March-April 2011

Attached to the Job

Big iron signifies a sizeable investment and a significant commitment to business. But it’s the attachments that can add versatility, value and efficiency.

Tweet

Choosing the right attachments can maximize return on investment, increase profits, and even offer opportunities to expand into new areas of business. With so many new attachments being introduced, however, it can be difficult to decide what offers the greatest opportunity to improve business.

Attachments are the best way to keep overhead in line, states Hannah Tanata, former marketing manager for Terex Construction Americas. “Attachments can make one machine, like a skid-steer loader or a compact track loader, into a multipurpose tool. Using compact equipment with different attachments can totally revolutionize a site prep contractor’s business, enabling them to bid on larger projects and to work in all weather and ground conditions.”

Bob Namchek, owner of Pioneer Electric in Grand Rapids, MN, says investing in attachments enabled his equipment to do more. “Attachments will basically pay for themselves in one summer with the number of jobs they bring in,” he says. “Then I’ll have that piece of equipment forever and will continue to profit from it with additional jobs.”

It’s a business model Namchek has been using for years, and now that the economy has taken a downturn, other contractors are beginning to follow suit. It’s cheaper to buy attachments than a new machine, he believes, “and they allow you to be more job-specific, while at the same time giving you more options with your current equipment.”

Because compact track loaders and skid-steers work on many of the same types of jobs, they’re able to share attachments such as buckets, dozer blades, mulchers, augers, trenchers, levelers, box rakes, snowblowers, and backhoes, making attachments even more cost-effective.

The rubber-track compact wheel-loader segment has grown during the economic downturn, comments Bob Galloway, general manager for a Terex distributor in Camden, MI. “With a universal coupler, it has the capability of a broom, a tree spade, or a snow push box.” Galloway’s customers, most of whom are landscapers and contractors, choose such attachments as grapple buckets, hydraulic augers, snow blades, and Harley rakes (for seed bed preparation).

Mini-excavators are also “coming into play,” thanks to attachments, Galloway adds. “They fit into tighter areas and reach farther with a hammer. They work below grade and do less land damage.” His customers attach thumbs, concrete breakers, and augers on different jobs. They even use vibratory plates for seawall installation. “There are lots of lakes around here.”

One type of business that benefits from the added versatility of attachments is rental. “If you can use one machine to do five or six different jobs, you don’t have to hire subs,” Galloway postulates. “Utilization is what it’s all about; it’s key in this economy.”

Photo: Kenco While not its primary duty, Kenco’s Pipe Lifter makes barrier wall deployment and retrieval a cinch.

Branching Out
Utilization and diversity are both important in this economy. “Contractors are looking for other jobs to add revenue,” says Tom Madden, owner of Rockhound Attachments. “They already own the expensive part: the skid-steer or loader. They need ways to make fast cash.” By attaching a brush mower with a universal mounting plate, Madden says contractors can add jobs paying as much as $200 per hour. “It’s kept us busy; we’re even growing during the recession.”

Most guys in the business run something else, contends Dexter Hayhurst, owner of Triumph Enterprises in Reading, CA, but nothing does what the Rockhound BrushHound can do, he claims. “It speeds up a lot of stuff. It’s better than a bushhog; it’s like a giant lawn mower with a big bite.”

Hayhurst’s company cuts in roads for rural properties and performs pasture restoration in areas overgrown with wild roses and blackberries. In a region where roses grow to 16 feet and blackberries to 14 feet, he says the BrushHound makes areas easy to clean up: “It s makes short work of blackberries. A lot of guys run skid-steers but finish with the BrushHound for a nice finish because it grooms the ground well. The advantage is that it makes the property look the way we want it to. We wouldn’t be without it.”

Rockhound’s design features a front-mount hydraulic drive and 48 “big giant flail knives” weighing 2.25 pounds each, as well as twenty-four 2-pound straight knives for a combined cutting force of 156 pounds of knife at 2,000 rpm. This whirling force mulches a variety of material, grinding it all into biomass that decomposes in one winter. The triple-knife setup chops up the material into a finer product, Hayhurst notes. “We use it to finish mow pastures because it leaves fingers and it mulches.”

With a rear adjustable mower for height and cutting edges made of boron and manganese, similar to a rototiller knife, the brush mower can till into the soil, enabling decomposition. “It benefits the soil and helps erosion,” Madden explains.

