11 year old boy operating a 80 longreach excavator video safely

doncampbell · Feb 22, 2009

Thought some of you might enjoy this video of 11 year old Mikey playing on one of 30 machines they have sitting in their back yard. He learned on mini machines and now runs every excavator, every dozer, scraper, etc. He is very aware of what makes these machines work, and the safety of operating them. Please try to see the postive in this cool video. He is a nice little kid and already a top gun heavy equipment operator. http://www.motionbox.com/videos/1c9...=playlist&playlist_uid=1f9cd8b7121692&type=sd

doncampbell · Feb 22, 2009

As dangerous as some of you might think this might look, he loves machinery !! His friends are now smoking , drinking and experimenting with drugs , if Mikey was my little boy , I'd say he is much safer here around machinery than with his friends. His dad and him also have a best friend relationship, and that is also awesome.

john1066 · Feb 22, 2009

I see no problem with that. I started running our 950B loading trucks when i was 6 years old. the D8N pushing fill at 8 and the excavators when i was 10. Everyone has to learn some time

95zIV · Feb 22, 2009

I don't think that we see enough of this kind of thing anymore. When I was that age dad was bringing me to job sites on weekends and summer vacations. Any jobs going on around where I lived you could count on me being there after school, that's where I learned to grease equipment. When I was delivering precast i would occasionally bring my kids with me when I was loading on the weekends and when I was done I'd let my son fold up the boom on the crane and put it in the cradle. I delivered to one job where the dad and older son left just after I got there and the younger son was left behind. So I called him over and let him fold up the boom. Little things like that will make memories forever.

312King · Feb 22, 2009

Im am only 22 but for as long ass i can remeber i been running equipment i started backfilling foundations at 8, and started digging foundations at 13. If i didnt start as young as i did i wouldnt be half the operater i am.

Red Bank · Feb 22, 2009

I think that was cool, my wife watched the video with me and she thought that was cool,too. I agree with 95zIV, we don't see that enough. I am impressed that the kid was even outside, much less on a machine that size. I always try to get my 5 year old daughter to ride in the dump truck with me, or on the 955, or on the tractor around the farm, if not to learn what I am doing, then to say later in life "Dad used to do that with me".

T_S_S · Feb 22, 2009

Hes not the safest operator if he left those 2 other excavators with the sticks in the air...

onearmedbandit · Apr 16, 2009

doncampbell said:
thought some of you might enjoy this video of 11 year old mikey playing on one of 30 machines they have sitting in their back yard. He learned on mini machines and now runs every excavator, every dozer, scraper, etc. He is very aware of what makes these machines work, and the safety of operating them. Please try to see the postive in this cool video. He is a nice little kid and already a top gun heavy equipment operator. http://www.motionbox.com/videos/1c9...=playlist&playlist_uid=1f9cd8b7121692&type=sd

really mint, this is so, so, cool and the alternative to this is fighting, drug taking and beating up old ladies for cash what a damn shame we are restricted by rules and regulations for almost everything and when we see something as good as this we try to stop it i think the whole world needs some strong lessons like this.
Disillusioned onearmedbandit

Panhandler Bob · Apr 16, 2009

Start em young, I did.:drinkup

daugherty102 · Apr 16, 2009

my dad started me off just like that i started on an old 944A stockpiling sand and eventually worked my way up to our long reach excavator. i'm 18 today and i still run the long reach and this summer when i graduate plans are for me to take over the sandpit completely. it sure pays off when you start off at a young age.

WabcoMan · Apr 16, 2009

I was operating TS-24's at age 14

Hendrik · Apr 16, 2009

Whilst there is nothing much wrong with a young person learning to use equipment safely (unlike me), plastering it all over the internet might not be such a good idea. Remember the safety police is everywhere these days and them seeing youngens using heavy equipment will only stir them up. Perhaps to such an extend that they will try and impose age limits and such. All it might take is one serious accident, that and a thousand videos of kids playing with big tonka toys and the safety mob will have all the ammo they need to get the pollies to crack down.
Also there are other issues such as insurance and the ability of an 11 year old to assess risks but there again the only way for them to learn to assess risks is on the job.

30 dirty years · Apr 16, 2009

My brother and I have been operating equiptment since we were little guys

Bellboy · Apr 18, 2009

I only wish I had those opportunities! But people snub you and say, "oh, what's a kid like you want?" It gets to me, it really does. Then you get on the equipment and you show them that you CAN operate it carefully, road it smoothly and so on and their dying to see what else you can do, but haven't 'learnt' to do.

cderekbower · Apr 21, 2009

I haven't had any big machines for my boys to play with but my son could chop down a 3" diameter tree with a dull machete before he was 2. It is great to have your boys working with you as long as it is safe. Good job.

maddog · Apr 22, 2009

I could not see the video but even with that said: I have to say as much as I am a fan of having youngsters learn machines 11 is still to young. There is no way they would ever know what to do in an emergency. I give a thumbs up for encouragement but a thumbs down for "under age" operation!

It is great he is not doing drugs etc..., but are all of his friends smoking and drinking etc? I am a father and feel being a father is what keeps kids out of bad habits, not placing them on machinery.

I hope he does good and enjoys the machines enough to carry on. At the same time I hope he does not get hurt runnning a machine he truely has no business being on.

30 dirty years · Apr 22, 2009

I agree 11 is to young I would have much rather been playing and riding bikes with friends instead of working.:Banghead

maddog · Apr 22, 2009

I still agree with the ole timers way of doing things, start with a shovel prove that ya don't mind getting dirty then work your way up.

wrenchbender · Apr 22, 2009

The days of old have past, I've been operating wreckers from the age of 10. Started in a F-350 and by age 12 working and rigging a twin boom W45 Holmes on a 5 ton truck.My dad would have to drive the truck to the sites but turned the controlls over to me while he ran the other truck. I'm now in my 50's and wouldn't change a thing about the way I was taught. Kids are just like adults not all are cut out to do certain things but the ones who shouldn't be held back!

30 dirty years · Apr 22, 2009

I was raised that way too maddog I started at 7 years old shooting grade, crumbing basements laying fabric paper and septic tank pipe in the summer months when I was out of school and then wrenching on equiptment after school the rest of the year.

11 year old boy operating a 80 longreach excavator video safely

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