Grading and Excavation Contractor November/December 2015

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Table of Contents

VOL. 17 / ISSUE 7 / NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015

FEATURES

EDITOR Arturo Santiago: asantiago@forester.net GROUP EDITOR John Trotti: jtrotti@forester.net PRODUCTION EDITOR Kelsey Gripenstraw MANAGING PRODUCTION EDITOR Brianna Duncan IT/ONLINE SUPPORT Steven Grimaud WEB EDITOR David Rachford WEBMASTER Nadia English: nenglish@forester.net DIRECTOR OF ONLINE MEDIA & IT John Richardson PUBLISHER Mark Gersten BRAND MANAGERS Shane Stevens, Glenys Archer, Suzy Shidlovsky, Laine Wilkinson, Campbell Baker

8 8 COMPACT MACHINES TAKE ON THE BIG JOBS

By Sean Daly 19 FINANCING FOR GROWTH The scoop on financing equipment

By Daniel C. Brown

28 HYDRAULICS: POWERFUL, POPULAR, PRODUCTIVE Tracing its roots, tracking its future, and monitoring its efficiency

By Lori Lovely

COVER 36 OPERATIONAL STORY TRANSPARENCY: UTILITY DETECTION SYSTEMS

By Daniel P. Duffy

SENIOR BRAND MANAGERS Geoff Solo, Eileen Duarte SALES & MARKETING COORDINATOR Carmody Cutter DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING SALES Adam Schaffer: aschaffer@forester.net GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Deja Hsu, Tyler Adair PRODUCTION TECHNICIAN David Naj PRODUCTION MANAGER Doug Mlyn ART DIRECTOR Judith Geiger DIRECTOR OF CIRCULATION Steven Wayner: swayner@forester.net MARKETING COORDINATOR, EDUCATION & TRAINING Phil Johnson: pjohnson@forester.net PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGERS, EDUCATION & TRAINING Hayley Hogan: hhogan@forester.net

22 THE GROWING BUSINESS OF JOB-SITE PREPARATION

By Carol Brzozowski

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION & TRAINING Beth Tompkins: btompkins@forester.net ACCOUNTANT / CHAIR, LOVE AND HAPPINESS COMMITTEE Courtney Keele AR/AP Keith Rodgers FINANCE & HR MANAGER John Pasini: jpasini@forester.net

22

36

43 PROJECT PROFILE: California General Contractor Avoids Puncturing Aquifer by Using Efficiency Production’s ClearSpan Slide Rail to Shore Tank Set

ANNIVERSARY

46 PROJECT PROFILE: Tub Grinder Design and Use Is a Family Affair

57 MARKETPLACE/ ADVERTISER’S INDEX

49 SAFETY

58 READER PROFILE

51 SHOWCASE 54 SPOTLIGHT 56 PRODUCTS & SERVICES

25th

FORESTER

DEPARTMENTS 6 EDITOR’S COMMENTS

PRESIDENT Daniel Waldman: dw@forester.net

SIGN UP For Your Free Subscription Go online for new subscriptions, renewals, or change of address: www.cdsreportnow.com/renew/now?gxc or scan this code with your smartphone.

COVER PHOTO: GSSI GRADING & EXCAVATION CONTRACTOR (ISSN 1526-7563) is published seven times a year by Forester Media Inc., 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, 805-682-1300, fax: 805-682-0200, e-mail: publisher@forester.net, website: www.foresternetwork.com. Periodicals postage paid at Santa Barbara, CA, and at additional mailing offices. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. Entire contents ©2015 by Forester Media Inc. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Grading & Excavation Contractor, 440 Quadrangle Drive Ste E, Bolingbrook, IL 60440. Changes of address can be completed online at www.cdsreportnow.com/renew/now?gxc, or mailed to 440 Quadrangle Drive Suite E, Bolingbrook, IL 60440; please provide your mailing label or old address in addition to new address.

Include zip code or postal code. Allow two months for change. Editorial Contributions are welcome. All material must be accompanied by stamped return envelopes and will be handled with reasonable care. However, publishers assume no responsibility for safety of artwork, photographs, or manuscripts. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy, but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for the correctness or accuracy of information supplied herein or for any opinion expressed. Subscription Rates: seven issues of Grading & Excavation Contractor are $76 per year in US ($95 in Canada, $160 elsewhere). Send the completed subscription card with a check to Grading & Excavation Contractor, 440 Quadrangle Drive Suite E, Bolingbrook, IL 60440. Reprints: All editorial material in Grading & Excavation Contractor is available for reprints.

Call 805/679-7604 or e-mail reprints@forester.net for additional information. List Rentals: 1-800-529-9020 ext. 5003, dfoster@inforefinery.com. Back issues may be ordered (depending on available inventory) for $15 per copy in US ($20 in Canada, $35 elsewhere). Send written requests for back issues along with check or money order in US funds payable to Grading & Excavation Contractor, P.O. Box 3100, Santa Barbara, CA 93130, USA. Provide address for where the copies should be shipped. Allow six weeks for delivery.

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Editor’s Comments BY ARTURO SANTIAGO

What’s Yours is Mine?

I

seemed to have hit a nerve when I wrote about this in my weekly blog in October. The subject matter of the blog was basically, if you buy and own a piece of equipment, do you then have the right to access or alter the software that was built into the machine?

Or does the manufacturer retain that control as intellectual property? One online commenter replied, “If you own the equipment, you should own all aspects of it, including the ability to fix it.” Another said, “Back when they had VCRs, who didn’t make copies of or record movies off of movie channels or regular TV in the 80s to early 90s? Did Hollywood not have rich movie stars in that time frame?”

This is an issue that involves the manufacturers of modern heavy equipment, the software with which it is regularly outfitted and those who buy the iron and want access to the software. It came to my attention while listening to a story on NPR about a farmer in San Luis Obispo, CA. His name is Dave Alford and he has about one thousand acres on which he grows snow peas, garbanzo beans, hay, and seed crops. Among his fleet, he has a John Deere 8520T tractor. And Alford, like so many other farmers, has a traditional do-it-yourself, fix-it-yourself attitude. He fancies himself as an amateur mechanic.

The software in Alford’s 8520T helps him to monitor the tractor’s engine, among other things. It will let him know when something goes wrong. And this is where he runs into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, or DMCA. The DMCA allows John Deere to keep the software locked and inaccessible to whoever owns the machine. Just about anything you buy that runs with software—if you break that digital lock you run the risk of spending five years in prison and/or half a million dollars in fines. I found it ironic that an online commenter would mention VCRs and copying movies, because the main reason for the DMCA of 1998 was to keep people

from breaking the digital locks on DVDs to make copies and pirate them. Back to Alford—if something breaks on one of his tractors, he has to turn to an authorized John Deere dealer to take care of it, which takes time and eventually costs him money.

As in farming, heavy equipment owners in the construction industry do everything they can to avoid “down time” with their machines. And a lot of them are cut from that same DIY cloth with the mantra of saving time and money. They want the software access to the machines they own in order to fix them.

Now before you get swept away in the virtues of ownership, there is another side to this issue. I reached out to our John Deere contacts and asked them to respond to proposed changes to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act that would grant machine owners in some industries access to machine software. A spokesperson provided me with this statement that opposes any changes or revisions to the DMCA: “John Deere customers most definitely own the equipment they purchase. This is similar to buying a car, consumer electronics, or any other type of equipment that uses embedded software to provide advanced features. Just as with autos and other equipment, the customer does purchase and own a John Deere product but that purchase does not include the right to copy, modify, or distribute the computer code that is embedded in that equipment.

The embedded software is designed to ensure the product’s performance in sev-

eral essential areas. Safety is one of the most important areas to discuss regarding our desire to protect the copyright of our software. If an unqualified individual were to hack into, or modify that software, the product may no longer comply with safety standards and could endanger the safety of operators, dealership technicians, and others. Those who work with and maintain heavy machinery could be severely injured or killed if the machine does not react as they expect it to because someone has modified its embedded computer code. Another important concern is environmental regulation. Changing the computer code could make a machine not comply with emission standards. In addition, other key performance factors such as fuel consumption could suffer.

The intelligence of machinery today delivers features that add to the productivity and profitability of the owners and operators of that machinery. These features are delivered through the use of embedded computer code, code which John Deere has developed and invested in on behalf of its customers. Allowing unauthorized access to this code would provide the means to others to steal the intellectual property developed

by Deere for its customers and therefore would have a detrimental effect on the willingness of Deere and other companies to invest in future advancements in product performance.”

According to the NPR report, the DMCA allows that every three years the law can be reviewed, at which time exemptions can be made. Farmers, mechanics, and construction equipment owners will all want their own restrictions lifted. Manufacturers, like John Deere, will want to keep all restrictions in place.

At the writing of this article, that review process is taking place. I will, of course, keep you informed of any developments.

With contracts, deadlines, and livelihoods at stake, this is a landscape that needs to be defined with something more than a law that’s meant to curb movie pirating.

6 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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Compact Machines Take on the Big Jobs

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here’s a general idea or misconception that “compact” means low duty. Nothing can be further from the truth. While compact equipment as a whole can’t move the same volume as larger excavators or loaders can, it provides a valuable function nonetheless. It’s seen on every big job site and is instrumental for all the countless trim and finish work that needs to be done.

Technically, compact equipment can be defined as machinery with an overall weight of less than 10,000 pounds, but this lighter category packs a powerful punch.

Vincent Whelan, vice president of product for JCB North America, hails compact equipment as a whole, calling the products “remarkably diverse” and “extraordinary.” When compared to their bigger colleagues, he says that they “can

Bobcat

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do anything.”

Gregg Zupancic product marketing manager of skid-steers and compact track loaders for John Deere Construction and Forestry would agree that the equipment line is exceptional. Compact equipment “is much more versatile, more tailorable, and all without the need for special licenses.” It’s clearly a type of equipment that’s light on its feet and less expensive than larger equipment. So what goes through a contractor’s mind when it comes to making a decision? Should an operator choose a piece of compact equipment, or something bigger? Is it common sense, experience, or simply a business decision? When asked this question, Whelan said, “all three.”

It’s no wonder that business owners have struggled to keep their companies profitable due to the economic uncertainty and legislative changes of

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the last few years. Gregg Warfel from Terex Construction Americas says that “versatility and job diversification have become the main goal of many contractors looking to keep their businesses afloat, and many have had to reevaluate their current strategies and develop new ways to grow while saving money.

Contractor go-to tools during these tough times are the ones that will help them do their jobs more efficiently— because speed and ease can translate into greater profitability. Because of

this, many have come to rely heavily on smaller equipment in their fleets.”

Warren Anderson from CASE Construction makes the argument for common sense. “If you’re performing final grading work on a 5-acre site, a bulldozer makes more sense than a CTL [compact track loader] or skid-steer. If you’re loading a steady stream of trucks, a compact wheel loader, or a full-sized excavator or wheel loader, [it] makes more sense than a skid-steer.” Common sense dictates that many large-scale jobs will require

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large-scale earthmoving devices, and in large-scale productions smaller equipment may limit productivity and profitability.

On the other hand, when operating on a job site with space restrictions, a piece of compact equipment will be the right fit.

In other words, accessibility is a major consideration.

Another factor added to the decision making process is the type of surface on which the contractor will be working.

Most skid-steer, compact track, and large loaders use the same attachments as their bigger counterparts, such as buckets, augers, trenchers, dozers, box rakes, mulchers, and snow blowers. Compact equipment is also used in similar fields such as the construction, agriculture, and landscaping industries. The surfaces will impact cycle times and overall productivity. Soft soil conditions will require a loader with tracks, while a firm surface

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would be better suited for wheel loaders.

Andersen extolls the benefits of compact equipment: “skid-steers with a high flow auxiliary hydraulic setup, for instance, can run milling machines and other high flow attachments—and do so with much more maneuverability and access than larger machines.” He added that their small size doesn’t diminish their capabilities. “Compact track loaders are capable of performing large earthmoving jobs while creating minimal impact to the existing landscape, due to their low ground pressure. Both types of machines provide much easier access to certain earthmoving applications than larger-scale machines can.”

Both Tom Connor and Mike Fitzgerald of Bobcat agree that when it comes to compact equipment, “Bobcat compact excavators, skid-steer, and compact track loaders are ideally suited for construction projects that require a smaller, yet

10 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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powerful machine that can travel to a confined area or tight space, and can complete work more efficiently than manual labor and hand tools.” They both touched on another benefit that’s universally accepted, saying that “a compact machine is easy to transport with several attachments on a trailer from job site to job site.” Connor and Fitzgerald expanded on the versatility of such products that are used by grading and excavating contractors, some of which include digging footings for new home construction, backfilling around foundations, leveling dirt for a smaller commercial project, loading excess dirt into dump trucks, and grading a property before it is landscaped.

It’s important to think outside of the box when it comes to equipment offerings and utilizations, because utilization is the key to profitability. Contractors are looking for ways to stretch their machines to maximize usage. Warfel suggests that attachments are the answer, “Attachments are cheaper than buying a new machine, and they allow you to be more job-specific, while at the same time giving you more options with your current equipment.” He points to the benefits of a business man investing in a multipurpose tool, such as a CTL with a dozer blade attachment—to handle dozing applications and other tasks—as

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an example. Jorge De Hoyos, a Kubota senior product manager of skid-steer loaders and compact track loaders would agree.

“Users are applying the laws of multiplication by increasing their attachment inventory,” he says. “A skid-steer or compact track loader can rake in the spring, dig in the summer, and plow snow in the winter.”

It’s no wonder that these smaller pieces of equipment are so desirable. Over the last several years there have been a number of developments: loaders now have the capability to lift higher, which gives the operator the ability to do a broader range of tasks. Loaders also now allow operators to better center loads, as well as place pallets on scaffoldings, among other things.

Wheelbases have also increased, which provides a more stable platform when lifting weight to full height. Joystick innovations are another change in recent years. They have become popular in larger-class units, which allow controls to be operated with less force input while allowing for precision control.

Warfel also brings up the matter of customer input. “We polled a variety of different customers and found that many of these attributes are extremely important during the decision making process when buying, because they contribute to higher productivity and a lower cost of ownership.” He went on to say that all of his company’s research and design innovations are

It’s important to think outside of the box when it comes to equipment offerings and utilizations, because utilization is the key to profitability.