Other brush mowers have blades that are recessed 4–5 inches, Hayhurst adds, but the design of the BrushHound allows it to rototill material into the soil. “It’s very green. Blackberries don’t grow back; that’s a big selling point. Blackberries tend to come back, but burning is dangerous in some areas, so they’re difficult to get rid of.”

It also benefits the environment because the material doesn’t go to a landfill and there is no burning—which means there’s no fire hazard, a concern in California in particular. “Fire prevention regulations require a 100-foot defensible space around houses in California,” Madden points out.

Because it attaches to a skid-steer, it’s less invasive than other brush mowers, which allows it to work in more applications. It cuts closer to the ground and buildings. And because it throws projectiles down as it cuts, it’s safe around people and animals. In fact, Madden says, it’s safe enough to put in rental fleets. “It’s an affordable rental that can generate an average of 200 hours per year additional work for a quick return on investment.”

Bucket List
Terex’s Loegering mud bucket for skid-steer loaders is a hydraulic concrete hauler attachment that eliminates the manual labor involved in placing concrete from cement trucks that can’t access tight spaces. A hydraulic gate unloads material, using a 14-inch long extension/reduction chute that reduces to a 9-inch wide opening to accurately pour concrete with less spillage, saving both time and money.

Other bucket attachments from Terex include standard duty, heavy duty, and cemetery/bellhole, as well as ditching and grading for mid-size excavators, each available in direct pin-on or dedicated coupler and ranging in widths from 12 inches to 48 inches. Buckets facilitate digging footers, foundation excavation, underground utility installation and repair, drainage and water control, grave digging, trenching, and material loading. A four-in-one bucket provides increased versatility by giving the operator the option of moving items like rocks, timbers, trash, and other types of material that may need to be moved before excavation can occur.

Buckets can be more than simple hauling devices. A screening bucket can turn an excavator into an onsite screening plant. Remu USA Inc., in Old Orchard Beach, ME, offers multiple sizes of screening buckets to outfit almost any machine of any brand, states Eric Dupee, sales manager.

Catering principally to municipalities, wind-farm construction, utility contractors, gas-and-oil pipelines, and government agencies, Remu also provides custom-built explosion-resistant buckets for land mine reclamation. Different rotating blade designs are selected for various applications, but all feature high-grade steel rotors to reduce wear and for longer life and more uptime. Custom-built mountings provide a perfect OEM fit to any quick coupler for better wear.

“We couldn’t work without the bucket,” insists Marc Kinner, partner in Blue Iron Inc. “We tried [screening] plants; they work well for some material, but clay balls up. Screening buckets chop up the material for our machine to mix.”

The West Sacramento, CA, sheet pile contractor has been using Remu buckets on excavators to excavate a coffer dam. “It’s green,” Kinner says. “We scoop up native material onsite, process it onsite by screening the bigger pieces out and reuse it. The native material with cement fly ash is mixed into engineered backfill slurry of 1 inch-minus to three-eighths-inch-minus and dumped back into the hole. It’s green because there’s no trucking and no off-hauling. It saves money because it’s 30% to 40% more expensive if you get material from the plant.”

The savings allows Kinner to bid more competitively on jobs and get more work. “We’re doing a job in Stockton where we have to eliminate the engineered wrap around 6 miles of 50-inch pipe. Being able to use onsite material for backfill saved a lot of money.” It’s a niche market, he admits, but he says he’s having his best year ever. In fact, he’s adding machines to his inventory.

Some buckets are even more specialized. The Rezloh from Leading Edge Attachments Inc. features a cutting edge and tooth bar in one. “It can do everything a flat edge with cutting teeth can do,” explains Rick Holzer, owner. “One bucket, one blade: you can use it on everything from dirt to rock.”

While the advantage of most attachments comes from swapping them out, this is one attachment Holzer says never needs to be taken off the machine. Made of T1 steel and featuring 100% digging across the front, the Rezloh can do jobs twice as fast, he says. “You get better penetration with secondary teeth.”

Diane Holzer, co-owner, says it works in a multitude of applications, but is particularly suited for landscaping because it can carry a load of dirt, rock or mulch; rip sod and take out bushes and trees. It’s useful year-round for snow and ice removal, agricultural cleanup, and dumping clay and rock.

