope next year what i've got to do is because i've hard packed this soil and trying to preserve it because they can't afford to have any of this stuff washed past that silt fence and i really think the way i left it it's going to be well protected until the spring but in the springtime i've got you guys can see how much clay is on this oil i've got to do an extra good job of tilling this up because if i just spread the black dirt on and i don't incorporate everything together that clay will be here the black dirt won't incorporate into it and the roots will grow down hit that clay and pretty much like hitting concrete it's not going to be able to go anywhere and so the grass on top will suffer if they don't have a sprinkler or we don't have a wet summer anytime there's a drought your grass is going to burn a lot faster and so really what i've got to do next year is just fold the black dirt together with that clay as deep as possible and that'll create a nice structure for the roots to grow probably bring in a little sand as well because that clay is going to create probably root rot in the vegetation if we just leave pure clay and use black dirt on top of it so there's a little bit of remediation to get a beautiful yard in there we'll see what the customer wants to do but that's our video for today god bless go get them you guys and hopefully we'll see on one of our other projects coming up catch you then