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intended to maximize both the machine’s productivity and the customer’s experience. Some of the other improvements across the board as far as compact loaders are concerned have been reach and lift height functions, fingertip controls, pressurized cabins, enhanced visibility for operators, higher ground clearance, and load sensing hydraulics, just to name a few. Innovation also extends to the materials used in the construction of compact equipment. He claims that the compact track loader skeletons on Terex products are constructed with composite materials, instead of steel, so the tracks don’t corrode or rust. This in turn extends the life of the tracks. Their track loaders also run on a rubber track for enhanced traction, flotation, ground clearance, and balance.

The lighter weight allows for great efficiencies in operation and speed.

Engineers have done an excellent job of making compact wheel loaders smaller and lighter, while enhancing operating factors such as break out force and lift capabilities. Zupancic says that working with their customers is responsible, in part, for the innovations. John Deere engineers have partnered with customers so that design patterns are tailored to

their needs. This process can take up to three years, but he’s seen a growth in performance. “Our compact equipment can push and lift more,” says Zupancic.

Clearly the equipment throughout the industry is becoming more compact, but capable of doing much more.

Anderson points out that great strides have been made when it comes to controls. “The continued evolution of electronics has made it easier for manufacturers to make controls more intuitive and easier to dial. For instance, CASE now offers electrohydraulic controls on all of its skid-steers and CTLs.” This means that “operators can switch operating patterns with the push of a button; controls can be dialed in and preset to match specific demands of each application.” Anderson says that this, along with

improvements in hydraulics, plays a huge role in what a skid-steer or a CTL can do. Each of their machines comes with standard auxiliary hydraulics that can be upgraded to high-flow or enhanced high-flow to extend its operating capacities beyond a bucket or set of forks. “It’s really that attachment versatility that makes these machines so valuable.”

Fitzgerald talks about the innovations designed by Bobcat. Their equipment is made keeping “uptime protection” in mind, which helps keep the machines running longer. Their machine shutdown protection is a standard feature that “monitors vital machine functions such as coolant temperature, engine oil pressure, and hydraulic oil temperatures.” An evolving cab design keeps the operator comfortable and more aware. “The cab

“We’re all pushing the envelope on how much we can fit in a small package and still get more performance.”

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forward design for the M-Series skid-steer and compact track loaders moves the operator closer to the attachment, giving the industry-leading visibility to the cutting edge of the bucket and corners for an attachment.

Additionally, sound levels are reduced by more than 60% for an improved operating experience and easier communication with coworkers.” An improved hydraulic system “means attachments will work more efficiently for increased performance.”

Three different control systems (traditional foot pedals and hand levers, advanced control systems, and selectable joystick controls) give loader owners options as well.

The Terex R160T (above) and R200S (below) It’s true that compact equipment is evolving and much of able to keep sidewalks, driveways, cul-deit is replacing larger pieces. More often sacs and parking lots cleared during the contractors are finding opportunities for winter months. De Hoyos would agree. compact equipment—such as skid-steer “Compact track loaders have been loaders and compact track loaders—to growing in popularity not only due to carry out tasks such as loading, back dragging, picking and carrying, and mate- the benefit of lower ground pressure, but also the ability to work more days per rial removal. year,” he says. He noted that because “Compact loaders are also hard to beat for grading work, as well as for working on and around existing landscapes because of their low ground pressure,” says Warfel. He asserts what is already widely understood—that these pieces of equipment are very stable on slopes, or uneven ground, and that they have excellent traction on all type of different ground conditions. These loaders are also durable and built to operate in extreme weather conditions. They can remain productive CTLs can traverse soft and muddy year-round. ground, “the operator can get more use Warfel states that they are excellent out of their machine and maximize their during winter conditions because “they return on investment.” are specifically engineered to exert low Attachments have also played a vital ground pressure, while maintaining role in extending the capabilities of these exceptional flotation and traction on fromachines. It’s important that the machine zen and snowy conditions. These loaders is outfitted with the right hydraulics, which offer increased maneuverability when can save the owner thousands of dollars in working in confined, snow packed areas compared to pickup trucks equipped with rental and ownership costs. Anderson says, “That’s ultimately why we always encoura snow blade or larger loaders.” They’re

age potential buyers to select the high flow auxiliary options . . . so that the machine is not undersized or under-spec’d for what [it is] capable of doing.”

These improvements are not exclusive to loaders—excavators are becoming more popular as well. They provide excellent options because not only are they easy to move from one job site to the next, but they have smooth hydraulics and enough power to excel in tough work environments.

According to Warfel, compact excavators boast more dig depth, reach, horsepower, and bucket breakout force over small machines.

He says Terex engineers have focused on bringing compact excavators to the market that have a “high power-to-weight ratio, which equals an increase in capabilities in a smaller-sized machine.” This allows their products to “bridge the entire spectrum of applications.” Compact excavators, because of their ability to pump more hydraulic fluid per minute, are able to run a larger variety of attachments—especially a larger bucket which will increase the cycle time, and thus productivity.

Job-site requirements have also dictated somewhat how compact excavators have evolved. There are sites that have

16 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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Terex

The Terex V230S moving dirt

demanding excavation work in tight spaces, requiring trenching work. Warfel lists landscapers, building contractors, water/ sewer contractors, electrical contractors, and municipalities as some of the beneficiaries of these remarkable machines.

Connor says Bobcat has adapted many of the same feature upgrades as well. He says a more comfortable cab is operator friendly, and because of a redesigned engine, air intake, and cooling “combined with a new pump and valve design helps lower noise and vibration levels.” Other improvements include advanced hydraulic components which help “optimize the response of particular attachments, and an in-track swing frame, which allows excavators to work more efficiently in tight spaces.” He also noted improved features such as a clamp ready extendable-arm option for select compact excavators, and a depth check system, which is a guidance system that informs operators, by the deluxe instrument panel, the dig depth, or distance to target depth.

There are limitations with compact equipment, of course, and an operator’s experience will surely play a role in whether to use one or to rely on something bigger. An operator is hardly going to open up an acre of land with a compact machine. Likewise, a contractor

is probably not going to use anything where you need to lift above 12 feet, or lift something above a weight of 7,000 pounds, otherwise stability is sacrificed. The limits of compact equipment can depend on how much, and where the material is being moved, as well as how tight the area is. It’s important to consider the physical size, rated operating capacity, and horsepower in terms of what needs to be accomplished.

Connor states that “grading and excavation contractors working in a new housing development may prefer to use compact equipment because of space constraints, especially if there are existing homes on either side of the home being built.” Even though a compact machine can’t move as much dirt as a bigger machine, it can move it more quickly. Still, it makes sense to use a bigger machine for a commercial project in most cases.

A whole host of questions needs to be asked before deciding on a compact machine over something bigger. What is the type and density of the material being moved? How much material? Are there space restrictions? Warfel says, “The answers to these questions will help you determine the loader you need. Selecting the right loader is based on the amount of material (measured in cubic yards) that needs to be moved per hour, the weight of the material, and the area that the loader will operate in.” Other considerations are how quickly does the material need to be moved? Where is it going?

One thing is for certain: compact equipment is working harder than ever.

Every equipment owner knows that preventative maintenance is the key to keeping equipment running at maximum efficiency. During boom time, contractors usually hold on to their equipment for around three years. It’s typically bought, used, and discarded. Now the

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trend in many cases is to extend warranties out to five years, or 10,000 hours.

The equipment is now more service friendly, so many business owners are taking the in-house approach and doing much of it themselves. Most tasks can be performed by anyone experienced in construction machinery, because compact equipment is easier to get to and more accessible. According to Whelan, “Dealers have adapted to do more of the repairs.” This boosts overall time on the job. Maintenance of compact equipment is the same as on their bigger counter parts, but doesn’t need to be performed as frequently as in the past. Whelan says JCB compact excavators have evolved and only have to be greased every 500 hours. Anderson makes the point that “it’s common to see 80, 90, or 100% utilization on these machines because they are so versatile. Many machines in these lower horsepower category are now Tier 4 Final, so there may be maintenance considerations related to that—but many manufacturers are working to make this as simple as possible.” He mentions that CASE has focused much of its attention on maintenance-free or low maintenance emissions solutions to make the transitions smoother. There’s no question that each manufacturer is designing their fleet with more durable features such as debris management systems, better and more accessible cooling systems, heavy duty bumpers, and wenches for steep terrain.

“We’re all pushing the envelope on how much we can fit in a small package and still get more performance,” says De Hoyos. “Inevitably the laws of physics take over and more capacity in a small machine has its limits. And when capacity is needed, users need to go bigger.”

Zupancic says that the largest John Deere skid-steer (332E) can move 185 metric tons per hour and their largest CTL (332E) moves 205 metric tons per hour.

As a whole, the industry has made some incredible innovations that allow contractors to do more with less. Design innovations now allow for better visibility, more agility, more power, and better utilization rates, due to attachments. The question now becomes not so much “Why should a contractor use a piece of compact equipment?”, but “Why not?”

www.gradingandexcavation.com

Sean Daly writes on numerous topics in the construction industry.

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iStock/Leontura

Financing for Growth

The scoop on financing equipment. BY DANIEL C. BROWN

T

he good news about today’s heavy construction economy is that business is up in this nation. Nearly every financial company we interviewed for this story says that they will underwrite more loans in 2015 than they did last year. Business from the oil patch has softened somewhat, but the general economy, public works, and housing are all on a steady upturn.

The not-so-good news is that there are some shady companies out there who are misleading customers, says Rob Misheloff, president of Smarter Finance USA, Irvine, CA. His company provides financing primarily for smaller contractors and companies that are just starting up in construction.

“We often hear from our customers that they have visited one of these finance companies’ websites, and were told the rates were 6%—and then when they get a quote and do the numbers, the rates were actually 15% plus,” says Misheloff.

Misheloff says his company provides a few million dollars annually in equipment financing. He’ll do “much more” business this year than last, he says. “Number one, the economy is getting better and there’s more work.

“There is more work available than there are machines and workers,” says

Misheloff. “A lot of people that—during the recession—went out of business, are getting back into business, and they can use as much equipment as they can get their hands on.” Misheloff says that for him, the Midwest is strong, and so is Texas and certain parts of the South, especially Florida.

That view is echoed by Jim Bowles, president of Nationwide Business Capital. “Based on our prior year-to-date we have recognized an 18% increase from last year and expect the full year to be comparable to that number,” says Bowles.

“We are seeing an increase in both the residential and commercial markets, which are in turn creating more contracts.

We deal nationwide and have recognized a greater increase with businesses on the East and West Coast than [with] the Midwest. Many contractors have bounced back from the recession. Many of our customers have shared that they are on track for a record year,” says Bowles.

David Schmidt at John Deere Financial says that based on how 2015 is going, the company will finance slightly more construction and forestry equipment this year than last. Schmidt says the upturn is probably not as pronounced as the company might have predicted a year ago, primarily because of softening in the oil and gas drilling and exploration activity.

Still, the improvement is steady—and the housing market seems to have stabilized.

“I think our contractors now are much more focused on cash flow—cost per hour of using the machine—more than they were prior to the recession,” says Schmidt, manager of retail credit for the Construction and Forestry Division of John Deere Financial. “They’re looking for the most overall value and the cost of running the machines, so if a lower interest rate in combination with the price of the unit makes the operation cost less, given that the quality of the machine is comparable, I do believe that low interest rates are a factor in the buying decision.

Those who are doing well are being very thoughtful about how they’re growing their business and managing their equipment fleet, based on the experiences that they’ve had.”

Top officials at both Caterpillar Financial Services Corp. and CNH Industrial Capital-NAFTA, say they will finance more construction equipment in 2015 than they did in 2014. “Many factors are driving the sale/lease and financing of construction equipment,” says Tom Mariani, chief credit officer for CNH Industrial Capital-NAFTA. “Some of those factors are improved market conditions, replacement of units by operators, and refreshing of rental fleets. We are seeing upticks in all regions in the US.” “Low rates do induce action,” says Mariani. “A notable portion of our financing Grading & Excavation Contractor 19

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John Deere

John Deere

John Deere scraper (left) and articulated dump truck (right)

features manufacturer-backed low rate offers. For instance, CASE Construction is currently offering 0.0% financing for 48 months for qualifying pieces of CASE equipment.”

“The market for construction is growing, driven by the slow but steady improvement in the economy,” adds John Marino, North America region manager, Caterpillar Financial Services. “Most contractors have recovered from the recession. Their balance sheets are stronger.

The one soft spot is contractors that support the oil and gas industry. With the decline in the price of oil, drilling has slowed down, so there is weakness in demand for construction of drilling pads and roads into the oil patch.”

We asked Misheloff if the current economic climate would change if Congress infused a significant amount of money into the Highway Trust Fund. “Well, yes,” he says. “But I’ll tell you that in most areas, there’s more demand for construction services than there are construction services to meet that demand. We talk to dump truck buyers, particularly, where the rates being offered to owner-operators are going up and up and up, because there aren’t enough of them.”

Barry Abelsohn, national sales manager at Alliance Funding Group, Orange, CA, says, “Our organization has seen more than a 20% increase in financing as it relates to the construction vertical market. We saw some great growth in year-end 2014 compared to 2013 in this segment, and it seems as if the construction vertical has been on a very steady course which we expect to continue for the foreseeable future.

“We’ve determined that the uptick in construction activity to be attributed to construction activity in the commercial real estate and public works projects,”

says Abelsohn. “There has also been a tremendous surge in the rental sector.

Business owners assume the rental would be a cheaper avenue and they often overlook the fact that ownership, in many cases, may be the lesser capital expense.”

Interest Rates Vary Naturally, interest rates vary by contractor, by their financial position, and various other factors. “I financed a crane for somebody recently and they had pretty reasonable rates,” says Misheloff. “The rates were roughly 6.5% per year. So for

every $100,000 of cost it was roughly $6,500 a year in finance charges. Then when we ran into somebody with rough credit, particularly a bankruptcy or tax liens, depending on the situation, rates could be really, really high. Sometimes we see financing quoted in the 20% per year range, or even higher, depending on how bad the situation is.”