Designed by Rick and Diane’s father, a septic systems contractor who was tired of the frequent on-and-off his skid-steer to put the tooth bar on and off, this doesn’t have to be removed for smooth work like traditional bars with teeth and shanks. “The cutting edge protects the bucket from excessive wear and damage,” Holzer notes, adding that it’s “built thicker and harder than OEM” for long life. Typical wear is 1,600–1,800 hours, but he knows of one that had 4,000 hours on it. “It all depends on the soil conditions.”

Bucket choice depends on site conditions in more than one way. “There are certain jobs that make it hard to avoid using a Gradall,” speculates Jesse Plummer, sales representative for Helac Corp. in Enumclaw, WA, “but not everyone wants a Gradall; our customers prefer the Helac PowerTilt.”

Photo: EZ Grout Bobcat S-300 takes EZ Grout’s Hog Crusher in stride.

 

The PowerTilt allows attachments such as buckets to tilt up to 180 degrees for better access when performing duties such as cleaning ditches, digging beveled trenches, spreading rip-rap, or positioning brush cutters, mowers, and hydraulic hammers. Available with hydraulic quick-couplers and using Helac’s helical, sliding spline technology to avoid exposed cylinder rods and external moving parts, it comes in nine sizes, according to machine weight, for excavators and backhoes. It turns an ordinary bucket into a fine-grading tool that allows you to dig or grade off-shoulder, Plummer says.

Getting Ripped
To be competitive, Little Brute Enterprises in Coeur D’Alene, ID, needed something that would work in rock and tight spaces, says owner Dan Monaghan. With predominantly high-end residential business in the $750,000 to $6 million range, he faced tight quarters with difficult access when excavating for utilities.

A three-prong Multi-Ripper bucket from Leading Edge Attachments Inc. attached to his Yanmar zero-tail-swing excavator and rubber track skid-steer enabled him to work safely around existing buildings and trees. “It’s been a big help to the business,” Monaghan says. “We can rip rock and demo concrete. We just turn it over and rip through, break it into small pieces, and pick it up. We can also take out stumps faster. It saves time. We just spent three days removing a 4-foot diameter pine tree stump that would have taken only one day with this.”

Despite the higher cost of the Multi-Ripper, Monaghan says it has saved him money because it does more work. “I found places to use it I hadn’t thought of. In demolition, we couldn’t get through plywood. We usually used a bucket and thumb, but the twin tiger teeth pulled it apart. I’m very impressed; I can do a lot more.”

Eric Taylor, owner of Tri State Pipeline in WV, has dug a lot of rock with his Multi-Ripper bucket attached to a Komatsu. “The good jobs are gone,” he explains. “The jobs that are left are in tough conditions: solid rock, tight corners…”

Underground utility, sewer and water system work requires precision. Taylor says the Multi-Ripper can speed things up, is versatile and easier to use than other buckets. However, it does take discipline to work with. According to Lee Horton, president of Leading Edge, you “have to roll it; you don’t use it like a normal bucket.”

The patented, proprietary design features three “shark” shanks on an arc, with staggered teeth and angles for maximum ripping. “You hit one point at a time, so you get more force. It’s fast and powerful, with six to nine times the force of a regular five-tooth bucket. It cuts nice, even, straight trenches and walls.” And because it’s enclosed, it can scoop. As Monaghan says, it’s better to dig rock than ram it.

Able to attach like a standard bucket to anything from a 6,000-pound mini-excavator to a 280,000-pound excavator for mining, the Multi-Ripper comes in 13 different sizes. Made of material four times thicker than standard buckets, it’s a durable piece of equipment. “It’s built well,” Monaghan concludes. “The guys want me to buy another one.”

Couples Therapy
One of the attractions of attachments is the ability to convert equipment into tools appropriate for various applications, but if that conversion is a time-consuming operation, the procedure isn’t efficient and the whole premise becomes less cost effective.

Wheel loaders and excavators are mutually exclusive tools, explains Tom Winter, sales manager for Caterpillar, but by finding commonality, productivity can be increased. That commonality can come in the form of a quick-coupler that allows one machine to do lots of jobs by quickly changing work tools.

