Equipment Abuse?

OrangeLivin

New member
Sep 9, 2015
75
2
0
Eastern
I'm no operator/heavy equipment professional, but just watching this poor 'L' dig up a concrete driveway makes me cringe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMw-P1CffuA

Am I right in thinking that even a 'small' skid steer would be better than using an L in this situation? What's proper protocol for digging up concrete? Mini excavator?

Listen to the transmission! :(
 

CaveCreekRay

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3800 HST, KingKutter box scraper, KingKutter 66" rake, County Pride Subsoiler
Jul 11, 2014
2,631
100
48
Cave Creek, AZ
I couldn't watch all of that. Clearly the operator isn't the owner. Banging on your hydraulic cylinders is an expensive technique. That tractor will be trashed in 9 mo at that rate. I busted out a huge part of my back patio and the small pieces got hand placed in the bucket for haul away. Those guys are lazy.

Just got my machine back from the dealer for some repairs and the Service Writer told me a landscaping crew had their L-39 series in for a problem with the FEL. They couldn't figure out why the FEL wasn't working. The service tech looked at it and laughed. The FEL lift arms were actually bent so far out of line, the cylinders were binding. They called the crew and somebody fessed up that they tried to move a 13,000lb Saguaro cactus with the loader. According to their story, they rolled or dropped the load off a trailer onto the FEL, bending the FEL and breaking the huge cacti in two. DOH! Normally, large cactus specimen are transported vertical on special trucks with carpet padding. You never lay one down. I am betting money their story is hooey. I bet they knocked the cactus over on the FEL and squashed it.

Clearly, both of these crews need supervision...
 
Last edited:

D2Cat

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Lifetime Member

Equipment
L305DT, B7100HST, TG1860, TG1860D, L4240
Mar 27, 2014
13,827
5,571
113
40 miles south of Kansas City
Lot's of folks use equipment like he did, but as Ray said they don't usually own it. They have no sense of what the machine can do and how to do it. It looked like their main task was to make a YouTube video to impress someone, not to remove the concrete in an efficient way.

Watch the next video that automatically loads after this one if done with the mini ex. They have the right equipment, good operator, and teamwork.
 

skeets

Well-known member

Equipment
BX 2360 /B2601
Oct 2, 2009
14,558
3,309
113
SW Pa
I dont know who owned that piece of equipment but he sure as hell would never run anything I owned thats a fact
 

m32825

Member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3800HST
Jul 12, 2013
209
16
18
Central FL
Am I right in thinking that even a 'small' skid steer would be better than using an L in this situation? What's proper protocol for digging up concrete? Mini excavator?
I watched a crew replace sections of sidewalk recently. They had a skid steer with pallet forks and a guy with a jackhammer. The jackhammer guy would break loose a 5'x5' section, then the skid steer would come in and work under it with the pallet forks, then turn and stack it on the back of a dump bed truck. All of the equipment was from a rental company but this crew looked like they knew what they were doing.

-- Carl
 

Tooljunkie

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Lifetime Member

Equipment
L1501,home built carry all, mini plow blade.
May 13, 2014
4,150
33
48
60
Lac Du Bonnet, Manitoba,Canada
Cleared out 12 slabs from my shop using a cat mini excavator. Crowding slab to dozer blade and picking it up with boom barely carried them.

That video shows how to twist a loader really good.
 

lugbolt

Well-known member

Equipment
ZG127S-54
Oct 15, 2015
5,207
1,893
113
Mid, South, USA
I worked in a shop that messed with Kubota stuff for a long time. Out of every 100 tractors sold, 1 or 2 of them were used like the one in the video. Most commonly, they'd be back saying that the tractor would not do what it "should", like push trees down, demolish buildings, remove concrete and asphalt driveways, that kind of thing. 12 times out of 10, they got cheap and bought a tractor that was too small for the job, but that doesn't matter to the person who bought it...it only matters to those of us who had to listen to them gripe about the tractor not being right. You guys would be surprised how many people would show up within a week of owning the tractor wanting to turn the hydraulic pressure up because their LA524 FEL wouldn't pick up a wet round bale....which could be upwards of 2000 lbs (and the FEL had a lift capacity of 1050 lb or thereabouts).

I also worked in the automotive industry for a little while and saw guys buying Ford Rangers and using them for hotshot rigs, putting a 26' ramp trailer behind it and pulling it in OD, then they come back time after time saying that we sold them something that is "defective".


BUT....you can't fix ignorance, and I gave up trying to fix stupid a long time ago. Most that do stuff like this, they won't listen anyway, so there's no use. Glad I'm out of those two businesses for that reason.
 

OldeEnglish

New member

Equipment
B7100D, MMM, B205 Dozer Blade, woods m48, b2910
Jul 13, 2014
768
7
0
Western, MA
If they had a brain they could have rented a floor saw and sliced it up into sections that were as wide as the bucket. It would have saved them a lot of time and abuse on the machine. I bet it was a rental.
 

MaleHoe

New member

Equipment
Kubota B2620 TLB, JD X495
Jun 23, 2016
61
0
0
Latrobe PA
That is the reason I will never lend mine to anyone.

Owners and non-owners run a machine differently.