Chris your one hell of an operator. I see heavy equipment fails on other channels that aren't even as tough as stuff you do every day with no fuss, Well done. Thanks for letting us be a part of it.
You are one talented human being running equipment! Amazing watching you work your way up that steep bank. I would still be scratching my way around that...no wait, Id be stuck in the pond! Love the videos!!
Wow. Three stage slop moving. Dig it up, plop it out. Dig it up, plop it out. Load it up, plop it out. And no, it doesn't bother me that I enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks.
Makes me feel old when I was working for a contractor will used a drag line to clean retention ponds up here in Minnesota during the winter hold it dump trucks to a landfill I can't believe how much faster the excavator is you are a good operator I've never seen one as smooth
Hi Chris. I'm from NJ and love your videos. I crack up when I hear you griping because I know your laughing all the way to the bank. Love what you're doing with the homestead. Picking up equipment along the way. I guess your boys are too busy with the good economy. Like to see a video of you all getting together and trying to out-whopper each other. Much danger associated with these projects. Be safe, be well and have a happy new year.
This kind of weather is what i would need here at home in Germany. We got rain the last four days and everything is gettin muddy Nice video of showing all the process with digging and loading👍
I love reading the comments, but many must not. I’m sure you were asked 20 times where this mud is hauled to, you could see at first you had some detailed answers but then on the last 5 or so it just said “landfill”,,,,, hahaha. I don’t blame you. I suspect it’s the same there, but in my area of the world that mud smells so very bad!! No one wants it near their homes. We tried spreading some with our manure trucks, about the consistency of the stuff you have today, but kept breaking floor chains. It just slumps in there and packs in. Then you fire up the floor chains in the box and the beaters clear the first bit and then thunk, you hear the chain snap, hopefully, and you unload the truck with a loader on our case, the best you can and then you shovel another 2 - 4 ton of that slop! After that, I had it hauled to an area a long ways away from the home yard and the neighbours and filled in gully’s. They were sure nice and green though!! Heh heh. I thought this stuff is just a little firmer and better handling than some of your most recent jobs. You are a patient man Chris and you do well. Thanks for sharing!
I've spread many loads of cow manure in my day and would never put that heavy mud in my equipment. Big difference then the light soupy manure I'm use to. Creative thinking but sounds like the ending result was costly.
Great shots from the skid steer bucket dumping slop into the truck. This looks like the blue clay we have in NH. I oversaw a job of 18 foot cut for gravity sewer....damm difficult.....needed 2 trench boxes stacked and had to hold the pipe down in position till ballest was added to keep the pipe from floating up.....due to slop liquid clay. Your quite a good operator and take on some challenges !!
Nice job working with that muck. Thanks for making a video showing how to get it done with what you have 👍🏻 no need for long reaches or concrete pumps just an excavator and a skid
I admit, I drawed up when you slipped backwards. Easy stuff for you. I was counting skid steer buckets. How many to load the truck? I think you said before it was a excavator bucket to 1&1/2 skid steer buckets. Great job, I'll be here for the finish.
Some rich farmer in Central California decided he would relocate about that same volume of creek fed pond bottom silt to the gravel road on the levee along his property. He laid down crushed 2" topped that with silt and run road base on top. It dried up real fine. Like a concrete road... till it rained and rained and rained. The Sacramento River flooded high that year, devastating flood all around. When the state levee folks got around to inspecting that area all the rock and silt and road base slid off into his fields like a layer cake. He didn't make a profit at all that year. And if I remember right, he owned his next born child or grandchild... to the state. LOL That silt drains eventually, firms up and stays that way...until it rains. Then it's just like the day he dug it out of that pond. Silt is worthless without expensive remediation. What do you guys do with it?
That sure is some sloppy material to be working with. Glad I don't have to clean the truck and equipment afterward! Another nice video, Chris. Have a happy new year!
You are crazy af! I know pucker factor was 15 on a 1-10 scale sliding back down that hill! You are skilled on those mats or crazy af. First video I ever watched of you was when that pond almost ate the excavator when you was on mats.
