srs_mn
Well-Known Member
Silly to have two "standards"
Hi guys,
I'm an old JD backhoe guy - I've run JD's since 1974 or so... 350 and 450 Crawler-Loader-backhoes, 310's, 410's, 510's, 490's, 590's, 690's... you get the idea... they're all the same and I got really good with them. Then one day, about 10 years ago, I had to run a Cat Excavator - I don't even remember what model it was - a 215, I think - anyway, I could NOT dig a hole with that thing!!! The controls were just WRONG!!! After a while the air was just BLUE with cusswords!! I tried for over an hour and finally just gave up... It was really embarassing to let my totally inexperienced young helper get the hang of the thing in about a half hour, but he didn't have the JD pattern branded into his brain, so he started from scratch. I have since tried, on several different Cats, to learn their pattern, but the JD pattern is impossible for me to un-learn.
Anyway, I think that it is silly, and dangerous, to have two "standard" excavator control patterns - whoever is in charge of these types of things should sit down and decide on ONE standard pattern - I have no idea how they would decide, but it could be as simple as flipping a coin.
Sorry for the long rant.
Steve
Hi guys,
I'm an old JD backhoe guy - I've run JD's since 1974 or so... 350 and 450 Crawler-Loader-backhoes, 310's, 410's, 510's, 490's, 590's, 690's... you get the idea... they're all the same and I got really good with them. Then one day, about 10 years ago, I had to run a Cat Excavator - I don't even remember what model it was - a 215, I think - anyway, I could NOT dig a hole with that thing!!! The controls were just WRONG!!! After a while the air was just BLUE with cusswords!! I tried for over an hour and finally just gave up... It was really embarassing to let my totally inexperienced young helper get the hang of the thing in about a half hour, but he didn't have the JD pattern branded into his brain, so he started from scratch. I have since tried, on several different Cats, to learn their pattern, but the JD pattern is impossible for me to un-learn.
Anyway, I think that it is silly, and dangerous, to have two "standard" excavator control patterns - whoever is in charge of these types of things should sit down and decide on ONE standard pattern - I have no idea how they would decide, but it could be as simple as flipping a coin.
Sorry for the long rant.
Steve