There are many different types of heavy equipment and for machine, there are a variety of manufacturers, models, shapes, sizes and attachments. It is not feasible to learn how to operate every different type of machinery. You can however fain an understanding of the basics of many of them.

At ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools, we provide training for a variety of different heavy equipment machines. This machinery includes:

• Loaders,
• Backhoes,
• Tractors,
• Scrappers,
• Rollers,
• Bulldozers,
• Excavators, and
• Motor Graders.

Training also includes safety aspects, soil types and some advanced operational techniques. Gaining a basic understanding of how to operate a range of heavy equipment places you in a position to specialize in one that you are comfortable with.

Large scale building constructions sites are a hive of activity. Heavy equipment is more pronounced on these sites than any other building site.

From bare ground, bulldozers go to work and strip it back, clearly all vegetation and loose material. If the ground is soft enough, the bulldozer together with a front end loader will continue to cut away at the surface digging deeper and deeper.

Once the hole is deep enough, cranes go to work lowering construction materials into place. Cranes are often used to lower either completed concrete slabs or huge buckets of ready mix concrete ready for pouring. Steel girders and beams are also lowered.

Pylon drivers may be used to drive pylons into the ground as part of the buildings shell. Cranes continue to work lowering materials as required. Some cranes are able to lift themselves floor by floor as the new building rises from the ground. Once the building has been completed, the cranes are often dis-assembled and brought back to the ground.

Large high rise buildings would not exist if it wasn’t for heavy equipment. If a career as a heavy equipment operator on a construction site appeals to you, check out ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools for a course that may suit you.

As a heavy equipment operator, one of your daily tasks is the maintenance and upkeep of your machine. There is a lot an operator can do each day then ensure their equipment is always ready for action. Daily maintenance also helps to prevent any long term breakdowns that require large dollars to repair.

One important resource that all operators should have is a maintenance handbook and log. The handbook describes the various maintenance tasks that should be performed. The log is a written record of maintenance has been carried and by whom. Obviously the type of heavy equipment you operate will determine what type of maintenance is required.

There are fairly obvious heavy equipment maintenance inspections that should be carried each day. These include checking tires or tracks for wear and tear, checking for any fluid leaks such as oil and hydraulic lines, checking buckets and other attachments for any broken components, particularly teeth on units that have them, and checking electricals such as lights, indicators and horns or sirens.

Other regular maintenance activities may including changing engine oil, topping up brake or hydraulic fluids and changing tires. Simple activities like keeping your heavy equipment relatively clean also plays an important role in the ongoing well being of your equipment.

Learning to operate a piece of heavy equipment does not end with learning the controls. Basic maintenance should also be a part of your ongoing training, first off the job and later on the job. If you ever get into a position where you own your own unit, you quickly come to understand the benefits of regular maintenance and the amount of money it can save you over the long term.

ATS heavy Equipment Training Schools provides a comprehensive training program for all major pieces of heavy equipment.

Construction is one of the largest service industries in the United States. The opportunities in this field for properly trained and ambitious individuals is virtually endless particularly in the area of skilled heavy equipment operators.

However, when a single tire on a piece of heavy equipment costs $50,000 and the machine itself around the million dollar mark, who do you want sitting behind the controls? You have a choice, a complete novice who is going to learn ‘on-the-job’, or someone who has had all the basic training and knows the stop lever from the go, the up from the down and the various safety requirements when operating the equipment.

We spend billions of dollars every year repairing roads, clearing land and preparing construction sites. These tasks are not left to amateurs. Heavy equipment operators that are skilled and competent are able to start and finish a job on time and generally under budget. Not only that, the job is DONE. It doesn’t need more money to do the job again.

As a heavy equipment operator, you bear a heavy responsibility. You it your job to ensure that this work is carried effectively and efficiently so that deadlines and budgets are met. It is the skills you have acquired that help you to achieve this – skills that should be acquired through accredited training at an accredited heavy equipment training school.

We all live in a lucky country. We tend to take our roads for granted, along with water supplies, sewerage, gas and electricity. We look at new building estates, the land cleared and ready to build on. With out our heavy equipment operators we would have very little of this. It would all have to be done by hand or using horse drawn vehicles. The heavy equipment industry provides a career on which the nation is built – who would you trust with this task? Someone trained and qualified to do the job – or someone who thinks they can drive ‘anything’?

Heavy Equipment operators need to develop a range of skills before they are considered competent to operate vehicles and equipment for construction or engineering. Training for these jobs often begins at a heavy equipment training school where they start with the basic maintenance and repair of their equipment before operating machinery or vehicles.

Training will also include safety aspects before moving on to the actual operation of heavy equipment. Once you have completed your training it is time to move into the workplace. Here your education will ramp up a few degrees as you start to understand how terrain, geography, weather and the conditions of the construction site surface affects your equipment.

This knowledge helps in the future when you will be required to prepare a site before beginning work. Dirt isn’t dirt. Every piece of ground you work on will be slightly different to any other. Understanding the soil quality and its composition, how much sand, clay or other materials and the grade of the sand, gravel or rock of a particular area can be of particular importance

Most construction sites require excavation as part of the preparation of the site. This generally requires more than one vehicle so operators with more than one specialty are in great demand. Being able to operate a bulldozer, backhoe and frontend loader, for example, could mean your skills are in greater demand.

