Tag Archives: Construction Equipment

Quick attached buckets for excavators

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Men/Women in the construction business consider excavators as one of the most important heavy equipment. It is considered important for many reasons. It is not only used to excavate land but can also be used as a dozer. Other than that, you do not need another heavy equipment to pull the debris and load it on a truck. This can also be effectively done by the excavator. So when we are talking about pulling out debris from the construction site using an excavator, we should be talking about the different kinds of buckets that are attached to the machine. The effectiveness of an excavator in pulling the debris lies mostly on the types of buckets that are being used on the machine. So a bucket which is big in size and capacity can pick a whole lot of debris at a single shot and dump it in the truck.

Now we need to know a thing or two about these buckets. Buckets are manufactured by different heavy equipment companies and they differ in quality. Also the locks of the bucket play an important role while lifting the debris. If you have bucket with double locking technology, it serves your purpose. These kinds of buckets are considered to be safer as the chance of breaking the lock due to too much of weight can be taken care of. The double locking system is also instrumental in situations when the machine is working in a dirty environment. An excavator mostly has to work in such a kind of an environment. The bucket often has to get into muddy water to pull the mud out. This can damage the locking system to a greater extent and therefore it is imperative for one to check the bucket before he starts working for the day.

Other than the locking system, there are other features as well which are quite important when it comes to earth excavation. The teeth of the bucket are supposed to act as a grip and are also useful to dig deep in the ground. The sharper the teeth of the bucket the more quickly you can get the job done. Other than this, the operator also needs to check how quickly he can change the attachments. Changing attached buckets can be a problem. If the buckets are rigid to open up, it can become a problem for the guy to change the bucket. One ideally expects the bucket to open up quickly so that it can be changed with an appropriate one. if that takes too long to open up, it can also affect the productivity.

While you are shopping for buckets for an excavator, you should primarily look for the ones that are quick to attach. It should not take lot of your time. Quick attached buckets are often sold on the internet. So read the description of the bucket before you pay for the item. Websites like eBay and Amazon deals into selling excavator buckets. So one can simple take a glance of these websites and make some purchase from there.

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Role of heavy equipment on the construction sector

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One who is a part of the construction domain clearly understands the importance of heavy equipment in this domain as well as to his business. This is perhaps the reason why many big construction companies are procuring state of the art machines for their big projects. Since they understand that the only way to get the work done faster is through the introduction of highly advanced heavy equipment that they want to have the best in their arsenal. Heavy equipment to a construction industry is what a heart or a brain is to a human being. He just can’t survive without these important organs. In the same way, it is almost unimaginable for the construction industry to move an inch of progress without the involvement and participation of heavy equipment.

We would be speaking in brief about the utilization of some heavy equipment which is most commonly seen in any jobsite.

Excavators:-

No big construction project can be completed without the participation of excavators. In order to begin the construction, one has to excavate the earth to build solid foundations. This is only possible with the help of this machine. It usually digs the earth with the help of the boom that is attached to its axle in the front. It has a cabin to the rear where the operator sits and manages his affair. This may seem to be a very common machine but has a lot of importance in the overall industry which is why heavy equipment companies are always in the process of designing hi-tech excavators that will sell as hot cakes.

Wheel Loader:-

A wheel loader is the machine that is extensively used to ferry debris from one place to another. When it comes to ferrying debris, other heavy equipment can also be utilized. However, they all have their limitations expect a wheel loader. They can carry huge pile of dirt, rocks and other debris which in many ways is not possible for other machines to perform. They are also extensively used for mining and road construction works.

Bulldozers:-

You have a permanent structure that you want to bring down you will not find anything better than a dozer. It has the capability to bring down a very solid structure into rubbles. They can also work as an alternative for excavators as the attachment can be changed and so does the work of the dozer.

Rollers:-

Rollers also form an important part of the construction industry. It is crucial to have good roads for better connectivity and also for the prosperity of the country’s economy. It is good roads that become part of better transportation of essential commodities. The pain of a bad road can’t be understood better than the driver of a truck whose spine aches while he drives every mile on it. The rollers play a significant role to smooth the road and make driving better.

