Welcome!!!

Welcome

Allterra said:

Hello all, My name is steve although the forum lists me as allterra. I have been in the "dirt" since highschool, have a couple of degrees in construction technologies. I tried working in the medical field fo a few years....Yeck!!! Two years ago I started my own business, general dirt work, and utillities. I am 40 years old so I dont know how long I will last on the shovel but it sure is nice to be my own boss.

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Welcome to the forum looking forward to some of your posts... Bill

Hi there, Jason here, seasoned computer operator (not winders) Welder, fabricator, firefighter, tree cutter, log stacker. Have a 70 Case CK580 (gas) and just picked up a 66 JD 350 crawler dozer (gas) for free. It took a few hours of prodding and some ATF down the bores but fired up after sitting for six years, after melting the starter and re-soldering it with plumbing solder and an acetylene welding torch. I have a lot of hours on skid steer loaders, a few hours on a Cat skidder and a Trojan loader and helped my friend repower and overhaul a sturdy Nelson loader, 4BTA swap in place of the Cummins J. Lots of hours running the backhoe and a few hours getting familiar with dozer operations. I've not gotten either stuck in a huge way yet but have been close and have been experimenting with how the dozer feels on side hills and climbing/descending. I see the fire operators in CA working 90% grades and know I'm not qualified for any of that.

Klmracing

hello everyone. I am a crane operator in Houston, TX. i have run everything from a small National boom truck to a 350ton Grove GMK 5350. I currently work for a local crane rental company and run a 60ton link-belt.

Hi all, my names Brandon 21yrs and im from Australia.
Im a floor and wall Tiler by trade and have had an interest in earthmoving for sometime now.
Im going through a career change at the moment into excavator operating, so im very green and learning.
This site is helping me understand a great deal of things and is very well set out.

Cheers Brandon.

Hi everyone. My Dad has a small construction business and I help him quite a bit. He has D4G, 580 Super K, 1486 International, and other equipment. We also have a small farm. I have already learned from reading some of your posts, and I am sure will learn more in the future. Thanks for the info and thanks to the people who keep forums like this going.

Well hello from north Tx. new to the forum have really enjoyed all the info here.I have been running equipment for 15 years or so,just went on my own about a year ago. I do anything to make a buck.Thanks for this site has been a wealth of knowledge cant wait for more.

Hi,My name is Rob,from Somerset in the UK,been farming since leaving school and do most of our own excavating/building sheds/ditching etc.I have a JCB 3c wheeled digger and a 18ton Komatsu.

Hi, Name is Darragh im from ireland and am still in college studying Construction Management, in my final year now and doing my dissertation on Backhoe loader safety... came on hear to get some info, tips, hints and talk to people who use real machines, looking forward to it

Lood

Good day all,
My name is Lood andI'm 40 years old. I farm in central South Africa with livestock and we also have a few center pivots. My only experience with construction machinery was driving loaders, excavators and graders during my army days and we have an old JCB 3CX that is very handy on the farm.

Hi all, My name is Steve Kicic and im from Henley Beach in South Australia.
I am 48 years old and have always had a interest in Civil Construction and so on from a very early age, having a lot of trenching and land clearing-levelling near my house as I was growing up certainly helped my interest along.
I am also passionate about aviation and used to work for a major domestic airline Ansett Australia for 16 years as a catering truck-hi lift driver. I have a substantial collection of Civil aircraft as well as about 70-80+ earthmovers ranging in scale from 1/160-to 1/16, many are 1/50 scale.
Mainly into tracked backhoes and loaders, dozers and cranes, shovels and one day a dragline?? Also have wheeled loaders, graders and scrapers, mainly into smaller suburban seen machines, not really big on the mining equipment as such. Im also getting a few 1/87 scale prime movers (tractors as our American friends call them) and low loader-float trailers to go with them.
A White Freightliner arrived today and in 87 sc, looks pretty good, bonus was the bull bar which makes it look very Aussie to me, made by Herpa im most impressed with it!!! A low loader is coming with seperate dolly, so its one long trailer thats for sure. My dream in life is to operate a Cat 325 or similar excavator, nearly happened a few years ago, a guy I knew operated them, and was going to let me have a go at using it, however the day before we had arranged it, it was sent to another job elsewhere and so I missed out. Such is life I guess!!
As a younster I did get a ride on an Cat Grader, and many years later a Cat dozer D8?D9?
that was an amazing experience.
Anyway just wanted to say gday to all and im sure I will have fun here.