Acquiring these skills is not difficult. Attending a heavy equipment training school such as ATS can get your career started. Gaining as much experience on the job in a variety of terrains on a variety of heavy equipment is just as important. You just need to acquire those foundation skills first.

The term ‘formal training’ can be applied to a lot of situations. Is on the job training formal training? Some would argue, yes! However, formal training is generally accepted as being the type of training that is accredited and that follows a defined path – if you like, it has a start, assessment points along the way and a conclusion.

Do you need this formal training to operate heavy equipment? The answer could often be no. However, when you receive on-the-job training your training is only as good as the operator who is training you. If they have poor habits then they are likely to be passed on to your.

More importantly, on-the-job training really only teaches you how to push buttons, use levers and turn a key. You don’t always learn important aspects such as safety or basic maintenance. These are important areas, particularly when working in tricky or unusual situations.

If an accident occurs and you haven’t had proper training, there may be serious ramifications. Undertaking provides a peace of mind in the knowledge that you have the complete range of skills required to operate a unit of heavy equipment safely and competently.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools prides itself on the provision of accredited training that includes safety and basic aspects of machine maintenance. You also learn how to push buttons, work levers and how to operate that piece of heavy equipment to get a job done properly.

ATS will soon celebrate its 50th birthday – that is 50 years of dedicated service to training. ATS has grown to 10 locations nationwide and further expansion is planned in the future.

Our service doesn’t just stop at training. We also provide employment assistance and with 10 locations, there are plenty of employers to choose from when it comes to time to get your career of the ground. Our lifetime job placement service is recognized by employers due to the skill levels of those we train.

The training that ATS provides is accredited through the National Center of Construction and Research Education (NCCER) which is a not-for-profit education foundation. Our training has stood the test of time and continues to improve and maintain current industry standards.

What is the ATS advantage? We provide quality, accredited and industry endorsed training in the heavy equipment field. Our aim is to help you get started in your chosen career.

Building a simple farm dam sound like an easy task. Dig a hole. Make sure the walls are secure and at the right angle to channel run off into the dam proper. Easy. Perhaps not, especially if I give you a shovel and pick and tell you to dig it by hand. Time for the heavy equipment.

One piece of heavy equipment may not be enough. A bulldozer can do a lot of the muscle work. You may also need an excavator if the ground is rocky or packed solid. A front end loader can make short work of lifting the excess material out,

Whilst all this is happening, you need to be referencing plans to ensure the dam is built correctly, and safely. Building a dam is not an easy task. It takes a lot of muscle, muscle that only heavy equipment can provide, along with a lot skill in how to use that heavy equipment to get the job done.

Today’s farms no longer rely on just a simple tractor. In fact some tractors have all the attachments to make them into smaller versions of much of the heavy equipment used in construction. Tractors don’t quite have that real muscle power of a bulldozer or motor grader. In the hands of an expert, a dam can be constructed in a matter of days. Do it by hand and your looking at months with blisters to match.

Training is one of key components to using heavy equipment effectively when building a dam. Knowing how to operate a bulldozer or an front end loader means the job can be done quickly and effectively with little hassle.

There are many training establishments around that offer training for heavy equipment. You can also learn to operate the machinery on the job. Some of this training is accredited, some isn’t. How important is this accreditation?

It doesn’t matter what sort of training you undertake, whether it is heavy equipment, car driving or any other skill. Accredited training is training that has been assessed as meeting an agreed set of standards. For heavy equipment, training is not limited to how you operate a piece of machinery. Training also includes important areas such as safety, basic maintenance including safety checks to identify problems before they cause problems and associated skills.

For heavy equipment, some of the associated skills include dealing with different types of materials, for example, dirt behaves differently to sand or gravel. In fact, different grades of material will react differently to the machine working on it. Training could also involve working with slopes and working around other objects, obstacles and services such as water and electricity.

Accredited training allows for an agreed standard of training, training resources and the personnel delivering the training. If you seek out accredited training you know you will receive training that at least meets the minimum standards.

ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools delivers accredited training to strict standards laid down by The National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER). You can be assured your training meets or exceeds these standards.

Timber piles have been the most widely used pile foundations in history with known structures being supported by timber piles dating back thousands of years. However, with the development of steel and concrete piles, the use of timber piles has steadily declined as they are generally considered to be less versatile. Heavy equipment mechanized pile drivers have also required a rethink as timber can split under pressure.

Over the years engineering codes have been written to limit the use of timber piles. This has primarily been done due to the belief that timber piles are not as consistent in strength as the steel or concrete pile alternatives.

Timber piles are still used today, however pile drivers need to be more precise in the way they drive these timber piles into the ground. Heavy equipment can, at times, be just too heavy for this kind of work.

Pile drivers themselves have a long history starting with huge mechanical devices that relied on human or horse power to raise the hammer before it was released to drive the piles. These days, heavy equipment in the form of motorized pile drivers do the job in far less time using far less in the way of resources.

For a career in this age old profession, check ATS Heavy Equipment Training Schools for a start in the heavy equipment industry.