Many thanks for entertaining me over the past year. It concerns me just a little how much of my life has been taken up following your your various contracts but I am afraid I am now adicted to a daily dose of Letsdig 18!! A Merry Christmas to you and look forward to "loosing" further hours of my life watching you in 2020. Cheers, Murray ( No relation to James!!!! lol. )
Instead of always saying another Great job Chris, I going to a 5 star on your filming, I know its time consuming changing angles all the time but your doing a fabulous job and also very very Clear pixs!!
Chris that slope into that pond is a testament to your skills as an operator of that machine after watching you slide down in semi control, then get yourself out. the other thing is hope the tail-gate on the truck has a good seal as that looked like it could seep out of the tiniest of hole. Question who pays for this work the county or the residents that are near by?
Damn that's a lot of MUD!!! Put it in small bottles and sell it in Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop stores - 5 Oz, only $9,95 - and you'll be a millionaire in a week or so! 😁
Lol you can make a sign and sink in in the ponds you work on. Just like when guys do construction and they say John was here. You can do it in concrete or stainless steel and say let’s dig 18 was here. And in 30 years when they drain the pond they will find it. Like a time capsule.
That silt is some quality dirt when it dries out. I've read many other comments and people complaining of the smell and whatever but I witnessed the quality of dirt that comes from runoff and from what I've seen, it was quality dirt when it dried. My opinion.
Man, That will give ya Skills a Workout !! Looked like getting up an down that Bank was given ya fits there a bit !! lolol... You got it licked though....Great as always Chris !! Til the Next... Have a Great Evening....
Chris - with all the drainage and lake work that you are doing now, isn't it time to maybe look for the longer stick/boom system or even a shovel dredge such as these last 2 jobs? You didn't finish the thought when you mentioned it in this video, but obviously there is some merit for this tool in the war chesst of machines, yes?
Joe Racer - he has a few older videos with a long arm. It was entertaining because one had the controls set reverse to what he was used to. Chris May have said a few bad words back then! Hahaha.
Blimey Chris. That looked kind of scary, and on several levels. We've seen you on softer mud than that, but you seemed to climbing hard when retreating at 16:30. It must be hard finding the mats when they sink that much. Then sliding back when pulling yourself up the bank - I mean were you confident that you were going to move the bucket forward for a new grip faster than the machine was sliding back? But what really made me nervous was moving that soft mud onto the bank at the end of the video. It put me in mind of the Aberfan disaster in Welsh Wales in 1996 when mining slurry came down a hillside and flooded a school. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster I was imagining your wee containing pit letting go and washing you down the hill into that bottomless pond. You ought to get a snorkel fitted to your excavators for if such a thing were to happen - I'm touching wood and turning round three times giving fate the finger. Not that I believe in that stuff, but it just might pay to play it safe.
I enjoy watching seeing the news videos hope you had a merry Christmas we live in Georgia I see a Volvo ec380 with Demolition hammer Keep up the great work
Nice mudcam! The obvious answer is "a ton of experience" but I have no idea how you assess whether you're gonna sink to your eyeballs in that mud. At 13:18 you dunked that first mudmat like Shaquille O'Neal.
Purpose of tracks is to crawl across dirt, not slip slide down hills. Think you have a sloppy mess there Another day in the swamps I see. Going to need climbing gear for that excavator. Even with the mats your sinking - have a safe time in there.
Just zip tie the washer fluid tube, but with the amount of pond dredging you guys do you really need a bigger bucket for that slop, maybe not in this case because a bigger bucket on that hill is just asking to slide down it, but it would definitely speed up the process and wouldn’t put much strain on the machine
Have you ever thought about a Automatic Lubrication System for the equipment? I like to know the mathematical formula for the number of mats you can take to a job site vs the number of mats you like to have at the job site? Like to have 8 mats minus 4 you get to take = Make do with what you got. Moving mats back and forth all day seems like a royal pain.
Does it make more sense to just dredge the minimum that the State requires every year or two or would it make more sense to dredge out several years worth at a time. I’d imagine that the setup time and clean up and reseed etc costs are not insignificant. You’d think they’d just clean out a good chunk of the silt all at once.
