Category Archives: construction equipment

Heavy Equipment Adventures

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Working with a construction company is no less than an adventure. Each day you will experience a new thing in your job. You will come across instances where you do not know how to act or react. However, you learn to deal with things slowly and steadily. For an operator, who has to work on different kinds of heavy equipment gets to learn a lot of things from he does. He finds his life to be more adventurous than anybody else who is a part of the industry. He has to work on uneven paths, at times need to dig deep inside the ground and do not find anybody else other than himself and when it comes to operate in a forest, it then becomes more adventurous for him. Dealing with different types of situations is a part of his work and he needs to ensure that he does the job diligently so that he does not end it up in an accident.

Well it was all about the real operator. Now there is something where a person who belongs to a different industry can also try his hands on heavy equipment and get the feel of an operator. All of us at some point of time in our childhood dreamt of playing with these big machines but it was told to us that this is not a child’s play and we should keep ourselves away from it. But that was a thing of past. There are heavy equipment adventures camps where a person who wants to enjoy the thrill that an operator usually does while operating a machine can get into one such camp and drive the machine. It is somewhat similar to heavy equipment amusement park but certainly not the same. It is claimed to be more adventurous than what a person can experience in an amusement park.

Take your friends along:-

You can plan out a weekend with your friends to a heavy equipment adventure site. You can speak about what kind of activities you want to do that requires involvement of your pals. The concerned authorities at the site will tailor made the activity for you as per your choice and will ensure that you along with your friends have a blast and enjoy your day to the fullest. The support guys will provide you with tasks and will instruct you as to how you can go about with it. These instructions will be given to all your friends who have to complete the task in a given timeframe. This can be quite challenging for people who have never done this before and may find it to be quite thrilling.

Perfect for corporate team building:-

Corporate companies can gift a day of leisure to their hard working employees in one such heavy equipment adventure site. Here the people of a company who perhaps work in different departments and do not even know each other will come together and work as a team to finish a task. This can be a good learning for the employees who will get to know people from other departments and will develop a rapport.

 

What are different hybrid heavy construction equipment?

When we adopt different technologies to make a single product that has added features in it, we can call it a hybrid product. We have so many hybrid products around us. It is just that we do not call it by that name. When we add new features, we in one way or the other add new technologies so that it can support those features. In a nutshell, it is the culmination or absorption of more than technology into making of a product. In the construction business, we have a mixture of hybrid heavy construction equipments as well as the conventional ones. It is evident that the hybrid heavy construction equipment are slightly on the expensive side and therefore not many can afford to buy them. However, it has been observed that construction companies are slowly and steadily adopting hybrid heavy equipment into their arsenal and it will not take long for them to completely replace the conventional machines with the hybrid ones.

Heavy equipment that are a combination of new features is the blue-eyed candy of every construction company. Construction companies in today’s time want machines that not only deliver the work in time but also conserve energy. This means that by using hybrid machines, the construction companies will be saving a ton through means of less energy consumption with optimal productivity. Therefore hybrid construction equipment are also defined as machines that have the capacity to collect, store and release energy during times of production. The look of the machine also changes and they do not look like the conventional ones. They are been designed with a whole new approach and that what makes them distinctive from the rest. Right from excavator to a graders and backhoe loaders, you can get a whole range of heavy equipment in the hybrid form.

Komatsu HB215LC-1 hydraulic excavator:-

This particular machine employs regenerative braking to store the energy of a decelerating upper structure. It uses an electric swing motor which when is put out of power it works as a generator and helps the upper structure to stop. The conventional ones uses hydraulic swing and do not have electric motor swing. The Komatsu hybrid excavator is regenerative heavy equipment. The electricity produced is forwarded to a capacitor. The power is stored in the capacitor which can be later used to power the swing of the machine or can drive the machine’s generator.

CAT Hybrid heavy equipment:-

This piece of machine uses the regenerative braking to preserve energy hydraulically. Therefore, when the machine uses the hydraulic swing motor and when the swing lever is released, the machine begins to slow down the upper structure and the swing motor is ceased to be driven by the pump. In this case, the motor is driven by the machine’s swing inertia making it act as a pump.

