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Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:32 pm
by mikeadelic
This might come across a tad strange & to some a little worrying (health & safety) but there is a reason for this.
I am in the process of turning my garden into a driveway, I have decided to take this task on myself (apart from the tarmacing!!) any way I have hired a 3 tonne machine to remove all spoil & level with a gradient, the last time I played with a machine was some 10 years ago so I have been practising much to my neighbours fun, my 11 year old daughter has been watching out the window like a person possessed & constantly asking to have a play. I have up till today said no but I let her have ago today, well after about 1 hour she was levelling out the ground & mastered/understood all the levers. I believe this is due to the computer console age where the kids use the joysticks & these become part of them.
Any thoughts apart from using child labour!!
Mike
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 6:38 pm
by dig dug dan
there are so many rules and regulations affecting us professionals, that just don't apply to the lay man.
for example, i cannot legally use a chainsaw without a competance certificate, yet you could walk into a hire shop and hire one with no problem.
I can't buy a top handled chainsaw without thhis certificate either.
Personally, its every childs dream to have a go on a machine like this, and providing she wears the seatbelt, and you carefully supervise, then i don't see it as a problem.
Check your hire agreement first though. they may have a clause about an age limit or something
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:20 pm
by DeckmanAdam
I definatly can see where you are coming from letting her have a go as i would of probably done the same( i have young spectators sometimes when im working and enjoy explaining what im doing etc).
However i think some people would have a different view and health and safety wise not sure really? If she caused some sort of accident to person or damage?
I think consoles and technology would also help or maybe shes born a natural. 
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:19 pm
by Stuarty
Ive grown up on farms, driving tractors and the likes from a very early age. As Dan says, the layman can get away with much more than the professionals can.
Just gotta know where your services run, and where you stand :p
And most hire companies have an age limit related clause. One of my local hire shops have a clause where nobody under the age of 25 can operate anything with an engine - whether it be a stihl saw, digger or even a wacker.
Ofcourse i dont operate any of their kit seeing as im not 25 yet 
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 8:41 pm
by Dave_L
I can't wait for my son to jump in a digger and start pulling on those levers!
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:11 pm
by James.Q
my 3 year old my 7 and 14 all had a go at my 1.5 jcb under daddys strict instructions amazing how good they were compared to brainless young lads on site. sorry to say sold digger kids want it back; there all two years older now and still remember. HnS assume age but good instruction matters more not age:
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:25 pm
by Stuarty
We aint all brainless ta
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:22 pm
by James.Q
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:08 pm
by J.D
Me and the Lovely newer model misses have 5 boys between us aged from 12 to 5 . They are all mad to come to work with dad. I find on at saturday morning the eldest two under the right supervision and given the right jobs , are more use than a 16/17 year old lad that has just found out lager and what to do with that thing in his pants!
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:38 pm
by eazybarra man
JD, your kids would love an eazybarra, they could move flags all day for you,and it would save you lifting them
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:15 pm
by Stuarty
any chance to get a pitch in eh ? lol
Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:29 pm
by lutonlagerlout
my old fella used to take me and my brother in saturdays from the age of 5 and 6
he would crane a pack of bricks on the scaffold and we would load out 2 at a time
end of the day he hit the horse chesnut tree with a pack of bricks and told us to fill our pockets with *free* conkers
we were absolutely made up with 100 conkers each 
elfin safety would slaughter him nowdays
LLL
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:57 am
by matt h
Remember that post some time back about a three year old in a digger... Proved a point close supervision is the key, and as far as i am concerned in a safe environment kids should be allowed to have a go. We did and we aint turned out so bad... well... most of us:D Kids can even have a go at driving cars at one of our local military bases when they have open days, so why not plant?
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:16 pm
by Tony McC
The eejit son and heir has been driving mini-diggers from age 2½, was driving a DeMag crane and an O&K RH4 at age 6, and a JCB Sitemaster at 8.
He's 21 now and you'd need an X-Ray to find any work in him. He's the laziest little fecker this side of the river Ribble!
Somewhere in this tip of a study, I have a pic of him driving a mini-digger on his 3rd birthday (he thought I'd bought the digger just for him!!) but I can't find it just at the moment. Here he is, age 8 driving the Bomag AD90 on one of our road schemes. Happy days, when he used to listen to what i had to say, and you could get him out of bed before lunchtime!
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 7:14 pm
by flowjoe
"By the time a man realises that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong." Charles Wadworth 
