Digging for Profit (1969)

Dollar-wise, I think the 310 gives us more for our money than any machine that I have used. >> We found out that the John Deere machines were far more economical to operate than any of the other type of machines we had. >> We found that we have better production with JD straight couple transmissions rather than having the torque converter that some of the others have. about the John Deere uh their rental purchase plan. It it gives a guy a chance, you know, to get set up in business for himself. >> This machine here has tremendous digging, pushing, back filling, loading. It's got tremendous hydraulic power. >> The big feature which I like about the 300 is the compactness and movability of the machine. >> This 410 is one of undoubtedly one of the best machines that we've ever had. we get at the end of the year with figures that will show that the equipment work more hours and cost us less to repair. Therefore, showing us what we are mostly interested in profit at the end of the year. When a man buys a machine, takes delivery, and puts it to work, he can become the best salesman for that piece of equipment, depending on how he feels about the machine's performance. But performance is more than just a machine on a job. It's also the dealer and the services he provides. For 3 months in the peak of the construction season, John Deere visited jobs across the United States and in Canada where its backhole loaders are working. From individual owners to fleet operators to city managers to presidents of large construction companies, men who have purchased and are using John Deere equipment voice their opinions about it. As you can see, we are doing the excavation here for New England Telephone Company on their underground system and conduit. Uh we have uh many times uh not been able to get down at depth. Uh until we got to 410, uh we go down the area of 14 15 ft with no strain whatsoever. We run into water conditions, stone, ledge, and this piece of equipment handles the first straight for us. It is uh more than efficient because we run around 800 to,000 ft a day. We have to excavate and then back fill our ditch in that one day. Another real good point of the John Deere is this activity of the hole and we come up to a water line and obstruction. We have uh eight John Deere back holes. This 410 is one of undoubtedly one of the best machines that we've ever had. We started this site 3 days ago. This here is a continuation of a pipeline which we're trying to locate. That's what this 500C is here for because it has the depth and it's what they needed. I find it one thing about the machine that it has a lot of safety features to it. The feature allgether different than the other machines. The other machines have a foot control and on the foot control got men in the ditch with the slack in the boom or the bucket or anything. Any little slack to me can hurt any man in a ditch. This here with the two handles, you got your hands on the controls. You get more feeling. It's easier to handle. And you control everything, not by foot, but by hand. To me, it's about the best machine I've run so far. We're here at North Pleasant Street with the JD uh 500C uh excavating and grading for a uh sidewalk uh that the town of Ammerst is constructing here. In addition, uh throughout the course of the construction season, uh we'll be installing sewer and drainage uh systems of various depths throughout the community and also water manes which uh will be installed at depths anywhere from 4 1/2 to 15 ft. We did uh in our demonstrations prior to purchasing uh the present machine uh evaluate several competitive machines and we felt uh this machine would suit our needs probably uh better than the competitive machines. Uh we did cons take into consideration price also. We found that the John Deere price-wise was down near the rock bottom and uh we did make the final decision of purchased the 500C. As you can see here, we have uh a fairly difficult site that we're putting the swimming pool in. Uh it's a site that is accessible just from one side. Uh which uh of course makes the 510 very desirable because of its long reach. It's going to be possible for us to work the swimming pool, which is a 16x32 area pretty much from one end. We have here roughly an 18-in layer of uh quartz rock on top of what appears to be a dirty shale. Uh it's going to be quite a problem to remove the top 18 in of quartz. And uh in my opinion, the uh extra breakout force that uh is available in a 510 should handle it fairly nicely. I like the yard and a half bucket on the front of the 510. Uh it's a true working yard and a half because we have loaded up our 10-wheeler 16 trucks with this bucket and it's uh uh it's stable. It isn't a machine that is all over the place uh when the bucket is empty. Uh it controls easily and with it it's very possible to load up a truck efficiently. I've been a John Deere owner of equipment now for 12 years. I've always had good luck with John Deere. The service part of the John Deere establishment is very very good. Pots are very quickly available. Heritage Village is a senior citizens condominium which started approximately four years ago which will take two more years to completion. We find the JD 500C is a very efficient machine for this job due to the fact that we have close quarters. We work very close to buildings and we do not have a big spread out area for large machines. We have used a JD 500C exclusively for power company work, pipe laying, sewer, water, and all underground utilities. We find that the John Deere 500C is very, very low on maintenance and economically it is a very very good machine to have and to run. Yeah. Most of our work is done in city streets. We have to dig holes in the roads approximately 2x4 ft up to a depth of 6 or 7 ft to reach our gas lines. As you probably know, the island of Montreal is all built on rock and this creates very hard conditions. Also in the winter, the frost goes down to far below where our gas lines are located. This means that the equipment we're using has to be very tough. Uh this is one of the reasons why we