California Stone Slingers

Is Revolutionizing the Way Contractors Backfill and Spread Construction Materials Out on the Jobsite throughout the Golden State

By Brian Hoover, Senior Editor

California Stone Slinger’s AT7 Stone Slinger with the RL26HD reloader pictured in their Fresno yard.

David Cruce has been surrounded by all things heavy civil construction for most of his life. His father owned and operated a grading and paving company, and David has spent nearly 30 years in heavy highway construction. Before venturing out on his own, Cruce spent the previous seven years working as an area construction manager for Papich Construction. Cruce formed Heavy Road & Rail, Inc. in 2016 as a general engineering construction fi rm that specializes in Caltrans emergency work. The company is also heavily involved in site civil construction to include grading, paving, and concrete construction. But this story is not about Heavy Road & Rail; this is about Cruce’s newest exciting endeavor, California Stone Slingers, that is revolutionizing the way contractors backfill and place all sorts of materials on job sites throughout California.

California Stone Slinger’s AT7 on a Flatiron/Skanska/Stacy Witbeck joint venture on the I-15 North Coast Corridor project where they were contracted to backfill with drainage filter material.

California Stone Slingers was added as a dba to Heavy Road & Rail, Inc. in 2019. They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and that is precisely how Cruce stumbled across this innovative material handling technology. “During my time at Papich, we had a Caltrans emergency job where we were taking down, stacking and pulverizing hazard trees. We were initially asked to haul the chips so far off-site that transporting one truckload would take an entire day. A fire had torn through this area the year before, so I approached Caltrans and the U.S. Forest Service and suggested that we could perhaps use the chips from the trees as erosion control in the burn areas,” says Cruce. “They loved the idea with Caltrans benefitting from the cost savings and the U.S. Forest Service, gaining the sustainable advantage of recycling their existing materials.”

Cruce was now faced with procuring the most proficient method of spreading these wood chips. “I found this piece of equipment called the AT7 Stone Slinger, a remote control, four-wheel-drive all-terrain slinger. It was the perfect machine, but I could not find a unit anywhere to rent, so we ended up using slower, more costly blower trucks,” says Cruce. “Now fast forward a few years into the Spring of 2019 when I won a bid on a job to remove a grass football field so they could install synthetic turf. We were tasked with installing a perforated drain throughout the field that required a five-inch layer of backfill. Once again, I thought of the AT7 Stone Slinger as the perfect backfilling machine for this application but could not find a rental. This is about the time that I decided to purchase the AT7, creating a new business model.”

Dump truck filling the RL26HD reloader on Flatiron/Skanska/Stacy Witbeck joint venture on the I-15.

During this time, Cruce’s daughter, Morgan, had been working for a large construction firm as a project engineer and she was ready for a change. Cruce broached the subject of purchasing the AT7 Stone Slinger and having his daughter run with it. The two agreed on a plan, and Cruce decided to expand his heavy civil engineering company into the operated equipment rental business. California Stone Slingers was born and began taking on projects large and small throughout the state. “The initial projects included a job out at Lake Isabella for the joint venture Flatiron/ Dragados/Sukut, where we were contracted to backfill with drainage filter material. We went from there to the North Coast Corridor project for Griffith, where we backfilled the highway median with soil and are now going back to place around 5,000 tons of rock and gravel, and then mulch,” says Cruce. “Additionally, we worked for the Flatiron/Skanska/Stacy Witbeck joint venture on the I-15 North Coast Corridor, where we placed base material under the drainage and then performed the backfill for the same structure.”

John Deere loader filling the RL26HD reloader with compost for a project along Highway 99 in Madera at the Avenue 17 exit.

Not every job is for large contractors or joint ventures, California Stone Slingers has also been on smaller projects for big box stores like Costco. They recently completed backfill operations for new gas tank fuel stations for the La Mesa Costco. The company has also completed work for Papich Construction, where they were contracted to backfill irrigation tank installations for a new California theme park. Then there are the many compost spreading jobs that California Stone Slingers has been on, in addition to a long list of smaller tasks and applications. “Since starting the company, my daughter gave birth to her second son and decided to stay home and be there for her children. I think she will eventually be back to continue what we started,” says Cruce. “We currently own one machine and can sling any material up to 3 inches in diameter. We have worked with rock, sand, soil, compost, wood chips and decomposed granite.

