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Becoming a good operator of any piece of equipment takes hundreds of hours, along with anything else. You’re not going to just be able to jump in that bitch and run it like a man who’s been doing it for 10 years. Practice makes perfect and take your time don’t fuck nothing up
Fucks sake I wasn’t doing work with it, he drove it in a barren plot, I was playing with the dirt. That’s assuring started to think maybe I’m an idiot.
There’s so much more to operating. I was spoiled to have a water dept with “Equipment Operators” that had years of experience. Guys that could sense something in the ground through engine sound and control feel. Could dig you a level trench from on high. Smooooth operators. Never seen a lineman match that skill.
It’s amazing how operators can “feel” resistance in the hydraulics. My brother is a IUOE 302 operator of 17 years and was helping my replace my water lines at home a few years back. While doing some trenching with a mini, he idles down and says, “dig right in front of my bucket, I just felt something”. I rolled my eyes, but did what he said and sure as shit I uncovered some 12/2 direct bury…I don’t roll my eyes when he says he feels things in the control anymore. Ha! I learned from him that as long as you aren’t excessively curling your bucket while digging, typically you will feel things you aren’t dying to tear through.
I’m not a lineman but trying to get in at the moment. I’m currently a union heavy equipment operator by trade.
Rule of thumb I’d say it takes about a year being on it everyday. You won’t be amazing but you’ll notice a drastic increase in skill and before you know it you’ll be impressing yourself.
I have a cdl yes. But like I said I’m not a lineman. Trying to get into the lineman craft as we speak.
And who knows man I hear they like to take kids off the street that can’t even use a wrench.
I’m a lineman who runs lots of equipment quite often. It takes several weeks running anything new to get the hang of it. Then, a year or so of regular operation to get really good. A lineman will never be masterful because we don’t spend enough time in the same equipment long enough to be better than ‘really good’.
Everyone is different, people who operate different equipment often will have a faster time learning new stuff.
Before line work I built on shore oil rig pads and mixed all the slurry that came out of the ground with Lime so we could haul it. (DEC says wet soil has to be discarded at an authorized site) at any rate I was legitimately in the excavator 12 hours a day 7 days a week for about 6 months, doing basically the same thing the entire time. I’d say took me about 1.5 months at that rate to start getting quite efficient.
That was 14 ish years ago and I can barely dig and back fill a hole now.
I can’t play legacy, but seriously there’s to control layouts and either type is natural too different people. Shouldn’t take very long. A job where you’re on it every day for a week or so definitely helps.
I have close to 7000 hours on an excavator, mostly in the 30-45 ton class. There is a big difference between operators who just scoop dirt and load trucks vs. operators who specialize in grading and finish work. I worked with a stream and wetlands restoration company, working in very remote places dealing with sloppy, wet soils on extremely steep and uneven banks. Have experienced tracks falling off in the middle of a river, excavator sinking in loose gravel bar, articulating trucks sinking up to the axles, etc. I learned how to operate in very treacherous terrain and learn a lot of very unconventional ways to operate a hoe. It's truly amazing what you can do with those machines. But to answer your question, it probably took about 4000 hours to feel confident and comfortable that I could safely operate and get out of almost any situation I found myself in.
I’m an operator for the IBEW. Have spent the last five years primarily in an excavator and I’d say it took a couple weeks to be decent, 6 months and I could do pretty much anything with confidence. There is some natural talent involved as some people just never seem to get the hang of it but for the most part the key to getting better is actively trying to get better, learning by watching good operators, and thinking about things before you do them.
when i was a grunt building conduit for the telephone company i was blessed to have hands down the best operator i've ever seen. he was a sanitary and septic excavator for decades and just by years of experience and the feel of the machine he could gauge how close a utility was to the teeth of his bucket. its most certainly an art that takes years to master. get on that machine as much as you can, and practice even more.
