More Range Work at SC of FC

[Alan in Vermont]

Wet weather this spring delayed our getting moving on the next phase of the range improvements at the Sportsman's Club of Franklin County.

We had a lot of settling on one of the side berms that we had started back in January. That berm needs to be 4-5 feet higher than what it had settled to. I brought in a tracked skidsteer to provide the muscle (I'm using "I" a lot because, other than a couple days of having one very marginal helper, this is a one man show) to move material. I had to cut the top of the berm level and get it wide enough so I can run a small excavator on it to shape the top. I was able to place extra material on the sides of the berm. That material will get pulled up, the sides smoothed and the top raised and shaped as I work my way along the top. It was a little "tight" working the skidsteer to smooth the path for the excavator. Not too bad going out with material to fill in the low spots but a bit tense backing off when I couldn't see if I was creeping off to one side or the other.

We are hosting a regional qualifier for the 3-D archery folks later this month and part of the range work is a 200 x 30 foot parking area which will be used by those attending that event. Unless we see a bunch of drying weather for the next two weeks there will be no parking on the grass so getting the graveled lot done was a high priority. I didn't get any pics of the work on the lot but the skidsteer got plenty of use grading the sand fill, then an 8" course of 2½" plant mix and a thin top course of 5/8" plant mix, probably 150 tons in all. There will be a couple more inches laid on top as a final step but that will wait until everything else is done and there will be no more construction traffic to mess it up.

[Alan in Vermont]

There was a lot of material that we dug out from where the parking lot is. That was done last October. In January we placed the sand fill for the lot after we pulled out 6-8" of ice, formed when the dug out area ponded water and was unable to drain. Last Tuesday, 6/3, I was moving some of the material and came up with a chunk of ice maybe 2x3' and 6" thick. Geeze, this is freakin' JUNE!

The ground under that pile was too soggy to move on with the skidsteer. That afternoon we had a brief, extreme, downpour which sogged up the whole site. We were able to get stone on the parking lot but could not work on moving the fill until Friday, after it had dried some.

I had to quit Friday after another showeradded just enough water to the soil to make it start pumping again. I left it sit yesterday and was able to finsih it up today, the loader goes back tomorrow. The dark, rough looking area to the right of the parking lot is where the fill had been piled. I got most of it moved but there were places it was too wet to even be able to backdrag it to smooth it up.

Now it gets to set for a while until someone has an excavator available to finish the berms.

[fastfire]

Looking good before long you'll have a new place to shoot!

I do the range work for our club, seeing the skid steer reminds me of using one to set the cement shooting bench tops on the cinderblocks. I've ran a tractor w-loader since I was old enough to. The loader controls are hand operated on the tractor but foot operated on the skid steer. I had to stop and really concentrate when setting the bench tops on (foot operated loader).

[NewbieDave007]

Nice work Alan!

[Alan in Vermont]

The loader controls are hand operated on the tractor but foot operated on the skid steer. I had to stop and really concentrate when setting the bench tops on (foot operated loader).

The smartest thing that has been done in a long time in the equipment field is that they have adopted a more-or-less universal control function for skidsteers, loaders and some dozers. I think it is called "Pilot controls" and uses two joysticks. The left one controls forward & reverse and steering functions. The right one has lift and lower, bucklet curl & dump(in the case of a loader) or blade raise/lower and right/left angle on a dozer. It is universal between brands so whatever machine you get into the controls operate the same.

I have never liked foot controls on a skidsteer, hopefully I will never have to deal with those club-footed things again.

Even the old backhoes, with four valves for the digging functions(three if no extendahoe) and swing pedals were not as clubby as foot controlled skidswears(the machine skids and the operator swears).