Sitework for my Kubota dealer

[rkidd]

Since buying my B2650 a couple years ago, I have become very good friends with the owner of my Kubota dealership. My wife and I ride our Harley with him and his wife, and I have worked on his Harley for him also. He is putting up a 100ft x 40ft storage building to put the new Kubota equipment that comes in to keep it out of the weather. He asked if I would do the sitework for the new building due to the fact that is the type of work I did for a living and I am retired now and have time. I said sure, and I can trade out the work for more stuff for my tractor which is a win!! I see a pair of rear remotes in my future! There is an existing stone lot where he is putting the new building at, so we just had to level up the pad from zero at the north end to about 2ft of fill at the south end using 12 loads of recycled 304 concrete. You would normally use a small dozer to put a pad like this in, but he just wanted to use the equipment he had to put the pad in to keep costs down. So we had a new skid steer, a B3350 with a 72" box blade and a small vibratory roller to use. Used the skid steer to put the fill in 6" lifts and compact with the roller. Got it real close with that and then used the B3350 and box blade to fine tune it and get it within a 1/2" over the whole pad. Then sealed it up with the roller. Tractor and skid steer worked great. I was really impressed with how smooth the controls and foot pedals on the skid steer were from others I used to run. It was a fun couple of days whenever you can run some new orange!!


View attachment 31738

View attachment 31739

View attachment 31740

View attachment 31741

View attachment 31742

 

[rkidd]

Here are a couple of pics of the completed pad. In a couple days will post pics of augering 28- 2ft diameter holes for the new pole building.


View attachment 31743

View attachment 31744

View attachment 31745

View attachment 31746

 

[mickeyd]

Great pics and glad you had fun.

 

[BAP]

Great job. Also fun someone else's equipment, especially if it is brand new.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Good deal! Got a question, how did the B3350 compare with our B2650s?

 

[rkidd]

Great pics and glad you had fun.

Thanks. It was fun to put in a building pad again!

 

[rkidd]

Great job. Also fun someone else's equipment, especially if it is brand new.

Hey BAP. It is fun to test out new equipment. New equipment most of the time has a more comfortable operating station, quieter engine, more hydraulic power and smoother controls. I was really impressed with the Kubota skid steer. I have a B2650, so the B3350 was very similar.

 

[rkidd]

Good deal! Got a question, how did the B3350 compare with our B2650s?

Hi Mary. Good to talk to you again. It was my first time on a B3350. I have over 700 hrs on my B2650, so very familiar with it. The B3350 is the same machine except for the engine as you know. It felt the same just grading with it like I did. It did definitely have a different sound with the 4 cylinder engine, and you could sure smell the difference in the exhaust with the tier 4 system. Just fine grading with the box blade on it, it wasnt like I felt more horse power jumping out at me at all. In all fairness though, I never got in to any real heavy pushing with it to truly test it out. Just didnt work out that way. I did notice alot firmer ride with r4s on the B3350 than the turfs on my B2650 though.

 

[cerlawson]

Sounds like the job went well. However, you probably know that you can do a better job if you have moisture content where best compaction occurs, called optimum moisture content. I have a question, since I don't have a cell phone that takes pictures, but use a digital camera, I often wonder why folks don't turn the phone 90 degrees and get a photo comparable to a conventional camera?

 

[Daren Todd]

Cerlawson, phone has automatic postioning to turn the picture right side up. Issue is that if you turn the phone sideways, snap the picture, and post it. The picture is sideways on the forum even though it is right side up on the phone

I've run into an issue with my new phone. Used to have an iPhone. Switched a galaxy S6. Taking a picture with the new phone holding it in the same orientation as the Iphone causes the picture to post sideways on the site So now I'm gonna have to take several pictures holding the phone in a different orientation till I can figure out which one will post right side up

 

[rkidd]

Sounds like the job went well. However, you probably know that you can do a better job if you have moisture content where best compaction occurs, called optimum moisture content. I have a question, since I don't have a cell phone that takes pictures, but use a digital camera, I often wonder why folks don't turn the phone 90 degrees and get a photo comparable to a conventional camera?

I am very familiar with moisture content. I worked 36 years doing commercial site and pipe work. Our jobsites usually had a testing company on site using nuclear testing equipment to check for compaction density and moisture content. Doing this job for my dealer, which is in a rural area, there was no access to water or availabilty of a water truck. The material coming in from the stone company wasnt horribly dry, (I have sure seen worse) and putting in 6" lifts, everything worked fine. Drilling 2ft diameter holes 52" deep for the poles, the holes stayed straight up and down for 3 days in all of the fill areas which is a good sign the fill is going to work just fine.

