Excavator digging technique for beginners

[michaelhawkins]

Thanks, very interesting.
I am a gravedigger and never before thought about pinning when the ground is too hard to dig. I will try this method.

[wickedleeloopy]

After a while digging becomes quite rhythmic & most machines are quite intuitive in there design .I don't use an excavator that often but over the last 25 years I much rather be running the pipework than digging the trench. But as I get older I'm reconsidering the easier option of digging.

[benoitchartrand]

Very good and especially well explained vid. I rented an excavator and tried it without any knowledge. In short your video helped me a lot. Thanks

[briantomazi]

sorry neal but that is so wrong. the bucket should be flat and the teeth do all the work and you dont curl the bucket till your coming out of the ground. If you keep the bucket flat you can keep the bottom of the ditch flat, clean and on grade buy gauging of the pins on the bucket. I dont want to hurt your feels.

[wallyblackburn]

Can't wait until the neighbor sees what you did to his yard! ;)

[Rincypoopoo]

Good video. I bought a "retro" for my tractor. Had a blast learning to use it. Just reached the point of not thinking about what control when working. Your film would have speeded me up but I now know that I picked up no bad habits. Thank you.

[elmess]

Can't wait for all the comments from full-time operators saying you're doing it wrong and that beginners shouldn't even try to run machinery if they can't do it "right".

[frederickmoller]

I operated a KH41, I maybe wrong on the model number, it's been 20 years, but this was 'underground' at a gold mine in northern Ontario, Canada. It was used for drainage ditches and clean-up between the railway tracks as drainage was 'very' important in keeping the tracks in good condition, I had this job for about 7 years. BTW, there was no training involved for me, I was just given a reprint of the operators manual and told to learn the operations on my own. I can say that operating the Kubota was the best job that I ever had, and it wasn't only used for ditching, we had the hydraulic rock breaker attachment that was used for breaking oversize muck (rock) and even freeing frozen muck at the surface crusher in -40F temps without a cab, now that was cold, but it still did the trick. Mini excavators are a really handy piece of equipment!

[stevecarter]

Great stuff, been looking for a video at this level. Figuring out the levers is easy, but knowing what not to do is important. I would like to know more about landscaping slopes, what to do when there isnt a level spot for the excavator

[pushnpow]

Not trying to discredit your video or anything, I apologise if I’m coming across as a know-it-all.

[TF]

Some operators on the job would call this method completely wrong.
You should be slicing off layers two to three inches thick going horizontally about 3 ft long until you get to the bottom of the trench. and keep the bucket teeth pointing slightly down as you're cutting off each layer.
Then you move the machine.
If you scrape the face of the trench from the bottom up you cause a lot of extra dirt to fall in which means it also takes longer to dig and to back fill the trench. It also leaves the trench looking ragged.
Also do not use a bucket that is too wide cuz it can slow down the process quite a bit.
It's also important to keep the sides and the bottom of the trench smooth and straight.

But if you're digging on your own land just be careful not to hit any pipes or wires Underground. if you're not sure call your local utility company and ask them to check for underground utilities also known as USA's or underground service alerts.

[pingpong]

Great teacher - I'm familiar with the controls but this sort of experience based knowledge is gold for rookies. Any other videos of this experience/knowledge type? How do you go about learning to coordinate the boom, arm and bucket to grade/trench flat? Safest way to load a trailer would be good too - there is too much conflicting advice out there. I hope to grade and trench for house soon - any details there would be awesome too.

[manuelorellana]

Very helpful video I’m planning on buying my first mini excavator. Thanks for all that great information.

[personalfunfest]

I definitely learned alot! keep doing these beginner videos! great job... love from SoCal ✌🏾

[LindenRanch]

I will try these techniques. My tractor is the BX23S. It would be great if you could do a similar video for the back hoe. I tend to pull the tractor into the dig area even with outriggers down.

[manuelsoria]

Now try to dig without busting the edges for a nice clean cut, what you're doing there is just forcing that poor little machine go 2 to 3 inches down at a time instead of the whole bucket and use the full boom towards you for a better and efficient job, and if you do it right you end up with a full bucket and much much nicer trench!

[alanjackson]

I wanted to see your Method for filling the hole back up

[brianpritt]

I hope you didn't break that good sod just for a demo

[davidray]

Those spoils need to be atleast 2 feet from your trench.

[PrecisionCSGO]

Bucket curl to dig out a full bucket, got it, thank you! I was trying to use the arm to dig and my machine was lifting up. I was doing it wrong 🤦‍♂️ Will try again!