Hybrid machines not only save energy but also reduces carbon footprint. This indeed helps the ecosystem from getting more polluted. Construction sector is known to be a major contributor in polluting our environment and with the inception of hybrid machines this problem can be definitely tackled.

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Contingency fund to be maintained to tackle poor market conditions

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Things are not always rosy for any industry and they all have to go through some rough patches at different phases. You try to pull out the details of an industry for the last two decades and which is doing phenomenally well now. You will be astonished to see that it has gone through several bad phases in those 2 decades and this reveals many things. First is not every industry generates profits at all times and when it experiences the bad phase, it has the potential to wipe off many companies that are associated with it. The second is the most important point and it talks about how to overcome the bad phase systematically. Now focusing on the construction segment, it is also considered to be an industry that has generated profits in huge figures and the profit numbers have been drawing more people linking up with this industry.

As we say people come and go but the one who manage to stay can become a successful business owner. As a matter of fact, staying in this industry is a bit difficult as people have mended their ways after making some money and mostly losing everything they had. So what ideally important is to stay afloat during turbulent times and you can do that only if you have managed to set up contingency fund for your business.

Normally, we set up such contingency fund to take care of any emergency in our personal lives. Knowing that the future is unknown, these funds are said to be maintained at all times irrespective how eager you are to buy a luxury for yourself. Contingency funds are never meant to fulfill your luxurious needs and people need to understand this before it gets too late for them. In the same context, contingency funds are quite important when it comes to tackling an emergency.

Keep increasing your contingency fund:-

At the beginning of the construction business, you must have allocated a certain amount towards the contingency fund. But as you move ahead in life and simultaneously in your business you need to ensure that you keep increasing the amount and save more in your kitty. While you grow your business, the risk factor also increases manifolds and therefore it becomes a must to keep increasing the money in your emergency kitty.

Do not use contingency fund to meet business requirements:-

Contingency funds are not meant to meet your business requirements like buying heavy equipment or paying wages to your employees. It is there to take care of difficult times only. You have to make sure that you avail sufficient amount to meet other expenses. However, when the business is not doing well and you are cash crunched and need to pay the bank loan perhaps that is the moment when you should take out money from the kitty. You can consider the situation where you do not have work in hand and you got to pay your dues to different institutions as an emergency one and can make use of your kitty to meet those needs.

Promote your heavy equipment business through social media

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Social media has recently turned into a much powerful source to catch the attention of millions at a single go. You can express your ideas, your emotions to people you have never met in your life and they still follow you if they find your stuffs at all interesting. Such is the power of social media that many business houses are using this as a tool to promote their business. Ideally promoting any kind of business includes lot of costs which not many are able to afford especially the ones who have just made their way in an industry and do not have a godfather to get support from. It is for such people that social media has come nothing less than a boon. They can talk about their business ideas and can share their website to mass. They can do all this for a very nominal fee. Some websites do not charge a penny though.

We will discuss few primary reasons why people feel social media is more powerful than any other form of promotion channels.

Cost effective:-

When it comes to promoting heavy equipment business, it involves tremendous cost that is attached with it. You have to create a website and need to pay money to maintain it unless you have sound knowledge on how to maintain a website. Other than that, the challenge is to inform people that you are in the heavy equipment business. Your website will give a detailed picture of your profession but how to inform people about your association with this business can be quite a challenge. This is wherein the social media steps in and allows you to connect to other users and help you inform others about your profession. You are in a way creating your brand image and asking people to give you work. Websites like LinkedIn are the most effective social media websites as far as promoting your business is concerned. You save a good deal of money while you are busy on a promotion spree as you have to pay a very nominal fee to the service provider.

Creates a platform where the giver and the doer meet:-

Social media provides a platform where the person who gives the work is able to meet the person who can do the work. So for instance, if you are looking for aggressive marketing guy to market your machines then you can just leave your requirement on the website and you will be flooded with emails or calls from people who feel fit for the job. Simultaneously, you can also pick some random profiles based on your requirement and send them an email checking if they are interested for the job.