Cat offers couplers for both machines. A center lock hex coupler for excavators features a visual identifier. This built-in safety feature allows the operator in the cab to see that the tool is properly attached. A fusion coupler is used on wheel loaders.

In addition to improving safety and reducing labor, these couplers add time-saving flexibility to the machines. “Switching from a pin-on bucket to a fork used to take hours,” Winter says, “but with a coupler, it takes only seconds. One attachment is useable by many machines. You can reduce inventory when you reduce machine-specific work tools. The coupler is a benefit to the dealer. Rental fleets can change attachments for their customers; it’s more efficient and reduces inventory due to interchange.”

Using one machine to do different operations means fewer pieces of machinery are needed, explains Claire Pardee, equipment manager for Mladen Buntich Construction Co. in Upland, CA. To facilitate attachment changes, he uses quick-couplers from Felco Industries, Ltd. in Missoula, MT. “I’ve been buying them for years. We can change attachments in minutes versus hours.” In fact, he says, buckets can be changed from inside the cab of an excavator. “It’s faster, safer, and a one-person operation. No mechanic is needed to change a bucket.”

The coupler is a positive locking mechanism, Pardee explains. “There’s less slop the way it locks into place. Play causes wear, so if it fits loose, it’s a problem.” There’s no maintenance needed, he adds. “We don’t have to do anything. These don’t wear out. They stay with the machine until we sell the machine.”

Blade Runner
Brian Soulter, general manager with Snowbelt Municipal snow removal in Burrillville, RI, isn’t likely to leave his Vplows on his track loaders until he sells them, no matter how efficient he considers the quick-attach blades for clearing sidewalks. The 30-horsepower Terex PT30 with a 44-inch snowplow doesn’t tear up turf or light poles along narrow city sidewalks like the wider 48-inch plows from other manufacturers, he points out. And because they cost under $30,000, he says, he can buy three of the heavy-duty units for one from other manufacturers.

The attachment even boosted sales of the bigger iron. “We figured out we had a market for that machine with a plow,” Soulter says. “It’s small but powerful. It’s seen the biggest area of sales growth; sales increase every year.”

Tim Lorenzen, chief operating officer of TerraTec Industries in Westcliffe, CO, uses a blade of a different kind. He uses an Aggrescreed attached to a straight blade dozer over 135 horsepower (such as a Cat D6) to lay gravel. Using a motor grader, he could expect to lay 5,000 tons on a good day, but with the Aggrescreed, he averages18,000 tons per day.

That’s not all it does. A motor grader segregates the material the more it goes over it, but the Aggrescreed box blade holds material in place. That results in better road quality. In fact, some DOTs now require a spreader box or paver due to segregation, Lorenzen indicates, but he believes the Aggrescreed surpasses a paver’s performance. “Pavers are meant to put down asphalt,” he continues. “Our blade moves up and down, with adjustable cutting edges for the crown for stakeless road grading. It can accommodate any slope; each side is independently adjustable.”

Gravel is hard on pavers, he notes, but the Aggrescreed can be attached to a dozer in minutes, without relying on the dozer’s hydraulics, because it comes with its own battery and hydraulics. Although the skids and cutting edges are replaceable, Lorenzen says, they last a long time.

One of the selling points, in Lorenzen’s opinion, is that it eliminates the need for depth stakes. “We just re-graveled about 90 miles of roads for the military in southern Colorado. The slope specs require depth stakes every 40 feet: left, center, right. But we used a box blade with semi-trailer jacks and skids.”

Rick Kern is using just about every attachment there is on his remodeling project, with the possible exception of a box blade. The semi-retired California businessman is tearing down a 1972-era house and foundation in order to build a new 9,600-square-foot house plus 2,200-square-foot barn and garage and lake on 10 acres in Evergreen, CO.

“It cost $150,000 just for the excavating,” Kern indicates, “so I bought a Bobcat. By buying equipment, I can do the work myself and save.” Instead of buying a Bobcat skid-steer like his friend did, he chose a Bobcat Toolcat. “It’s a good all-around machine. It never breaks down.” He liked the Toolcat so much, he added an E60 excavator, when he needed to remove 4,000 pounds of rocks, and a track loader for heavier lifting.

