One Day Diary - 22/05/2009

I decided that today could make an interesting diary, so I dusted off the camera and chucked it in my grub bag to see how the day panned out.

If anyone fancies a crack at moving plant (not plants) this is the sort of thing you can expect, I’m still with my 6 wheeler most of the time but our artic driver does insist on taking holidays and I get the dubious honour of taking over. This week has not been too bad, but as usual the BHF (Bank Holiday Friday) can undo an enjoyable week.

Rolled into work at 0630 in Danbury, grabbed a cuppa and off down the hill to Danbury Quarry for the first job. I’ve got a loading shovel to move, grabbed the keys from the weighbridge and find it parked in the yard, it’s this

That’s 22t of Daewoo Mega 400 to you sir.

Climb up the ladder to the cab, it’s about 7’ off the deck and have a little look around to make sure I know what everything does. It’s a big unit and is artic steer, so a small turn on the steering wheel makes a big difference. You need to know what is going to happen when you are loading on to the trailer.

It’s on safely and ready to go.

I’m only moving this across to Witham, they have got a couple of shovels in the quarry there but one needs maintenance and this one is a spare machine for this sort of eventuality.

Ready to unload at Witham

Just to highlight how big this actually is.

It’s just after 0800 and I’m off along the A12 and A120 headed towards Clacton, I have a machine to collect from Great Bentley from an archeological site.

It’s a Doosan DX140 - 14t machine, one of newest and certainly one of the best looked after.

Back at the yard the 140 comes off and suddenly my workload gets added to, BHF alert. There’s a pair of machines down the road at Boreham which have got to come back, the first is a 22t JCB JS220 it’s working on a reservoir which is accessed along a haul road that starts at Boreham Interchange and disappear across the fields. After bumping across to the reservoir I find the machine is still in use and unavailable for collection, my next job is actually in sight about half a mile away just across a weak bridge. This means I have to virtually go back to Danbury to get around the bridge.

Leaving empty handed

Here’s the next one a Hitachi ZX130 - 13t it’s the only machine we have I’ve never yet moved, the reservoir where I’ve come from was just behind those trees on left. That was about 20 minutes ago! This machine is one of our oldest and has been working along by the river, it’s a bit mucky but the driver has dug the worst out of the tracks and left it’s buckets ready for me.

Just a quick job to chain them up

Then I track the machine to the field entrance and drop the ramps on the rough ground to avoid chewing up the tarmac and leaving crap all over the road.

All done ready for the short journey back to the yard.

My next job is the one where the typical BHF will come into play, collect equipment as late as possible from Braintree. They are remodelling a BMX track and I’m given an ambiguous address that although isn’t actually wrong it is misleading. As a result I end looking in the wrong place and end up heading out on a windy road with some distance passing before I’m able to turn around and head back again. A call to my colleague clears things up, and actually the delivery is wrong. It’s an awkward entrance into a carpark not really big enough to turn round in that provided access to the gateway that is just a bit too small to get through. I need to turn around but the only way it’s possible is to go out and come back from another angle. I’m seriously getting ■■■■■■ off with this and am tempted to declare bollox and head back, but I’m not a quitter and finally get in, turned around and ready to load. First up is one of our little 5t Yanmar’s, our driver tracks it out and I load it up on the top deck and get it strapped on.

Then they bring out a whacker plate that attaches on the machine, I attach this load and secure also.

Finally I’m ready for the next one, unfortunately no one has left it ready so we have to remove the cab covers, gather the buckets and squeeze it on board.

It’s a Hitachi ZX160 - 16t machine, plus more than enough buckets. With a good load on I finally head out and take a circuitous route round Braintree to drop it off at another site. I’m in luck (all things relative) here as 5 minutes later everyone would have gone home, no-one had told them of this machine’s impending arrival but they chipped in and soon it was just the little 5t to go back to the yard. Back at the yard, it was nearly 6pm but before heading for home I had to unload and reload a Yanmar 75 - 8t version of the one I’ve brought back. Final job was to clear out the cab of my gear, ready to load back into my cab on Tuesday.

Cracking diary mate im sure that was you going into a plant hire place in avonmouth on weds i did beep but dont know if you heard me

Sore point that one.

I’ve been on the lowloader all week, Wednesday’s job was to collect it from Truck East at Witham and return to the yard where I spent all day organising buckets and other ■■■■■■

Now I never run down my employer or post negative comments, but I cannot see the logic in this. I am employed full time and paid whether or not there is work to do, I’d much rather have gone to Avonmouth than toss off in the yard all day. They sent my wagon out empty to Avonmouth to collect a part for a machine that we are going to convert, it is not an urgent project and could have been collected some time over the next week or so. I suggested to them a few people (existing customers) who might be able to give us a load headed west even if it was just a case of doing something for silly money that we’d never take “Roller to Swindon, call it £200” or whatever. As far as I know they made no enquiry to try and earn money from the journey, to add insult to injury when we need an extra driver we hire a self employed fella to drive my wagon whilst I cover the lowloader or other 6 wheeler.