Misheloff says he works with customers to calculate how much money they will make with a piece of equipment— then compares that to the payment. “In one case recently, a prospective customer

Technology Improving Cash Flow for Subcontractors For many subcontractors, one of the biggest challenges comes from having little or no access to reasonably priced working capital. This stems in large part from a fundamental structural issue in construction: In typical financial processes, subcontractors are in effect financing the work in progress on projects. They carry out work and submit invoices but generally aren’t paid for weeks, or even months. Meanwhile, as they await payment, subcontractors still have to fund their own labor, equipment, materials, and other costs. This situation can put stress on their business, limit growth and investment, and even lead to business failure.

To help ease this burden on subcontractors, construction software provider Textura Corp. worked with supply chain finance experts at Greensill Capital to create the Early Payment Program (EPP). EPP enables general contractors to offer their subcontractors optional earlier payment—as few as five days after invoice approval or, on average, 30–90 days sooner than normal payment timing. With general contractors providing faster, more predictable payments with EPP, subcontractors should enjoy improved cash flow. This should make it easier for them to fund their operating expenses, strengthen their balance sheets, and enable growth and expansion.

Taking advantage of EPP is optional for subcontractors whose general contractor partners participate in the program. Subcontractors can decide— generally invoice by invoice—whether they want to take advantage of early payment, in exchange for a modest fee.

Textura’s CPM technology enables administration of EPP, while Greensill Capital performs the underwriting and arranges the funding, including working with the capital markets. Similar to supply chain financing in other industries, EPP is a win-win solution for general contractors, subcontractors, and owner/developers. By transforming how subcontractors are paid, EPP can provide benefits to the construction industry as a whole.

20 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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Smarter Finance USA

Smarter Finance USA

A tracked excavator (left) and wheel loader (right) at work

says, “I could keep on driving someone else’s excavator,’” says Misheloff.

Most officials interviewed for this article says a contractor’s credit track record and current work backlog are more important factors in getting a loan than is the expectation of new work coming in.

We asked Misheloff if he would finance equipment for which a customer expected to get work.

“Not unless they truly expect to get the work,” he says. “We’re working with somebody right now who has been paying $100,000 a month in rental on his equipment. And we’re working through the numbers, and he’s going to need roughly a million dollars worth of equipment over the next six months. And the payments probably will be in the $35,000 to $40,000 a month range. So $35,000 to $40,000 a month for equipment that you own at the end of the term is a whole lot better than $100,000 a month and at the end you have nothing.

“We talk to several first-time owneroperators of dump trucks who were making $60,000 a year driving a dump truck,” says Misheloff. “But once they get into their own dump truck they can bring in $20,000 to $30,000 of revenue monthly.

And that’s not a wish. Sometimes the company they’re working for will say go ahead, get your own truck and we’ll pay you $80 an hour to haul for us. We work the numbers out with them, and after all costs are counted, including maybe setting aside $1,000 a month for repairs to the truck, and a lot of times the person— instead of making $5,000 a month—can net $13,000 to $16,000 a month.”

All lenders told Grading & Excavation Contractor that the requirements and qualifications for getting a loan become more escalated as the amount of the loan goes up. Misheloff says that profit

margins—particularly a history of making a profit—are important in the go/no go decision. “In financing larger amounts, we want to look at two years of tax returns, and some financial statements,” says Misheloff. “It’s harder to make a loan to someone who has only been marginally profitable than to somebody who’s got a large amount of booked revenue and profit coming through. An underwriter’s projection of risk has a big impact on what the financing rate will be because we’re essentially underwriting that risk.”

Many lenders, especially where the borrower is a closely held company, ask for personal guarantees to back up a loan.

Misheloff, who finances mostly smaller contractors, says he asks for a personal guarantee on almost all loans. “But we do run across some larger companies, call them corporate only,” he says. “If the company has been in business for five years or more, has a strong Dun & Bradstreet profile, and a strong history of paying their creditors on time, then we can do a corporate only loan.”

Caterpillar’s Marino says smaller, closely held contractors are usually receptive to offering a personal guarantee.

Larger contractors where ownership is spread among several individuals are usually more reluctant to offer a personal guarantee. “If a company is rebounding from difficult times, a personal guarantee becomes more critical to show the owner’s belief in his or her future prospects for their company,” says Marino.

At John Deere Financial, Schmidt says the company typically asks for a personal guarantee from a small- to medium-sized contractor that is closely held. “The personal guarantee is almost as much a check and balance tool as it is an expectation that we expect that person’s going to repay a bad debt from their personal

funds,” says Schmidt. “If you’re making decisions about your business and you know that you also have a personal investment, then it’s like a check and balance in the owner’s mind, versus if it’s just their business, and they feel like if they make a mistake on this, just my business is at risk.

Nationwide Business Capital offers an application-only program for financing up to $150,000. The application-only program is a one-page application, also available for applying online. If the transaction is more than $150,000 but less than $250,000, the company requires two years of personal and corporate tax returns for closely held companies, an interim financial statement, and a personal financial statement on the majority shareholders.

For transactions greater than $250,000, Nationwide requires three years of personal and corporate tax returns. “We do not traditionally ask for business projections,” says Nationwide’s Bowles.

We asked Alliance’s Abelsohn if a loan applicant needs to submit a business plan.

“Unless the business is in an early stage, a business plan is not as important to us in credit review and analysis,” he says. “We are underwriting to their past history of payments, collateral, and the overall structure of the financing.

“Profit margins are very important in underwriting for our middle market group (over $250,000 deals),” says Abelsohn. “A business’ cash flow provides lenders with the comfort of the company’s ability to service its existing obligations along with the new purchase that we’re looking to finance.”

Daniel C. Brown writes on safety and the construction industry.

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Caterpillar

The Growing Business of Job-Site Preparation

BY CAROL BRZOZOWSKI projects because they are always the first in. The project is often not completely put together until the last minute, but then they expect the clearing contractor to start at the last minute and get it done as fast as they can.”

On new construction sites, contractors are generally clearing, grubbing, and removing material, not only removing aboveground foliage, but also trees, and grinding stumps into the ground.

For most occasions, two types of Bandit Industries systems are used for the task, says Morey. “If they have to pull and remove the stumps, generally they FAE mulcher

will use one of our self-propelled Beast Recyclers because it’s capable of grinding stumps and all kinds of material. It’s used to recycle shingles.”

Contractors will primarily use the FAE

J

ob-site preparation is a growing business within the construction industry, even though the economy had been on the wane until recently, points out Jerry Morey, president of Bandit Industries.

“There is a lot of clearing going on, especially to build the infrastructure for the distribution lines for the natural gas they’re finding,” says Morey. “There is a lot of work out there for the clearing contractors as the economy is starting to come back. It’s a very vibrant industry right now.”

Proper job-site preparation is important to help the overall construction team meet its deadlines, points out Morey.

“Generally, these projects are on a fairly tight time schedule and in some cases, there are penalties throughout the contract for not meeting them,” he adds.

“They are always under the gun on these

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Beast Recycler, working it in conjunction with an excavator that will pull the trees— and depending on the size of the fit in the machines—throw in all of the debris, including the stump and the tree, and grind it all up.

Bandit Industries offers four towable, four self-propelled, and four electricallypowered Beast recyclers/horizontal grinders.

The machines are built to process everything from stumps and slash to construction waste, shingles, tires, and plastic pallets, among other materials.

Beast recyclers/horizontal grinders range in size from 16- to 45-inch capacity with engines of more than 1,000 horsepower. All Beast recyclers/horizontal grinders can be outfitted as electric units.

In some cases, depending on the job specifications, the debris is left onsite as erosion control material. Doing so helps re-establish the foliage to help hold the ground in place and also provide stormwater mitigation focused on better water quality, says Morey.

“They can make a mulch out of it that they can possibly use onsite,” he adds.

“Sometimes it’s hauled offsite to a recycling operation that makes mulch.”

Another process used in job-site preparation is the use of a Bandit Forestry mower, which serves three purposes in one machine.

Track carriers feature Bandit-designed mower heads up to 108 inches wide with as much as 600 horsepower. The machines perform tree take-downs, belowground stump grinding and processing material into mulch.

The Bandit whole tree chipper is used to chip all of the material above ground.

The company offers nine towable and six self-propelled whole tree chipper models.

The company offers a track whole tree chipper. Disc- or drum-style chippers are available ranging in size from 18- to 36-inch capacity with engines of more than 1,000 horsepower.

“That’s a fairly common practice in right-of-ways, especially for utilities and mainly for gas lines where in a lot of the right-of-way clearing they just need all of the aboveground material removed,” says Morey.

In that case, the forestry mowers with carriers are used to mow the landscape up to 8 inches in diameter, and then a self-propelled whole tree chipper will be

used to chip the material and leave it onsite.

Morey notes there is a new movement in clearing in the agricultural industry, where the machines are being used to grind up all of the aboveground material removed to put land in for agriculture production.

“It’s less costly and a better approach than putting the stuff into a plow and putting a match to it,” he adds. “All of that organic material works back into the soil and adds nutrients to the land for ag use.”

In that case, contractors will use a combination of the Beast recyclers, whole tree chippers, and forestry mowers.

FAE—which provides land clearing equipment for a variety of market segments—offers a skid-steer mulcher, the UML/SSL VT. It is available in 63-inch and 72-inch cutting width and is designed to cut brush and trees up to 8 inches in diameter.

The machine features a heavy-duty design, a 110cc VT (variable torque) motor, and an FAE smooth rotor system

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Terex

Terex PT110 performing surgical forestry land clearing

three-position skid, multiple tooth options for all applications, bolt on rotor shafts, and hinged service panels.

Giorgio Carera, FAE USA CEO, points out that while job-site preparation is site specific, “a constant part of site prep is the removal of trees and other branches and foliage in order to have bare land to

Bobcat

designed for better mulching and less fuel consumption. It also features a HY mulching door with the operating cylinder located in cylinder housing that is completely protected, a Poly Chain belt drive, Hardox counter blades for optimal material sizing, a pressure gauge, an adjustable four-position push frame, an adjustable

Bobcat T630 equipped with box blade

perform whatever other jobs are required.

“The land clearing is the first step to site prep. It is imperative that it is done well and professionally to obtain a perfect site for developing whatever project is intended to be accomplished.”

Site preparation can entail the physical removal of foliage as well as a more hightech endeavor that can involve mapping and telematics, says Carera.

“It could be a basic clearing for a food plot, garden, or similar, or it could be a more technical systematic job using GPS coordinates that have to be exact such as power lines, roads, oil stations, lots for homes, and similar,” he adds. “The tractors and FAE-dedicated carriers can operate using the GPS and leave no error for the operator.”

FAE USA supplies equipment for all aspects of job-site preparation, including PTO/HYD mulchers for the initial land clearing; PTO/HYD forestry tillers and multi-purpose machines for stump removal, and to incorporate loose branches and other material left after mulching into the ground; and PTO/HYD machines that can mix additives in the ground for a final clean, stable surface.

For erosion control material, “the mulch from the tree can be incorporated in the ground with FAE forestry tillers to

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Geith

tion and incorporating stumps, roots, and branches.

• One STC/SSL150 rock crusher on Supertrak SK120, which crushes rocks, concrete, and field stone, among other materials, up to 3 inches of depth.

• One RSL 150 on NH TV 145, which recycles black top, tar and chip, and gravel roads up to 11 inches of depth. Materials can be reused onsite. Polymers can be added with a water attachment to profile and compact the road.

Neutzel is cognizant that his company’s work is critical to the overall success of a project.

“You’ve got all of that material out of the way to begin with so they don’t have to deal with it later. They can see what they’re doing a little bit better,” he says.

“We do some site line work for Geith ripper surveyors, clearing it up so they can get in and work. It makes The organic matter also acts as their job easier because it’s gone ideal erosion control and stormwater when they’re getting ready to start.” management.

Most times, the crew of Carl W. “When we get finished, we grind it up Neutzel Services works the foliage back and work it in. It’s all matted and knitted into the ground with a forestry tiller. together with the roots and little pieces “That’s helping with the carbon footof branches and wood that we’ve ground print because we’re not using extra fuel to haul it away,” says Neutzel, adding that up and you can drive over it with a car when you’re finished because it’s pretty it cuts down on costs. “It’s not going to a smooth,” he says. landfill—it gets worked right back into the Neutzel points out that the use of ground and it can add organic matter into equipment makes it easier for jobs to get the ground, too.”

Gehl

create a base of more than just dirt and reduce the ground’s erosion drastically,” says Carera.

One company that uses FAE equipment is Carl W. Neutzel Services of White Hall, MD. The company is small and performs a lot of services, and as such, must use equipment to run lean, says its president, Carl Neutzel.

“Our biggest concern is we’re trying to be more efficient, safer, and more environmentally friendly with the use of equipment,” he says, adding the equipment is used to doing onsite job preparation where the organic matter stays onsite. “We also are concerned about runoff into the Chesapeake Bay.” Carl W. Neutzel Services started off in the landscaping business in 1972, then progressed into doing work in grass seeding, mechanical, and chemical invasive species control, and wildlife habitat work on sites ranging from a half acre to 100 acres for the private and government sector.

Carl W. Neutzel Services does job-site preparation for building lots, wildlife habitat, seed plots, and other purposes.

Neutzel says the work is divided between aboveground and belowground tasks. Aboveground work entails grinding trees, brush, and invasive species. Belowground work encompasses grinding up stumps and roots and working the debris into the ground.

“A lot of the invasive species work is to get rid of anything that’s non-native because it becomes part of the whole cycle of native plants and animals and disrupts the whole cycle,” says Neutzel, adding many have come from other countries either by accident or intentionally.

“Some of it also is along the highways, growing in the ditches and causing problems with drainage and maintenance of power lines and lights,” he adds.

Neutzel uses FAE equipment for his company’s tasks. The company’s fleet includes: • One FAE UML/SSL 175 forestry mulcher on a Supertrak SK120, which shreds up to 8-inch diameter trees.

• One FAE DML/SSL 150 forestry mulcher on a Kubota SVL 90-2 with FAE oil cooler, which shreds up to 6-inch diameter trees.

• One FAE SSL/ST 150 forestry tiller on NH TV 145, which grinds to 11 inches in depth and is used for soil stabiliza-

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Bobcat

Bobcat E63 with bucket and clamp

define a lot of the parameters that will affect productivity of the job itself,” points out Tom Hover, product manager of tractors, tracked carriers, and drills for Fecon.

“For instance, you’re going to do the

clearing work that is necessary, but the job-site preparation also encompasses grading in such a way that it drains correctly so that in inclement weather, it doesn’t just shut the job done,” he adds.

