cab guarding

[245dlc]

I work for a small demolition and excavation company, we have one John Deere 200D excavator with a thumb, a digging bucket, and a tilting ditching bucket. Lately we've been doing a lot of demo's including a three storey 120 year old brick building I've asked my boss who's been working demolition for he claims 40 years about getting a screen for the windshield for when we're doing high angle demo's and brick demo's. He says he doesn't like cab screens as they make him feel "bug eyed" after a couple of hours, I said I like having a little assurance that I'm not going to get sacked by a clump of bricks or have a piece of steel take me out. I was wondering if there are any manufacturers in Canada or North America that make a cab screen that can be easily removed or stowed above or behind the cab when not needed?

 

[muzy]

Always thought you could get that right from the maufacturer. Could clip right in were the transport gards go. BTW your boss with 40 years under his belt... tell him it could save a $800 window and your sight and life. muzy

 

[245dlc]

I think only Cat has those transport guards that nobody uses. This one is a Deere.

 

[muzy]

Oh Deer, ha ha.(groan). muzy

 

[Turbo21835]

Heres a Cat 350 that was hit by an Ibeam while we were pulling down a piece of building. I would hate to see how it looked if the guarding was not there. Is it was, the cab was tweaked.

 

[245dlc]

Wow, but yeah we got a couple quotes and have been sharing ideas with what should be done. We still do excavation work where we don't really have a need for the heavy guarding so I'm trying to figure out a compromise so that the guarding can be removed out of the line of sight and maybe stowed out of the way behind the cab or on top of it when not being used. My boss is a lot more "brave" than I am and was working with the boom almost straight up and had a clump of bricks slide over the back of the bucket and hit him in the knee. He busted up his knee pretty bad but got it stitched up and is on antibiotics. So far he seems to be with me that we need some kind of guarding, in my experience it's pretty seldom that an "old school" operator would listen to a younger guy but he's been teaching me the proper ways to demolish structures so I don't end up with a structure going like rubber and falling all over the street like that bozo in Vancouver, so I guess he's kinda reciprocating and sees that I have some relevant experience.

 

[Demo_Andy]

I'd question your boss's 40 years demolition experience if hes left it this long with not having a demo cage installed. Quite simply asking you to operate a machine doing this type of work is putting your life at risk.

The right design of cage, won't leave you bug eyed when u get used to it. Dont get one wiv horizontal bars, you want vertical bars like the Cat standard.

 

[CM1995]

I have a Cat cab guard like the one Turbo pictured (sold the excavator but kept the guard). Front glass and top.

I agree with Demo_Andy, you get used to the guard and during normal excavating you don't realize it is there. That guard has stopped trees, 2x4's, many bricks and the occasional rock from hitting the front window glass. If you are going to be doing demo a cab guard is a necessity.

To the old timers that say "I have done this 1000's of times and nothing happened" - all it takes is one time to do serious damage. The more you have done it without a problem means your chances of having a problem are that much greater.

 

[blueman]

I think only Cat has those transport guards that nobody uses. This one is a Deere.

You can buy bolt-on kits from any of major manufacturer or dealer Cat/Deere/Volvo/Komatsu specific for their machines. Typically they offer a mesh or "safety net" for the front window - a lightweight wire crosshatch that's only good for catching small rock chips not appropriate for demo, and they offer a FOG (falling object guard) like the picture you see, built to an SAE/ISO standard, vertical bars bolted on the roof and on the front window.
There are many aftermarket companies who will do heavier and more permanent/welded guards for any machine: Jewell Manufacturing is one, and in Canada Weldco-Beales seems to do a lot. Many many others. They typically build it in to the machines' structure not just the cab pillars (which may be flimsier), but they won't be certified to any standard if that's important to you.
As others say, you don't notice these guards after you work with them just a little. We're talking basic safety here - YOURS. A good cabguard improves your chances of survival but still don't guarantee it. Without a guard and working vertically, just seems irresponsible.
If the boss is willing to lose his knees or his own life I guess he's the boss, but you and the people who contract him should have a different opinion.

 

[245dlc]

Yeah I think after we've got this current job done then he'll put something on there I already contacted Jewel and they gave us a quote for $1600 u.s. I also said to him if he thinks that's expensive what will it cost him if I'm on compo cause I got hurt. I've only been working for him for like a month so he may also be waiting to see if it pans out. I'm thinking in a few years getting myself my own machine and I'll be getting some protection of some kind.

 

[Dozerboy]

Heck you can make a light duty one easy enough, but I have done lots of demo without one though. A window that I had break while doing demo had a guard in fact it broke twice.

 

[245dlc]

Yeah I've seen that on forestry machines where they had lots of heavy guarding and had a big hole in the bottom window.

 

[Turbo21835]

While guards will not stop the small stuff, the certainly will stop the big stuff that will disable you. I had a nut from a buss duct connector come in thru the bottom windshield of the 320 I was running. Hit the seat dead square in the middle. Lucky for me, It was below me. One company I worked for built a lexan window and frame to go over the demo guarding. Mainly because the machine was a shear machine, but it doesnt stay see thru very long.

 

[cummins05]

Armor plate glass would work good on a shear machine would it not?

 

[245dlc]

Probably but expensive and that Lexan isn't cheap either. Nice shear machine looks like you can mount it on a bigger excavator too. Hey while on the topic of demolition the JD 200D I'm running seems to have a lot of trouble with the radiator plugging we have the reversing fan and it helps a little bit plus we powerwash it from time to time. But still it's a fairly frequent problem I was wondering if any of you other demolition guys run Deere machines with the same problems?

 

[Dozerboy]

Its a problem with all equipment during demo. Does it have a screen over the coolers? Keeping every thing watered down will help a bit. Don't get to carried away if your paying by the ton to dump the trash. I have even used sprinklers if I'm on a job by myself.

 

[245dlc]

Well the door on the cab side has a pretty fine screen but nothing on the fan side. When I have some time and thats a big "when" I'll have to figure something out. I wish we could use sprinklers but the boss is "old school" and doesn't want to water anything down because of the whole tonnage thing and this current demo being a brick and timber structure is really dusty I have only a couple more loads of wood material going out on Monday and the rest of the brick stays as backfill until a new building is built in its place. But I think on Monday I'm going to bug the old man that the brick is so dusty I can't see when I'm moving it around and see if he'll let us sprinkle it with a garden hose. I know other outfits in the city are doing more for dust suppression like I heard that Rakowski's are using sprinklers on they're garbage pile over night and another outfit that does garage demolition has been pretty much forced to water stuff as they were getting complaints about the dust so hopefully it's only a matter of time before the same happens to us.

 

[Dozerboy]

The fan should pull air toward it so no screen needed there. You can try blowing out the rad from the fan side with an air compressor. It might be a little bit better then the reversible fan, but really you need water. Do it in the mornings first thing so your not baking over a hot engine. Just don't wet the the rad while your working or it will be a dust magnet.