Category Archives: construction equipment

How to protect heavy equipment during winter

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Heavy equipment has to go through a lot of hardships and unlike humans it does not complain. Well, it does break down when it is unable to take any further but it has a very high level of endurance which makes it the most important component of the construction industry. However, it also becomes futile in front of extreme weather and rough terrain. Be it the hot summer or the wet monsoon or the harsh winter, it is expected to perform throughout the year but there is always a chance of it breaking down if the weather becomes extreme. More so in the winter, when the weather outside is frozen and the inside of the machine needs to be hot. Most of the times, it cranks up and does not start. It is therefore that the heavy equipment owners have to take extra care when it comes to their heavy equipment operating in chilled winter season.

Check if the engine is well lubricated:-

Most of the parts of the machine need to be well lubricated in order to function without any hick-ups. Hence, the operator needs to keep a very close watch and check time to time if the machine is well lubricated and special care needs to be taken with the engine of the machine. The engine oil should be changed on a regular basis and especially during winters, it should be changed once in a month. Due to the frozen climate outside, the oil becomes thick and it does not act as a good lubricator then. This may also affect the health of other parts of the machine which will eventually lead to complete replacement of that part. It absolutely makes no sense to invest money on buying new parts when you can easily change the engine oil at regular intervals.

Clean the fuel tank:-

Cleaning the fuel tank may sound to be trivial but is very crucial when it comes to the overall health of the heavy equipment. You need to clean the fuel tank cap and ensure that the cap is doing well. The fuel should be clean and should not contain any sediment or water. The presence of these components can become a big problem pertaining to fuel injection system failures.

Ensure that the batteries are in good health:-

It is perhaps the batteries that are the affected the most with the beginning of the winter. In order to ensure that the batteries are doing well, the operator should check the battery electrolyte and make sure that it is up to the full indicator and also above the plates. Another trivial but important part is to clean the top of the battery. There happens to be a lot of dirt on the top of the stuff and that can result in energy drain. You can make use of baking soda and terminal bush to clean any corrosion that exists around the posts. If you see that the heavy equipment will not be used during the winters and will be needed some other time, you can just remove the batteries and keep them in a storeroom so that it avoids any direct contact with the outside freezing weather.

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Small dirt moving equipment

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Being into the construction industry, it is very important that you have a mixture of small, medium and large heavy equipment. You never know when you need to enter a zone that for some reason does not give access to large or medium sized machines and therefore you need the smaller one to do the job for you. Being small does not imply that they are any less efficient as far as the productivity of the machine is concerned. It is just that they can more efficiently do the work in the area where large machines just can’t enter. You can find a smaller version in every type of heavy equipment making things far more comfortable for the guy who has taken up the work.

Excavators can be one of the most efficient dirt moving heavy equipment and almost all the construction equipment manufacturing companies produce small sized excavators. They prove to be really helpful in places that have narrow entry point and you need to send the machine through the small passage and get the dirt out. Prices of such excavators depend upon the name of the brands and he features available in the machine. However, they are pretty within the reach of any small construction company and just in case if they too find it a little expensive then always have the option to rent it from its owner. Unlike other heavy equipment, excavators have tracks and do not work on tires.

Backhoe loaders are another sect of machines that fall in the bracket of dirt moving equipment and the smaller version of such machines can really do wonders in a construction site. Small backhoe loaders are also used by companies that can’t afford to buy the bigger version. They can easily do their work without having to spend a fortune on buying expensive machines. Unlike excavators, backhoe loaders are mounted on tires and not on tracks. They have the capability to work both with the shovel and the bucket at the same time. The shovel is attached to the front of the machine and the bucket is at the rear. Many construction companies find backhoe loaders as more compatible machines for jobs that have small space to operate.

Bulldozers can also be a good option when it comes to small dirt moving equipment. They are not only used to flatten the roads but are also used to pick huge piles of dirt and port it from one place to another. They are quite heavy machines and are considered to be the best machine for this job. They have those blades attached in the front using which they dig the mud and pull the dirt out. The blades are usually controlled with the help of hydraulic pistons.

These are probably few dirt moving equipment that are used extensively in construction sites and are also high in demand. One can buy them directly from the company or can even contact the dealer. Do check if you can get any discount before you go for the purchase.