There are many more machines that plays an instrumental role when it comes to making the future of the construction sector.

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Heavy Equipment and Texting is a bad combo

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We always like to be in touch with our friends and family members but there are times when the medium that you use to stay in touch with them can prove to be fatal. You may say that you are just trying to communicate a simple thing to someone but if you are communicating you should not do anything else other than talking to the person on your cell phone. You can’t be working as well as talking both at the same time. It just does not go well with each other and has every potential possibility to inflict serious injury to you or to someone else.

Most of the accidents happen while the person driving the car is talking to someone and driving at the same time. Now as far as the talk is normal, he has his sight on the road but if he gets to hear something exciting, his attention gets automatically diverted. So you may have your eyes on the road but definitely not your attention. The chances of you bumping someone on the road increase manifolds.

While you are operating heavy equipment in a construction site, you got to be extremely cautious about what you are doing. It has been seen that many experienced operators use their cell phones and keep on texting people while operating the machine. This is a very bad combination.

The operator may be quite experienced and has superb control over the machine but he is still playing with fire by diverting his attention on the cell phone. It has been observed that texting is more dangerous than speaking over the phone. While you are texting, you continuously have to look at the cell phone and therefore you lose your sight on the site. You will not even get to know if something gets on your way and by the time you realize it may be too late for you to control.

According to a research, it has been noticed that while you are texting, your eyes off the road/jobsite increases by 400% and the chances of moving into a different lane is increased by 28%. So one can simply figure out how dangerous it is to text while you are operating the construction equipment. Now the most horrifying detail is that while you are texting, it increases the chance of an accident by 2000%. These statistics unanimously speak one thing. The construction business owners should put a ban on using cell phones while working on the jobsite. The operators may expect some emergency calls but that can be easily dealt by providing the number of the supervisor on duty. So if there is an emergency in the family, they need to call the supervisor and he will inform the operator.

The contractors should also develop a cell phone free policy for all the operators and also construction workers on the jobsite. This will ensure the safety and well-being of all the employees working on the jobsite.

Clearing debris using heavy equipment

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The entire construction industry is largely dependent on the use of different kinds of heavy equipment. It can be used for many purposes like road construction, digging deep inside the ground, rolling down an existing structure or simply removing debris out of the site. Well, removing the debris can be a painful task for the workers if they exclude the involvement of heavy machineries. It may take weeks if not months for the workers to just remove the debris out of the site if they had to do this manually and without the participation of heavy equipment. In a nutshell, it is just not possible. You can’t take a hit on your finance and delay your project just because your employees are busy clearing the debris. That sounds completely insane from the perspective of a construction business owner.

So in a situation where you got to take care of the debris, it is advisable that you have your heavy equipment in place that are especially used for such work and get the work done in few days. The entire purpose of using heavy equipment to get the work done is to save your time as well as the time and energy of your workers and also to speed up the work a bit. The heavy equipment that are ideally used to clear debris are excavators, backhoe loaders, front loaders and any machine that can have an attachment either in the front or at the rear and can attach a bucket out there are fit to do this work.

Many construction companies or for that matter demolition companies use a dozer to demolish structures and then use the same machine with a different attachment and clear the debris. All they do is fit in a bucket in the front and the operator makes sure he gets the job done in a day’s time. So a bulldozer is a favorite for many demolition companies. Though there are some who prefer a backhoe loader for the same job but many find dozers to be more compatible than any other form of heavy equipment.

Excavators can also be used to remove debris. The claws of the excavator can be used to draw the debris in it and then it moves at the back of the machine and dumps the stuff inside the bucket which is then moved and eventually dumped in the truck. Excavators are the ideal heavy machines for the ones who got to dig deep inside the ground and then carry the dirt and dump it in the truck. So the construction and mining companies who are into building huge apartments or who goes deep inside the ground in search of minerals find an excavator as a perfect machine for their job.

Backhoe loader is such heavy equipment which is primarily used to remove debris. It has a bucket at the rear of the machine and the dirt is filled inside the bucket with the help of the boom that’s attached on its front. It is also used for excavating work; therefore has similar features of an excavator.

