Case Mini Excavator

I've run every single excavator brand that's ever been made, and I took on the challenge of doing a review on a Case mini excavator. And I'm going to tell you, it was my job to find a flaw in this machine. When I do an equipment review I don't want to just give you all fluff and not give me anything critical to take away from it, but I couldn't find a problem with this machine. I have literally never run a better excavator for size, weight, and power in my life. When I got into this machine, it was very intuitive. It was almost second nature. It was the way I like my controls laid out, but that isn't a critical element. You can always get used to the way a machine is laid out. The absolute most important factors are just two factors. You're pulling power on your bucket is one of them. But even more important to me than pulling power on the bucket, is track power. I would tell you that it is very easy to get yourself in trouble in an excavator. You over...

Mistakes Happen

The project that we're working on is this townhome complex behind me. We've got about 18,000 square feet of shade tolerant discovery Bermuda sod going in behind these town home units. The entire length of these buildings is about 1100ft long and this project is presented a number of problems. I want to talk specifically about utilities. All of the cable, gas, power everything runs right behind these buildings.  Tight down the center is the main gas line.  We've obviously located everything, but we have still had a number of lines get cut.  We're hand digging drainage from all of these buildings, every downspout, every air conditioning unit, all the condensate line surface basins. We're hand digging it into a series of storm basins that are already in place and we're going to be putting wraps around each of the storm basins.

The Unavoidable

This project we have had cut utilities which I would consider unavoidable.  The white wires behind me are...

I've been asked that question a few times, what’s the best brand for my company? And they are clear this caterpillar takes the cake what do you think of these guys.

Could the best brand be Terrex?

I’m going to say now would be a good time to subscribe and turn on your notifications so you’re alerted whenever a new video’s uploaded now back to your regularly scheduled program.

That's why I called the experts from two different fields to have two different opinions.

Brad is like the Einstein of repairs, if he can't fix it, nobody can. that's the one I need. Guys are looking at getting into a brand you have a recommendation?

Not specifically, I won't be stuck on any one brand, they're all the same, they all run basically what some of preferences the availability of dealership are mechanics to work on them you're trying to balance what you guys are used to with how well the shop in the area will treat you.

I would recommend staying with something where the parts...

Discovery Bermuda Sod

Let's take a couple minutes and talk about sod. In this case, we're talking about Discovery Bermuda Sod. The success of your site installation project is going to depend on a couple of things. First and foremost the prep. How you prepare the yard? How you amend the soil? Do you loosen the earth? What you do with the existing weeds? Do you spray them? Kill them? Get rid of them? Scrape them off? Secondly, though, and what we're going to talk about now, is the quality of the sod product itself. In this case, I'm using Discovery Bermuda Sod. Discovery Bermuda is an incredible shade tolerance Sod. It requires about 3 hours of sunlight a day. There are 504 square feet that come on this pallet. Pallet typically come in 504 square feet.

Fresh Sod

This Sod just arrived on our job site and there are a few things that I want to point out to you. Looking at the top and saying, "Well I see some green. I see some brown and some other colors in it." This is just now coming...

Hey guys, this is Phil with Dirt Monkey University, and we're on the last day of this project. We just finished a large string this project on this property and we're cleaning up the driveway. At the end of our jobs we want to leave these houses looking better than the way we found them.   So we're using this Dewalt3000 PSI Pressure Washer. It’s about $770-$780 brand new from a big box store. The cool thing about this pressure washer is that I've had it at least 6-7 years.

Dewalt3000 PSI Pressure Washer
In the past, we've talked about proper maintenance of small equipment. Unfortunately, I'm the first one to break this rule when it comes to these pressure washers. Guys, this gets thrown in the back of our truck at the beginning and at the end of a job. Often, the maintenance on this is an oversight. Unfortunately, bricks will fall on these pressure washers and they take a ton of abuse. We always treat them kind of as a throw away tool. Like they last a few years then we...

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Stan Genadek: What's up Dirt Monkey Maniacs? Today, we're going to talk about what everybody says you need to do, but nobody shows you how to do it. Not a lot of you know that I own a lawn care company, what you don't know is, my excavating company is completely separate from the lawn care division and what nobody knows is that I own a third company doing pure construction, decks, house additions, remodeling work and two other companies. All of my companies run themselves without me, you're going to see that today. If I can do it, you can do it. Each company is completely unique from the other companies but the systems that run them are not, they’re universal across the board. But what's even more important is, I'm going to teach you guys how to do the exact same thing. When you understand the basic principles of a system, you can tweak it and make it fit just about any company's profile. The system is the fundamental key to building a...

Whether you're seeding a brand new lawn for the very first time or you're overseeding a thinning out existing lawn, we're going to give you three rules for success using three very simple tools. It doesn't even have to be as complicated as this thing. It all starts with the base.  If your subsoil it's hard like concrete, your new lawn doesn't stand a chance. Ideally you must loosen up the top four inches, but a lot of people mistake that for thinking they need four inches of black dirt. Nothing could be further from the truth. The perfect man will have 1/3 black dirt, 1/3 sand, and 1/3 compost. Once you get the subsoil ready you can lay down your seed.

Seed Type

Rule number 2: for the best long term results, you have to pick the right seed right out of the gate. If you have a wide open sunny area, use a sunny mixture. But if you've got a shady area and you use this grass seed, it will sprout and it will germinate, but it will slowly die off. That's why you would need a shady...

Milwaukee Tools - Behind the Scenes

Stan: I'm taking you behind the scenes today for the Milwaukee tools torture test. I got a chance to go to Milwaukee Wisconsin and tour the factory, and these guys literally tortured their tools. It's something that would make a grown man, laugh, smile, and cry all at the same time but maybe not necessarily in that order. Stan: I mean they had an absolute blast proving that their tools are professional grade; doing some very unprofessional things to them. We're talking about sling shooting tape measures into retaining walls. Speaker 1: For tape measures, it's all about durability. so for this tape, it is a competitor's tape. 25 ft and 25.99 inches. Speaker 1: Pretty intense as you can see, complete destruction on the tape. As you can see, the housing broke right at the top. Speaker 1: Next James, want to show them what happens with the Milwaukee? Speaker 1: Same test. Fully functional tape, doesn't break. That is...

It's all about the lawn mowers today. We're going to talk about the best of the best and the ones to avoid like the plague with a little bit of a twist thrown in at the end. So let's get started.

Toro

A bit of a surprise today guys Toro makes it's one of the absolute best lawn mowers and one of the worst.  This Toro turf master is the absolute worst one. No matter how long I own it, I can't convince myself to like it. For a push mower, this thing is just way too heavy. It's overbuilt thus not allowing an operator to easily maneuver it. It is a commercial unit meaning it's meant to be heavy duty, but that doesn't mean it needs to be bulky and cumbersome. There is a lot of room for improvement on this machine. It's kind of like a little guy stuck in a fat suit. What?! The power that this machine generates just does not translate to the wheels and the wheels don't translate what power it does receive to the ground. Meaning the operator ends up doing all of the heavy lifting....