Nice camera view of the unloading the mud in the holding pit. The sound and mud sliding out of the excavator bucket was surprisingly therapeutic...haha! Better get that window washer squirter fixed...I can't believe that isn't driving you nuts. Any plans on your next big machine purchase??
Just being curious, is that the biggest bucket that can be used on this digger, or would be too much for the machine if you increased the bucket capacity any more, I was just thinking what is the best way of moving as much mud as you can get in one bucket load each time, as obviously there is a huge amount of mud overall to move, especially in this type of situation.
John MacDonald - he did mention in the video that is all the bucket he can use with this mud in this machine. Stuff is heavy and he is reaching all the way out there.
Hi Chris, happy Christmas from the UK. You do a fair amount of jobs where the truck is quite some distance from the work, is it worth making some Matt's to get the trucks closer to the job? Or some sort of track way like the military use?
This job don't look to bad. I finally got started up their a Deeprun the job near kinston, it had been so wet so we stayed down here in the sand till after Christmas
You should bag that pond mud and mark it December 26 2019 pond mud facial. And send the first sample to @mrseliteearthworks thought I seen a wrinkle on one of her last comments . Lol just having fun @mrseliteearthworks
Chris your one hell of an operator. I see heavy equipment fails on other channels that aren't even as tough as stuff you do every day with no fuss, Well done. Thanks for letting us be a part of it.
He makes it look easy.
Chris pond dredging videos are my favorite! I wish it could have been longer! Climbing that hill looked a little scary!
You are one talented human being running equipment! Amazing watching you work your way up that steep bank. I would still be scratching my way around that...no wait, Id be stuck in the pond! Love the videos!!
Wow. Three stage slop moving. Dig it up, plop it out. Dig it up, plop it out. Load it up, plop it out.
And no, it doesn't bother me that I enjoyed every minute of it.
Thanks.
Makes me feel old when I was working for a contractor will used a drag line to clean retention ponds up here in Minnesota during the winter hold it dump trucks to a landfill I can't believe how much faster the excavator is you are a good operator I've never seen one as smooth
Hi Chris. I'm from NJ and love your videos. I crack up when I hear you griping because I know your laughing all the way to the bank. Love what you're doing with the homestead. Picking up equipment along the way. I guess your boys are too busy with the good economy. Like to see a video of you all getting together and trying to out-whopper each other. Much danger associated with these projects. Be safe, be well and have a happy new year.
18:15 your machine slipped and almost fell in the mud!
That was close. Good thing you were fast and kept the machine's control :)
Nice work!
This kind of weather is what i would need here at home in Germany. We got rain the last four days and everything is gettin muddy
Nice video of showing all the process with digging and loading👍
I love reading the comments, but many must not. I’m sure you were asked 20 times where this mud is hauled to, you could see at first you had some detailed answers but then on the last 5 or so it just said “landfill”,,,,, hahaha. I don’t blame you.
I suspect it’s the same there, but in my area of the world that mud smells so very bad!! No one wants it near their homes. We tried spreading some with our manure trucks, about the consistency of the stuff you have today, but kept breaking floor chains. It just slumps in there and packs in. Then you fire up the floor chains in the box and the beaters clear the first bit and then thunk, you hear the chain snap, hopefully, and you unload the truck with a loader on our case, the best you can and then you shovel another 2 - 4 ton of that slop! After that, I had it hauled to an area a long ways away from the home yard and the neighbours and filled in gully’s. They were sure nice and green though!! Heh heh.
I thought this stuff is just a little firmer and better handling than some of your most recent jobs. You are a patient man Chris and you do well. Thanks for sharing!
I've spread many loads of cow manure in my day and would never put that heavy mud in my equipment. Big difference then the light soupy manure I'm use to. Creative thinking but sounds like the ending result was costly.
Nice mat work. That last Mat was sinking with you petty good. Nice!
Stay safe
Dwayne
Great shots from the skid steer bucket dumping slop into the truck. This looks like the blue clay
we have in NH. I oversaw a job of 18 foot cut for gravity sewer....damm difficult.....needed 2 trench
boxes stacked and had to hold the pipe down in position till ballest was added to keep the pipe
from floating up.....due to slop liquid clay. Your quite a good operator and take on some challenges !!