Talk about your website on social media:-

You can’t put everything about your work on the social media website. Or else there would not have been the need to create your company’s website. But what you can do is talk about your website to people who are interested in buying heavy equipment. Tell them the different kinds of offers you can give them and if you are ready to ship it to different states.

Heavy Equipment Welders

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Fixing up heavy equipment is very critical especially when you are in middle of an important project. There have been numerous such instances when the heavy equipment has stopped functioning just because a particular part of it has gone faulty and it needs to be replaced. In situation like this, a person who knows how to cut the portion out of the machine and put the replaced part back on it plays a pivotal role. This can’t be done by any lay person. Not even an operator who works all his time inside the cabin can do this as long as he is not trained in it. Here comes the role of a welder.

The work of the welder is to cut the portion that has been identified as the problem, prepare the new part and then put it back by welding it and then eventually cleaning the stuff. These are basically the 3 steps that a welder does when he is working on heavy equipment. Other than that, there are also companies who buy used heavy equipment which are first dismantled and then installed with new parts. This work also requires welding skills and therefore the work of a welder is required by such companies.

Special training needed to become welders:-

As one require training to understand heavy equipment and operate it, in the similar fashion when one takes up the job to fix heavy equipment they have to undergo a special training on welding. The mechanics who work to fix machines are necessarily good welders but this does not mean that all mechanics know to weld. However, if you know to weld heavy equipment you have a brighter chance to become a good mechanic. Therefore, folks who aim to become good mechanics train themselves into welding machines.

Welders should know to cut things:-

Welders do not necessarily mean people who can join things but it also extends to cutting a part of a machine. Welders use oxy-fuel to cut metal. Some also use plasma for the same purpose. The most common form of cutting done is through oxy-fuel and it can be found in almost every service trucks. Plasma is however faster than oxy-fuel and can even cut an aluminum or stainless steel sheet which can’t be done using an oxy-fuel. This basic information should be known by the welders before they perform their task. Once they are done with the cutting work the next step is to sooth the rough edges so that the new part can be installed properly. Removing the rough edges can be a challenge to most welders as it is a piece of sharp work and they need to ensure that they have removed the slightest of remnants/cracks.

Huge demand in the construction industry:-

Heavy equipment welders in particular are in huge demand in the construction industry. They are usually offered high salary and someone who is experienced can demand more from the company. Package is perhaps not a constraint for the right candidate. It is just that the welder should know his work well and can complete the assigned work with precision.

How to implement a safety program

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Forming rules is to a larger extent a simple job. What is rather difficult is to implement the rules on the ground level. It takes a lot of hardships on the part of the people who are been assigned the job to execute a program. They have to work hard to explain the folks the reason why the change has been brought and what good it is for them. You will also find few guys who will not agree with the new program and will be reluctant to participate. These challenges need to be addressed and sorted out as well. When a construction company comes up with a safety program, it means that the overall employees working in the company have to now follow some extra rules which they are not used to. Bringing something all of a sudden can be a little difficult for people to accept and therefore they might not take it sportingly even if the program is for their good.

A construction company while trying to implement a safety program needs to keep certain facts into perspective and then gradually try to bring in the change.

Make it a part of their habit:-

The reason why many construction workers do not want to wear those extra safety belts is because they have never worn one and when they are asked to attach extra load on their body they might not be comfortable with the idea. Therefore, one can primarily deal with this by bringing in the change gradually and make them used to it. You can ask them to wear a bit of extra accessories but you inform them well in advance that the company is intending to provide the workers with additional safety gadgets and people should be wearing them so that they can work safely. This will bring in a sort of excitement amongst the people and they will welcome the decision.

Provide proper training before they actually start using it:-

Training your workers on following a safety program is quite essential. You may form certain safety guidelines but as long as the workers are not informed about it in advance it will not be fair enough to ask them to follow it the day you want them to follow. They just do not know what the safety program is all about and why you want them to follow it. Proper training of the safety program should be given to the workers and all their questions need to be answered so that they take the program positively and apply it on the jobsite.

