First poster

[Blademan]

Just to say Hi to all other grader operators out there , and be the first post on here !!!!! We RULE !!!! LOL ,


Rob

[lamarbur]

well, from one new guy to another, welcome aboard.

[Taylortractornu]

Nice to meet you Rob. Around here a grader operator pays top dollar at most places, not many left here. I havent spent much time on a grader except when the County would leave their Gallion or Fiat Allis out here. My brother Had a little DD Allis Chalmer a few years ago before he retired. We redid all the bushing s and all on it. It drew 75 an hour here.

[Blademan]

Hey fellas ,

haven't check here for some time , but will probably do so more now that winter has arrived here . Thanks for the greetings .

Rob

[upandownsmooth]

:waving .yeah grader operators rule.the best job.I start a new job monday.new cat grader with GPS.Anybody ever had GPS on there grader before? :confused:

[shepoutside]

Yup, and dozers too :)

[murray83]

i'd kill to get a few hours in the machine myself,taking the course in may but doesn't include grader.

no grader courses anywhere near here,and no one is willing to teach anyone cuz they think they'll get bumped at work... but everyone i talk to says not many younger operators can run grader so i figure this can be a nice little niche job any opinions?

i know i'm also young so that doesn't help trying to be taken seriously lol maybe i have to go out west :beatsme

[Dwan Hall]

There is no work for a newbe on a grader around here. mostly blacktop now. I always wanted play on a grader. In order to do so I had to go buy my own. I found an older 1963 Austern Western super 300 for a little over $2000 that needed a little work. I got it, put it in the shop and took it apart piece by piece. Cleand the uasable ones painted them and replaced what ever I could find that was warn. It is now about 1/2 done. Still needs wireing and a new seat. when finished it will be a great bill board for the co. Maybe then I can have a little fun.

[nobull1]

Welcome aboard :drinkup great to see another Maritimer on here. Can't tell you much about grader work but there sure are a lot of people going west to run heavy equipment. Where are you taking your course at, If I may ask?

[murray83]

:) oldies are better in my opinion least u can work on them we have a 98' cat 140H i get nervous even looking at it but in a few years maybe.

btw....admired yer outfit fer the past while, keep up the good work hope to someday be the same as you :notworthy

nobull1: its in apohaqui not too far from me, i liked what i herd from a couple guys who took it at where i work but kinda disappointed at its only on dozer,excavator,loader and backhoe but its a start... next hurdle is getting my class 3 a guy i know is going out to run a D6,$23/hr 10 hours a day 7 days a week not too bad fer a camp job think i might jump ship too and bounce around on camp jobs save my money and buy a house and just work to pay the bills hope the plan works lol

[upandownsmooth]

i was lucky my dad was a grader operator and taught heavy equipment for a while including grader.He retired and i took over.i operate everything but my fav is the grader.They have course in toronto and we have lots of work in southern ontario.If i could find work in N.B i would be there in a sec.Beautiful country.Grader rules.

[Grader4me]

i'd kill to get a few hours in the machine myself,taking the course in may but doesn't include grader.

no grader courses anywhere near here,and no one is willing to teach anyone cuz they think they'll get bumped at work... but everyone i talk to says not many younger operators can run grader so i figure this can be a nice little niche job any opinions?

i know i'm also young so that doesn't help trying to be taken seriously lol maybe i have to go out west :beatsme


Nice to see another New Brunswicker in this forum!! I started operating a grader when I was 18 years old. If you have an interest it does not matter how young that you are, as a matter of fact the younger the better! Operating a Grader is not something that you will learn overnight, it takes years of practice to become a good operator. Express your interest and willingness to learn and I am sure that some company will give you an opportunity to operate their Grader.

[Dozerboy]

I like running graders I'm by no means worth a xxxx, but I can't be leave how many guys are scared to even give it a try. I hope to learn, but nothing will ever take the place of a hoe in my hart. LOL

[Grader4me]

I like running graders I'm by no means worth a XXXX, but I can't be leave how many guys are scared to even give it a try. I hope to learn, but nothing will ever take the place of a hoe in my hart. LOL


I hear you. I person never wants to be scared to try because everyone has to start somewhere. Operators that can operate anything seem to have a preferred piece of equipment and usually are very good on it. I have watched hoe operators that could almost spread butter on a slice of bread with the bucket...a pleasure to watch them in action:yup

[murray83]

not to be nosey but where are you from in nb,your an instructor for DOT i seen so i'm thinking freddy could be wrong lol,i'm in saint john.

seen ads in the fall for positions with dot just forgot to apply though many tell me its nice to know your mla to get in

[Grader4me]

I am not far from you actually. I live in Chipman. Where is the course that you are taking in May? Just being nosey right back at ya

[murray83]

its in apohaqui, ppl at work trying to talk me out of it but i don't know we'll see how its goes till then

is it worth applying with dot? i notice alot of the plow operators are 40+ years old around here, seems like a nice wage $14 something an hour they advertised back then in the paper what do they look for? experience is a plus i suppose haha might as well ask someone who'd know than ask someone who knows someone who knows:yup

i work at gulf operators lol :rolleyes: irving.....only thing i like is the rrsp's other than that i'd jump ship gotta plan on yer retirement these days at my age (22) or u'd be screwed they say

[Grader4me]

No offence but I would rather stick to sharing experiences, read and hear about others in the operating fields, and maybe give a little advice here and there about operating machinery rather than discuss jobs etc. at the DOT. If you would like to PM me I could answer some of your questions

[Vahighwayman]