 

 

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Cold Weather Diesel Fuel Tips

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It becomes very tough to get your heavy equipment started during winters. Imagine you have a big project in hand and the work has already started somewhere during the mid of the year and it is going in full swing. Just then, the chilling winter arrives and the machine just does not want to start. It is no less than a nightmare and the worst part is that it is happening for real. It is just the cold weather that can create all sorts of problem in your machine. But if you think that you can deal with it then let’s put it in this way. The problem is just the tip of the iceberg. When it gets colder and starts snowing, things become worse. Because it is then that you do not get mechanics to fix the problem and if you are a guy who does not know how to fix issues, then you are in deep trouble. We all know that heavy equipment run on diesel and diesel has the characteristic to become thick during winters. It turns into a gel like substance losing its liquid form. This becomes the cause of all the trouble. You need to equip yourself with alternatives that you can use to keep the machine on move.

Let us first talk about what happens to diesel fuel during cold weathers and what can be done to ensure that the machine works when it is expected to.

There are ideally two types of concern that we should prepare ourselves to deal with. The first one is gelling and the second is water contamination. Under “Gelling”, the fuel (diesel) turns into a gel-like substance and is not able to flow through the fuel filter. As a result of this, the engine may run irregularly. Often there are more chances of the engine getting turned off during the mid of work. There are also chances of the engine not starting at all. In order to avoid this problem, it is advised to use Diesel One fuel. This kind of fuel has shown positive results in preventing the fuel from turning into wax. Thus, it has been highly effective in keeping the engine intact and has also increased the efficiency of the machine during the winters.

Water Contamination is another problem that hits diesel run heavy equipment hard. Water when it comes in contact with the fuel has the potency to contaminate it in no time. During winter, it becomes very simply for water to get mixed with the fuel thus contaminate the fuel and breaks down the equipment. Water also has the capacity to freeze in fuel at a temperature of below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the supply line of the fuel is freezes, it evidently does not allow the fuel to pass and leads to issues. Just in case, it fails to freeze, then it will definitely become a place for microbial contamination and will have the potency to destroy the important parts of the machine. What can be done to avoid such a situation is using engine block heaters. They are used to keep the engine hot while it’s working. It keeps the engine hot for the next day. So the driver has to unplug the heater and then start off his work.

 

 

What does LGP (low ground pressure) stand for?

Heavy equipment are very heavy and can cause serious damage to the ground if they do not have proper low ground pressure. This is a subject that many people using heavy equipment may not be aware of. It is only because that this subject doesn’t affect their work in any way. However, people who have studied heavy equipment as their subject may know how important low ground pressure is to keep the ground away from much pressure from the heavy equipment. The equipment if do not possess low ground pressure can significantly damage the soil which can be dangerous especially for farmers because they will then slowly and steadily lose the quality of the soil. It may be also possible that the soil may become infertile. Therefore, it becomes very important to reduce the ground pressure from heavy equipment and the keep the quality of the soil intact.

What can be done to reduce the ground pressure from heavy equipment? Well, one of the most important parts that can be done to reduce the ground pressure is replacing the steel tracks with hard plastic tracks. That will significantly bring down the pressure to a larger extent thereby keeping the quality of the soil undamaged. There are few companies that produce such plastic plates that can be used as ground tracks for heavy equipment. Nylatrack plates are one such plate produced by “Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products” that comparatively brings down the weight of the machine. It is said that they are 80% less weighty that the steel plates thus exerting less pressure on the ground. Similarly, there are many more such plastic plates manufacturing companies that play a mighty role in today’s modern engineering and also keeping the ground pressure low.

Another benefit of using plastic tracks is they can easily work on soft grounds which is difficult for heavy equipment with steel plates to do. They can also work on pavements which again may not be so simple for heavy equipment with steel tracks. Exerting low ground pressure will have almost no side effects on the ground. Other than replacing the steel plates with plastic plates, there is one more way to lower the ground pressure. Just by reducing the noise, one can also reduce the ground pressure. The equipment vibrations are soaked up by the plastic plates which only happen if the tracks are flexible in nature. By installing plastic tracks, the tracks of the machine become quite flexible which in turn absorb the vibration coming out of the tracks and thus the noise of the undercarriage goes silent. This means that there is less stress on the drive chain that happens predominantly because the plastic track plates absorb the bending force.