Monitoring the implementation of the safety program:-

Once you have trained the workers about the importance of the safety program and have also asked them to follow, the next important thing will be to monitor if all the workers are correctly following the safety norms. In the initial stage, it might be a bit difficult for the guys to be in sync with the norms and therefore proper monitoring is required so that whenever someone is having a hard time to follow, he should be assisted and shown the correct method.

Check the UCC of heavy equipment before you buy one

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We all buy properties and while we search for a property, we want to ensure one thing and that is if there is any existing lien on the property. If the owner of the property is paying installments to the lender then you will find the lender holding the first lien or else the title will be in the name of the owner of the house. However, if you see any more lien on the same property then you should get cautious and inquire about the other lien holder. You just can’t put your hands in a property that has multiple liens. The title of the house should be in the name of its owner and in your case the seller. Similarly when it comes to buying heavy equipment you got to maintain the same level of caution. You have to check the UCC on the heavy equipment and only if you see all is clear that you should go ahead with the deal.

Ask the seller to show you the papers:-

Once you have decided to buy a construction machine from a dealer or a contractor or an individual, you should ask if the machine solely belongs to him and once you get the answer in positive you should then ask for the papers. Go through the document and try to understand everything that is in there. Ideally the title papers of heavy equipment are not so lengthy and complex that a layman will have problem to figure out what is written in it. However, if you find something fishy in it that raises doubt you can ask him to give the photocopy of the document so that you can get it checked with an attorney or someone who has the ability to comprehend a legal document. It is only after you are completely convinced with the authenticity of the document that you should proceed.

Ample of problems with heavy equipment with more than one lien:-

If you intend to buy construction equipment that has more than one lien, you are seriously inviting for trouble. Any real property which also includes construction machineries and has more than one lien becomes difficult to identify the real owner of the property. On the contrary, every person who has a lien is the rightful owner of the property. This means if you buy the heavy equipment and pays the amount to the seller you still can’t claim to be its sole holder. People who have their liens on the machine will bug you for no fault of yours. It can even lead to legal proceedings which will further hamper your business.

Search the serial number on UCC “Uniform Commercial Code”:-

It is quite simple to identify the name of the UCC holder if you know how to browse internet. All you got to do is go to google and key in “Uniform Commercial Code”. There you will get to know if the machine has any liens on it. Other than that a bill of sale can also act as an evidence.

Buying heavy equipment from dealers can get you more discounts

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We always appreciate when we get good discounts on products and especially when the product is an expensive one, getting huge discount on it can make us all the more joyful. It is a fact that manufacturers want to sell the product keeping it reasonable and within the reach of most buyers. It is perhaps the middle men or the intermediary who unjustifiably increase the price of the commodity thus making it expensive and outside the reach of common man. However, there are some middlemen who do not keep a major but and try to sell the commodity at a reasonable price. In case of heavy equipment, it is perhaps the same module that is being followed. The heavy equipment manufacturing companies have set up authorized dealers at various states across US who take the orders and then ship the item to the end user. However, in this transaction they also make sure that they keep their margin of profit intact.

There is a slight difference between the authorized agent and dealers. An agent is the one who will only deal with the heavy equipment of one particular company. However, a dealer has his hands into heavy equipment of several companies at the same time. The end users prefer to come to a dealer for their heavy equipment requirement. The reason is they get the option to choose the best machine of any brand from them. They do not get the same option while transacting with an agent. They may get the best machine but not at a price that they can afford and also do not have the option to check out equipment of other companies which may cost a bit lesser. The dealer plays a big role in bringing the price down. They are the ones who keep the competition buzzing. However, there are some dealers who do not want to break the market and keep the price at sky level.

Check the brand of heavy equipment that the dealer deals in:-

You have the freedom to pick the brand of your choice and if you feel that it is expensive and you can go to some other brand that falls in your budget you have the option to do so. Simultaneously, you can also build up some pressure on the dealer to reduce the price of the equipment that you want to buy. They will try and get things done for you if at all it falls in their limits. So as a buyer your role will be to check which brand of heavy equipment will suit your business needs more and how hard will it hit your budget. It always makes sense to go for a machine that is apt to your business needs and also goes easy with your pocket.

