Demolition, clearing and grading

Nice demo, how much steel did you take across the scales?

Hows the D6K doing? Is it a K2?

Hey CM,

It was 11 tons of steel at a very disappointing 6.5 cents per ton. The 6K is a series 2. It is OK, we have had no trouble from it and it pushes good. Grades OK but not as good as a 6N. Not a big fan of the controls and cab, kinda loud inside and I don't like the giant control handles.

Pretty interesting soil varieties in the last photo of post #400. Is that caliche near the bottom?

Landclearer said:

It was 11 tons of steel at a very disappointing 6.5 cents per ton.

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Wow, that is low. Last 30 yard I sent was $.14 a pound but we have several furnaces here so the scrap stays local.

A D6N is one of my favorite dozers. Had a D6N and loved that tractor.

JNB said:

Pretty interesting soil varieties in the last photo of post #400. Is that caliche near the bottom?

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JNB, if you don't like the dirt around here, move over 10 feet. The top layer was topsoil then some yellow sand and a thin layer of hardpan. The white stuff you see in the bottom is pure sand, white and clean as can be. I would love to have a couple hundred acres like that and I would open a dirt pit and be on easy street.

CM1995 said:

Wow, that is low. Last 30 yard I sent was $.14 a pound but we have several furnaces here so the scrap stays local.

A D6N is one of my favorite dozers. Had a D6N and loved that tractor.

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.14 is great. The best we ever got was .12. We have a Nuccor plant about 50 miles away but they don't take from he public. We had a 6N LGP when the economy went south and that was a great dozer. Once you got your pass going you could almost take your hand off the blade control because it rode so good.

Landclearer said:

JNB, if you don't like the dirt around here, move over 10 feet. The top layer was topsoil then some yellow sand and a thin layer of hardpan. The white stuff you see in the bottom is pure sand, white and clean as can be. I would love to have a couple hundred acres like that and I would open a dirt pit and be on easy street.

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Well it's colorful anyway. I had a brand spankin' new KX040 on rental for a job on Friday. The dealer said to keep it for the rest of the weekend for another $7, so that was a no-brainer. I dug an 8' deep burn pit out behind my place yesterday. Black clay and not a pebble in sight. Headed five doors down the street to my FIL's place to demo an old garage and dig another burn pit. Six inches of topsoil then tan gravely clay and hit a solid limestone shelf at 4'. Looked like a finished slab of tan concrete.

JNB said:

Well it's colorful anyway. I had a brand spankin' new KX040 on rental for a job on Friday. The dealer said to keep it for the rest of the weekend for another $7, so that was a no-brainer. I dug an 8' deep burn pit out behind my place yesterday. Black clay and not a pebble in sight. Headed five doors down the street to my FIL's place to demo an old garage and dig another burn pit. Six inches of topsoil then tan gravely clay and hit a solid limestone shelf at 4'. Looked like a finished slab of tan concrete.

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Sounds like you are in the same boat as us with different ground conditions. Fortunately for us we do not have rock. We do have marl which is like soft limestone while digging it but turns to slop once it has been dug. Along the coast, if they are driving piles and looking for tip friction they go down to the marl.

The work is looking good LC! I'm going to have to ride down to Kiawah one weekend and check yall out. I cant get enough of yalls equipment and work.

If it wasn't so far I would drive and spend a few days watching them at work.

STUMP KNOCKER

Sawdus22 said:

The work is looking good LC! I'm going to have to ride down to Kiawah one weekend and check yall out. I cant get enough of yalls equipment and work.

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Thanks Sawdus. There is always something different going on. Glad you like the pics. It is nice to hear from other guys that love equipment and construction!

Stump Knocker said:

If it wasn't so far I would drive and spend a few days watching them at work.

STUMP KNOCKER

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We have a good friend and fellow forum member that comes down from NC several times a year.

Landclearer said:

Thanks Sawdus. There is always something different going on. Glad you like the pics. It is nice to hear from other guys that love equipment and construction!

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I agree with you LC. I love construction it has always interested me even when I was little. I just wish there was more people posting on here. But it seems as the years go by people get less and less interested in construction and the love for the work. I myself am only 18 and can think of only one other friend I know that has the same interest I do. So that kind of puts it into perspective how the youngerror generations have no interest unless you're born into or your dad owns a business.

It's sometimes a small world, but a good one.

Sawdus22 said:

I agree with you LC. I love construction it has always interested me even when I was little. I just wish there was more people posting on here. But it seems as the years go by people get less and less interested in construction and the love for the work. I myself am only 18 and can think of only one other friend I know that has the same interest I do. So that kind of puts it into perspective how the youngerror generations have no interest unless you're born into or your dad owns a business.

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I could not have said it better myself. Seems like kids today want to play video games and mess around with cell phones. I was always out side when I was a kid. I ran a JD 310A when I was about 5 and that was it for me. Nothing else I would rather do. I think people that love construction are the ones that are the best operators and take pride in what they do and the equipment they run.

