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Showerthought: A 30 year guy on the Ohio River got me to stop pushing the levers so hard
Three weeks ago on a backwater job outside Paducah, an old operator named Ray kept yelling at me to ease off the swing levers because I was fighting every bucket load like it owed me money. I argued until he had me watch the pump gauge while he ran a 40 foot cut with one hand, and the discharge stayed steadier than mine ever did, which made me admit I was just making the machine do twice the work. Anybody else have an old timer set them straight like that, and what was the one thing they said?
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henrys749d ago
You ever notice how the old timers always got that calm thing going while the rest of us are white knuckling it? I get what Ray was showing you but I don't fully buy that smooth is always right. Some ground fights back, and sometimes you gotta work the machine to keep the grade where it needs to be. A steady gauge looks nice but if the cut is drifting or the pump is starving on the far end then one hand on the lever ain't gonna save you. Feels like the real lesson was trust your gauges and your ears more than your gut, not that you gotta run everything gentle all the time.
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