Dealers can help you get loans from banks:-

Dealers of heavy equipment have good connections with various financial institutions. They can easily get a loan sanctioned for you through any of the financial institution at a nominal interest rate. You may find it hard to get a loan but a dealer can get this done without much hassle.

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Use of internet to solve heavy equipment problems

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We often depend on technology to fix problems that has been created on a technological produce. We are now at a stage where we can’t take a step forward without the involvement of technology and that actually should be the case. The more you use technology the better it will make your life. It is just that you do not become completely dependent on it or else you will find it difficult to live without it. Too much of dependency on anything can be fatal and one must realize this before it gets completely out of hand. However, when it comes to taking help of technology to fix problems that has been the product of technology one should not refrain from doing so. In the construction business which involves small contactors who can’t afford to hire mechanics to fix small issues often do things on their own. They just can’t afford to pay the fees that a mechanic charges to fix a machine and therefore they believe in doing things themselves.

Blog can be helpful:-

If you encounter a specific problem with the heavy equipment and you do not know what should be done to get rid of it, try to log in to net and check if someone has created a blog pertaining to the issue. If there is a blog addressing the problem you can expect to find some help there? Just read through the blog, the questions posed by people and the resolutions that some has left. It may leave you awestruck upon reading suggestions that are extremely out of the world. They will speak about workarounds that are hard to believe but if you apply them practically it may get rid of the problem once and for all. Blogs have been extremely helpful to many amateurs who have just started their journey in the construction world and does not know much about heavy equipment.

Articles can at times do the trick:-

Articles on heavy equipment can at times be really beneficial to solve a particular problem. If the writer has stressed on one particular issue and has written in length about the possible workarounds it can prove to be really helpful for the read to get rid of the issue. Articles are lengthy and therefore one can expect a lot of workarounds for a single issue.

Hire mechanics online:-

We can even hire a mechanic online. Mechanics often post their work on internet and also allows others to hire them to fix problems. Their charges may differ and that can be negotiated over the phone or when once you meet them. Nevertheless, internet has provided them with an option to post their services online and since most of the things today happen online they can even sell their services on that platform.

Make use of training videos:-

Guys who do not want to involve a mechanic to fix heavy equipment problems can make use of online videos that teaches people to fix heavy equipment. They may use a bit of technical jargons. Hence the person who is following the video should be acquainted with the terms.

Renting a Scraper

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Companies which are ideally into earth moving business find Scraper as quite crucial heavy equipment. They may use other heavy equipment as well but a large portion of their business is covered with the help of a scraper. They can’t depend on an excavator or for that matter a grader which is also highly used for landscape or site development work. They need to get the dirt out of the site and for that reason they need nothing less than a scraper. A newbie should rather invest his money into buying machinery that matters the most for his business; for instance, hiring human resources. As far as heavy equipment are concerned they can also be picked up on rent. This brings us to the topic of how big is the rental business when it comes to heavy equipment.

A person who has just set his foot in the construction domain and is finding it hard to come up with the expenses to meet his business requirements, it makes no further sense for him to spend anything on scraper, especially when he has the option to get a Scraper on rent. So is searching an owner who wants to rent his scraper a difficult task. Well, it is not at all a difficult one. All you need to do is go through the right channel to get the scraper you want. You basically have 2 options. The first one is by contacting an rental house who provides different kinds of heavy equipment. So going to him will be useful as you can speak about your needs and you will be suggested accordingly.

Taking help of a rental house also serves another purpose. They may guide you with the best available option which is not possible in any other mode. Just in case you are not sure which model of scraper you should be going with, the guidance of the rental house proves to be fruitful. If the rental equipment company is into this business for a long time, he may have well established contacts with the owners of heavy equipment which mean that you do not have to wait for long to get the scraper and start your work. It also protects the interests of both the parties. So if there is any sort of issue that crops up after the deal, you know whom to catch hold of.

The second option through which you can get a scraper on rent is by becoming a member of an online website that deals with renting heavy equipment. In this case, you need to know the kind of stuff you want for your business as you will have none to advice you. So do your research well and then hunt for the scraper. The online companies tend to protect the interest of both the parties but may not be as effective as the first option. So you need to be sure of what you are doing.