Flashback: Read about my first (Diggin it at Dig This Vegas) and second (Re-Diggin’ This) dig!

When traveling for work, I always like to add in a local experience or two to break the monotony of corporate travel. As a host and an attendee of conferences, I sometimes find myself in Las Vegas. Spending multiple days in the basement caverns of a casino gets exhausting by about day four – and I find I crave some outdoor time. However, one of the things I love most about going to conventions in Las Vegas is the opportunity to drive heavy equipment at the end of the week. Heavy equipment you say? Yes! As an added bonus, If the conference wraps up early enough in the afternoon, I can jet out to the equipment yard for the 4pm dig before catching the last flight out back home.

I remember seeing the ad for Dig This Vegas a number of years ago. For a few hundred bucks, you can spend 60 minutes in the driver’s seat of a big yellow machine. Donning the high viz vest, placing on the headset, and climbing up into the cab of one of these big machines has always been a thrill. I’ve written about the excavator and bulldozer as well as the flexible backhoe. While I haven’t blogged about every experience, I have driven just about every machine on the lot – except for one: the big wheel loader. The wheel loader is a relatively new addition to the Dig This fleet and one I wanted to experience.

The crew at Dig This is awesome.  They bring in industry experts who have been using this equipment professionally in all sorts of situations. My instructor today, Phil, was a great dude. He’s been wheel loading in construction for many years. After reviewing the basics of operating this massive piece of equipment, it was time to get to work.

Sitting in the big machine was definitely a thrill for me. The operator’s seat is an air ride seat, meaning that it’s got enough suspension to isolate the operator from the vibrations and jolts of the machine. It took me a few moments to get used to the independent suspension of the seat that wasn’t always in sync with the loader. Feeling the massive engine underneath me brought to life with a simple push of the accelerator pedal made five-year-old me giggle!

We spent the first couple of minutes learning to work the controls on the machine. Phil governed me to first year, a whopping 3 miles an hour. For a machine this size, 3 miles an hour becomes a whole lot of momentum, however. We slalomed through a set of cones so I could get a sense of how the machine operated and turned. Because the wheel loader articulates in the middle, it is surprisingly nimble for a machine of its size.

The first real task was bringing the machine into the ditch, getting a sense for the width of the wheel loader and how it operates in tight spaces. Getting the wheels too close to the sides of the ditch risks popping one of the tires, so slow and steady definitely won that race of the 3 mph turtle. After coming through the ditch, Phil had me pivot to the slope of accumulated dirt from digging the trench. While it may not look all that steep, it was fun sitting in the loader on an angle at such height!

The focus of my time in the operator’s seat was all about moving dirt. I felt more at home in the loader than other machines in the years. Despite its size, it’s a much simpler machine than the backhoe as it’s only the bucket part of that machine.

I’d lower the bucket to the ground, press the accelerator to push into the pile of dirt while simultaneously raising the bucket vertically and turning the bucket towards me mimicking the motion of scooping upwords. Driving this machine is a bit like the motorcycle where you have your leg operating the accelerator and both of your hands manipulating the bucket’s two levers all at the same time. There’s definitely a finesse aspect that experienced operators know how to work their machines.

Dumping the dirt is the opposite art. However, it’s a bit easier as all you have to do is turn the bucket facing downwards and all the dirt magically comes out, lol!

Now my coach wanted to test my finer operating skills with a tire move. It seems like every machine here at Dig This has some sort of tire exercise. The wheel loader is machine of many attachments. We swapped out the bucket for a set of forks. Obviously, the forks lift and move large pallets of material, but today they’re going to move tires from one side of the yard to the other.

Having some experience with this on other machines, the tire exercise was easy for me. Success was simply lining the forks through the middle of the tire, driving forward, tipping the forts back just to touch, and then moving from one station to the next. Phil picked up on my relative level of skill, and we had built a rapport to color a bit outside of the lines of the training exercise.

He asked me what I wanted to do in the yard, and I simply replied, “Let’s get back to moving dirt!” Part of operating these big machines is learning to do multiple things at the same time. The tire exercise was a bit more operating functions in series more so moving dirt was all about doing things in parallel. That paralelled finesse is what separates decent operators from great operators.

It amazes me how much software runs in modern vehicles. I’ve come to enjoy the 360° view inside my truck, making backing up and maneuvering in tight spaces significantly easier. I was surprised to see a similar experience inside the big wheel loader.

It turns out that the screen is a device under development by a company partnering with Dig This. Similarly, the machine’s vitals appeared on a touchscreen beside the operator’s seat. Of course, the machine had lots of traditional buttons, switches, and lights, but the technologist in me was excited to see how these kinds of machines are developing—much like their automotive counterparts.

As always, I really enjoyed my time at Dig This. I always get a couple of “That sounds interesting” or “I didn’t see that one coming from you” from the team, but it’s one of those things I love doing. Who knows, as I get older and decide to do something outside of software, I may enroll in the Academy at Dig This and build the next section of freeway!

And yes, dear backhoe, you remain the most challenging machine on the lot to master. When I go back, I’ll be coming for you!