Nice job working with that muck. Thanks for making a video showing how to get it done with what you have 👍🏻 no need for long reaches or concrete pumps just an excavator and a skid
Very impressive operation of the machine on that hill! You held your nerve when it slipped.
I admit, I drawed up when you slipped backwards. Easy stuff for you. I was counting skid steer buckets. How many to load the truck? I think you said before it was a excavator bucket to 1&1/2 skid steer buckets. Great job, I'll be here for the finish.
Some rich farmer in Central California decided he would relocate about that same volume of creek fed pond bottom silt to the gravel road on the levee along his property. He laid down crushed 2" topped that with silt and run road base on top. It dried up real fine. Like a concrete road... till it rained and rained and rained. The Sacramento River flooded high that year, devastating flood all around. When the state levee folks got around to inspecting that area all the rock and silt and road base slid off into his fields like a layer cake. He didn't make a profit at all that year. And if I remember right, he owned his next born child or grandchild... to the state. LOL That silt drains eventually, firms up and stays that way...until it rains. Then it's just like the day he dug it out of that pond. Silt is worthless without expensive remediation. What do you guys do with it?
I watch other operators but you are by far the smoothest operator i have ever seen keep up the great work and happy new years
That sure is some sloppy material to be working with. Glad I don't have to clean the truck and equipment afterward! Another nice video, Chris. Have a happy new year!
When you were dumping it in the truck looked like someone had a serious case of the shits 😂😂
Jingle bells ... jingle bells ...... oh what fun it is to slide in a one bucket Volvo !!
@20:00 for those who suffer whatever ailment is cause by swinging buckets of mud, please skip forward. Otherwise, enjoy!
What a mud! Take a bath inside and you'll get a skin like a baby! ;-)
I’ve been doing commercial landscaping for two years now. These videos apply and help!
You need to get your hitachi on the payroll, you need another all rounder in the team, always great work.
Thanks for the video Chris like it , sliding down hill was very good ,did that too .
A picture is worth a thousand words , very informative.
Looked like quicksand!
You are crazy af! I know pucker factor was 15 on a 1-10 scale sliding back down that hill! You are skilled on those mats or crazy af. First video I ever watched of you was when that pond almost ate the excavator when you was on mats.
ua-cam.com/video/2_qMUeiGOP4/v-deo.html
Many thanks for entertaining me over the past year. It concerns me just a little how much of my life has been taken up following your your various contracts but I am afraid I am now adicted to a daily dose of Letsdig 18!! A Merry Christmas to you and look forward to "loosing" further hours of my life watching you in 2020. Cheers, Murray ( No relation to James!!!! lol. )
It's not nice when it's cold.
A nice view from the bucket on the ski steer.
Almost like a roller coaster.
Pulling yourself up the hill reminded me of your video you called “ I can’t get out of the damn pond” which if I remember was the 160 C too🤔😜
Man trying to get up that hill looks to be a little sketchy. Love the videos keep them coming.
Mud mud mud mud..... WHEEEEEEE! As Chris tries skiing with the 160! 😂
That camera shot from the upper dump area made me feel like I was about to be buried in doodoo mud.
I think I have mud on my couch now lol
Instead of always saying another Great job Chris, I going to a 5 star on your filming, I know its time consuming changing angles all the time but your doing a fabulous job and also very very Clear pixs!!
Looks like it would be a nice place to have a belt feeder to load the material up to the hillside..but probably would be a pain for you to move..
Chris that slope into that pond is a testament to your skills as an operator of that machine after watching you slide down in semi control, then get yourself out. the other thing is hope the tail-gate on the truck has a good seal as that looked like it could seep out of the tiniest of hole. Question who pays for this work the county or the residents that are near by?
Great video , keep them coming please .
Seeing him get that machine out of the pond and up that hill reminded me of how I used to have to walk to school. Imagine that both ways!
Next time you work on a pond with water in it , put a camera on a RC. boat , the muskrat eye view .
