RollOver Pete
Senior Member
Thanks for sharing the great pics as usual !!!!!!
I had to smile when you said "there always someone messing around on a dirtspread" How true, the races were.
I have done a few that wouldn't have been considered to cool now days ,but at the time,seemed with in reason! Because of who i was working with and for. If you know what i mean!
:usa
Ah.....
the memories....
We had a way of making the job "fun".
Most of the stunts we pulled back then would get you fired today.
On push pulls, A having a good partner is the key to success.
Two people need to be able to think as one.
I was blessed with having a awesome partner as well as being a close friend.
Jim Francis has since retired, and I do miss running with him.
I have yet to find a push pull hand that was as easy to work with as him.
Almost like we could read each others minds.
My foreman at Yeager, Dudley Elswick once told me that he could just sit back and watch us for hours.
He said that the way we worked together was amazing....
As if there was a 60' piece of rope holding us together.
Yeah....we could make those machines sing!
A few pointers or "must haves" I'd like to share.
First...and by far the MOST important....
Ya gotta have a good ride!
By that I mean a good hitch and a seat that works the way it was designed to work.
Your body and health are a valuable thing.
Beating yourself to death will not make you a rich man.
It makes the boss a rich man.
You end up an being an old crippled has been who should have listened to the advise of others.
Living with a back injury as I have for the last 13 years really sucks!
My injury was a result of falling off of a transfer trailer while tarping my load.
It could have very well been caused by bouncing over a rock or getting slammed by your partner, but not in my case.
The two crushed disks and pinched nerves ended my scraper days.
Anything where I need to be twisted around looking back as in a scraper or skip loader while using the gannon is a big NO NO.
I can get by running loaders and dozer's even though it does get painful at times.
In production loading as I did in Baker, I just tell everyone up front at our first safety meeting that I'm not going to turn around and look behind me 1200
times a shift.
That's what mirrors are for.
People have no place being anywhere behind me so unless you want an accident to happen, stay far away from the back of my machine.
This includes foreman, supers, H2O truck drivers and dump truck drivers.
I always make myself 100% clear on this with everybody.
If they expect me to meet their production #'s, they need to make sure I'm comfortable when loading.
Watching out for someone who shouldn't be there in the first place wastes my time and the contractors money.
Back to push pulls....
You need to be able to communicate with your partner.
When I run the front, I decide where to dig and dump.
Hand signals are the key.
A thumbs down to my partner lets him know to set in and load first.
A fully opened apron lets my partner know that we are about to come to a stop.
Two hands drawn apart lets him know to single out and self load.
There are many different signals... Those were just some of the more common ones we used.
Good push pull hands will never leave their partner behind....no matter what!
The front will either slow so the rear can catch up or the rear will help push the front thru the fill or up a hill.
We (Jim and I) would always be the ones who dumped the shoulders or picked up the edges.
There was nothing that would give me a bigger rush than climbing up and straddling an edge that everyone else was afraid to get.
When hooked up with Jim, I was confident that he would stay hooked up to me If I fell off.
This way he could pull me back up If I hadn't already pulled him off.
When pulling Jim, he knew that I wouldn't back out of it if he started to fall off of an edge. I'd take him right to the limit and keep the coals pored to her.
Sure we would both slide off every now and then...
No biggie... Just steer down, open your apron a bit and use the front engine to keep you pointed the right direction.
You'll find the bottom sooner or later.
There were times when we'd single out on an edge and if i got hung up, Mauricio "The Mad Mexican" who ran a 10 would seize the opportunity to spin me around by my stinger and then push me off the slope down into a canyon.
At quitting time, most of us would hang out till dark having a (few) cold ones and cooking up some carne asada.
How we ever made it home' I'll never know
There was never a dull moment back in the Good Ol' Days!
Thats what makes those days, the jobs and the people I worked with so special to me.
Those Good Ol' Days are a thing of the past...and long gone.