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I remember when I was a kid playing in the sandbox and at the cottage with with the die cast metal Tonka toys and dreamed what it would be like to use stuff like that. Well yesterday, that dream sorta came true. A buddy of mine was helping his mom do some major landscaping of her property which is pretty big. Basically they needed to re level the back yard to get it sloping away from their house as apposed to it sloping towards it like it had been.

About 3 huge piles of dirt had been dropped off for them to use and they had rented a Bobcat 763 skidsteer loader to work it with. My buddy called me up in a giddy mood telling me about it and so I went down to check it out. He let me give it a try it and man it was just so damn fun I couldnt stop. We both took 1 or 1.5 hr turns on it back and forth for two days untill it was all done.



This is what the loader looked like (same colours too). It may be relatively small, but it was powefull enough for the job. Pushing, lifting, dumping, and leveling dirt had never been so damn fun!

Anyone else here have any opportunities to live those childhood Tonka dreams?

I drove a 1949 Clark Model 2020 forklift at this place I used to work, fun as hell!
It had a little flat-head four cylinder Continental engine that probably cranked out all of 20 horsepower, but it was still a blast. Oldest vehicle I've ever driven, too.

I ended up giving it an incredibly amateurish hot rod style flame paint-job and spray painted the forks chrome.
Our delivery guys thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

This is a toy, but it's almost exactly the same model. Add a roll cage and a hip paint job and it'd be dead on!

I always wanted to try out a Bobcat, those things just are amazing for turning and speed, and they look cool.

The only heavy equipment I've had the chance to drive was one of those grader thingies, and I wasn't supposed to, the work crew at a local site left the keys in and I had gone out there rummaging for junk, saw they keys went "oh man, I shouldn't, oh fuck it" and went for a short Sunday joyride. No harm done other than the next day I bet the workers were wondering how the hell their grader got moved and had keys in it. They're pretty easy to drive really, not like a car, but they turn pretty easy and arn't bad on the throttle either, just fuck all big and massive.

holy shit frank! i drove that same forklift, except ours was brown and a 1951 model. That flathead 4 is loud as a bastard, sounds like an old speedboat at idle. We have a 2001 clarklift now, but i don't drive trucks anymore. haven't in years... well, once in a while i find an excuse to wander out to the warehouse.

When I was in Kuwait I got to visit an oil rig. I also got a ride in a super-size dumptruck, but no, I didn't get to drive or play with anything. The guy let me blow the horn though.

Closest I've come is driving the forklift at work...without permission.

Woot.

Damn my workplace and their silly hand operated forklifts.

Icehawk wrote:*snip*

I drive a pallet jack, which is pretty close, and while I don't hate my job, I wouldn't exactly call it "living my dreams"

Ive driven a John Deer Bull Dozer, Bob Cat Skidloader, Long Tracker, and various pick up trucks... but then agian all of that was back in my younger days of forced labour with my parents so it wasent really that fun.

Forklifts, with a small bit of crane work.
My crowning moment of glory had to be showing up the first day at my unit and being handed a chainsaw two seconds after entering the gate.

Azazel wrote:Damn my workplace and their silly hand operated forklifts.

*points and laughs*

Col. Crackpot wrote:holy shit frank! i drove that same forklift, except ours was brown and a 1951 model. That flathead 4 is loud as a bastard, sounds like an old speedboat at idle. We have a 2001 clarklift now, but i don't drive trucks anymore. haven't in years... well, once in a while i find an excuse to wander out to the warehouse.

COOL!
I neglected to mention that I, uhmmmm, kinda killed ours...
Ever pull a distributor cap? And, uhh, err, forget to replace the sparkplug wires one at a time in order?
Nothing like trying to make an engine run in reverse firing order...oi. I quit working at that place shortly after I managed that gem, and the poor thing sat until they went out of business...

Well since my billet title is: Heavy Equipment Operator I think the answer is yes . To flesh that out a tidbit more I am liscensed on the following:

TX51-19M Forklift (5k)
644E TRAM (10k Forklift/Front End Loader)
MMV EBFL (7k/11k Forklift)
D7G Dozer
130G Grader
621B Scraper
1150/1155 Dozer (smaller finishing dozer)
and the SEE Tractor (basically a backhoe on the body of a small pickup)

I also have time on both the 22.5 and 25 Ton cranes. Count in time on our MotorT gear and yeah I've driven quite a bit. I'm hopping to go back to Ft Lost in the Woods for Journeyman's School so I can get liscensed on the crane and the RATCH (BIG forklift for moving ISO containers)

I'm a powered industrial truck operator at the warehouse where I work.
This means I'm certified to operate:

Crown Electric Forklifts
Crown Stockpickers
Crown Very-Narrow Aisle Turret trucks
Raymond Swing-Reach trucks.
Lansing/Bagnall Turret trucks.
Crown Tow trucks


It was exciting at first, now its just a job.