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Construction Heavy Equipment

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Construction in this era is a booming sector and so are the sectors that are closely associated with it. For instance, the cement industry, steel industry and more importantly the heavy equipment industry also see themselves growing. Due to their close association with the construction industry, they have all been able to set their foot tight on the ground and are now making good money. The heavy equipment manufacturing industry is perhaps one of the most profitable industries as it is much believed that the entire construction sector depends largely on the heavy equipment industry and vice versa.

We will be talking about some crucial heavy equipment without which it is almost unimaginable for the construction sector to sustain.

Crawler Dozers:-

When we talk about moving loads of dirt, we can’t think of any machine other than a Crawler Dozer. They are big powerful machines that are meant for the purpose of carrying huge loads of dirt in the bucket that is positioned on the front of the equipment. The operator drags the bucket on the ground and the dirt gets absorbed in the bucket. It thus carries all the dirt and dumps it on a dump truck. These machines are used predominantly in a mining site or in a road construction site.

We can also see these machines in a jobsite that is working on a very big project where it has to cover a lot of ground and get the dirt out. The smaller version of this machine is also used as grading tractors. Al most every heavy equipment manufacturing company produced crawler dozers. So one has to check the specification and match it with his requirements to come to a decision on the brand he should be going for.

 Excavators:-

This is very common heavy equipment that one will come across on any construction of mining jobsite. Every construction project needs to dig the earth and for this they need machines no less than an excavator to do the job for them. There are various types of excavators available and each one with some superior features in it comes at a high cost. The new construction companies or small contractors often do not go for expensive excavators. They limit themselves with lower genre of machines or basically buy small version. It may not be as effective as the larger ones but is still doable.

Road rollers:-

No road work can be done without the use of road rollers. They are quite instrumental in giving a shape to the surface of the road. It easily presses the asphalt and other ingredients sprayed on the surface and give a good outcome. Road rollers have a huge drum located at the front of the machine and the operator simply rolls it on the surface thus making it smooth. Some rollers have a drum in the front and 2 heavy rollers at that rear of the machine thus giving good impact on the road. Overall, when it comes to road construction rollers are a must.

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Make customized heavy equipment straight from the workshop

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We all have some specific requirements and in order to fulfill those requirements we need special tools. Similarly, when we talk about the construction segment we would like to have heavy equipment that suit our needs. Heavy equipment makers take lot of care to produce machines that matches our needs but that may sound pretty expensive and the heavy equipment produced by them are bought by big construction and mining companies. Small contractors and sub-contractors form a major part of the construction business and frankly they can’t afford to buy machines that are tailor made. They ideally made some amendments to the heavy equipment they are using like adding some attachments and try to do their job. However it is not an impossible task to use customized heavy equipment. All they have to do is give the existing equipment to the mechanic who has a workshop and who not only fixes construction machines but also modifies them. They only have to be a bit specific about their requirements and consider the job as done.

Not all mechanics modify heavy equipment:-

You got to do a fair deal of research before you land up to one such workshop and also remember that not all mechanics modify heavy equipment. They may have a workshop where they repair your machines but they do not participate in modification works. Either they do not have the expertise or they want to keep their business simple. Some mechanics know to modify machines but still stick to the repairing business. It is definitely not an easy job. When you modify a machine you got to take care of many other things that are connected with it. If you want something to be changed, you may have to forcibly change some other component as it may not be compatible with the changed item. This is why there are special workshops which have trained men/women for the job and you need to take the equipment to them for any kind of modification.

Can also buy customized heavy equipment:-

If you are looking to buy heavy equipment that will serve some special needs for your business you can again look up to mechanics that makes heavy equipment considering your needs. These heavy equipment will be way too inexpensive as compared to the one manufactured by heavy equipment companies. It will not hurt your budget and you have a machine that serves your purpose. However, it is important that you prepare the specifications of the heavy equipment along with the operator. He will be the guy who will eventually work on it and therefore he can mention well about what all he needs in it.

