My old foreman swore by the 'feel' of a backhoe bucket, but I'm all about the grade control screen now.

He'd have me eyeball everything, saying the seat of your pants was the best tech. After a job in Tacoma last year where we had to redo 200 feet of trench, I got a system with a 2D display. Do you think the old hands are right, or is sticking with the screen the only way to stay accurate these days?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbara429d ago

Ever have one of those days where the screen glitches in the rain? I kept my old foreman's advice in my back pocket for just that. Last spring, my display went fuzzy right as I was finishing a foundation pad. I had to shut it off and finish by feel, matching the bucket angle to the string line. The screen is my main tool now, for sure, but that gut feeling saved me a lot of time that day. It's good to know both.

elliot_craig3329d ago

I get what you mean about gut feeling, but I lean hard on the tech. My screen going down means I'm just done for the day, because I can't trust my feel to be that exact. The old ways can leave too much room for error on a tight job.

jamie_garcia2522d ago

Honestly, the screen going fuzzy in the rain is the universe telling you to take a break. Tbh, my gut feeling is usually just hunger, so I'd probably mess up the whole pad trying to match a string line. I get the back pocket advice thing, but my luck, I'd forget the old way the second the tech died. Ngl, I'd just sit in the cab and wait for the display to come back, error or not. Sometimes the old ways are just a fancy way to say you're working for free while troubleshooting.