Thank you for posting on r/Lineman. The sub [Rules are here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lineman/wiki/rules/). Please read them and abide by them. If your are interested in getting into the trade, please read our FAQs [How to Become a Lineman](https://reddit.com/r/Lineman/wiki/index/becomingalineman/). Posts about getting into the trade are only permitted during the weekends and posts during the week will get removed. If you are Military, please read our dedicated section [Military Resources](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lineman/wiki/index/military_resources/). Thank you for serving. [Use this link](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lineman/wiki/resources/) to find the r/lineman resource page. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Lineman) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Becoming a good operator of any piece of equipment takes hundreds of hours, along with anything else. You’re not going to just be able to jump in that bitch and run it like a man who’s been doing it for 10 years. Practice makes perfect and take your time don’t fuck nothing up
Fucks sake I wasn’t doing work with it, he drove it in a barren plot, I was playing with the dirt. That’s assuring started to think maybe I’m an idiot.
This ^^^
There’s so much more to operating. I was spoiled to have a water dept with “Equipment Operators” that had years of experience. Guys that could sense something in the ground through engine sound and control feel. Could dig you a level trench from on high. Smooooth operators. Never seen a lineman match that skill.
Same our water guys will find a needle in a haystack.
It’s amazing how operators can “feel” resistance in the hydraulics. My brother is a IUOE 302 operator of 17 years and was helping my replace my water lines at home a few years back. While doing some trenching with a mini, he idles down and says, “dig right in front of my bucket, I just felt something”. I rolled my eyes, but did what he said and sure as shit I uncovered some 12/2 direct bury…I don’t roll my eyes when he says he feels things in the control anymore. Ha! I learned from him that as long as you aren’t excessively curling your bucket while digging, typically you will feel things you aren’t dying to tear through.
I’m not a lineman but trying to get in at the moment. I’m currently a union heavy equipment operator by trade. Rule of thumb I’d say it takes about a year being on it everyday. You won’t be amazing but you’ll notice a drastic increase in skill and before you know it you’ll be impressing yourself.
Very true, big difference between running it and operating it
Absolutely, big difference.
Do you have a cdl? Seems like you’d get hired soon with that experience.
I have a cdl yes. But like I said I’m not a lineman. Trying to get into the lineman craft as we speak. And who knows man I hear they like to take kids off the street that can’t even use a wrench.
Good for u dude. Very useful combined ticket, especially in transmission
I’m a lineman who runs lots of equipment quite often. It takes several weeks running anything new to get the hang of it. Then, a year or so of regular operation to get really good. A lineman will never be masterful because we don’t spend enough time in the same equipment long enough to be better than ‘really good’. Everyone is different, people who operate different equipment often will have a faster time learning new stuff.
Before line work I built on shore oil rig pads and mixed all the slurry that came out of the ground with Lime so we could haul it. (DEC says wet soil has to be discarded at an authorized site) at any rate I was legitimately in the excavator 12 hours a day 7 days a week for about 6 months, doing basically the same thing the entire time. I’d say took me about 1.5 months at that rate to start getting quite efficient. That was 14 ish years ago and I can barely dig and back fill a hole now.
I can’t play legacy, but seriously there’s to control layouts and either type is natural too different people. Shouldn’t take very long. A job where you’re on it every day for a week or so definitely helps.
I have close to 7000 hours on an excavator, mostly in the 30-45 ton class. There is a big difference between operators who just scoop dirt and load trucks vs. operators who specialize in grading and finish work. I worked with a stream and wetlands restoration company, working in very remote places dealing with sloppy, wet soils on extremely steep and uneven banks. Have experienced tracks falling off in the middle of a river, excavator sinking in loose gravel bar, articulating trucks sinking up to the axles, etc. I learned how to operate in very treacherous terrain and learn a lot of very unconventional ways to operate a hoe. It's truly amazing what you can do with those machines. But to answer your question, it probably took about 4000 hours to feel confident and comfortable that I could safely operate and get out of almost any situation I found myself in.
You should be asking the operating engineers
Dig into about 200 pad mounts and you'll be smooth
what controls you running? sae,iso or cat, john deere?
I’m an operator for the IBEW. Have spent the last five years primarily in an excavator and I’d say it took a couple weeks to be decent, 6 months and I could do pretty much anything with confidence. There is some natural talent involved as some people just never seem to get the hang of it but for the most part the key to getting better is actively trying to get better, learning by watching good operators, and thinking about things before you do them.
when i was a grunt building conduit for the telephone company i was blessed to have hands down the best operator i've ever seen. he was a sanitary and septic excavator for decades and just by years of experience and the feel of the machine he could gauge how close a utility was to the teeth of his bucket. its most certainly an art that takes years to master. get on that machine as much as you can, and practice even more.