 

[eipo]

Looks good. Its always nice to be able to put skills to work.

I would have mounted a laser receiver onto the box blade. I use them for just about everything at work when running the rover is tedious or I need tighter tolerances. But I also have access to the tools.....

 

[rkidd]

Looks good. Its always nice to be able to put skills to work.

I would have mounted a laser receiver onto the box blade. I use them for just about everything at work when running the rover is tedious or I need tighter tolerances. But I also have access to the tools.....

Hey Eipo. Used to use lasers mounted to dozers and graders back in the day, especially putting in artificial turf football fields, plus or minus a 1/4" , but no access any more. Had to do it the old fashion way which is still fun!!

 

[Yooper]

Which begs the question, what is the old fashioned way? Was moving some dirt around last summer and trying to level out a section. By eye, uh uh. Not me anyway. Used some stakes and string to give me a visual and that got me by, but I don't ever remember the professionals doing this before lasers. Is it I just don't have 'eye' for this? Got a friend who owns a skid steer and he did a beautiful job on his lawn all by eye. Grrrr!

 

[sheepfarmer]

Well I wish I had you guys with either eyes or lasers over here! Still working on spreading the 300 yds of wood chips evenly on my arena. I am using a screwdriver with inches marked off on it to detect low spots. Happily assuming base is still right. It is crowned so not quite as easy as flat, but it was put in with a laser 20 years ago.

 

[eipo]

Hey Eipo. Used to use lasers mounted to dozers and graders back in the day, especially putting in artificial turf football fields, plus or minus a 1/4" , but no access any more. Had to do it the old fashion way which is still fun!!

And representative of the skill required. Not many new operators can grade "from the seat of their pants."

 

[rkidd]

Which begs the question, what is the old fashioned way? Was moving some dirt around last summer and trying to level out a section. By eye, uh uh. Not me anyway. Used some stakes and string to give me a visual and that got me by, but I don't ever remember the professionals doing this before lasers. Is it I just don't have 'eye' for this? Got a friend who owns a skid steer and he did a beautiful job on his lawn all by eye. Grrrr!

It is like Eipo says, by the seat of your pants. For fine grade operators you can feel if you are going uphill downhill or flat. You also look ahead and can see the highs and lows and address them. I did have a rotobeacon laser with the receiver mounted on a rod, not the machine, to be able to walk around the pad and make sure the grade is correct.

 

[rkidd]

And representative of the skill required. Not many new operators can grade "from the seat of their pants."

Back when I started there were no lasers. Just transits and grade stakes, and pull string lines. When I was about 22 I was the foreman of the paving crew. I would go grade a lot or road, then the next day I would pave it. So if there were any water holes in the pavement, it was all on me! The owner would not be pleased if you had one. A pain to fix. Starting out on the paving crew really gave me an eye for grade. Seeing grade luckily came easy to me. It sure doesnt for everyone. I know alot of fine grade operators that have done it for 30 yrs and still cant fine grade!

 

[eipo]

Which begs the question, what is the old fashioned way? Was moving some dirt around last summer and trying to level out a section. By eye, uh uh. Not me anyway. Used some stakes and string to give me a visual and that got me by, but I don't ever remember the professionals doing this before lasers. Is it I just don't have 'eye' for this? Got a friend who owns a skid steer and he did a beautiful job on his lawn all by eye. Grrrr!

Some folks have a natural gift for it. Most don’t. The hard part is tricking your brain into ignoring the surrounding topography and use your body to tell you if your going up, down or cross slope. Another trick that works for me to decrease time spent is to cut/fill an area going north/south and then go over it again east/west. If I have enough time I’ll hit the area on the diagonal as well. But that’s finish grading.

As rkidd mentioned, cut stakes and pulling strings is the way most of us were taught. That used to be tedious as it required a 3 man crew. One guy running the theodolite and the other two with grade stakes and a hammer. GPS has removed the need for surveyors to come and set stakes and lasers remove the error from gps grading. Gps can get you down to centimeter accuracy. Set up a robotic total station and you can get that down the mm accuracy.


Sent from a field

 

[Yooper]

OK. I was hoping there was some 'silver bullet' method that would transform me into an earthmoving master. I had to admit to myself after a few tries that I wasn't a natural. Makes me have a whole new appreciation for those that do.