Caterpillar

done without the need for excess labor.

And for those people working on the crew, the equipment creates a safer environment, he adds.

“One of the things that’s important with the equipment is we can do work safer in the cab than people out there doing it with chainsaws and brush cutters and putting it in a chipper,” he says.

“With vines hanging from the trees, it’s a lot safer when the operators are in the safety of the cab.”

Neutzel is so impressed by the benefits he’s derived using the FAE equipment for job-site preparation that he did a demo project of an FAE rock crusher for a company building an earthen dam in Virginia.

“We demonstrated one so they could see how it worked and they built the whole dam with them, putting crushers on the tractors,” he says. “The foreman explained to us if they moved their rock crushers in, they would have to handle the rock so many times. This way, they just dug them out, put them on the ground, and ran over them with the rock crusher on a 350-horsepower tractor and used it to build the dam. It saved them on fossil fuel, time, and labor.”

Job-site preparation is “very important because this is where you are going to

Cat G325B grapple handling scrap material

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tion to the ground, but not below the surface,” he says. “If you want to protect against erosion, you can leave the stumps and root system in the ground.

“If you’re looking at reusing the mulched material for erosion control, our machines will mulch it down and lay it and distribute it over the surface of the job site, so not only for erosion control but also to a certain extent for vehicle traffic in and around the job site.”

A clearing contractor’s fleet always will include excavators of all sizes, says Hover.

“There is certain work you do in site preparation that’s going to be related to underground utilities,” he says. “With the attachments we manufacture for excavators—such as the tree shears, grapples, stump grinders, or the mulching attachment—it offers another method of revenue generation for the clearing or the grading contractor. It’s another way to make money with an existing asset.”

Carol Brzozowski specializes in topics related to technology and construction.

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That leads to lost time and productivity due to flooding or bad storms, adds Hover.

Job-site preparation also defines the entrance and egress from the job site. “A lot of the preparation defines the productivity and accessibility of the job site,” says Hover. “Other parameters are: what is the type of job site, what sort of terrain do you have, what are the challenges of the grading work, what is the purpose of the job site? Is it a well-drilling site in the oil and gas business? Is it a building site or is it strictly a road? Is it an addition to a road? Is it widening a road? All of these parameters can define how the prep is done.”

In terms of clearing, the approach is similar: what does the job site demand?

“Is it going to be a clean cut where every piece of vegetation is removed— perhaps in the construction of a large single-story building like a department store?” notes Hover. “Everything has to be cleared over a fairly large expanse of acres. However, if it’s a smaller building or even light commercial or residential, perhaps the clearing is done more as thinning the woods, and there is a desire to keep certain vegetation.”

Fecon manufactures land clearing equipment, primarily mulching tractors which can cut down to the surface small and large trees—mostly a lot of brush and unwanted species of brush and woody vegetation, says Hover.

“In addition to mulching attachments for existing tractors or our purpose-built tractor line, we also offer other types of attachments for milling machines which can go down into the ground and pulverize the woody mass of the root material and mix it with the ground or abovesurface handling tools, such as grapples, root rakes, and stump grinding,” he says, adding such equipment is suitable for more “pointed and directed small work.”

Hover sees his company’s equipment being utilized to provide material for erosion control.

“One of the things that Fecon machines and other lines of mulching equipment do is to mulch the vegeta-

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Photos: Doosan

Hydraulics: Powerful, Popular, Productive Tracing its roots, tracking its future, and monitoring its efficiency BY LORI LOVELY

T

he hydraulic machinery used in construction today owes its success to a long heritage of fluid mechanics, the practical application of liquid in motion. An ancient science, hydraulics heralds a lineage tracing back to the Egyptians and Babylonians, who built canals for irrigation. But it was the Greeks who studied pressure and flow patterns, designing hydraulic equipment like the piston pump and water clock.

Ideas were further advanced during the Renaissance, when Leonardo da Vinci documented frictional resistance and velocity of surface waves. When mathematics and physics were incorporated in the 17th century, logical patterns were detected, leading to the academic discipline of hydrodynamics. A century later, French and German scientists learned how to measure flow velocity and developed principles of flow measurement. Hydraulic power is defined as flow times pressure.

In the following century, experiments were designed to study the effects of temperature on flow and understand the nature of fluid viscosity. Since then, refinements have been made to further understand frictional resistance.

History and Evolution Refinements led to advances in hydraulics, but, while improvements and changes continue, “for the most part, the basics of a hydraulic system are the same,” states Curt Leair, rental accounts service manager for Terex Construction Americas.

After all, he says, “hydraulic machines all have the same basic components: the engine, hydraulic pump, hydraulic valve, hydraulic motors, and hydraulic cylinders.”

But while the same basic concepts of hydraulics have been around for nearly 25 years, including the base architecture of many of the electro-hydraulic (EH) systems we use today, continued advancement has occurred in three main areas of the hydraulics control system: joystick (input), actuator (output), and sensor (feedback) technology, claims Jeff Bauer, senior engineer, hydraulic product verification for John Deere Construction & Forestry. “[They] have matured to a very high level of reliability and cost effectiveness, allowing EH systems to be Left: Pattern control valve utilized on almost every Above: Hydraulic pump

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Bobcat

piece of construction equipment today.”

It was a “basic system in the early days,” judges Mike Fitzgerald, loader product specialist for Bobcat. “Today, they have higher performance and are a longer-lasting, more efficient machine with faster cycling and more versatility.”

Engineers have designed high-performance hydraulic systems to give operators the ability to run multiple machine functions simultaneously without sacrificing power or performance.

Increased hydraulic pressure and flow can power multiple functions at once, increasing efficiency. Says Leair, “A modern hydraulic system will allow the operator the ability to run boom, stick, and swing functions in a smooth, precise, and efficient manner. These vastly improved hydraulic systems give these machines the strength and agility to allow operators to maximize job-site performance, increase productivity, and generate contractor profitability.”

Modern hydraulics systems are more efficient than they used to be, confirms Gary Kassen, engineering director for hydraulics and pneumatics, CNH Industrial. “They’re much smarter than they used to be, and they’re more reliable. That plays into CASE’s larger goal of making equipment more practical and intuitive to use, while also improving on the power needed to get work done.”

One of the ways they’ve done that is by switching from fixed displacement work pumps to variable displacement. The pump puts out only as much flow as is needed. “Traditionally, a lot of construction equipment used fixed displacement,” explains

Kassen. “If you only needed to make minor adjustments to your work function, most of the flow was being dumped over a relief valve, which created extra heat in the system. By having a variable displacement, you only produce as much flow as needed.”

Designing equipment with more pumps also increases efficiency. By putting in multiple pumps and separating steering from the work circuit, it’s possible to match the pumps to the pressures that are needed and reduce throttling losses.

Part of the reason modern hydraulics are more efficient today than they were 20 years ago stems from the diminished need for higher horsepower engines to run the system, claims Corey Rogers, marketing manager at Hyundai Construction

Equipment. This also contributes to better fuel efficiency. “We use different pump technology: an inline stacked pump technology.” Like CASE, Hyundai offers variable volume piston pumps that vary the flow, based on demand. Instead of fixed displacement pumps running at velocity—whether needed or not—burning fuel unnecessarily. These pumps have the ability to destroke and minimize flow when demand is low.”

Over the years, hydraulic systems in construction equipment have evolved from low-pressure, open-center systems to much higher-pressure, closed-center, load-sensing, electro-hydraulic systems, says Deere’s Bauer. “Thirty years ago, 3,000 psi was considered high pressure. Today, that would be considered low pressure. Many implemented hydraulic systems are capable of 4,000 psi. Most excavators are 5,000 psi, and most hydrostatic propel systems run at 6,000 psi.”

The push for higher pressures is to reduce actuator size.

Higher pressures allow some equipment designs to use smaller bore cylinders to produce the same power. Smaller cylinders require less flow to achieve the same speed. This in turn allows for a smaller pump. Thus, with higher pressure, the entire system becomes more compact while delivering the same overall power.

Power density is one driver in hydraulic advancements. Others include reduced operator fatigue through ease of operation and improved system efficiency. “EH systems provide much easier function control with ‘shorter-throw’ joysticks and greatly reduced lever efforts,” continues Bauer. EH also provides some automated or assisted implement controls designed to reduce cycle times and improve accuracy.

Variable displacement pumps coupled with load-sensing hydraulic valves greatly improve system efficiency by pumping oil only when it is required. “The constant displacement gear pump used on most systems years ago pumps oil all the time,” recalls Bauer. “Even when the hydraulics are providing no work, Bobcat engine power is lost to the S570 with hydraulic system due to this hydraulic constant flow.” breaker In addition to being more efficient, modern hydraulics are also smarter. “Manufacturers have gone from hydro-mechanical systems to electrohydraulic systems,” says Kassen. “With that comes improved functionality. That may be an automated function, more productivity choices, or just easier-toselect options.”

From mechanical levers and pedals to pilot controls, hydraulic controls have evolved to electronic over hydraulic. While a large percentage of contractors still prefer simple basic systems with mechanical foot pedal hydraulic controls because they are reliable and cost less, Fitzgerald says some prefer joysticks for operator comfort. “We try to accommodate operator preference by providing three different style controls: hand lever steering and foot pedal hydraulics; advanced controls system (foot pedals or hand levers for lift arm and bucket); and selectable joystick for the drive and hydraulic functions.”

Hydraulic systems are becoming very advanced, and hydraulic Grading & Excavation Contractor 29

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Terex

Terex TL120 wheel loader

pressures are being monitored by the machine control, which then adjusts the hydraulic system to optimum performance. The most dramatic improvement in hydraulics is the interface between controls and the hydraulic system, notes Mike Stark, product specialist of wheel loaders, material handlers, and log loaders for Doosan. “Sensors have been added to [detect] pressure changes in the system so the machine’s hydraulic system can be automatically adjusted to the requirements of the job, he continues.

System response times have improved when power is needed.

Maintenance Efficiency, productivity, and life expectancy are impacted by proper care and regular maintenance. From a maintenance standpoint, Deere’s Bauer sees little difference in today’s hydraulic systems.

“They still require fluid and filter changes as regular maintenance.”

However, advancements in hydraulic fluid technology have pushed service intervals out to several thousand hours.

Pumps and actuators still need replacement as systems age, but today’s more complex electro-hydraulic systems are much more sensitive to contamination.

“It is vitally important to keep the hydraulic fluid very clean or there will be performance issues,” insists Bauer. What was considered clean 20 years ago would now be considered unacceptable.

Sampling for contaminants and to detect unusual wear is important. Follow-

ing the recommended service intervals is also important. “We advise taking samples at approximately 500 plus hours, especially in harsh conditions,” suggests Stark.

Ports should be easily accessible to encourage regular monitoring, and should allow for service from the ground level as much as possible. “Serviceability is the key,” says Stark. “It needs to be convenient and safe.”

Everyone knows that maintenance is key, but Stark adds a word of caution about maintenance practices: “Make sure the oil you’re putting in is good quality and for the correct temperature and weather. Don’t contaminate what you put in [by using] a dirty funnel.” It’s also not a bad idea to pre-filter.

“It’s very important to keep systems clean,” agrees Bobcat’s Fitzgerald. “It’s critical to have clean oil—and the right oil—for hydraulics systems.” Oils are better today, he says, with specific additives designed for hydraulic systems to provide longer component life. Without proper lubrication, small water particles can float, causing damage.

Filtration is important too. Bobcat uses larger filters to provide extended service intervals, says Fitzgerald. Doosan uses a finer mesh. Better materials can contribute to extended intervals. Regardless of size or material, it’s best to stick to recommended service intervals for maximum component life and performance.

Improper filtration can also hinder performance. If, for example, filters become plugged, the machine is forced to use

more horsepower to perform.

At least every six months, hydraulic filters should be changed on older machines, advises Terex’s Leair, and machines should get a complete annual once-over that includes replacing hydraulic oil, the water separator/fuel filter, and the fuel filter element.

An auto-lube option is a time-saving system that Stark says is commonly requested on large Doosan wheel loaders because it provides the correct amount of grease for the hours worked. Undergreasing or not greasing is more common without an auto-lube system, but manually over-greasing is also an issue in some cases, he says. “If the machine is in a dusty application, the over-greased areas can collect dirt, which could cause unusual wear.”

Because it also saves grease by not over-greasing, an auto-lube system offers a financial benefit. It can be especially useful on big jobs with extended hours that prevent the typical checkpoint intervals or opportunities to re-lube. “If you’re working 10 hours, auto-lube keeps working,” he points out.

Auto-lube systems are designed to self-monitor to detect failure and broken or plugged lines, but most big machines are also equipped with monitoring that allows an operator to keep an eye on things from the cab, set up service intervals, and even perform some minor diagnostics. “There are more pieces to watch [in today’s hydraulics systems],” but they have built-in warnings,” says Fitzgerald.

“A dash display allows operators and service technicians to monitor pressures and diagnose problems in the cab without connecting to a computer,” adds Stark. The electronic interface between the hydraulic system and the operator is an important development that improves efficiency. Customers have deadlines; if the equipment is down for hours, it’s “big money,” he says, because “it’s not easy to get replacement equipment to the job site.”

In some ways, hydraulics are easier to maintain, believes CNH’s Kassen. “With traditional hydro-mechanical systems, it was sometimes difficult to find where the malfunction was. With electro-hydraulics, we can build in intelligence that can selfdiagnosis the problem. Is it a pump issue?

Is it a filter issue? What’s causing the malfunction? We’re making it easier for the

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done from the cab. Level grade used to be accomplished with stakes, tapes, and string. Today, it is done with site mapping and laser guidance, making it much more accurate and faster.”

Because flow and pressure work together to increase the productivity of the unit and how efficient the unit will be when carrying high-demand attachments, the hydraulic pressure of a machine is important to consider. However, says Leair, it’s often overlooked in the purchase decision, especially the auxiliary hydraulics. “Most contactors are only concerned with the flow capabilities of the unit; they seldom consider the pressure and how this affects the overall performance of the machine and any attachments it will be operating. For example, buyers need to be sure that the pressure of the unit matches the specification of

total by the constant, which is 1,714.

Here’s an example to better illustrate: a unit with 45 GPM and a pressure of 3,800 psi would have a hydraulic horsepower of 99.7.

