McAninch pull type scrapers

[Kman9090]

Allen,
I don't care who you are if you can't do the work and showup on time your gone

Greg in KC

:thumbsup

I know the company I work for when we move into other locals and we have to hire their guys we go threw them pretty quick, then end up sending our guys to the job. I get the unions but how do you expect a company to survive in these times when you have to call up random guys out of their union halls that have no idea what they are doing. Sometimes we would go through 2 guys a day.

 

[alan627b]

Kman, They had me on an 815...I know how to run that . I was on an off road truck, no problems there. I was on a dozer after that . I can still learn a lot more on a dozer, but I'm no greenhorn and I wasn't doing finish grading.
Some of the equipment was a lot newer than what I was used to, and it took some getting used to what they were capable of. But....
I had no written reprimands, and I had been there 8 weeks at the time I was let go, so it's not like I got canned on the first day or something...and that aside, nobody would know everything about a job on their first day no matter how long they had been running equipment. I've been running equipment for 18 years or so...BTW.
Oddly enough, the brown noser was running a 627, which I've spent more time on than anything else in the last 18 years (which I had told them) , but I didn't get to run that. And I could have given brown nose aces and spades on one, from what I could see of his operating skills. As could our other union operator on site.
If nothing else, I wasn't stopping every 20 minutes to yak, or stopped talking on my cell phone like he was.
The only thing I can think of was a slight difference of opinion I had with brown nose on how much speed to use while on a disc tractor. He wanted me to go a lot faster than I thought was wise, as it doesn't make sense to me to disc in such a high gear that the tractor and disc are bouncing off the ground, tearing things up!
I'm sure he ran and told his buddy the foreman.....
I found out months later, that I had been accused of breaking the drawbar on it...BS! Not on my watch....
I just think it's chickensh*t to get canned with no explanation. I still think they were looking to get rid of "foreign" operators, which their agreement with our local forced them to take, when they had their own guys sitting home.
Water under the bridge. Chalk it up to experience.
Alan

 

[alan627b]

I do know what you mean about clueless operators too, or guys who misrepresented their skills. Our hall sent guys out to our jobs to run equipment who couldn't hit the ground with it. I'd dealt with guys who claimed they had run scrapers for years.
In what? A rock quarry? All they were good for was hack and dumping, no finesse.
Probably a lot of that going on nowadays.
Alan

 

[Kman9090]

No I wasnt saying that they had an excuse to fire you just saying from personal experience of what some company's will do. We would go through guy after guy just to say to the Union hall look at all the guys we are firing let us bring ours. Some times it works sometimes it doesnt. I will say it's kinda dumb the union does that. we are all part of the International. As long as your union it shouldnt matter IMO. Did a job out in Indiana we had over 20 machines there and they only let us have 2. One guy on the night shift and one on the day shift. My brother was on the night shift as the active foreman but he was still in a tractor. He was pretty much out there to babysit all the guys from their union.

 

[Kman9090]

Also that's good I see you said you ran 627's. I've only been doing this 8 years but those 7 were 627's. Me and my brother ran together with the trimble system. Seems like twin engine scrapers are going by the waste side but some of the best operators come from them. Right now I'm on a 14M blade and my brother is on a 6T.

 

[alan627b]

I don't think you'll ever see the complete demise of scrapers, and twins especially, at least not in areas of the country where there is mud, or steep grades. They are stil the most efficient machine for short haul earthmoving, I believe there will always be a niche for them. And if not, I hope I'm in the ground before that happens. Say 40 years from now....
Alan

 

[gbdigger]

Well Allen having the hands call when it rains is stupid, the super needs to get his ass up early and call the crew off (that is how I operate) he gets paid to. Plus I would bet a hundred bucks the brown noser and super are drinking buddies. I would also bet that upper management has no idea. I know nobody thinks it is a good idea to inform upper management but I dissagree. Notice I said inform (not complain) the proper way to do this is to send a letter, it can't hurt , you never get if you never ask. :IMO

Greg in KC

 

[alan627b]

The brown noser and the dirtforeman were buddies, if the dirt foreman stopped quickly BN would have had to breathe through the foreman's fly!
(You get what I mean?)
One of our guys was running a dozer doing finish work there, and the only time I ever saw him get off of it was to check grade or talk to the boss, but BN tried to get him canned too. This guy was way better on a dozer than I am, I thought he was very good, he lasted about a month after I got the axe.
In the end, Brown Nose got fired too, so I guess he got his!
Being buddies with the dirt boss didn't save him from the big boss in the end.
He he.

 

[Greg]

Isn't this whole thing getting of the subject a bit?