Frank Hipper wrote:

Col. Crackpot wrote:holy shit frank! i drove that same forklift, except ours was brown and a 1951 model. That flathead 4 is loud as a bastard, sounds like an old speedboat at idle. We have a 2001 clarklift now, but i don't drive trucks anymore. haven't in years... well, once in a while i find an excuse to wander out to the warehouse.

COOL!
I neglected to mention that I, uhmmmm, kinda killed ours...
Ever pull a distributor cap? And, uhh, err, forget to replace the sparkplug wires one at a time in order?
Nothing like trying to make an engine run in reverse firing order...oi. I quit working at that place shortly after I managed that gem, and the poor thing sat until they went out of business...

HA! thats funny. We used to have an old (1960) Allis Chalmers 1500 lb truck. The LNG flat four was strong enough for a truck twice it's size and the thing would leave wicked rubber patches on the floor. To top it of the thing had a fucking suicide knob on the steering wheel! We had to finally get rid of it, it was just too damn old and dangerous, but the thing could fucking haul ass. Anyway at the time we had a Guatemalan lift operator named Melvin. One day i caught melvin driving round in circles faster and faster whith the steering wheel pegged and he was leaving a friggin donut on the floor. We finally fired him when he drove through a wall and into the shipping office.

CmdrWilkens wrote: *SNIP*

[Neo]Woah....[/Neo]

Jeez man your a lucky shit.




A brief image search on google came up with this contraption. Just what model dozer IS this? I WANT!

The site where the pic comes from says its an "armored caterpiller D9" but it looks NOTHING like one and looking up "armored D9" under google comes up with completely different looking designs, is this just a custom job or something?.

That is most definately NOT an armored D9, which looks like this:

Now rather that is an ACE (Armored Combat Earthmover). It is a berm breaching tool and it is damn good at its job (creating lanes for tanks to move through). As a gernal purpose bulldozer it doesn't have as much muscle as even the little 1150 I'm rated on but it will do a passable job. Basically its sole mission in life is to breach tank obstacles, get to the otehr side, and lay smoke (all while under enemy fire). Understanably most of these are with CEB units attached to grunts. If you want more FAS has a pretty good rundown.

*edits* Better picture and minor correction

Jesus, Wilkens! That thing looks like mobs of Tokyo residents should be fleeing from it as it fights giant monsters!

Icehawk wrote:

CmdrWilkens wrote: *SNIP*

[Neo]Woah....[/Neo]

Jeez man your a lucky shit.




A brief image search on google came up with this contraption. Just what model dozer IS this? I WANT!

The site where the pic comes from says its an "armored caterpiller D9" but it looks NOTHING like one and looking up "armored D9" under google comes up with completely different looking designs, is this just a custom job or something?.

That's the U.S. Army's Armored Combat Earthmover (ACE).

I am certifies on forklifts and reach trucks..soon I hope to have my heavy transport licence..then I can drive fire engines big ones old ones and ones with crash gate gearboxes

Gil Hamilton wrote:Jesus, Wilkens! That thing looks like mobs of Tokyo residents should be fleeing from it as it fights giant monsters!

No, what should fight is the Caterpillar D11 bulldozer, the largest cat produces and more then twice as heavy as the mere D9. Its enemy shall be Japan's Komatsu D575A dozer, the largest in the world. The D11 weighs 100-110 tons depending on the exact model. The D575A while much rarer weighs around 150 tons. We could also throw in full armor for all of them, plus some very large hydraulic excavatorsthis one for example weighs around 900 tons. But its and its similar sized comrades would outclass everyone else by somthing of an unfair margin.

Sea Skimmer wrote: No, what should fight is the Caterpillar D11 bulldozer, the largest cat produces and more then twice as heavy as the mere D9. Its enemy shall be Japan's Komatsu D575A dozer, the largest in the world. The D11 weighs 100-110 tons depending on the exact model. The D575A while much rarer weighs around 150 tons. We could also throw in full armor for all of them, plus some very large hydraulic excavatorsthis one for example weighs around 900 tons. But its and its similar sized comrades would outclass everyone else by somthing of an unfair margin.

You know, I'd totally pay to see that fight live on television.

Just for completness:

Caterpillar D11

NOTE: the the person standing next to this dozer appears to be a young child, but it still gives you an impression of how huge this machine is.

Komatsu D575A-2

To get an impression of this thing's size, take note of the cab and guardrails on top of the dozer. Another way to look at it: the height of the D575A-2's blade is only 1.5 feet shorter that a D9's overall height.

Wow, that armored dozer is freaky, it's cool. It looks like the locals should be running in terror.

The D11 also shouldn't be Cat's biggest at least in about 1-2 year's time. Apparently they've been working on a new model (to be called the D249) which will be about half again as large as the D11, that thing will be a monster.