The plastic track plates manufactured by companies are immune to oils and seawater which makes it a machine that can work in extreme conditions. Since it has plastic plates, it is very unlikely that the soil will stick with the plates. This will prevent any sort of damage to the ground.

Rental equipment for sale

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Quite often when you feel that the heavy equipment you were putting on rent is no longer liked by people and they are not accepting that machine on their jobsite, it is better that you sell it off after making few repairs on it. There is a possibility that technology installed on the heavy equipment has become outdated and people are looking for more up to date equipment that has its relevance in the construction industry. No one would like to pay any amount of money on something that has very less relevance to his work. He would rather want to go for updated items something that can help him to complete his work in less time and is also low on fuel consumption. In a situation like this, it will be wise to just sell the heavy equipment that you have been renting for a long time.

There are few important aspects that one needs to take into consideration before you put the machine on sale.

Give a new look by painting the machine:-

When you are up for selling an item, you can only sell it if it sounds appealing to the buyer. The buyer may not be able to know the intricacies of the machine just by having a look. But the impression he may take could be either positive or negative. Now if you clean up your machine, get it painted and repair the dents, the chances of it getting sold become high. The first impression that they will have is that you have taken good care of your machine and it will most likely not give them any issues after buying it from you. This positive impression will go a great deal and even if he feels that the equipment does not have a couple of features which other machines are giving, he may still go for your equipment/machinery. So the entire point in getting the machine painted is that you set such an impression on the buyer from where he should not have much reason to refuse the purchase.

Repair the internal parts and replace faulty parts:-

Selling heavy equipment that was once put on rent can be bit difficult. It is a no brainer that people who have the machine on rent must have used it the way they wanted and the overall health of the machine may not be in good order. Therefore, it is crucial that you first take help of an expert technician and repair the internal parts of the machine. If the technician finds any faulty part that needs to replaced, then do that immediately. No one likes to buy equipment that will not work for a long time no matter how cheap you sell it to him. They will always expect something better to come out of used equipment.

Ensure that you do not overprice the equipment:-

Selling the heavy equipment at its right price should be your focus. You should think about making lot of money but anything decent enough should be your motto. Hence, keep the price that you feel is considerable and is not overpricing it.

Volvo Articulated Trucks vs. Caterpillar Articulated Trucks

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Trucks play a very important role in both the construction and mining industries. They do not get directly involved in any of the activities but both the sectors can’t even move an inch further without the help of trucks. They are the ones which is responsible to ferry important items from one place to another. Be it heavy equipment to sand or bags of cement, they are all transported using these trucks. It can also be referred as the lifeline of both the sectors. It is also extensively used to ferry huge piles of debris from the construction site to the dump-yard. As you can’t think to function without heavy equipment, in the same fashion you can’t think to begin or complete your job without putting the trucks to any use.

There are specifically two companies that are renowned for manufacturing articulated trucks. The first one is Volvo and the second is Caterpillar. Though caterpillar is known for making premium heavy equipment, they are also into manufacturing articulated trucks. We will talk in brief about the specifications of trucks manufactured by both the companies.

Starting with Volvo A40D, this truck has been in the news for all the right reasons. The company has marketed it well and it seems to be doing pretty well with the buyers. The spec for this truck is as follows.

The gross and the net power of Volvo A40D is 426 and 420 hp respectively with a displacement of 732.3 cu in. The total fuel capacity of this truck is around 126.8 gallon. The hydraulic system fluid capacity, cooling system fluid capacity, engine oil capacity and the transmission fluid capacity is 66 gal, 30.9 gal, 13.2 gal and 12.8 gal respectively. The operating voltage of the machine is 24 V and the alternator supplied amperage is 55 amps. The maximum speed that it can take is 34.8 mph and the total number of forward and reverse gears it has is 6 and 2 respectively.

The total weight of the truck when empty is 31270 kg and when it’s full the weight is 68270 kg. The weight of the front axle when loaded is 19170 kg and 16300 kg when empty. The weight of the rear axle when empty is 14970 kg and when loaded it is 49100 kg. The overall length, width and height of the truck is 37 ft in, 10.7 ft in and 12.3 ft in respectively.

Talking about the CAT articulated truck; we would be speaking about the much known CAT 740 articulated dump truck.