Same here, I was always outside as a kid playing, building forts, digging holes and getting in trouble which resulted in a butt whopin'.. We grew up in different times LC. It seems like kids now a days are so disconnected from what I call real life - getting dirty and playing outside.

I didn't get to run equipment at an early age but I've had yellow iron fever as long as I can remember. Started working summers in residential construction like a man at age 13, go to work at 6 AM and get home at 6PM. I did every nasty job they could throw at me. Started running a Bobcat at that age as well. Quickly learned how to use the machine to perform tasks that would other wise take back breaking work to accomplish. Worked every summer from then on through college as well as Christmas and Spring breaks and holidays. I loved it and still do.

I think people that love construction are the ones that are the best operators and take pride in what they do and the equipment they run.

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Absolutely.

CM1995 said:

Same here, I was always outside as a kid playing, building forts, digging holes and getting in trouble which resulted in a butt whopin'.. We grew up in different times LC. It seems like kids now a days are so disconnected from what I call real life - getting dirty and playing outside.

I didn't get to run equipment at an early age but I've had yellow iron fever as long as I can remember. Started working summers in residential construction like a man at age 13, go to work at 6 AM and get home at 6PM. I did every nasty job they could throw at me. Started running a Bobcat at that age as well. Quickly learned how to use the machine to perform tasks that would other wise take back breaking work to accomplish. Worked every summer from then on through college as well as Christmas and Spring breaks and holidays. I loved it and still do.



Absolutely.

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Thanks CM! I was the same as you, outside all the time and once I got old enough, off to work I went. Spent every afternoon, Saturday, vacation day and summer working with my brothers and we are still at it. I am really not sure when construction became such a bad occupation but seems like you can't find anyone that "wants" to do it. That is one reason we have a lot of equipment. Unfortunately equipment is more reliable than people for the most part.

When I was in high school, we did a lot of residential work and my brother would send me to a house with a dozer and rake and it better look good one way or another so I figured the dozer was a lot better choice.

I guess pretty much everyone on the forum loves construction, equipment or trucks, if not they wouldn't be on here and that is what makes this such a good forum(not to mention the moderators)

I really really enjoy your pictures. It's hard to take good pictures without stalling the production... and if others are looking you can look a bit foolish taking pictures. I just wish others would share some but I understand wanting to be private. I know my local competition has seen my stuff. I've heard hear say about it but I really have nothing to hide I guess.

Sawdus I feel ya on the nobody is interested in this stuff unless it's in your blood like us. None of my friends have ever even climbed in my machines or trucks and that includes one of my brothers. I even have friends who run some of the biggest grading/pipe jobs in Georgia including the new Falcons stadium. They could care less about it like we do and they are overseeing 650 excavators and everything else along those lines...they love their guns, Harley's, and beers though. They are not burned out on it, it's just that they don't have "it" like us. When I was close to your age I could tell you the weight and horsepower of all the equipment. What I would do to have a neighbor like you.... or even more so a right hand man or even somebody to train if he's serious. That's why I haven't hired anyone yet. I had a guy last week come on but no passion for this work so we cut ties. I'd rather do it alone than have somebody who isn't passionate. When I was 19 I was polishing the boss's Peterbilt, customizing my(his) F700 dump and washing my(his) 853 Bobcat every weekend in hopes of moving up to the loader. My priority was getting the dirt on grade and slicking the swales and entire job down. Kind of a lonely feeling.... wouldn't trade it for nothing though. I can't hide my fanaticism and fascination LOL.


I grew up building forts, riding my BMX all over the county, then riding dirt bikes and four wheelers every chance I got. I begged my Dad to rent a Bobcat and let me work the backyard the way I envisioned it. He never bit on it though. My first real tractor experience was my first day on the job. I was on a 785 New Holland with metal tracks and remember mud peeling up through the slotted floor board as it ate. I was hooked immediately.... then I broke the bucket hyd. by going into a load of dirt with the bucket completely dumped down. Whoops. I was scared the boss that I hadn't met yet would get mad but he was the furthest thing from that. He said we got a rental on the way for you. It was a huge rubber tire loader and I remember looking down at tandems. My first day in grading. Loved it. Yep, if we're here and posting we definitely have "it".

My new ad for an employee says " Will train the right candidate". I'd love to be the guy my first boss was to me. I knew nothing my first day. That ad has been ran for 5 months on and off over the last year. I also tell everybody I know that I'm looking. No luck..... or "oh I don't drive big trucks" or " I'm not a laborer"

It's great that we have this forum...

Thanks fastdirt I really appreciate the kind words. I've always looked up to you so it's nice to hear that from you. you run a great outfit and I wish you were closer because I would take you up on that like a fat kid on pancakes.

I don't know what happened with the industry when it got its bad rep. Not a lot of quality people out there completing the work and I think that's part of the problem. No one gets excited about putting on their work pants and their boots everyday. And that's what excites me I love that feeling. How great is it that you get to drive big truck and even bigger hydraulic toys everyday? I think it's the greatest thing in the world.