gravel man

How hard is it to learn to run a dragline. Witch crane would work the best for a sand & gravel pit. What do you look for when you are looking at used crane for a dragline out fit. How do know what size bucket it will handel. Can any one help me with this . Thnks.

Ooohh it aint to hard. You might want to find a mentor that is willing to work with you. Bad side effects of draglines. Too short of drag rope= pull wedge out of drum,Plus other fun things. Casting bucket, OOpps cast to far!=Tip crane over. Man we are having fun now! Drop bucket and catch it before it hits the ground= You might want to exit an smoke cigarette (or cigar witch ever you prefer) before the raising line snaps. Oh how I hate those old timers that make it look like a child can do it!. Yes I am sarcastic at times, oh well. Good luck to you.
P.S. my favorite movie line. " BRAKES? We don't need no stinking brakes"

Edit- I am a poor speller, an my engrish aint all that good

Yair . . . gravel man I'm no dragline hand but I have a little seat time. Coming off dozers the biggest problem for me was transferring the load from hand clutch to foot brake . . . I was used the PCU holding the load when I released the clutch.

It will certainly be a learning curve but they are fascinating machines and can move a lot of cheap dirt. It won't take long to be competent to dig and stockpile gravel . . . loading road trucks is going to take a while.

Cheers.

gravel man, Decide on a size. The first thing you need to know is how deep and wide you need to dig, in a cut or a path, as you move the machine along it’s working areas, and then how high you want to go with your spoil pile. Each machine has it’s limitations when hoisting, casting, digging at depths and with how large of a bucket it can handle on certain boom lengths. Just scope out the classifieds for used draglines for sale to get a feel for their bucket sizes and boom lengths they come with and the price ranges to expect. I ran draglines for a few years and loved that kind of work, but it didn’t pay as well as hook work so I cross trained over to that area.