Damn that's a lot of MUD!!! Put it in small bottles and sell it in Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop stores - 5 Oz, only $9,95 - and you'll be a millionaire in a week or so! 😁
Timelaps.
A timelaps of a job like this would really "tickel my fancy".
Peace, love and a merry Christmas
Lol you can make a sign and sink in in the ponds you work on. Just like when guys do construction and they say John was here. You can do it in concrete or stainless steel and say let’s dig 18 was here. And in 30 years when they drain the pond they will find it. Like a time capsule.
Chris, what happens to all this mud you have been removing from these holding ponds? Could be used for top soil, once dried out?
Id dump it and anyones house close by that wanted it LOL. its good fertile dirt just not many places want to deal with it
That hill is a lot steeper than it looked.
That silt is some quality dirt when it dries out. I've read many other comments and people complaining of the smell and whatever but I witnessed the quality of dirt that comes from runoff and from what I've seen, it was quality dirt when it dried. My opinion.
Dumping that mud into the truck sounds like an after Christmas dinner bathroom visit...
Thats one hell of a mud pie ya makin' there!
Man, That will give ya Skills a Workout !! Looked like getting up an down that Bank was given ya fits there a bit !! lolol... You got it licked though....Great as always Chris !! Til the Next... Have a Great Evening....
Chris - with all the drainage and lake work that you are doing now, isn't it time to maybe look for the longer stick/boom system or even a shovel dredge such as these last 2 jobs? You didn't finish the thought when you mentioned it in this video, but obviously there is some merit for this tool in the war chesst of machines, yes?
Thank God for pond dredging -- it's the bread-and-butter that pays the bills!
Great videos!! Looks like you needed a few more mats. lol!!
Mud pies anyone? Gets like hairy on the hills. You ever run a long arm? Had one at the coal mine I worked at in WV. Dipped out ponds with.
Joe Racer - he has a few older videos with a long arm. It was entertaining because one had the controls set reverse to what he was used to. Chris May have said a few bad words back then! Hahaha.
What a shame you have to handle it twice. awesome footage
Blimey Chris. That looked kind of scary, and on several levels. We've seen you on softer mud than that, but you seemed to climbing hard when retreating at 16:30. It must be hard finding the mats when they sink that much. Then sliding back when pulling yourself up the bank - I mean were you confident that you were going to move the bucket forward for a new grip faster than the machine was sliding back? But what really made me nervous was moving that soft mud onto the bank at the end of the video. It put me in mind of the Aberfan disaster in Welsh Wales in 1996 when mining slurry came down a hillside and flooded a school. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster I was imagining your wee containing pit letting go and washing you down the hill into that bottomless pond. You ought to get a snorkel fitted to your excavators for if such a thing were to happen - I'm touching wood and turning round three times giving fate the finger. Not that I believe in that stuff, but it just might pay to play it safe.
18:15 -- Wheeee!
New sport...Excavator skying! Chris you da man @18:00
I live on a farm, so I know what it's like to keep working through the holidays. Some jobs just got to keep the world moving.
I have come to a conclusion and that is you are either very lucky or very good. After this video I now have an answere. You are damn good...........
I reached that conclusion a long time ago!
I enjoy watching seeing the news videos hope you had a merry Christmas we live in Georgia I see a Volvo ec380 with Demolition hammer Keep up the great work
Nice mudcam! The obvious answer is "a ton of experience" but I have no idea how you assess whether you're gonna sink to your eyeballs in that mud. At 13:18 you dunked that first mudmat like Shaquille O'Neal.
Nice and mushy rekon the 220 would have got stuck.and merry Christmas you do agood job.
Holy shit Track Man!!! Give yer machine a V8, she's leaning real bad. 😂 you always seem really comfortable working in mud pits for some reason.
Its not so much driving down the hill as crashing gracefully.
I think hes working on creating a new sport.. excavator skiing lol
Purpose of tracks is to crawl across dirt, not slip slide down hills. Think you have a sloppy mess there Another day in the swamps I see. Going to need climbing gear for that excavator. Even with the mats your sinking - have a safe time in there.
