Heavy Mobile Equipment operators are a special breed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DbgciAPMAM
What do you operate?
Do you like your job?
Is the pay good?
Are you actually good at it or just have the tickets and barely know how to operate?
How often does management question what you are doing with no idea on how to do what you do?
Do you hate truck drivers?
Post HME operator stories and share advice/tips and tricks

I operate 35-50 tonne front loaders,
bobcat,
3+ tonne tele handler
20 tonne non slewing crane
Job pays decent but that is only because of the hours i do.
Apparently i am one of the best operators on any of the 3 sites despite only doing it for a few years, i drove tractors before getting into the mines which says a lot about the quality of people considering my dumb arse is what they look for in operators.
My site alone has been through half a dozen people in the last few weeks who had tickets and said they could operate that were fired within a few days because they were going to get themselves or someone else killed with no idea how to operate a loader.
Stuff like how to dig into pic related without it being dangerous, i do like me a good brickslide.

>>28505854 (OP)
I'm not an operator but I'm an engineer that works with a lot of cat machines. I get to use them regularly and it's the best part of the job.

>>28506909
I operate them 10-12 hours a day it gets old by Friday but by Monday I am happy again.
40kmh feels extremely fast in a big machine especially if you drifting down a 10 degree ramp.
The bad part would be knee and back pain. Clutch brake be heavy.

I drive 3,5 tonne diesel powered forklift at waste management facility, do I qualify?
got certified for front loader and excavator, and got offers at two different steel-mills but pay ended up being less than what i make now, and I'd have to work 3 shifts. Pay in general is shit unless you are willing to put extra hours and sleep on site.
Though I plan on getting some overtime on heavy equipment at my job site after I get back from sick leave.
I don't hate truck drivers, I'm one myself. Though company keeps me in reserve and don't really want to release me from dangerous waste warehouse where I work now.

>>28511031
Isn't a 3.5 tonne forklift a telehandler?
For some stupid reason you need a crane license for a telehandler 3 tonnes and over where I live or is 3.5 tonnes the forklift weight?

>>28511048
not necesarily, mast is fixed in this particular one
3,5 is weight of forklift itself
oddily enough, telehandler license is higher tier of forklift cert where I live (eastern europe)

>>28511115
Ah so a telehandler would be able to lift that forklift

>>28505854 (OP)
That's a big loader how many tonnes does the bucket hold?
Are these hard to operate?

I can and do operate machines up to 30 tons, but the day in day out is usually around 3 ton. Currently working at a site with 7 machines and only 3 drivers, so I'm back and forth between a telehandler, 2 and 6 ton dumpers, two 3 ton excavators, and an 8 ton excavator. Bit annoying to be constantly jumping in and out of stuff, but on the other hand the site is kind fun, link rel.

https://litter.catbox.moe/byym1bj07bqec8ay.mp4

>>28512692
My sites is pretty big on the multi role stuff too, does break up the monotony.
I go between face loader loading the crushing plant, sales loader, road binning, tip head loader pushing over and building floors, telehandler loading/unloading trucks also maintenance work, bobcat and a few other bits and bobs, our smallest machines are the bobcat, komatsu350 excavator and wa500-6 loader, biggest are Hitachi 490 excavator and Hitachi 550 loader at 50 tonnes a piece

>>28512692
Oh, forgot to address the other questions.
>Is the pay good?
Self employed, so it's whatever I want it to be. At the current site it's £180 a day, which is pretty good considering how little work I actually do. Might be bumping that up to £200 soon, though.

>Are you actually good at it or just have the tickets and barely know how to operate?
People tell me I'm good, and I've been specifically requested by a few people, though I have my doubts about my abilities. One guy wanted to fly me to india to do the work on his manor there. *no-fucking-thanks*.

>How often does management question what you are doing with no idea on how to do what you do?
Brown skin customers often love to stick their oar in about how they think is the best and quickest way to do the job. I'm quite happy to do it how they want if it means I end up with my arms crossed unable to work due to their inability to plan ahead. Doesn't matter if I'm there 8 hours or 8 minutes, I charge by the day, not the hour.

>Do you hate truck drivers?
Not really. Not had many dealing with them, but the few we've had have been fine.

>Post HME operator stories and share advice/tips and tricks
My brother once barely nicked the mains eclectic cable feeding an entire estate of houses, and it blew a fucking huge hole in the bucket of the machine and killed power for a few hours. Ended up being SSE's fault, though, as the cable wasn't even in the same postcode as what was drawn up on the plans.

Also, pic rel is Instalcom's (contractor for SSE) work, and their idea of a job well done. This is the main electricity feed for an entire estate, and it was a complete joke. They just laid the warning tape directly on top of the cable, completely negating the point of the waring in the first place, and collapsed half of the trenches before doing even that. Fucking awful work.

>>28512701
Damn, sounds busy. How are those bobcats to drive? You don't really see them over here, but from what I've seen in videos, they're mega popular in the states and in oz. Makes me wonder why they've never taken off here.

Mods are asleep! Post draglines!

https://streamable.com/97sktn

>>28512759
Goddamn I fucking love these things. Impressive to see that this ancient tech is still built and in operation today.

>>28512721
Bumpy as fuck and we sell about 5000 tonnes of 20mm crushed concrete for road base per day have about the same in raw product come in

Why is no one talking about the poaching and enslavement of wild heavy equipment? Just look at this shit. It's fucking disgusting.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5RKoQ3p4L

>>28512680
That's a smaller loader, holds 10-11.5 tonnes in the bucket depending on operator technique, pic is a big loader.

>>28512794
that angle also makes it look smaller, from the side it makes sense how big that thing is.