“The most important thing is what the machine does for the customer,” sums up Kassen. Getting more work done and being more comfortable while doing it sells machines and is what operators and dealers are interested in, he believes.

Highly skilled drivers will find the learning curve short with John Deere’s automation control software on certain earth grading equipment, which Bauer says will improve productivity while further enhancing ease of operation.

Motor graders have an option called “cross-slope” that allows the operator to focus on one corner of the blade while the computer controls the other. “This John Deere

operator to understand what’s wrong.”

It’s important that the operator also understand the impact cleanliness can have on maintenance. For example, if the tip of the grease gun is dirty, it introduces contaminants, which can shorten service intervals. “Cleanliness comes down to the person doing the service,” observes Stark. “You can have a nice machine and do regular service, but if the tools used to service the machine are dirty, it doesn’t matter.”

As Bauer explains, technicians must train to be able to troubleshoot issues on today’s more complex hydraulic systems, and more often than not, the issue is caused by contamination. The environment this equipment operates in is dusty, dirty, or wet, and the source of many potential contaminants; the person servicing the machine shouldn’t be introducing contamination before the equipment ever gets to the job site.

“You can recognize a good operator by how the machine looks,” concludes Stark.

“Some are very proud of their equipment and take care of it.”

Talking Points Hydraulics are more than merely a talking point for dealers. Today’s operators are concerned about hydraulic system performance in two main areas, first and foremost productivity, says Bauer. “This is what ultimately gets the job done and puts the food on the table. The better the productivity, the more jobs can be done in a day, a week, or a year, which puts a lot more food on the table.”

The second area is efficiency. A more efficient system can produce the same work with less fuel usage. Lower fuel usage reduces operating cost. “There is a balance in performance between productivity and efficiency,” continues Bauer.

“Machines that excel in both areas are highly sought-after.”

Adding to both, advances in hydraulic technology provide ease of use. Changing attachments, tools, or buckets used to take either two people or several minutes, explains Bauer. “Now it can be

For related articles: www.gradingandexcavation.com

John Deere 844K II wheel loader

the attachment—too much flow can damage hydraulic drive motors and solenoids inside the attachment. And if the attachment does not have enough pressure, it will not perform correctly.”

Only once the amount of pressure needed is established do buyers have to consider the flow and pressure as a combined force and how this will affect their productivity. By being able to calculate the hydraulic horsepower of the unit, buyers can then pick the best unit for maximum productivity. Calculating hydraulic horsepower is simple: take the GPM, or flow of the unit, and multiply it by the psi, or pressure, then divide that

allows for faster ground speed while grading, and also provides for a more accurate cut.”

Hydraulic systems today are more efficient and higher performing due to increased flows and pressures, producing faster cycle times. They also provide versatility. Instead of dedicated machines that often sat unused, machines can easily swap attachments for more productivity.

“The increased hydraulic performance allows customers to add specialized attachments for versatility,” emphasizes Bobcat’s Fitzgerald. He lists trenchers, planers, wheel saws, and brush and forestry cutters, all of which perform Grading & Excavation Contractor 31

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better with higher flows and pressures. “Customers can replace dedicated machines that may not have high utilization with a skid-steer or compact track loader and several attachments that increase their efficiency and profitability.”

Hydraulic Hybrid

John Deere

For many customers, fuel cost is their highest cost of ownership.

Hybrid machines can be more efficient and save them money.

For example, an excavator swing system sees a lot of braking.

John Deere 310SL backhoe

Storing that wasted energy in an accumulator saves fuel, making a machine up to 50% more efficient.

“We chose hydraulic hybrid technology for the excavator because the electric hybrid cost was prohibitive,” says Randy Peterson, chief engineer for Cat hydraulics at Caterpillar. One of the benefits of that choice was familiarity. “An electric system would have required new learning [for maintenance]. We started with a foundation of familiar, proven technology and integrated differently.”

He calls the integration of components and electronic controls Cat’s “secret sauce.” The 336E H hybrid excavator, a Tier IV interval machine first produced in 2013, and its successor, the 336F XE, a Tier IV final machine, offer precise control with lower fuel consumption. A larger electronic pump enables speed reduction on the engine for increased efficiency while electronic control provides more response and more precise control of the hydraulic flow, supplying just enough power where and when needed. An integrated electronic-controlled fly-by-wire valve is the adaptive control system behind the new technology—an industry first, adds Peterson.

“The reliability is phenomenal,” exults Peterson. “It has the intelligence of electronics and the muscle of hydraulics.”

He says it has the same or better performance as a standard machine, despite the perception that a hybrid would be slower and less powerful because it’s quieter. “The engine speed dropped from 1,800 to 1,500 rpm, but its power rating is the same; it has muscle.”

It’s also easier to diagnose and maintain, he says, with service intervals that keep growing. “You can go 3,000 hours or more

on hydraulic oil changes with good maintenance practices.”

Good Maintenance Practices Start With the OEM Contaminants can easily be introduced during the change of attachments if the connectors aren’t clean, points out Steve DePriest, product specialist with Hyundai Construction Equipment.

Equipment manufacturers are designing machines for easier serviceability, as well. Pressures can be checked in real time from the cab. “Our wheel loaders are equipped with a quick drain so there’s little chance of backflow contamination,” says Rogers.

Other state-of-the-art technology from Cat include bushings treated for corrosion-resistance; filters on breathers; multistage filtration that includes a sump screen and return filter to decrease contamination; remote-mounted filters with ground-level access behind the compartment door so they are out of the weather; and the ability to set when and how long and how often to lube from the cab.

Dan Beverley, Cat’s district service rep, offers other suggestions, such as using highlife oil for extended service intervals so the operator is not opening the hydraulic tank as often and risking further contamination. New oil should be filtered—although he realizes that most people don’t clean new oil.

Another key is to address the type of application and the number of working hours, and adjust the intervals in accord with the severity. “Manuals are based on a standard environment,” he says.

Future for Hydraulics Peterson envisions Caterpillar making pump controls more intelligent to handle any environment. He also thinks hydraulic hybrid technology will continue to expand. “We’ll leverage the technology across other products to store and recover wasted energy through integration of systems for more power and efficiency to reduce total cost of ownership for our customers.”

Automation will grow transparent, believes Peterson. It’s what “makes a less skilled operator look good and makes an expert even better with information about grade level.”

Higher productivity and ease of use can be achieved through automation. Kassen says CASE “will continue to look at ways to automate functions for the operator—to make it easier for an inexperienced operator to perform at a higher level and to have an experienced operator be able to get more work done than they’ve ever been able to in the past.”

Automation, including GPS control on a grader blade for levelling, will become more prevalent, predicts Fitzgerald, especially as the cost comes down. “It’s very accurate, but it has to be cost effective in compact equipment.”

An element of cost effectiveness is the ability of the operator to multi-task without losing power because the oil flows to multiple functions simultaneously. “This can only happen because of a load-sensing controller that senses which function has the highest load pressure and then feeds this flow requirement immediately to the pump,” explains Terex’s Leair.

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Because compact excavators were not engineered with auxiliary hydraulics when first introduced, they were known for their “herky-jerky, unresponsive-underpowered motion,” he says. “The machines were constructed with only hydraulics for the basic joystick functions.” Compact excavator owners had to re-plumb their hydraulics to divert flow to additional systems in order to run multiple functions at once. Typically, this resulted in lower flow to the machine’s main functions, giving the machines a slow, sluggish, jerky response and imprecise control.

Therefore, the evolution of hydraulic systems—and the future—is all about the control of the hydraulic fluid, insists Leair. “With new electronics being integrated into loader designs, the future of hydraulics will be about the control of fluid and how the machine’s systems [have the] ability to communicate with each other.” This control of hydraulic oil is referred to as load independent flow division. Hydraulic oil is supplied to the motors and cylinders, per operator commands, without regard to what other functions are being operated.

Controlling the flow promotes flexibility. “Our M Series dozers have different levels of blade control,” says Kassen. “If you’re doing a finishing grade, you may want a slower response so it’s as smooth as possible. If you’re trying to move as much dirt as possible, you can set it to a more aggressive level. We’ve got that flexibility built into the machine through hydraulics, and we’re building more into future machines.”

CASE is also adding functionality that improves the productivity of the operator, such as automatic ride control, auto height

FREE Technology Showcase!

control, and max height control—all of which can be set in the cab versus mechanical adjustments outside of the vehicle. “As soon as the operator digs into a pile, they have the rigidity they want, and then when they get back up to a traveling speed, the ride control function automatically kicks back in and provides a smoother ride. Those are just some of the examples where hydraulics has made it easier for the operator to do their job and improve their productivity,” notes Kassen.

“There’s no debating that Tier 4 has changed the way equipment is designed,” he continues. Engines run cleaner, machines run cleaner. But, he points out, “CASE has made a specific effort to go beyond compliance and provide greater power and performance with Tier 4 machines, and hydraulics play a big part in that. Our Tier 4 engines are significantly quieter than Tier 3 engines, so operators are going to notice that the cab is quieter than it used to be.”

Increased performance and lower maintenance costs (due both to better manufacturing processes and to better oils and additives) are the future, says Fitzgerald. Electronic controls inside the cab will enable an operator to change attachments more quickly and easily. “One guy can add a breaker for concrete, a grapple to move material, a bucket to level, or a vibratory roller to pack material. Versatility enables small contractors to be more competitive.”

Winner of several Society of Professional Journalists awards, Lori Lovely writes on topics related to technology and construction equipment.

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Operational Transparency: Utility Detection Systems

X

-ray vision is something that is usually associated with superheroes. Lacking the ability to see through pavement, contractors have to rely on the next best thing: advanced utility detection technology. A construction project, especially in an urban area, is a potential minefield of utilities and objects that can be ruptured, dislodged, or broken by excavator activity: electrical power lines, communication wires, sewers, gas pipelines, etc.

Even though reasonably accurate records of a siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s underground utilities may be available, no contractor should rely on what could be outdated written records. Contractors must know before they break ground that unrecorded utilities are absent. Though a utility may have been decommissioned and abandoned in place, contractors canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t risk damaging expensive utilities or endangering their work force. Even abandoned and decommissioned utilities can prove dangerous. For example, an old abandoned natural gas pipeline could have retained significant quantities of flammable methane that could explode upon contact with an excavator bucket. The construction industry relies on subsurface detection technologies of various types and applications.

GSSI

BY DANIEL P. DUFFY

series of aligned peak signals where these joints are located, providing information on the pipeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alignment and depth by connecting the dots.

Though usually made of bundled copper wire, thin electrical power lines must usually be carrying a current to be detected magnetically. If a cable or line has been abandoned or is disconnected, operating the magnetic detector in direct mode can be used to induce a magnetic field. This is done by attaching a low voltage power source via clamps to the ends of the cable or pipeline. The result is a stronger signal running directly along the target alignment that allows for detection at greater depths and longer distances. Similarly, the transmitter operating in

A GSSI utility scan

There are several categories of utility detection technologies: magnetic, ground penetrating radar (GPR), passive sound detection, and location data recorders.

Magnetic detection can be used to find ferrous metals of all kinds used in the construction of conduits, pipe lines, power cables carrying an electric current, and communication lines transmitting a signal. Non-ferrous materials must be detected by other means. One of the oddities of magnetic detection occurs because the strongest signals come from the ends of the object being detected. This is because the ends are where the lines of magnetic force tend to concentrate. As a result, a vertically oriented object (even a small steel drum) can often be easier to find than a horizontally oriented cast-iron water main hundreds of feet long. This same effect occurs at the joints of this same water line where sequentially laid metal pipe segments join to form the pipeline. The magnetic detection display can show a

GSSI

Utility Detection Methods and Technologies

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broadcast induction mode—after it is placed over the target line and activated—will also induce a signal that can be traced by the receiver.

As the magnetic detection unit operator walks over a buried line, the receiver generates an audio signal indicating when the operator is directly above the buried utility. When not above a utility, the receiver’s magnetic field sensors balance out the earth’s background magnetic field and produce a low frequency (about 40 Hz) audio signal indicating the absence of a utility line. The frequency of the audio signal increases as the operator approaches the utility until it hits its peak and then declines as the operator moves and passes over the line. Marking the surface locations of these peak signals will provide a visual indication of the utility’s location and alignment. Similarly, damaged electrical cables can be located by measuring the resultant voltage differentials in the soil.

Utilizing an electromagnetic antenna that broadcasted radio waves tuned to a frequency that can penetrate soils (including rock, concrete, ice, and other common natural and man-made materials), GPR provides a broader detection technology than the more narrowly focused magnetic detection technique.

Though it has capabilities that make it suitable for obtaining geotechnical information as well as locating utilities, a GPR unit often requires more time to process data than simpler magnetic detection techniques and it tends to cost more.

However, its abilities make it useful for outside of urban areas where natural conditions are dominant and utility locations are sparser than in cities.

GPR is functionally not much different than the more common aerial radar. By sending out pulses of high frequency radio waves, it can determine underground conditions from the radio waves that bounce back from solid objects such as buried utilities. These radio echoes bounce back to the surface where they are detected by the receiving antennae. The rest of the radio energy penetrates deeper into the soil until it encounters other objects and bounces signals back to the surface. The echoes delineate underground interfaces and surfaces such as changes in soil moisture and clay content, fractures and voids, cement chunks and solid pavement, gravel bedding, and man-made utilities. Increasing the transmitted radio frequency also increases the resolution of the radar reflections. Though its primary focus is on delineating regional hydro-stratigraphy, sensitive GPR units can also reveal the locations and depths of utilities.

In addition to avoiding existing utilities during general excavation and construction, a contractor may need to deliberately find a utility that needs repair. Such a search is usually performed for broken water mains when the precise location of the leak has to be determined. These leaks make noise which can be sensed by passive sound detection devices. Passive sound detectors allow operators to determine the location of leaks with highly sensitive ground microphones. First, they pick up noise from the water leaks that are transmitted along the pipelines themselves (sound vibrations tend to carry further and more clearly along the body of the pipeline). As the operator gets closer to the source of the leak, the noises get louder and fade as he or she passes beyond the leak. It is the point of peak noise

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that gives the location of the leak. This basic search technique can be augmented with a pair of spring-loaded snap locktype pliers to the water valve. Attach a strong magnet to the pliers, and then listen for the leak. The water-leak noise will transmit through the valve, pliers, and magnet, into the sensor from a depth down to 6 or 8 feet, and at a distance up to 50 feet. This method can be used to isolate the two valves on which the leak noise is the loudest.