The gross and net power of the truck is 464 hp and 445 hp respectively with a displacement of 927.6 cu in. The total fuel capacity of the truck is 147.9 gal. The hydraulic system, cooling system and engine oil capacity is 61.6 gal, 21.1 gal and 10 gal respectively. The maximum speed of the truck is 34 mph and the total number forward and reverse gears are 7 and 2 respectively. The total weight of the truck when loaded is 70840kg and when empty it is 32840kg. All the other features of this truck is pretty alike the Volvo A40D with very minimum deviations.

Overall the customer will not be at loss by going for either of the truck as both will be highly prolific for him.

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How to prevent your heavy equipment getting stolen

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Thieves always have one thing in mind. Steal a highly priced stuff and sell it at a lower price. It will still leave them with a bounty. It really does not matter much if the item they want to steal is the car parked at your backyard or the heavy equipment that is lying at your construction site. For them, it is good money lying unprotected and definitely a chance to earn a lot of money in a comparatively shorter span. They know for sure how highly priced heavy equipment are and therefore if you have left your machine unprotected, it is definitely a cause of worry. If you feel that keeping the equipment in the construction site will keep it away from the eyes of the thieves, then you have completely mistaken them. You will never know what they have set your machine as their next target and one fine day you will get to see the equipment missing from the site.

It is better to be safe than sorry for not doing the right thing at the right time and therefore it is important that you keep your heavy equipment protected. Thieves will never let you know when they are planning to steal your machine and therefore installing a camera or keeping some sort of security will deter them to take this step. Efforts that you should take to keep your machine safe are stated below.

Install cameras at major points in the construction site:-

Installing cameras at all the important points can work a great deal in keeping the thieves at bay. It has been noticed that thieves do not want to get inside the compounds that has cameras all around the place. Trying to steal a machine from a place that has lot of cameras has more chance for them to get caught and therefore they kind of like to play it safe.

Deploy security men to protect your machine:-

Alongside installing cameras you can also deploy security men at the site who will keep a constant check. It will be too much of a risk to try any misadventure when you have the security guys available at the site. They would rather not dare to drive away a big machine especially when there are people around and guarding the place. This would act a big deterrent to the ones who enter the site with the intention to steal the equipment.

Give a suitable indicator to all your machines:-

If you have a lot of machines with you, it becomes difficult for you to identify which equipment is yours and which one you have taken on rent (if at all you have taken any machine on rent). What needs to be done is tag the machines with numbers or codes engraved in it. The numbers should be visible to everybody which if stolen will not be easy to sell in the black market. The thieves will also not want to make the selling part difficult and hence will not lay their hands on machines that have those numbers or codes.

 

 

Repo Heavy Construction equipment

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Have you ever wondered what happens to the heavy equipment that are not loan free and the buyer of the machine is unable to pay any further installments. Well, those machines are taken away by private repo companies and the bank sells them at a significantly cheaper rate. If you look deeply there are many people who have made good sum of money after getting into the repossession business which is also known as the repo business. Repossession need not happen on only construction equipment. It can be on your vehicle or anything on which you have taken a bank loan and are now unable to pay it off. This is how it works. After having received repeated reminders from the bank to pay the installment if you are still unable to pay the money, they get in touch with people who are into hauling of heavy equipment. The banks pay them descent money for this work. They come to your place either by letting you know that they are taking away the machine or just do this by keeping you uninformed.

Once the bank is able to repossess the construction equipment, they try to auction it in the open market where they are bound to sell it at a considerably lower price. However, they still manage to recover the money which would have otherwise remained as bad debts in their book of accounts.

If you are a person who is always on the hunt of repo machines, then the best thing for you would be to keep a constant watch on the industry websites or keep on checking the industry trade publications. Such news is published out there and many people have benefitted by making a deal there. All you have to do is locate the heavy equipment that you may need and then place your bids on it on the website. In order to ensure that the machine is in order and not wrecked, you can go for a personal inspection. Just in case if that is not allowed you can go very carefully through the description of the machine mentioned on the website. In this way you will get to know the state the machine is in and the price that you should stick to in the auction.

Once you have placed your bid and see that your bid is the highest priced one, the next important step is that you start making arrangements for funds. You need to ensure that you have the entire sum of money with you before the auction ends. It is because most of the banks demand cash immediately after the auction ends or you should be ready with cashier check. There are only a handful of banks that allow you to make the payment via credit card or allow you to make the payment after few days. Since banks are selling the machine at a cheaper rate, they expect the money immediately and do not wish to wait for days to get it.