chose the John Deere. We have bought in 1967 uh two John Deere machines and after we had them in operation for a while I did a comprehensive study on the cost of those machines and after comparing them with other type of machines we found out that they were far cheaper to operate and also that they give us the minimum of downtime. Our company has been existing since 1919. We're in the general construction field. Just as much building construction as public services such as water lines, sewer lines, sidewalk construction, underground conduits, gas lines into municipalities for distribution of gas. We've we've been using the John Deere back holes since they've been on the market. Lately, we purchased four brand new JD 5110's for specific reasons. Particular reasons such as the cost of the equipment, the cost of labor for repairing it, service of the parts. Also, we bought the 510 for its efficiency declared by the operators and they've been declaring that sturdiness of the equipment. The hydraulic system disposed into the boom themselves instead of being outside brings them more chance of no breakage in the hydraulic system. They have a great advantage also on the main hydraulic pump which is going on demand. It's not running 10 hours a day. It's running only when the machine is working. We're out in Tilly Park, Illinois. We're putting in a septic system for a factory going in here. This job was started at 8:00 and it's 9:00 now and we have done approximately 35 ft of trenching where the cast iron comes out of the building going to the septic tanks plug plus we dug two holes 8t long 6t deep in a course of about 40 minutes. An operation like this which uh would be probably total digging I'd say around 900 ft should be completed today. I went to deer about oh 10 years ago and by trying a deer uh I found out that it's compact from the standpoint that it get in small areas. It's fast digging. We don't need a lot of room for back filling. This machine will do everything that we want it to do. Well, here in Marshall Town, we are placing uh 12 MCD, multiple concrete conduit for the telephone company, and we have about uh 3,800 ft of it along Highway 14. We have been using uh three John Deere holes. One feature I partic particularly like about the 310 is the deck and the seat arrangement. Gives a greater visibility for the operator in an hour work. They're very important because it's usually close to hot cables or water pipe or something. Dollar-wise, I think it's most money of any that I've used. City of Lafayette uses its JD310 for quite a number of municipal functions such as water line repair and this includes the digging of the repair, the back filling with the loader. We've even laid pipe with it. We also use it for sewer line repairs. We like the way it was built, way it was constructed underneath and its weight compared with the other machines we looked at. We did not purchase this purchase this machine on a competitive bid basis, but rather we negotiated for the purchase price, which we feel was definitely to our advantage over the long haul. We're about 40 mi northeast of Denver, Colorado between Hudson and Kingsburg. Laying a trunk cable, 50 pair T1 carrier. Carry about a thousand conversations when we're through with it. Getting ready to lay a pipe in here across the canal. We purchased a John Deere 300 back hose because of low maintenance costs and the quick and easy versatility to train them in with the two control levers. Last year on one job in eastern Colorado, we put in a mill and a/4 foot of cable in less than 8 days with seven of these John Deere on the job. We laid roughly around 2,000 miles of cable the state of Colorado last year. And on this uh last year, our cost per foot of placing cable run approximately 6 and 1/4 cents per foot to place it. John Deere helps us cut our costs on our job and keep them there. This particular job we're doing is for the tribal council of the Middlebury Pache Indian Reservation. And we have a 5ft mud bucket on that is specially designed and made for cleaning moss and silt from the bottom of the canal. We do quite a bit of installation of water lines and sewer lines. And normally if we have pretty fair digging, we get around 130 ft per hour with a twoft bucket and about a 5ft trench. We do a lot of front end motor work in sand and gravel. And we found that we've had better luck with the JD straight couple transmissions rather than the torque converter that some of the others have. We'd had John Deere in the past and it seemed that we'd gotten better production and had better service out of them than we had as some of the other mates. We are doing a job for the North Table Mountain Water and Sanitation District in Golden, Colorado. Uh this consists of a sewer collection system to serve this area in entirety. Uh we chose to purchase a 510 John Deere backhoe uh for this job and other numerous jobs we have going in the Denver metropolitan area. Uh we felt this machine was a very durable built machine. The availability was good. durability is tremendous up to this time. Uh our dealer has given us very good service here in the Denver area. Our production uh with this machine has been very good. Uh on waterline installations in normal digging conditions, we excavate from 250 to 300 ft a day, 8t deep. Our soils in this area are rocky and sometimes extremely hard to excavate. We find this machine doing the job very well for us. Satisfied customers tell the story. John Deere's back hole loaders are digging for profit wherever they've been put to work. And under just about any job condition you'd care to name. The reasons their owners and operators are satisfied are as many and varied as their jobs. But they all add up to a simple fact. It takes a good piece of equipment with good engineering and service behind it to make a good profit. cheaper to operate than any other machine. A >> very versatile machine or additional depth. >> Excavate around 800 ft a day. It has a better uh loading ability. The operator's happy. Pots have always been available. >> Reach is a little bit farther. >> Produced a little more squid machine.