Once buried utility data is obtained from one or all of these techniques, how are these locations to be recorded? Locations can be noted by simple chalk marks or spray paint on surfaces, or digitally recorded in a sophisticated GPS computerized data base. Location data recorders included auxiliary field computers and GPS survey equipment. The result, especially when combined with computeraided design (CAD) drawings of the site, can include changes in terrain elevation, existing utilities, property lines, roads, railroads, building foundations, rivers, and the site’s hydrogeologic features. And information from even the most sophisticated data recording system can be represented in the field by simple pint marks that visually guide the excavator operator.

However, earthmoving equipment today is guided by GPS, whenever possible. With these systems the utility detector can be connected to a GPS unit or a similar automated surveying device, and the information entered directly into the computer’s database. The computer can then display real-time CAD updates of existing site plan drawings as each newly discovered utility line is discovered. These can be combined with CAD drawings of the proposed grading plans to determine which utility and segments of the utility lines are to be affected by earthmoving activities. Survey data can then be entered into the system to record repair locations and changes in utility alignments.

Current Benefits and Coming Advances What are the latest advancements in the utility detection industry and what will their impact be? Recent advances include scanners that scan the job site and automatically recommend the optimum search frequency based on local soil and construction conditions. Powerful

12-watt transmitters drive signals farther down large, direct-buried utilities. Dual output transmitters can now connect to two utilities at once. Transmitter frequency and power level can be remotely controlled from the receiver. Sensors now have the ability to detect the direction of the current to identify a utility target line. The allied technology of GPR has been advanced by newer computer chips, more memory, and other computer hardware improvements. In addition to these improvements, the systems have become more user-friendly and more accurate.

This increased accuracy results from dual frequency antennas. With two frequencies available in a single antenna box, GPR can detect a wider range of utilities. Traditional frequency can detect objects that are buried more deeply while the secondary frequency detects shallower objects.

In addition to improved performance, utility technology advances have made these systems more user-friendly. The more advanced locator systems include four-button intuitive operators’ interfaces, high-contrast LCD displays visible even in direct sunlight, and multiple language text.

These recent developments represent significant advances over earlier detection technology. The earliest detection “technology” consisted of a diviner’s witching rods that would cross over each other as the diviner walked over the buried utility.

From a purely mechanical “analog” device such as the diviner’s rods, today’s technology has evolved along the same lines as cell phone technology. With advances in technology have also come reductions in size. Early GPR units utilized large tapeto-tape electronic devices operated by a unit the size of a van. Today’s GPRs are either handheld models or wheeled units the size of a lawn mover.

But are extremely accurate utility detection tools necessary? What benefits does the contractor accrue from their use? Simply put, this technology affects the contractor’s bottom line. They reduce the risk of hitting a buried utility and the resulting costly damages. Accurate site knowledge results in more efficient excavation operations with less downtime, less risk, and increased productivity. GPR units especially have high degrees of accuracy.

The benefits of using utility detection technology include improved safety,

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operation efficiency, and cost savings.

Short of manually digging test holes or relying completely on available site plans (which are never fully complete) a contractor doesn’t have much of a choice. At any construction site there are known unknowns—such as the depth of an electrical cable—as well as far more dangerous unknown unknowns, like a gas line whose location, alignment, and depth are not shown on any map drawing. Advanced utility detection technology eliminates both, allowing workers to work safely. It also allows them to work efficiently. Knowing where buried utilities are located allows excavators to properly plan and stage their work to minimize work stoppage and downtime. Avoiding accidents and delays adds to the bottom line by achieving significant cost savings.

The safety and financial benefits of current utility detection technology should be obvious, but in such a potentially hazard-strewn environment, what do operators need to be especially careful about in their inspections? Aside from the obvious dangers on a work site, the contractor needs to focus on established, solid procedures to maintain safe work conditions. In addition to internal procedures, external communications are also vital. This includes interviews with people familiar with the site, such as former owners, operators, government officials, and contractors.

Different technologies are required for detecting metal, plastic, concrete pipes, and fiber cables. Products used to locate metal or metallic lines are based on electromagnetic (EM) detection—technology that has been around a long time, evolving to make the detection method more familiar. Detecting non-metallic pipes and cables is technically more difficult, and is based on radar, sound, or other techniques that have physical limitations. GPR is capable of finding all kinds of pipe materials. Any solid object that differs from the softer surrounding soils shows up. The outlines of buried pipe trenches are also apparent on GPR scans.

However, buried cables placed inside

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larger conduits may be difficult to locate, so GPR needs to be augmented by other techniques.

Major Suppliers Ditch Witch of Charles Machine Works Inc. provides a wide range of cable avoidance systems ranging in size from the hand held 150R/T to the large UtiliGuard locating system. The Ditch Witch 150R/T electronic locating system is a lightweight (just over 5 pounds), inexpensive tool for detecting obstacles beneath the surface.

It comes with optional beacons to help trace water, sewer, or drain lines. The more powerful Ditch Witch 250R/T helps locate utilities even when signals are either extremely weak or extremely strong, while the high-frequency 830R/T is designed as a contractor-grade locating system.

Their UtiliGuard locating system includes numerous features, including the accuracy-enhancing Ambient Interference Measurement (AIM), which automatically recommends the best frequency. AIM scans the surrounding area for noise and recommends the best frequencies for the fastest, most accurate locations. UtiliGuard has a powerful dual output 12-watt transmitter for sending signals deep below grade. This dual output can connect to two utilities at once, reducing the time required to locate multiple services.

It can operate at 70 standard frequencies via user-configurable software.

For more than four decades, Geophysical Survey Systems Inc. has been the world leader in the development and manufacture of subsurface GPR and EM imaging systems. Their flexible data acquisition systems can be utilized and integrated with their radar antennas, providing a series of utility locating system options. These include the UtilityScan DF, a GPR unit used for utility locating.

It incorporates digital dual-frequency antenna (operating at frequencies of 300 and 800 MHz). This dual-frequency antenna makes it easier to detect a wider range of utilities. Operator interface is provided by a touchscreen that can view shallow and deep targets simultaneously in a single scan. Advancements to these systems have given users the ability to perform filtering and corrections on the equipment itself. This allows users to troubleshoot and perform real-time onscreen improvements. The system can

operate for up to eight hours while surveying at ground speeds up to 6.25 miles per hour. The UtilityScan is used to locate the position and depth of metallic and non-metallic objects, including utilities such as gas, communications, sewer lines, underground storage tanks, and PVC pipes, and allows operators to quickly identify and mark the location and depth of buried utilities. UtilityScan is the most popular all-purpose utility locating GPR system and can also convert to a concrete inspection system with various accessories. UtilityScan LT is a less expensive GPR unit based on UtilityScan. The UtilityScan LT is purpose-built and serves as an entry-level utility locating system.

Though it has been a supplier of innovative instruments for subsurface investigation and exploration for almost a century, MALÅ GeoScience USA Inc. has spent the last 25 years focused on the manufacturing, research, and development of cutting-edge, non-destructive ground penetrating radar solutions. The result is a broad and versatile range of ground penetrating radar equipment, from standardized systems to complex

and embedded systems. These systems allow operators to efficiently collect, analyze, and transform ground penetrating radar data into understandable and correct visual representations of the subsurface. MALÅ GPR equipment is costeffectively meeting the high productivity requirements of our users. Geoscience provides four MALÅ GroundExplorer solutions: the GX80, GX160, GX450, and the GX750. The GX Controller is built around a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor and using a high-resolution 1,024 by 768 pixel display to present the 32-bit data. Its interface is based on the MALÅ XV Monitor GUI. McLaughlin utility locator systems feature gain controls and mode options that help the operator adjust to the necessary setting to prevent signal distortion. All of their utility locating equipment features multiple antennas to help filter out noise, and provide a clear accurate signal with accurate depth readings. Their Vision FLX is a cable locator that combines a state-of the art fault-finding system with a cable locator. It can perform cable tracing and depth calculations to pinpoint ground

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to walk back to the transmitter to change frequencies since the ST-33Q+ can be controlled remotely from the sr-24 keypad.

Sensors & Software Inc. produces LMX100, a GPR unit designed with simplicity in mind. It can locate metallic and non-metallic utilities, utilities with broken tracer wires, and the disturbed soil often associated with utility burial. Balancing depth penetration, resolution, and accurate locating, subsurface data is collected in Locate & Mark mode; this provides a real-time image in the field to identify utilities and mark their locations. Their new Utility SmartCart can both locate and mark utility locations on the surface.

Its survey and map mode provides location, mapping and SUM/SUE reporting capabilities. This includes full digital data recording while in Survey & Map mode.

In combination with the EKKO_Project software, it can create depth slices from survey grids.

Subsite Electronics, a Charles Machine Works Inc. company, provides a comprehensive suite of electronic products including utility locators, HDD guidance equipment, and machine controls. Their UtiliGuard multi-frequency locator comes equipped with multiple accuracy-enhancing features, highlighted by AIM technology, Ridgid

return faults on electric, CATV, and telecommunications cables. An optional Cable ID attachment can be used to identify energized or de-energized underground electrical lines in transformers, switch boxes, and excavations.

RIDGID is integrating wireless and mapping functions into their underground locating products. The SR-24 is RIDGID’s latest receiver, adding wireless and GPS features to their SR-20 utility locator. The SR-24 utilizes wireless Bluetooth communication to connect to external devices such as high-accuracy GPS units, compatible signal transmitters, and even smartphones. The SR-24 connects wirelessly to most high accuracy sub-meter GPS handheld devices with Bluetooth. In this mode, the GPS handheld device is the primary data capture point to obtain the most accurate position information, obtaining depth and signal information wirelessly from the SR-24.

This can be combined with RIDGIDtrax, a free app for smartphones and tablets, to visually display GPS line traces in real time (having a nominal accuracy of less than 8 feet, with accuracy increasing with a clear line of sight to GPS satellites overhead). Its hardware includes its own GPS antenna on board for applications that do not require detailed sub-meter position information. It records GPS and location information with its onboard microSD card. This data is stored in a universal KML file which can subsequently be imported into GIS mapping programs such as Google Earth.

RIDGIDtrax is fully compatible with smartphone technology, eliminating the need for more expensive hardware displays and controls. The RIDGIDtrax app for iOS and Android can be downloaded onto an operator’s smartphone and used to operate the SR-24’s GPS. This app allows the operator to view positional information in real time to document underground assets by selecting the utility type (gas, electric, water, etc.) prior to walking the utility alignment. The completed KML map can be digitally shared via e-mail for reference by other users.

In effect, it “paints” electronic markers on a digital version of the surface that reappear as the site is walked again in the future. In addition, SR-24 comes with long range wireless Bluetooth included in the new ST-33Q+ signal transmitter. This saves the operator the trouble of having

which automatically recommends the best frequency. The UtiliGuard locating line offers an industry best IP65 environmental rating allowing functionality in dusty or dirty job-site conditions. The product also offers exceptional battery life saving time and money. The operating battery life of the transmitter is 100 hours, and the receiver 30 hours.

UtiliGuard also has a 12-watt transmitter that sends signals farther down the utilities. The display is highly visible in all conditions, including direct sunlight.

The transmitter can be remotely controlled by the receiver which saves the technician time allowing them to control power level, frequency, and dual output functionality without walking back to the transmitter. Its use of Bluetooth technology simplifies communication and data transfer to other communication devices.

The UtiliGuard locator is direction enabled, providing—for example—the direction of the current to help you identify the target line. And by accurately providing both the horizontal and vertical distance (depth) to the utility, it enables users to determine accurate locations of obstructed utilities.

Its AIM technology scans the surrounding area for noise and recommends the best frequencies for the fastest, most accurate locates.

By using a dual output transmitter, it can connect to two utilities at once, reducing the time required RIDGID’s to locate multiple services.

SR-24 and In addition to power, the RIDGIDtrax system comes with built in smartphone app flexibility provided by 70 standard frequencies via user-configurable software.

Underground imaging technologies (UIT) includes unique, proprietary geophysical hardware and software developed to acquire, process, interpret, and map 3-D subsurface data rapidly and efficiently. Their multi-functional data acquisition program simultaneously gathers geophysical and positioning information, and then employs a dynamic interpretation program to process, display, and interpret collected data.

Electromagnetic induction instruments

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by municipalities, contractors, plumbers, small water systems, homeowners, and other users. It comes with three filter settings that allow equipment to be perfectly adjusted to the individual task while suppressing interfering background noise. It is equipped with the sensitive GM80 wind protected ground microphone as well as a heavy duty contact microphone.

US Radar of Matawan, NJ, is manufacturer and distributor of surfacepenetrating radar, also known as ground

penetrating radar, systems. Their Seeker SPR technology was originally in the 1980s to locate plastic landmines. The company was formed in 1994 to adapt the military-grade GPR technology for commercial applications. US Radar develops its own software, hardware, and equipment engineering and manufacturing. It has recently begun production of its cost effective Q5C ground penetrating radar system that employs their SmartGain system’s digital clarity. It can be used for most GPR applications but is

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are an important part of UIT’s geophysical toolbox, combining both electromagnetic detection and GPR capabilities.

These instruments detect changes in the electrical conductivity of the subsurface by measuring certain attributes of waves received back from the ground after being transmitted from the system(s).

These instruments are able to map metallic utilities, buried debris, and other areas of disturbance such as graves and simple soil changes. A benefit of these instruments is that they work to detect metallic items in soils unfavorable for GPR and do not require a connection to the utility.

By utilizing standard resistive fault locates (RFLs) from manufacturers such as Radiodetection and Vivax/Metrotech, UIT can further enhance its utility mapping capabilities. By either measuring the passive signals carried along a utility or by tracing an electromagnetic field induced onto an electrically conductive utility by a transmitter, it can read the signal strength in the field while placing a physical mark on the surface (which can later be surveyed) indicating the location of the buried utility. UIT also utilizes the SPAR300, an advanced RFL instrument coupled to precision GNSS and RTS systems, in select utility mapping applications. SPAR 300 is also able to quantify the error associated with the utility mapping measurements, which enables error bars and confidence levels to be determined and plotted. Further accuracy is achieved with the use of the 14 antenna TerraVision II array combined with single antennae GPR carts. This allows UIT to cover large areas of ground in a day and produce three-dimensional images.