Omgosh Chris, those poor machines are going to need one heck of a wash to get all the slop washed off. 😨😨😨😨😨🇺🇸
Just zip tie the washer fluid tube, but with the amount of pond dredging you guys do you really need a bigger bucket for that slop, maybe not in this case because a bigger bucket on that hill is just asking to slide down it, but it would definitely speed up the process and wouldn’t put much strain on the machine
Great video Chris enjoyed watching
You mentioned in the video that this is only size bucket you need they have bigger ones for more yardage
Have you ever thought about a Automatic Lubrication System for the equipment? I like to know the mathematical formula for the number of mats you can take to a job site vs the number of mats you like to have at the job site? Like to have 8 mats minus 4 you get to take = Make do with what you got. Moving mats back and forth all day seems like a royal pain.
As much pond dredging you do, have you thought about getting a third stick or a long arm machine?
mike fowler in older videos there is a long reach Liebherr
Does it make more sense to just dredge the minimum that the State requires every year or two or would it make more sense to dredge out several years worth at a time. I’d imagine that the setup time and clean up and reseed etc costs are not insignificant. You’d think they’d just clean out a good chunk of the silt all at once.
Good work friend..
Good morning from operator Indonesian..🇮🇩
Hey Chris where do y’all take all of the mud that you excavate for retention ponds? There’s not much than can be done with silt right?
Got that fresh cow pie sound to it.
I need a couple bucks to that in my garden.
Reminds me of the time I cleaned out the septic tank with a shovel and the tractor! Minus a million and one plastic applicators.
Where do you dump the sludge you pull out of ponds when you haul it away?
Hay Chris tell them not to criticize just idolize
God does that dropping mud sound like cow shit dropping.
That mess reminds me when I was a kid running across a muddy field an stepped out of my boots!
That 160 has been quite a workhorse for you.
What do you do with the muck you take out of all these ponds?
Chris, Great camera work in this video.... you felt like you were in the mud pile....
Hi Chris when was that pond last dreged because that mud looks about two or more feet deep
Nice camera view of the unloading the mud in the holding pit. The sound and mud sliding out of the excavator bucket was surprisingly therapeutic...haha! Better get that window washer squirter fixed...I can't believe that isn't driving you nuts. Any plans on your next big machine purchase??
Chris Joins the US Bob sled team. With his Volvo 120 Bob sled. Lol God bless
Awesome video! I Hope you had an awesome Christmas
How often do the ponds get inspected by the state?
That’s one steep sob be safe on that sucker.
Just being curious, is that the biggest bucket that can be used on this digger, or would be too much for the machine if you increased the bucket capacity any more, I was just thinking what is the best way of moving as much mud as you can get in one bucket load each time, as obviously there is a huge amount of mud overall to move, especially in this type of situation.
John MacDonald - he did mention in the video that is all the bucket he can use with this mud in this machine. Stuff is heavy and he is reaching all the way out there.
Hi Chris, happy Christmas from the UK.
You do a fair amount of jobs where the truck is quite some distance from the work, is it worth making some Matt's to get the trucks closer to the job? Or some sort of track way like the military use?
I can't help but think of all the hibernating frogs in the silt that will wake up in spring and think man what a nightmare.
Frogs in that Shit?? Really?? Who or what could breathe oxygen in that.?? Lmao
Does that goo ever dry out? If it does it looks like it would make good top soil.
This job don't look to bad. I finally got started up their a Deeprun the job near kinston, it had been so wet so we stayed down here in the sand till after Christmas
having been there that slide back was a pucker factor
10:50 lool look how the tracks keeps sinking in the mud bucket after bucket hahaha
You should bag that pond mud and mark it December 26 2019 pond mud facial. And send the first sample to @mrseliteearthworks thought I seen a wrinkle on one of her last comments . Lol just having fun @mrseliteearthworks
Wow, only a slight slope to deal with on this muck out job......
After the 23 minute mark, was that a homage to Max Headroom?????
Before his time, I be willing to bet.
Dang Chris
That looked liked feed lot muck. Hope it doesn't smell like it. Great camera shots.
John won’t run the skid steer or.....???