Getting over walls & steps

[801_user]

Split from another thread



You are certainly lucky John to still have your wedding tackle in one piece!

On a slightly different theme, is there ever a good way to get over an obstacle with a mini digger? I had some work to do in my rear garden that only has access on the lower side, so that meant that I had to get the digger up and over the garden wall. P1000585.jpg This looks a bit dodgy although as the digger is only 1.5 tonne and well spread pallets would presumably take this load I went for it. I firstly tried to let it climb itself over the wall, although the angle was getting scary, I was holding tight and my butt cheeks were gripping the seat, but I bottled out and got the pallets out. Anyway, is there a better or safer way or did I do the right thing?

Nigel

[Muz]

If you look at some of the youtube clips on here you can see people loading machines at pretty steep angles .. more than you would think is possible to be honest .. however .. your point is important because what a lot of people dont realise when trying something like that, is that, at some point you end up with the digger having its entire weight on the edge of the wall. Not only that, depending on your skill, you may cause a 'drag' on the wall, pulling it out wards, if you have not got your balance right, as you upright the digger,... this can lead to a lot of damage if the wall is weak ,.. and its strength is something you will never know,.. with the subsequent possibility of some pretty unsafe consequences. Doing it the way you have done, is not perfect but certainly avoids the problem of putting weight on the wall .. the best method is to make a temporary ramp out of some firm material, buld it higher than the wall .. and clear it away at the end of the job

[801_user]

Thanks Muz, I did look at quite a few you tube clips and I can see what you are saying about the wall strength too, I hadn't thought of that. The height of the wall was well above the top of the king post so I was looking for a vid similar to base my "climb" on. As a not very experienced driver this was a very scary feeling with my nose not far off the windscreen for me to stay vertical when just trying to climb over the wall.
My picture doesn't show it well, although I didn't actually drive up the pallets, I made two towers one for the machine and another for the dozer blade. This way I lifted the digger up on its blade and bucket then had someone slide a pallet in from the side and kept this up until I could drive along the top. Not an ideal situation either really as there was potential for the digger to fall on the pallet sliding person.

I hope I won't have to do this sort of thing again, although will certainly bear your idea of a ramp of something stable if I have to do it.

I must confess to having got very confused over this forum and have been using another one when I thought I was on this one. Must be my age or something, anyway I am back now and grateful for everyone's help and experience.

Nigel

[Muz]

Thanks Muz, I did look at quite a few you tube clips and I can see what you are saying about the wall strength too, I hadn't thought of that. The height of the wall was well above the top of the king post so I was looking for a vid similar to base my "climb" on. As a not very experienced driver this was a very scary feeling with my nose not far off the windscreen for me to stay vertical when just trying to climb over the wall.
My picture doesn't show it well, although I didn't actually drive up the pallets, I made two towers one for the machine and another for the dozer blade. This way I lifted the digger up on its blade and bucket then had someone slide a pallet in from the side and kept this up until I could drive along the top. Not an ideal situation either really as there was potential for the digger to fall on the pallet sliding person.

I hope I won't have to do this sort of thing again, although will certainly bear your idea of a ramp of something stable if I have to do it.

I must confess to having got very confused over this forum and have been using another one when I thought I was on this one. Must be my age or something, anyway I am back now and grateful for everyone's help and experience.

Nigel

No problem Nigel .. you did not bad .. just that if peeps get pallets all in a line instead of switching them through 90 degrees on each layer, you run the risk of the tracks bursting through the wooden slats, and if that happens on one side more than the other, it wont take much difference in height from side to side with a 1.5 tonner to throw the machine on its side. Thats bad enough, but when its 3 feet up , well .. you can imagine where i'm going ? .... so I'd never recommend it. Type 1 or similar would be my choice ... in your picture there, even just two one tonne bags would have been enough to do it.

Obviously thats not always practical if it means blocking a pavement, but you can move it and re set it if needs be. Ive seen too many diggers go over in my time, and I'm glad you raised the issue as a lot of people encounter the problem.

[JMB]

Nigel's digger looked a little "tired" in the wall climbing photograph, but this is how he bought it.


It is looking a lot better now, with some major refurbishment/repairs having been carried out, and other works still in the process of improvements. It now looks like it's been cared for!


I have to say that as he is my brother -in - law.

John

[801_user]

Yes the 20 year old digger did look a bit tired in the photo, hadn't seen a grease gun in years, play in every thing. Doesn't now though, I will post a picture when I get it put back together. I found this photo of going back down the wall, as you can see I got a bit more cocky on the way down
down.jpg