They are always complaining that work is tight and trying to cut back etc but sometimes they can’t help themselves.

That looks like Dave Boltons road, where he has the boot fair, and the road between Boreham and Danbury.

Top diary

I’m really suprised i didn’t see you today, i was flying up and down between Danbury and Boreham pretty much all day, though i was using the Little Baddow road just after the weak bridge

C-Kay:
That looks like Dave Boltons road, where he has the boot fair, and the road between Boreham and Danbury.

Top diary

I’m really suprised i didn’t see you today, i was flying up and down between Danbury and Boreham pretty much all day, though i was using the Little Baddow road just after the weak bridge

That is exactly where it is, across the fields to the weak bridge. The daft thing is if I had been able to load the JS220 I couldn’t have returned along the haul road to the interchange because there are low cables at the A12 end, I would have had to go up the hill towards Boreham Church through the 6’6" restriction (except for access)

I did use the road by the bridge to turn around, if you look you’ll probably see the marks from the where the tyres scrubbed round.

And funny enough I wondered if I’d seen you today, I saw Kev’s rigid going the other way on the A12 at Marks Tey this morning and the young lad driving had a good gawp, then when I came off the haul road onto the roundabout just after taking the picture I saw it again.

Don’t flash / wave / hoot at the lowloader next week, I’m not bald and over 60 it’ll be the regular driver back again. I’ll be back in this again, on for Hewdens on Tuesday at Waltham Cross.

Funny you should mention that weak bridge.

Ah it wasn’t me, i was driving some Citroen mini van today, i’m still waiting for a start date on the artics. He asked me to pull a trailer out of Harwich tonight, but i couldnt do it.

I’ll keep an eye out, we have to cross paths at some point. and yep, the road to the left of the cab is the one i was using all day

Nice read with excellent pictures,thanks a lot

Nice diary and especially the pictures are very good. I liked this very much, thank you.

Btw. was it bothering you that with the artic you had much more than eight wheels?

Glad you’ve finally dragged that camera back out
Great pictures mate.

Kyrbo:
Nice diary and especially the pictures are very good. I liked this very much, thank you.

Btw. was it bothering you that with the artic you had much more than eight wheels?

Well technically the unit has got 8 wheels, much like my 6 wheeler. It’s just the 12 on the trailer that give me the trouble.

Really enjoyed the diary and pictures, 8wheels

The Daewoo Mega 400 is MASSIVE! It made your truck look quite tiny The tyres bulging over the side of the trailer made me feel a bit queasy!

You made an interesting point about the condition of the Doosan DX140 - yes, it was very well looked after.

It started me thinking: with the value of this type of kit, it’s amazing really that it’s so rare to see it well looked after. I understand that it is often being utilised on very muddy sites, etc., but you never see the cab windows being cleaned or the parts of the machine that don’t come into contact with the mud being given a wipe down.

I guess it’s generally only truckers that haul their machines down grimy roads or tracks and take the trouble to wash their lorries down afterwards!

nice diary, great photo’s

reminds me of when i was a heavy plant fitter, we used to run Caterpillar loading shovels, dozers and dump trucks, Terex motor scrapers and loading shovels, and then we got a load of ex-coal board crap, Avelling Barfords for one type

i used to go out as drivers mate with my father who worked for the same company in the low loader

good post a pics there mate, just of of curisoity how high were you with the yellow one on up by the headboard, or is that not a problem for you where you are.

Loads of Horses - The trailer has outriggers for wide loads, those grey squares down the side of the trailer are beams tht pull out so you can lay boards on to extend the width of the floor. I’ve moved shovels before but they weren’t quite so wide, it was just when I had it loaded on that I noticed and couldn’t be arsed to unload and reload.

There are a few machine drivers that look after their machines, one of drivers had a machine 3 years old that looked like new he was given a brand new and his old one got put out self drive I used to work for a piling firm and one of the drivers used to polish his 35t CFA piling rig.

Delboytwo - I didn’t measure the height of the Yanmar on the dancefloor but I have loaded them up there before and know they come within usual height limits, to be honest I rarely measure the height of my loads as I tend to know where the low bridges are and avoid them or measure if unavoidable. I got a dumper through the Blackwall the other day, if it’d had a beacon on it wouldn’t have made it.

Found a pic of the extensions.

8wheels:
Don’t flash / wave / hoot at the lowloader next week, I’m not bald and over 60 it’ll be the regular driver back again. I’ll be back in this again, on for Hewdens on Tuesday at Waltham Cross.
Funny you should mention that weak bridge.

I got to load up from somewhere in waltham cross on tuesday so will keep a look out for ya so if you see some ■■■■ beebing flashing and waveing dont worry its only me

What are you driving? Are you going to Continental Express?

Great diary and excellent pictures, glad you are doing a diary again.

Are Danbury Haulage or Transport still going? they used to run Foden & ERF tippers, rigids & artics, white with either a blue stripe of blue signwriting, cant remember which.

Used to see them alot around the Chelmsford area but I dont get that way these days.

Cheers
Mark