Featuring two seats so his two young children can ride along and a small bed that tilts back for transporting hay for the horses, tools or a propane generator, the four-wheeled Toolcat is enclosed, which makes for more comfortable snowplowing on cold winter days.

In addition to the 72-inch snowblade, Kern has two straight-edge buckets (74 inches and 80 inches) for moving dirt; a 72-inch lawnmower to cut his three-acre meadow; a grader with a laser attachment for finish-grading the driveway; hydraulic forks; a 9-inch auger for the excavator; three-tooth buckets for the track loader (72 inches, 74 inches, and 80 inches); a 96-inch dozer blade for the track loader; 48-inch hydraulic pallet forks; a 52-inch grading bucket with hydraulic tilt for the excavator; a ripper; a three-tine grapple; an HB 980 breaker; and a tilt bucket for grading on slopes.

Unsurprisingly, Kern reports finding new jobs to do and is even considering a new business. But for the next few months, his number-one job is to finish his new home. Work is accelerated by the Toolcat’s hydraulic attachment system. “You just hit a button, unlock, and pull away,” Kern explains. “You don’t have to get out to change attachments.”

Uplifting Attachments
One attachment for excavators that is becoming increasingly popular is a pipe lift, a “jaw” that clamps around the outside of the pipe. It can be either fully automatic or semiautomatic. Another device is the pipe hook, which grabs the pipe through the end of the cylinder.

The pipe hook is self-balancing, explains Greg Cveykus, director of engineering and design for Kenco Corp. in Ligioner, PA. “There’s a built-in mechanism for automatic adjustment—a nitrogen gas cylinder.” One of the benefits of Kenco’s pipe hook is its ease of operation. “It’s difficult to handle small pipe with other lifters,” he says. It’s also lighter weight, with no counterweight like traditional lifters.

Job restrictions dictate the choice of device, Cveykus explains. The hook doesn’t work beyond 20-foot pipe, but the lifter needs room on each side for its scissor-action to open and close. Lifters don’t work well in trenches; however, they work well for deploying and retrieving concrete barrier walls and can be attached to a rubber tire excavator or crane. “The urethane gripping face/pad doesn’t damage the barrier walls and, in fact, it grips better because it spreads the force over a larger surface area.”

EZ Grout also manufactures a line of lifting clamps to place pipes, culverts, and manhole covers and stanchions, notes Scott Lang, senior designer with EZ Grout. A vacuum clamp attached to an excavator is able to set concrete pavers or to pick up and place pipe up to 13,000 pounds and 12-inches in diameter. The benefit of the suction is that the pipe can be dropped into a narrow trench where traditional lifters can’t access. A self-contained unit for suction is gas- or battery-powered. “The vacuum works for deeper holes—15-plus feet,” Lang adds. It’s also beneficial in water culverts below subgrade, because no one needs to get in the hole. “You grab and install in one. It’s a safety issue; there’s no pinch point for the guider.”

Citing an inventory of more than 200 styles of clamps, Lang says that a pipe puller, either manual or hydraulic, is used to connect larger pipe up to 8 feet in diameter and 26,000 pounds. Kenco’s 129 pipe layer attaches to an excavator with a quick coupler tot pick up by inserting a bar into the center of the pipe. The pipe layer is self-tightening; the load tightens the clamps. “It’s extremely safe,” Lang assures. A swivel helps with alignment. “Two guys can install pipe with this.”

Coated and galvanized for rust protection, EZ Grout’s lifting clamps need little maintenance other than routine checking of the welds. Reducing labor and saving money through versatility and convenience are what attachments are all about.

Making work easier for demolition contractors, EZ Grout showed its new log crusher at World of Concrete. Attached to the front of a skid-steer, it uses a bucket to scoop material, which is rotated into crushing position before it goes through a grinding rotor. Capable of processing up to 10 tons per hour, it can handle brick block, 4-inch nonreinforced concrete and construction debris such as pallets, wood, and drywall.

“It started as light-duty,” marvels Lang, “but contractors are taking down buildings with it

Small contractors can crush sidewalks and use it as subbase. The idea is to leave it on the job site. But not hauling material offsite and hauling new material in, it saves money.”

Buying an attachment to save labor may just lead to more work in the long run—and that can be a good thing.

Author's Bio: Writer Lori Lovely focuses on topics related to transportation and technology.