Vivax-Metrotech Corp. is a worldwide developer of pipe and cable locators, CCTV inspection cameras, and water leak locating products—including their vScan locator, designed to make buried utility detection a simple and cost effective process. Its additional optional features like GPS, BT, and a buried metal cover mode allows an operator to work the system with minimal training.

Its latest development is the HL 50 Acoustic Water Leak Survey Tool. The HL 50 is designed for municipalities and contractors making leak surveys. Its acoustic properties, simple filter settings, large LCD and extremely long battery life ensure optimum efficiency. The HL 50 is a handheld device suitable for use

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Grading & Excavation Contractor 41

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work in their public works, environmental, and utility locating efforts,” says Ron LaBarca, president, US Radar Inc. The US Radar Q5C model incorporates SmartStack, a unique algorithm that takes advantage of spare processing power to improve image quality and increase the depth of penetration. This is especially effective in soils that tend to dissipate electrical energy. StreetSmart system’s onboard processing, also standard, eliminates the need for postprocessing of information. This allows the

especially effective at detecting and locating utilities, infrastructure, and natural gas pipelines.

The basic Q5C operates at a frequency range of 300–1,300 MHz with a single battery operating the unit. It comes standard with a 1.9 GHz multi-core Intel Atom processor and 10.4-inch daylightreadable LED color display. “The US Radar Q5C unit is going to give contractors and municipalities that never considered buying their own radar unit the chance to put ground penetrating radar to

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operator to see and evaluate data in real time rather than go back to the office.

“The cost of entry for the Q5C makes it worthwhile for anyone who’s been thinking about locating to give it a try. Yet, this workhorse delivers the most powerful GPR on the market for locating utilities up to 15 feet deep,” says LaBarca. Operators can build on base unit, adding functionality and additional performance to the base model. “Users can add capability both through hardware and software upgrades to build the base model into a top-shelf GPR unit,” says LaBarca.

Matching their hardware is their associated software, Version 5.0 of its Seeker acquisition software, which automates several key capabilities to help assure the accuracy of the overall system. Seeker 5.0 simplifies use of both the software and the GPR equipment by automating several crucial settings such as gain control, which adjusts the gain of the radar signal to enhance underground target identification and layer tracing. Seeker 5.0 also automatically recognizes and confirms the GPR system’s antenna and configures antenna-specific settings such as depth range and encoder interval. The software also includes an industry-exclusive override capability to enable experienced operators to manually set gain levels, and such features as soil condition calibration; geo-positioning and backtracking; data recording and storage; distance measurement; and highlighting and annotating specific locations, positions, and depths.

US Radar also offers the Quantum Imager, the world’s first ground penetrating radar system to use triple-frequency radar technology for locating and imaging objects at greater depths and with higher resolution than competitive single- or dual-frequency systems. The Quantum Imager excels in a wide variety of applications, from bridge deck analysis to locating and imaging utilities at depths up to 30 feet—twice the depth limit of dualfrequency systems and three times that of single-frequency units. The Quantum Imager applies ultra-wideband pulses that combine the advantages of pulse radar and stepped frequency radar. The system effectively renders high-resolution imagery of underground objects.

Daniel P. Duffy, P.E., writes frequently on the topics of landfills and the environment.

42 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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Project Profile BY JAMES MCRAY

California General Contractor Avoids Puncturing Aquifer by Using Efficiency Production’s ClearSpan Slide Rail to Shore Tank Set

Covey-Lynnwood

J

ones Covey Group Inc. (JCGI), headquarted in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, recently installed four large underground storage tanks as part of the construction of a new gas station in Lynnwood, WA. The excavation for the tank set, though rather large—about 65 feet square—was only 16 feet deep; a very manageable task for a veteran contractor such as Jones Covey. However, the project rang true to a catch phrase from a shark attack documentary: “danger lies just below the surface.”

“The ground conditions were a very dense glacial till,” says Mike Roach, JCGI’s estimator on the project. “But the big problem was the presence of a pressurized aquifer beneath the excavation site, creating a situation where the groundwater level was above rough grade of the site,” explains Roach.

And still more challenges for Jones Covey: “The gas station is being built where the old Lynnwood high school was located and there is a retaining wall just a few feet off one side of the excavation,” says Roach. “Because the gas station development JCGI gas company requires the fill station ports for fuel deliveries to excavation be located outside of the main gas pump vehicle queues, there was no option to relocate the tanks,” he continues. “We were forced to place the excavation as drawn, meaning we’d have to dig and install shoring with no direct access

for the excavator on one whole side near the retaining wall,” says Roach.

So to review: Jones Covey needed to excavate a very large hole a few feet away from a retaining wall, with no access on

one complete side for the excavator—plus install shoring that has minimum toe embedment so as to avoid puncturing an aquifer just below the surface of final grade.

Grading & Excavation Contractor 43

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Project Profile BY JAMES MCRAY

Slide Rail System Is Perfect Shoring Solution Slide rail is a component shoring system comprised of steel panels (similar to trench shield sidewalls) and vertical steel posts. It is installed by sliding the panels into integrated rails on the posts, and then pushing the panels and posts incremen-

Covey-Lynnwood

First Step: Get Help Finding a Shoring System Because the excavation was deeper than 5 feet, a trench protection system was required as mandated by OSHA. That means Jones Covey needed to slope, shore, or shield the jumbo-sized working pit. Shielding was immediately ruled out as impractical. Sloping the pit might have been possible if not for the retaining wall just a few feet from one of the banks.

Ninety percent of the time, a large excavation like this would utilize some type of sheeting system or beam and plate; however, none of those over-toeing systems would work because of the likelihood of puncturing the aquifer.

Jones Covey, along with the project engineers from D. H. Charles Engineering and excavation subcontractor OSG Dozing, made a call to D. P. Nicoli—one of the leading trench shielding and shoring distributors in the Pacific Northwest. “We got together to look at all the possible shoring options,” says Kai Zimmerman, shoring specialist with D. P. Nicoli, “but I knew there was really only one option: slide rail,” confirms Zimmerman.

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44 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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tally down to grade as the pit is dugâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a process commonly referred to as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;dig and pushâ&#x20AC;? shoring system. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The reason I knew slide rail would work is because it is considered â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;positive shoring,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? explains Zimmerman. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no over-excavation, no toeing with slide rail. It keeps constant pressure against the surrounding dirt, which was critical in keeping the bank along the retaining wall in place,â&#x20AC;? adds Zimmerman.

D. P. Nicoli exclusively represents Efficiency Productionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manufactured slide rail system.

The universal system can be used in a variety of configurations, such as small four-sided pits, an obstruction-free ClearSpan configuration, or in a multibay configuration to install large tanks and structures or lengths of pipe over 40 feet.

ClearSpan Configured Slide Rail Perfect to Shore Large Excavation With equipment rented from D. P. Nicoli, subcontractor OSG Dozing excavated the tank set area and installed a 64 by 66 by 16 foot ClearSpan configured slide rail system. ClearSpanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design is unique to the industry in that it shores a large working pit without any need for cross-braces. The system stays entirely open by utilizing innovative waler i-beams on the outside of the system at the top, and inside the system low in the excavation to prevent deflection. The walers integrate into the slide rail system with the use of custom brackets with rollers that slide along the posts.

Four tanks were set in the slide rail shored excavation: three 54-foot long, 30,000-gallon tanks, and a 37-foot long, 20,000-gallon tank. All four tanks were 10.5 feet in diameter.

The heavy equipment on the job used to install the slide rail system and set the tanks were a 60-ton mobile crane from Ness & Campbell, a 460 John Deere excavatorâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;plus a 644 Deere front loader, and a second 210 Deere excavator.

High Praise for D. P. Nicoli and Efficiencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Slide Rail System The excavation contractor, OSG Dozing, had used slide rail before, but this was certainly the largest system they had installed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The [slide rail] system is great, everybody likes it including the GC, engineers, and project owner,â&#x20AC;? confirms OSG Dozingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foreman, Rod Hudson. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Plus, D. P. Nicoli always offers great support whenever we rent equipment from them.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;D. P. Nicoliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representative, Kai Zimmerman, was instrumental to this project with his planning and installation support,â&#x20AC;? adds Roach. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our collective efforts gave everyone a high level of confidence in the project even before the first shovel was in the ground,â&#x20AC;? he concluded.

Jones Covey Group Inc. is a southern California based licensed comprehensive general contractor and construction management firm specializing in project development, design build, construction, construction management, and post-construction services. Information about the company can be found at: www.jonescovey.com.

With offices in northern California and the Pacific Northwest, D. P. Nicoli Inc. has served the piling and shoring needs of the heavy construction industry for 26 years. Visit www.dpnicoli. com for more information.

Efficiency Production, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Trench Box Builder,â&#x20AC;? provides the widest selection of standard and custom trench shielding and shoring systems. Efficiencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s versatile products are designed specifically for safe and cost effective installation of utility systems and infrastructure improvements. All products are P.E. certified to meet OSHA standards. More information can be found by visiting www.efficiencyproduction.com.

James McRay is the director of marketing and media for Efficiency Production Inc.

Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Trench Box Builderâ&#x201E;˘ (IĂ&#x20AC;FLHQF\ 3URGXFWLRQ ,QF The Contractorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Choice for Trench Shoring, Nationwide! Â&#x201E; Largest selection of shielding and shoring equipment available.

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Grading & Excavation Contractor 45

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Project Profile BY GREGG HENNIGAN

Tub Grinder Design and Use Is a Family Affair Iowa man uses machine brother helped design

LaVerne. “And Vermeer listened to the customer feedback. By the time I got into the business, they had done a pretty good job developing the machine.”

That was a few years ago. LaVerne took early retirement after nearly three decades as a production manager and a trainer at Pella Corp., a window company, and in 2010, helped at Harold’s farm, primarily with the tub grinder. That fall, Harold, who was nearing retirement, asked LaVerne if he wanted to buy the machine.

Photos: Vermeer

W

hen LaVerne DeBoef climbs into the cab of his tub grinder, for the most part, he operates as a one-man crew breaking down wood and yard waste for companies and municipalities across the Midwest. But in some ways, it is very much a family affair.

One of his brothers, Duane, was a product specialist at Vermeer Corp. based in Pella, IA, and was involved in the development of the predecessor to the TG5000 tub grinder he uses. Another brother, Harold, was a farmer who also did grinding around southeast Iowa, and he operated one of the early versions of the TG5000 tub grinder.

“Duane was working with Vermeer and Harold was doing the work,” says

LaVerne DeBoef in front of his TG5000

46 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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long optional loader and grapple, he took wood waste and brush from a large pile to his left and dumped it in the rotating tub, each load taking about 15 seconds.

The ground-up product then went up the machineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conveyor belt and into another large pile.

LaVerne had an office job for most of his career at Pella Corp. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where he became familiar with wood and the value of recycling, but he enjoys working outside in a more hands-on role.

5Se N ss e ion w Se rie s!

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I went from being an office person to getting out here and working my tail off,â&#x20AC;? he says at the Washington job site, the yellow tub grinder and piles of waste and ground-up product behind him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And it has just been a great, great change.â&#x20AC;?

LaVerne says he grinds approximately 20,000 tons of material per year across his customer base. He does not sell the product himself. Mulching and bedding companies take the mulch he creates and color it, bag it, and sell it.

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Jeffrey L. Bruce, FASLA, LEED, ASIC, GRP

Owner Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company, LLC

Steven W. Polk, P.E., EMBA Founding Principal Stormwater STL LLC

Gene L. Rovak, P.E., CFM, F.ASCE, CFM

Senior Project Manager Horner & Shifrin, Inc.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;I said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Yeah, I think I do,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? says LaVerne. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really just had a ball running the machine.â&#x20AC;?

Harold had a few big customers, most of them wanting pallets ground up and turned into mulch for landscaping. LaVerne began inquiring around southeast Iowa to drum up more business, and he started getting a lot of jobs with public works departments. Operating as DeBoef Grinding out of New Sharon, IA, he says about half his business is from landscaping companies and the other half is from municipalities.

One of those cities is Washington, IA. A county seat with more than 7,000 residents, city crews collect yard waste, tree trimmings, and brush twice a week from April until just before Thanksgiving and take it to a yard at the wastewater treatment facility. Residents can also haul material out there themselves.

The yard waste is mixed in with leaf piles, which are turned at least once a month, says J. J. Bell, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s maintenance and construction superintendent. The leaves come from the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fall leaf pickup program, when residents rake them to the curb and a city truck comes by and vacuums them up.

After LaVerne grinds the material, it becomes a â&#x20AC;&#x153;hot commodityâ&#x20AC;? as compost that residents can take for free, says Bell.

Some of the ground-up wood waste is used as mulch.

LaVerne comes to Washington at least three times per year and generates an estimated 800 cubic yards of finished product each time, says Bell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;LaVerne has been doing a fabulous job and comes within a week or so after being called,â&#x20AC;? says Bell.

LaVerne was at the Washington facility in August, working on a windy day under a cloudless blue sky. Using the 27-foot-

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Grading & Excavation Contractor 47

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Project Profile BY GREGG HENNIGAN “I’m adding value to the product,” says LaVerne. “We grind mountains of mulch.”

Much of his business comes from word of mouth, and what was supposed to be a part-time job in retirement has become more than that. He has some competition, but he says the size of his Vermeer TG5000 tub grinder makes it feasible for him to do jobs that range anywhere from one day to as long as a couple of weeks.

“There are some of the bigger outfits

that don’t mess around with these oneday jobs.

So that’s really nice for me,” he says.

“And I don’t do many one-day jobs. Usually they’re two- or three-day jobs.”

He gets a lot of jobs that involve grinding pallets, and his tub grinder is a perfect fit for that.

“It’s wonderful on pallets,” he says.

“Pallets have nails and staples and screws in them. The TG5000 tub grinder has a

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pulley on the end of the conveyor that is magnetized, and so they go through the grinder, they are carried on the conveyer until it gets to the end, and then they drop off into a chute.”

Most of the wood waste LaVerne grinds is cut down to 8 feet in length or shorter. What’s nice about a tub grinder, he says, is it can handle root balls and logs with large diameters.

“It tumbles around in the tub and it just kind of keeps spinning and the next thing, it’s gone,” says LaVerne. “The tub grinder is great for big logs.”