These machines are everywhere up in the Pacific Northwest performing just about any backfill or spreading job you can imagine. We are the company that is now exposing California to this available machinery and technology. It is all about education right now, and I can see having five to eight of these units in our fleet very soon.”

Above & Below: California Stone Slinger’s AT7 Stone Slinger with the RL26HD reloader on a unique project loading shipping containers with aggregates for Graniterock who is shipping them to several Pacific islands for use on construction projects.

Cruce points to the significant benefits of having the AT7 Stone Slinger out on a job site. “The time, labor, and cost savings as compared to conventional methods are what drives the demand for our new venture. Let’s just take spreading mulch as an example. You would need a skid steer with multiple piles and four or five laborers spreading with shovels. You might get 100 yards a day in if you are efficient,” continues Cruce. “Our AT7 Stone Slinger can process more than 800 yards in one day without any laborers. The operations are all done through remote control, so you remain at a safe distance throughout the entire process.” Cruce also points to the commercial landscaping companies and the benefits they will see from a company like California Stone Slingers. “A typical commercial landscaping company will use a skid steer and several laborers to backfill hundreds of islands with soil, compost, or top dressing on a parking lot paving project,” explains Cruce. “We can go in and spread the soil while they follow with the plants and then circle back around with the mulch or top dressing in a fraction of the time. All of this saves time, labor, fuel costs, and this allows the landscape firm to service more projects each year.”

California Stone Slingers also owns and utilizes a RL26HD reloader that can handle four-plus tons of material in the hopper that continually feeds the AT7 Stone Slinger. A skid steer or wheel loader can be used to load the hopper, which can be done by the contractor or California Stone Slingers can provide the equipment and labor. Additionally, the contractor can source their materials or take advantage of the buying power and relationships that Cruce has established for many years and have the entire operation be turnkey. “It all comes down to providing a service that allows a contractor to focus their equipment and labor on other tasks while we take care of the backfilling and spreading duties,” continue Cruce. “I would say that the only caveat would be that the job should have 100 yards of material or more to be cost-effective.”

California Stone Slingers works for heavy highway and road building contractors, landscaping firms, bridge contractors, underground utility contractors, shoring companies, as well as masonry and concrete companies that are constructing everything from foundations to retaining walls. “We are currently putting rock down in eight-foot swaths and 3 inches thick on a highway median. Because of access, we will most likely only get around 400 tons done that day, but when we are backfilling for gas station fuel tanks, we can put in 1,400 tons in one day,” says Cruce. “We can throw 3 tons of rock per minute and out to around 140 to 150 feet. There is just not another option that can compete with this type of production. Our competition uses another method, and they charge an hourly fee plus a per ton fee. California Stone Slingers charges a reasonable flat daily rate with the highest production available on the market.”

California Stone Slingers is currently on another exciting job right now for Graniterock at their A.R. Wilson Quarry in Aromas. “This is a unique project where we are loading shipping containers with aggregates that Graniterock is shipping to several Pacific islands for use on construction projects. Materials like rock and sand are scarce on these islands, and this unique system is making these materials available in a manageable fashion,” continues Cruce. “In a time when labor is at a premium, and good workers are hard to find, the California Stone Slingers solution is simply a win/win for everyone involved. We are swamped right now with our main company Heavy Road & Rail, Inc., working at three separate Amazon locations performing site development work. We use California Stone Slingers on our jobs and will need to start adding more units to handle the upcoming demand for contractors throughout California. I am very bullish on our future for both companies, and I look forward to our exciting growth and expansion.”

For more information on California Stone Slingers, please visit their informative website at www.castoneslingers.com or call their Fresno headquarters at (559) 400-0222 for a quote or more information. Cc