Heavy equipment that is used by the military

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If we think that heavy equipment are used only by the construction or the mining industries then we are only partially correct with our thoughts. There is another sector which is presumably larger than the both the sectors which also uses number one quality heavy equipment and accessories and this is the military. The US military uses various types of heavy equipment for its different uses and they give the order of its requirements to some top notch companies. The requirement is given to the heavy equipment manufacturing companies and they in return give the quotation to the military officials. Once they get the clearance from the higher officials, the procurement process starts off.

The reason why military needs advanced heavy equipment is that they always get involved in activities that can’t be done without the use of sophisticated machines. Machines that some construction companies have probably never heard or have seen are procured by the military for doing everything that a logical mind can think of. They use bulldozers, excavators, cranes, loaders, crawlers etc. and they train their men for the work. They at times also recruit operators from outside but for work that is done in highly confidential places, they prefer to put their men at work. Therefore, they also provide training of operating heavy equipment to the men in uniform so that they can curtail the use of civilian operators in highly confidential zones.

The heavy equipment used by the military may not be similar to the ones used by civilians. They are more sophisticated and technologically advanced and have the potential to do the work at a comparatively lesser time than the machines used by big construction houses. You may have witnessed some companies using machines that seemed to have served the military. Well, it all works this way. Once the heavy equipment gets older or outdated and the engineers in the military feel that they no longer need their services, it will auctioned at dirt cheap price to the civilians. These heavy equipment still have their worth in sectors other than military and therefore you will get to see large number of potential buyers interested to buy such machines.

Other than that the quality of metal used in such machines is outstanding and hence everybody knows that they will end up buying something worthy at a lesser price. The US military not only used heavy equipment produced by American heavy equipment manufacturing companies. They do not mind going for machines that are produced by French, German, Canadian or Australian companies. They primarily need quality to be number one and second the machine should deliver by consuming less time.

There is not set model of a machine. They may produce a dozer and make it look like something else. It may not look like a dozer that we all know. It may not necessarily be deceptive but the model that is used for military purpose is quite unique but will be highly reliable and efficient.

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Thumb attachments on Excavator

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An operator working on an excavator understands who difficult it is to get every bit of work done with the help of the bucket. If it is all about pushing the dirt inside the bucket, the operator may do it with ease but when it comes to picking up the branch of a tree or lifting a concrete or a rock, it just turns out to be one of the most difficult task for him to complete. However, if he is provided with a thumb that is attached with the bucket of the excavator then things get pretty simplified. It works like fingers on your palm. As you can lift anything using your fingers, in the same fashion when the thumb is attached to the excavator it also gives great deal of comfort to the operator and he can easily lift items like huge rocks, concrete etc.

Ideally there are 2 types of thumb that can be installed on an excavator. The first is Progressive Link Thumb and the second is Stick Pivot Thumb. The Progressive Link Thumb gives more pressure throughout the complete cylinder range. It can achieve a rotation of more than 180 degree which allows it to pick items that are very close to the excavator. This means that the machine does not have to move back in order to pick up something that is lying close to it. The operator would rather find this to be more comfortable than driving the machine back to pick stuffs. This kind of thumb can be used for multipurpose work such as picking up heavy materials, clearing the land, clearing the forest (picking up big log), cleaning the debris after demolition. Since it allows you to pick stuffs close to you, it saves a lot of time and fuel which is otherwise spent in repositioning the machine and also makes it convenient to work in place that is space crunched.

Stick Pivot Thumb can be used both on an excavator as well as on a backhoe loader. Here the thumb rotates with the original bucket pin. In order to ensure that the thumb has a greater grip on the load, the pivot point sets the thumb tip with the bucket in such a way that during the complete bucket rotation, there is no chance of the material to set off the grip and come out of the clutch. The stick pivot thumb can be used for all the work for which one will use a progressive link thumb. However, it depends on who wants to use what.

Other than that there are also other products that are used extensively by mining and construction companies like Graptor, Jaw Bane etc. The main motto of preparing a thumb attachment is to ensure that the machine do not lose it grip while holding heavy materials and also that it is able to put them in its grip. The thumb attachments can be bought online or directly from a store that deals with accessories and they are certainly the stuff that everybody can afford to buy.

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