When I moved here to Virginia from New York..I had a good knowledge of operating excavators,dozers,loaders,etc. be that I worked for a landscaping and excavating company in NY for 20 + years, I landed a job with the state highway department here in Virginia and at the headquaters where i'm stationed, the grader operator retired 2 weeks after I started. Well, needless to say, after being watched on how I've been operating the other equipment, they decided to train me on the grader, never have I been on one before. so, the head operator took down to the back of the yard,showed me the basics of the grader, Deere 770C, and left me alone for the balance of the day. He came down and checked on me from time to time..and then told me to go ahead and park it in it's stall..well the next morning when the supervisor was giving out the job duties for the day, he looked at me and said to take the grader and here's a list of 6 or 7 dirt roads that needed to be machined.. the first road I sucked at..lol...had to redo it again...but by the time I got to my 3rd road..they looked good...now..being on my 5th year with the state, I'm doing the training and i'm telling you, you talk about guys being nervous, just the face expression from them as the climb in and look at the levers..

[Grader4me]

I started with the DOT at the tender age of 16. After 2 years of playing around with all of the equipment I had my first crack at doing a leveling job with the grader, as the regular operator took sick. We had about 25 trucks hauling gravel. The first day was really bad as I was shaking in my boots and the sweat was pouring off of me. Cars was getting stuck in the gravel as I never had a clue of the proper way to level. The next day I got myself calmed down and really started to focus on the task at hand. Next thing that I realized was that the cars were not getting stuck anymore! Yes, for anyone new starting out on a Grader is almost overwelming but just keep in mind that everyone has to start somewhere:yup

[Dozerboy]

That's a hell of a first day I don't know it I would of wanted to come back the next day one of my experiences wasn't much better. We where digging a hole in Irvin, CA there are pics of it in the TGIF. And the hole was so wet the material I was loading into the bellies with the hoe was getting stuck in the trucks, and the trucks where getting stuck in the hole on the haul road. I shut down, but the 2 loaders couldn't keep up with loading the truck and pushing them out. I got on the blade and tried to fix the road. My first pass the trucks where backing up and left it in 3rd tried to blow through it. I made it worse, one of the loader operators called me and jumped all over me so I helped them push the trucks out. Once the line was gone I stopped the truck up top and fixed the road the right way after that it went ok, but I had to constantly maintain the road.

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Folks.
A LOTTA levers onna grader, huh? About ten years ago, I was running a Cat 130G on a sub-division job in Cairns in North Queensland, Australia. One day, one of the labourers climbed up in the cab with me and said, "I just want to see what you have to do to make this thing work."

He rode with me for about five minutes and then he wanted to get off, saying there were too many levers for him. I stopped him and asked him, "You play a guitar, don't you?" I didn't have a clue whether he played a guitar or not but, as it turned out, he did. I then asked him, "How many frets on your guitar stem?" He couldn't tell me. What's more, I didn't know either but I said, "Well, let me assure you that there are a lot more frets on your guitar than there are levers in this cab."

I have since done a little research and it turns out there are either 18 or 24 frets on most guitars - - - - and folks reckon running a grader is complicated.

And then there are 88 keys onna 'pianner'. And God knows how many onna 'pianner' accordian.

May kup yer minds.

You all have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

[Tigerotor77W]

Interesting points -- but on how many instruments do you have to worry about the location of the instrument and whether it's actually moving the way you want it to at the same time? ***

Not disagreeing with you, but man, I think blade operators (fine-dozing and grading both) must be some of the best hand-eye coordination activities out there as a reasonable profession. (That is, there aren't that many professional pianists working for a living.)

[Deas Plant]

Hi, Tigerotor77W.
Not disagreeing with you either but in all of these cases, musicians and artists with machines, anticipation also plays a big part. With a musician (Possibly excepting jazz musicians who make a lot of it up as they go along when they're jamming.), he/she knows exactly where he/she is supposed to be going next 'cos he's/she's either practised it a squillion times or he's/she's reading it from a page as it goes along.

For an operator, they know what the finished product is supposed to look like and can work towards that goal with some reasonable degree of certainty. The seat of their pants also tells them a fair bit about what to expect next too if they are really tuned in.

I agree that the tricky part is when it is time to put on the finishing touches but even then experience and anticipation play their part in the overall process. I found very early in my career that it was easier to largely ignore what the machine was doing and concentrate on keeping the blade where I wanted it, using the feedback from my eyes and my broad butt to help in this process. You do have to position the machine in such a way that you CAN get the blade you want it so steering plays its part there.

Bull-tilt blades and 6-way blades made this process both a little easier and a little more complicated as they came on the scene but most of us coped pretty well - I think.

The whole art of earthmoving boils down to one thing - being able to position the cutting edge to take the material from where you want to take it and place it where you want to place it in the condition that you want it to be in when it gets there.

I also suspect that people like Eldridge Woods (Tiger to you.) may have pretty fair hand-eye co-ordination too - in their own way - just as operators have in their own way.

Catchyalater.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

[digger242j]

The whole art of earthmoving boils down to one thing - being able to position the cutting edge to take the material from where you want to take it and place it where you want to place it in the condition that you want it to be in when it gets there.



AMEN, Brother Deas, Amen! Preach on... :notworthy

[Deas Plant]

Hi, digger242j.
Now that is one reply that I DIDN'T expect. LOL.

You have a wonderful day. Best wishes. Deas Plant.

[digger242j]

It is an art, and it does all boil down to what the cutting edge is doing. I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Grader4me]

Pretty much sums it up :notworthy