 

[alan627b]

Well, this forum is about the construction trade, and nobody has posted anything else on this subject for a while...I don't think a little OTJ discussion is going to throw the world out of orbit.
Hey, it's not like somebody was talking politics......:Banghead

Sorry if we ruffled your feathers. It should be done now.
Alan

 

[Greg]

Alan627b,

No feathers ruffled. Just making a point. Or, maybe it is because I am about half way through an 18,000 cubic yard job bangin' in the rock. Been using a D7G to push my
D8h's on this one cause the going is tough this time. All in all, things going pretty good though.

 

[alan627b]

Everything's cool, Greg. Take a few pics of what you are up to, it's always cool to see Cats and cans. I haven't operated anything since mid December, and I'm going stir crazy. Not much dirt moving around here. It's always nice to see what somebody else is up to!
Are you pulling scrapers, or just doing a lot of ripping and using the D7 for double ripping? Put me in the picture, I don't get around rock very often. You have to dig down a ways to find it around here.
Alan

 

[Abscraperguy]

I just noticed on Catauctions.com the McAninich is having an auction. Is this a closeout?

http://www.catauctions.com/default.cfm?pid=1.3.31

 

[Cat Wrench]

I just noticed on Catauctions.com the McAninich is having an auction. Is this a closeout?

http://www.catauctions.com/default.cfm?pid=1.3.31

I just got back from working on a 953B for a guy down by lake of the Ozarks. McAnnich had been in talks with him to buy some property that was right at the new interchange that they were putting in. He said the owner was a very nice guy and told him he had went in partners with two other guys in a huge development project (big, big money). Both of his partners had just went bankrupt and he said that he didn't think he would be able to make it since he was essentially left "holding the bag". However he wasn't sure that it would take him out but that was last year so I guess it combined with the current economic climate finally put them down.
I hate to see this happen with anyone that has employees that they have to let go no matter how big of jerks the owners are and it sounds like the owner was not a jerk in this case. Very sad when you think of all the people these companies going out of business effects.

 

[Kman9090]

really sucks to see them go, less competition I guess for our company but they were a very good company to their employees. Goes to show even some of the biggest companies can fail. Also heard they took a good size loss on that Branson airport project.

 

[Cat Wrench]

That southern Missouri rock has bit many of the contractors that have tried to work in it. Just about every company that has tried to work down there over the last 10-15 years has lost.

 

[JimBruce42]

I just noticed on Catauctions.com the McAninich is having an auction. Is this a closeout?

http://www.catauctions.com/default.cfm?pid=1.3.31

I just looked at the list.. I'm gonna say unlikely. Yes I'm sure the big Mac got hurt in the poor economy, but who hasn't. This looks more like a thinning of the fleet of older or un-needed iron. Not to mention, with as closely as Cat works with McAninch and vise versa, they could just as well be hosting the auction.:beatsme Yeah, there is 301 items on the list, but that includes jumping jacks and lasers.

As large as they are I can't see a few bad years breaking their back, but IA is a long ways from PA so I'm just taking an educated guess.

 

[Greg]

alan627b
D8s pulling Cat Pans. D7 is pushing. No ripper used. The rock for the most part is soft enough that the pans can peel it up in the 4 to 6 inch layers. All the material in the cut is from a borrow pit so no critical grades to worry about. Just close it, cover and seed it when done. Either machine makes for a rough ride in the cut. Know you been there after ten hours a day on this one but nobody complaining since had almost nothing all of 2009.

I feel so so sorry for you not being able to find rock where you are at. (hee hee) Always find it around here in 12 to 18 inches max, sometimes less.

 

[EGS]

I have a real good source about the MacAninich company. Last year they had 30 water+sewer crews and this year they have 2. They have NO big dirt jobs unless they got some recently. They shut down their welding shop, and shut down a good part of their regular shop. They just flied for protection form bankruptcy. Not good they were at one time one of the best dirt/grading contractors in the country.

 

[alan627b]

Walt 66A gets on here every once in a while and he echoed EGS's comments about Big Mac last time he was here. Things are really slow in this region of the country, last out, last back in , as they say.
I've never been to Wisconsin, But I used to live in Blue Springs, Missouri, you kick a dirt clod down there and you hit rocks. greg, my smypathies on the rock and the rough ride!
Here in Nebraska, you kick a clod and step in mud, at least in wet cycles.
It's adventure on another level....must be rough to have those California jobs, 3 million yards of sugar dirt! I'm sure they have their horror stories out there too, what with CARB and all....
By the time you add up winter, rain days and so forth, I think we cram our work season into about 8 months out of the year.
Alan