Heavy equipment like dozer, excavators and track loaders are not so easy to run and require years of experience to understand how to deal with the machine in different conditions. For instance, if you are working on a rugged land or trying to clear trees in a forest, you will experience severe hardships to operate the machine. Simultaneously, not every machine is meant to do all kinds of work and therefore you should be depending on the best, the one that has the ability to perform the task. Operating heavy equipment is certainly not like driving a car and is a far complex subject. So for beginners, getting into something this complex without someone experienced beside you can lead you into a deeper mess. It has often been witnessed that the best of the operators had a tough time dealing with situations and they take a day’s time to complete a job that perhaps take few hours to complete in a normal situation.
We would be discussing in length on how to operate a track loader that is considered to be one of the most important and effective heavy equipment in the construction sector.
Brakes are your priority:-
When you are on the tracks of a crawler loader, you must ensure that no one gets under it. Proper functioning of brakes should be the uttermost priority of an operator. Once you slip inside the cabin, the first thing you got to check is if the brakes are in order. Try to push the brakes using your feet and see if it’s getting pressed smoothly. Anything wrong with it can have very serious consequences and also has the potency to damage the machines and injure people.
Making optimum usage of joysticks:-
Joysticks are the eyes of the machine. You need to learn how to use it optimally. In order to move the machine to your right, you need to make use of the joystick that is located to the right of the driver and in order to move it to the left, pull the one that is to the left of the driver. The joystick is also used to control the boom. The drive rods also play an important role as far as the movement of the loader is concerned. The drive rod is used to operate the tread at the bottom of the machine. The drive rod is also used to increase or decrease the speed of the tread. So if you move the drive rod forward, it tend to move ahead and pulling backwards will take the tread back. In case you want to turn the machine to your right, simply hold the drive rod located to the right of the machine and move it forward without doing anything to the one on the left. This will tilt the machine to the right.
Take help of the user manual:-
Referring to the user manual is another option one can go for. The user manual contains lot many ways and process to run the machine and especially when you get stuck on something, it is advisable to refer to the book and come out of the situation.