Having a grapple provides the added convenience of not having to rely on another piece of equipment or someone else to get the material into the tub. Cities usually provide a wheel loader and an operator to push material toward him, but otherwise he can do the job himself.

He does occasionally get a bit more help. On jobs that last a few days or longer his wife, Carol, will get in a pickup truck and haul a fuel tank to him to refuel the tub grinder. She also helps with cleanup. This adds yet another family connection to the work.

LaVerne’s tub grinder has about 4,000 hours on it. He keeps a strict maintenance schedule that includes hourly, daily, and monthly inspections. With adherence to proper maintenance, it’s still a good, sound machine, he says.

“I put a lot of product through it,” he says. “I’m just pedal to the metal from April to September.”

He gives a nod to his brother Duane, the product specialist, for the Vermeer TG5000 tub grinder’s performance.

His tub grinder has a 540-horsepower engine. He says while he cannot keep up with models that have 1,000 horsepower, he can come pretty close. Also, the grinders from other companies with the same horsepower don’t have as good a cutting operation, he says.

“They can’t even come close to doing what I’m doing,” says LaVerne. “I love the machine, and I have fun running it.”

Gregg Hennigan is a features writer with Two Rivers Marketing.

48 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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iStock/jerry2313

Safety BY DANIEL C. BROWN

How to Construct a Defense

W

e try our best to be safe, but accidents happen.

It’s been shown that most accidents result from unsafe acts, not necessarily unsafe conditions. We hold safety orientations for new hires. We do OSHA training and hold tool box talks. We write Site Specific Safety Plans and follow up on them.

But still, accidents happen.

Construction injury lawsuits are usually nasty affairs. They frequently involve multiple parties and can require years of expensive litigation.

It’s important for you, the employer, to frame your defense from the start, according to Thomas J. Pontikis and James H. Whalen, attorneys with the Chicago law firm of Lipe Lyons Murphy Nahrstadt & Pontikis Ltd. The plaintiff’s attorneys will scrutinize everything to frame the story their way, say Pontikis and Whalen. When an accident happens, you should mobilize to preserve

the scene. Investigate to find out what happened. Appoint a “point man” to direct the investigation. Photograph the scene and even hire a consultant to help with the investigation.

Identify your witnesses and conduct interviews with them, say Pontikis and Whalen. Prepare for potential interviews with OSHA officials. Document the scene as best you can. Previous columns on these pages of Grading & Excavation Contractor have addressed accident investigations.

You should notify your insurance broker and look for all applicable insurance.

Look up the applicable OSHA standards.

Gather the relevant documents, such as contracts, equipment leases, purchase orders, and change orders.

If a lawsuit has been filed against you, don’t panic. Rely on your strengths: well-prepared witnesses, favorable documents, and photos. Make sure you have good three-way coordination with your

point man, your defense counsel, and your insurance company. Offense is not always a reliable option. It doesn’t always work to say the plaintiff was not careful; it was someone else’s fault, say Pontikis and Whalen.

Much of the evidence that the plaintiff will offer against you is in your office right now. As a general rule, “the best indicator of whether a contractor has retained control over the subcontractor’s work is the parties’ contract, if one exists,” held an Illinois court in Joyce v.

Mastri, 2007. The American Institute of Architects Document A201 says the following: “The Contractor shall supervise and direct the Work, using the Contractor’s best skill and attention. The Contractor shall be solely responsible for and have control over construction means, methods, techniques, sequences, and procedures and for coordinating all portions of the Work under the Contract, unless contract documents give other instructions Grading & Excavation Contractor 49

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an employer do this, document it. Give someone, or even concerning these matters.” everyone, the authority to stop work if the proper safety Now is the time to begin planning your defense equipment is not being used. Require that all subin case of an accident. Draft your documents well; contractors follow the general contractor’s safety prepare clear contracts. Document your safety guidelines and measures when performing training. Make sure that each worker signs their own work. off on safety training and the material At the job site, have a clear hierpresented at tool box talks. Spell out archy—a chain of command. Make the responsibilities of workers and everyone responsible for safety, supervisors regarding the use of “STOP WORK IF UNSAFE not just the Safety Director. equipment, rigging, fall proCONDITIONS OR ACTS ARE Subcontractors should take tection, and responsibilities TAKING PLACE.“ an active role in safety; they for particular work. should prepare job-specific safety Although contracts are important rules and plans. It’s best to document to courts in Illinois and elsewhere, a all safety measures, meetings, and plans. court can find retained control despite the Be proactive in your contracts. Have concontract language if the parties’ course of contracts that require that your company be named duct demonstrates such control. Ordinarily, a party an additional insured. Under Illinois law, with a is not responsible for the negligent conduct of another.

Briseno clause there is no right of contribution between Under a theory of retained control where a party conparties that provide insurance to another. You should use trols certain aspects of the work, it can be held liable for the contracts that call for a Kotecki waiver which prevents any subactions of another. What really happened on the job site? contractor from limiting its liability to your company.

Before the job begins, the employer should establish who has the authority to stop work if unsafe conditions or acts are taking place. Some contractors even give all workers the authorDaniel C. Brown writes on safety and technology in the construcity to stop work if something unsafe is happening. If you as tion industry.

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Safety BY DANIEL C. BROWN

SEEKING BOOK PROPOSALS ForesterPress is seeking book proposals and manuscript submissions on current topics of high interest to civil engineers; municipal infrastructure professionals; consultants; industry professionals responsible for meeting soil, water, and energy compliance standards; academics; and other environmental-quality professionals.

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Designing and Reviewing Effective Sediment and Erosion Control Plans

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50 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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ShowCase

McLaughlin

Vac-Con Inc.

This fall, McLaughlin will introduce the next generation of its most popular vacuum excavator with an update including a no-hassle hose design to help save crews time and energy. The VX50 Gen 3 vacuum excavator features a hose that can hang on the side of the machine as potholing crews move from hole to hole. Current designs on the market require a hose to either be coiled into place or disconnected and put away. The VX50 Gen 3 vacuum excavator will be available this fall through the Vermeer global dealer network. www.mclaughlinunderground.com

The X-Cavator is designed specifically to handle the toughest and most challenging excavating jobs. The XCavator is powerful, durable, and easy to operate. Like every Vac-Con machine, it is fully loaded and has some of the industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best safety features. www.vac-con.com/hydro_excavator.html

Ditch Witch

Takeuchi Takeuchi-US has recently updated their product offering with the introduction of the all-new TS80 skid-steer loaders, available in both radial and vertical loader arrangements. The TS80 series are the largest models in the Takeuchi skid-steer product line, which also includes the TS50 and TS60. Highly maneuverable and powerful, the large frame TS80 series loaders deliver an outstanding blend of performance, durability, and operator comfort. www.takeuchi-us.com

For job sites that need the power and versatility to tow heavier loads and increased payload, the Ditch Witch FXT50 truck vacuum excavator now includes a tandem rear-axle option. The tandem rear-axle model is designed to handle heavy spoils while towing a trailer, reducing overall job-site equipment and fuel expenses.

In addition, the tandem-axle option includes both a receiver hitch and pintle hitch to meet the unique towing needs of any job. For additional versatility, Ditch Witch customers can customize the truck with a variety of features, such as tank sizes, wireless hydraulic booms, and reverse flow. The model remains the quietest vacuum excavator in its horsepower class and offers some of the best filtration in the industry. www.ditchwitch.com/vacuum-excavators/truck/fxt50

Grading & Excavation Contractor 51

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ShowCase Trail King The 110-ton capacity Trail King Advantage Plus! HDG trailer combines the self-lifting hydraulic cylinders, nonground bearing design, and V-shaped alignment guide of predecessor models with a new five-position gooseneck door adjustment that allows a full 8-inch range of kingpin height settings. The arched design of the gooseneck provides ample truck-frame clearance, even when set at the lowest height. The trailers have new heavy-duty pullout front outriggers and now-standard close-set outriggers at mid-deck. A third lift axle and adjustable ride-height control are standard features. www.trailking.com

John Deere The 210L EP and 210L are the newest members of the John Deere L-Series lineup. Joining their backhoe brethren, which were introduced last month, the dependable and durable tractor loaders boast several customer-inspired improvements that are ideal for earthwork, roadwork, land clearing, and landscaping operations. www.johndeere.com

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1. Publication Title: Grading & Excavation Contractor. 2. Publication No.: 15267563. 3. Filing Date: October 1, 2015. 4. Issue Frequency: Bimonthly with extra issue in June. 5. No. of Issues Published Annually: Seven. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $76. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. Contact Person: Steven Wayner, 805-682-1300. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. 9.

Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor: Publisher, Mark Gersten, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; Editor, Arturo Santiago, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; Managing Editor, John Trotti, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.

10. Owner: Forester Media Inc., 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105; Daniel Waldman, 2946 De la Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1% or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None. 12. Tax Status: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes has not changed during preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: Grading & Excavation Contractor. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September/October 2015. 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: Avg. No. Copies No. Copies of Single Each Issue During Issue Published Preceding 12 Months Nearest to Filing Date a. Total No. Copies 30,243 30,820 b. Legitimate Paid/Requested Distribution: (1) Individual Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 28,888 28,924 (2) Copies Requested by Employers for Distribution to Employees by Name or Position Stated on PS Form 3541 0 0 (3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS Paid/Requested Distribution 159 195 (4) Requested Copies Distributed

by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS 0 0 c. Total Paid/Requested Circulation 29,047 29,119 d. Nonrequested Distribution: (1) Outside County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 826 935 (2) In-County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 0 0 (3) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS

by Other Classes of Mail 0 0 (4) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail 301 700 e. Total Nonrequested Distribution 1,127 1,635 f. Total Distribution 30,174 30,754 g. Copies Not Distributed 69 66 h. Total 30,243 30,820 i. Percent Paid/Requested Circulation 96.26% 94.68% I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete.

- Daniel Waldman, President, 09/15/2015

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World of Concrete–Hanley Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

www.bid2win.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 www.bairproducts.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 www.bobcat.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 www.carlsonsw.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 www.casece.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 www.doosanequipment.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 www.efficiencyproduction.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 www.excavision.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 www.tmx-excavator.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 www.geophysical.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 www.hitachiconstruction.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 2 www.indeco-breakers.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 www.johnstonnorthamerica.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 3 www.kubota.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover 4 www.landoll.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 www.liebherr.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 www.malags.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 www.mattracks.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 www.roctek.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 www.tensarcorp.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 www.terex.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 www.ur.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 www.lubemate.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 www.worldofconcrete.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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Reader Profile: John Moore

By Carol Brzozowski

F

25 YEARS, John Moore performed his job with surgical precision, using the latest technology to remove unwanted matter from the human body. Financially secure at age 55, Moore retired as a general surgeon specializing in laparoscopic surgery to do cuts of another kind: land clearing. In May 2013, Moore started Surgical Land Clearing/Mulching in Dothan, AL, after purchasing a Terex PT-110 Forestry compact track loader (CTL). His son Patrick joined him. Together, they provide land clearing services within a 60-mile radius of Dothan, including reclaiming farmland, clearing undergrowth on hunting ranges, property development, and retention pond construction.

OR

What He Does Day to Day At first, Moore spent half of his time on the Terex and his son took care of business details. Now, Patrick Moore spends more time on the machine because he is “better, faster, and more efficient”, notes Moore, who spends more time on logistics such as bids, planning, marking trees for removal, and flagging property lines. They both maintain the equipment. Their fleet includes two Terex PT-110s, a one-ton truck, a three-quarter ton truck, and two trailers. Moore and his son use Facebook and YouTube to market their business with “before” and “after” images and on aspects that set their business apart, such as the use of sharp planer teeth, how they maintain the equipment, and how their approach doesn’t tear up the landscape.

What Led Him Into This Line of Work Several years ago, Moore—who owns hunting property—hired someone to clean up and mulch his land. “I really like what he accomplished,” notes Moore. After his retirement, he bought the Terex PT-110 CTL for the sole purpose of cleaning up and maintaining his own acreage. He spent a few months learning how to run the machine. “I really started liking what I was doing; it was a lot of fun,” he says. From there, Moore took the machine to friends’ land to do site work for them as a favor. He amassed a list of people happy with his work at a time that dovetailed with his son Patrick moving back to Alabama from Georgia where his employer had shut down operations. With the dealer’s help and by watching videos, Moore and his son learned how to use the machine more efficiently and also picked up some tips on running a business, as well as job leads. They published a small local newspaper advertisement for their business. Word-of-mouth expanded the customer list and in a little more than two years, they added a second Terex PT110.

What He Likes Best About His Work “I was inside for 25 years, plus the years of my training, so it’s been blessing for me to get outside every single day,” says Moore. In comparing his work as a physician and a site work

contractor, Moore points out that laparoscopic surgery—which he helped pioneer in his area—was akin to a video game, as he used a screen to navigate his surgical tools in the human body. “Sitting in that [compact track loader] with the joystick controls is almost like a video game for me,” he says. “I like seeing the volume and quality of work you can do with the machine. I see something that I’ve done that looked terrible when I started and great when I finish.” Though Moore and his son do a variety of jobs, he says his favorites are out in the country, such as at large quail-hunting plantations, cleaning up farmers’ fence lines, and clearing roads for people on their land. “Nobody is bothering us,” he says. “It reduces our liability.”

His Biggest Challenge Maintaining the current customer base is Moore’s biggest challenge, he says. The company is now on its fourth Terex PT-110 machine. “We’ve learned what to do to take care of them and when it makes financial sense to get a new machine that’s warrantied. We stay with new equipment,” he says. “We’ve got a dealer who could not be any better to us.”

Moore likes the father-and-son business model. “We have a trusting relationship,” he says. “We take good care of what we have. We make a reasonable living and I’m outside where I want to be.”

Carol Brzozowski specializes in topics related to technology and construction.

58 www.GradingandExcavation.com / November/December 2015

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Meet the new Kubota SSV75. Built with the precision engineering youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come to expect from Kubota, it features a smooth-running 74.3 HP Kubota diesel engine, vertical loader lift arms, a tilt-up cab and more. The SSV is pure Kubota, and delivers the kind of performance that raises eyebrows.

And drops jaws. Locate your dealer today at Kubota.com/Construction. Š Kubota Tractor Corporation, 2015.

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