Im not sure if I forgot to do something but I see I cannot post new threads, post attachments or edit my posts, perhaps an Admin/moderator can help me with that?
Cheers, Steve Kicic

Welcome to the forum steve kicic. :usa

No worries about you not being able to start threads and such, you need to get three posts at any thread on the forum (except TGIF), then your member status will be upgraded to Junior Member and you can then take advantage of all forum features.

Ahh OK Thanks for that as i was wondering how it all works here on HEF. I hope to be a regular poster and also a reader/ viewer as I find a lot of topics of interest to me.
I have a millio and one questions about some older machines, hope someone can answer my questions??
??

Welcome to HEF from another South Aussie, Steve, I'm sure you will enjoy your time here.

RnR.

Hello All, should have started here first with some post, but just found this thread.

My name is Tom. I have an office day job but I also own an 80 acre Christmas tree farm where I spend most of my weekends. I have two agricultural tractors. A little one for inbetween the trees and an larger one with a loader for general utility work. As far as the contruction side, we also have a Mitsubishi BD2G. Had to replace the undercarrage a year or so ago. That was quite a job, but you live & learn. Its a pretty capable machine, but when you start ripping out stumps it really beats up the machine. I tend to buy/start projects. My latest is a 1992 Hitachi EX120-2. Bot it real cheap, basicly as a parts machine. Did a bunch of independant research on it first to find out the background as much as I could. It was missing the entire swing assembly and it had some damage to the control panel. Undercarrage is a little worn but for me probably fine for years. Pins and bushings look generally very good & tight. The hour meter reads 6200 and as best I can gather this is consistant with prior service records. As I write this it does not run, but I just had it delivered on Sunday. I have located all the parts I need to get it back in operation. I should have the engine running this weekend. I am a bit concerned about starting it back up without the swing motor in, but before I drop the money on that part I want to make sure the engine fires. I am also slightly concerned about the hydraulic system. The swing motor has been missing for a while and everything has been exposed to the elements. At this point all the hydraulic fluid has drained out. Thus:

Questions for the experts. A) can I start the engine without having any hydraulic fluid in the machine (guessing no)? A-1) I would assume this might potentially damage the hydraulic pump? B) Should I try and flush/clean the entire hydraulic system before I start it and if so how? C) As far as the swing assembly goes, is there any cleaning or regreasing on the turntable I should do before installing it, remember this has been fully exposed to the elements?

I did buy a manual, but I screwed up and bot the EX120 or -1 manual and not the -2 manual. There are enough differences in these models that I do not feel comfortable enough with the older manual considering some of the things I am going to need to tackle. Sooooooo, if anybody has an electronic verion of the -2 manual they would like to share, I would really appreciate it. I saw a -3 manual on flea-bay but not sure what the diffrences are between the -2 & -3 machines.

Thanks, and glad I found this resource.
Tom

Hi, I'm Matt and I'm in Wales on a small family farm with quite limited kit available to us but we do have a mini digger and my hobbies revolve around old motorbikes, landrovers and farm kit. I'm here to find out about fixing and maintaining the few bits of kit we run as well as modifying things for some jobs - I've mostly finished a forklift add on for our dumper truck so 1 machine can double up for 2 jobs.

Hi All,

I'm Simon from Manado, Indonesia, I own a small resort and I am looking to buy my first mini in the next few months to use for construction and maintenance out here.

I'm hoping to learn a lot about how to check out a 2nd hand mini before you buy, and also about working on steep inclines.

Hello...I own a small concrete,snow removal, and light excavation business. I'm looking forward to some good reading here. Thanks.

Welcome to the forum Scuba_Si and snocrete. :usa

Just wanted to say Hi. Grew up around construction equipment with my grandfather being a contractor. Learned to drive a bulldozer at a young age after practicing in a little bobcat. I've always been interested in equipment and wanted to become a part of a community with the same interests.

Hello everyone. I started off by operating a 1940 D4 2T Caterpillar bulldozer and a MF135 tractor when i was about 7 years old that belonged to my grandad. he owned a logging business on Vancouver Island many many years ago and contracted for Macmillan Bloedel ltd. i've always liked the older equipment ever since i used to watch my dad and grandad operate the old bulldozers. compared to the machines now. operating those older ones was a workout and an art.
Currently I work for Leemar Manufacturing inc. in Parksville B.C. as a Heavy Duty Mechanic
We sell new and used excavator parts; Mostly John Deere and Hitachi. which are shipped all over the world.
http://www.leemar.ca/