Compare the price before you give an order:-

Before you go with ordering customized heavy equipment, it is imperative that you check the quotation from different mechanics. You got to be wise enough to choose the best. Try to get reviews from people who have got similar work done from them. If at all you get recommendations from someone in your business circle, you can give that special consideration but try to analyze the situation well and then place yo

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The beginners should be backed by the veterans

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You be a part of any industry and you need some guidance when you are new to that form of business. You seek guidance from the tenured guys who has been working for that company or have being a part of that industry for years and you believe that if at all you come across a problem, you have people to bail you out. You depend a lot on them. Simultaneously, it also becomes the responsibility of the experienced men to take the onus and give proper advice to the newbie so that they can steer away from any issues and learn to deal with problems. The need of such veterans is needed a lot when it comes to selling heavy equipment. Sales in itself is a difficult job and not many are able to find this to be their cup of tea and there are many who after striving for a while generally give it up.

Not quite good with product knowledge:-

One of the major problems that has been seen amongst the newbie is that they find it tough to understand heavy equipment and therefore when they approach a client, they are not confident enough to pitch in the product and subsequently unable to sell the stuff. They lack good product knowledge and are most of the time confused as to what they should learn from this vast topic. Heavy equipment is undoubtedly a vast topic with so much to understand and one can only grasp it completely with time. So, we can’t expect a newbie to learn everything just after he is done with his training. A veteran can step in here and advise him on the areas that he should concentrate. He may not have to learn everything but just few important things that are relevant to sales.

Not all days are good days:-

In the daily life of a salesperson, he has to go through a lot of ordeal. In order to make one sale, he probably has to work hard for the entire month and heavy equipment being an expensive item; it certainly takes time for a contractor to make the decision to buy the machine. On the other hand, he should also be ready to take up insults at times which can be very embarrassing. There are times when the client do not buy the stuff but is also not rude to you but such clients are few in numbers and you get mostly people who for some reason turn out to be a bit rude when they deal with sales guys. This needs to be addressed by the experienced lots and they can always comfort the beginners by saying that this is a part and parcel of the business and one has to go through this in order to grow.

Sales trick are important to be shared:-

Every form of business has a trick that helps to complete the job faster. The veteran salespersons should share those tricks with the new guys. Do some role play with them where they will act as client and the beginners will be salesperson? In this way they can sharpen the skills of the beginners and generate a new confidence in them.

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Is Renting Wheel Loaders a Good Business

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The construction activities have increased due to increase in population. Many big and start up construction companies cannot afford to a buy and maintain all new equipment for their work, especially in case of short term projects. Hence, they prefer to buy equipment and machines on rental basis at an affordable price and return it after use. Thus, rental business is profitable and is booming. It is observed that many equipment rentals only rent specific equipments and do not keep all types of equipments. It is because they have studied market and functional aspects of the equipment. Since most of the heavy equipment are multifunctional, being in rental business of specific equipment can be a good idea as it saves the cost of buying and maintaining different equipment.

Wheel loader (front end loader or bucket loader), is one of the widely used machines in construction. It is primarily used in construction applications such as material handling, digging, load and carry and road building and some even are used for waste handling. They are versatile and have good payload capacity to perform multiple functions at low cost. They are very much required in any construction project, however they are expensive.

Tier 4-compliant models, the cost of a new machine is more than it has been in the past. The cost of these A survey reported that overall the heavy machinery rentals have jumped by 75% in 2013 to 2014 alone, with wheel loader rentals soaring up 273%. Thus, renting of the wheel loaders (WLs) is a profitable business due to the following reasons:

  1. It has been observed that as a result of the engine refinements made to machines, their cost now ranges from between $86,000 and $245,000. Due the enormous cost factor, most individual contractors, small and big construction business purchase either single or an entire fleet of wheel loaders on rental basis. This becomes more cost effective.
  2. There is overall a downfall in economy and purchasing such expensive machines is not affordable to many construction industries. Hence they prefer rental WLs.
  3. Buyers are also interested in new models of WLs since they are easy to operate, have advanced technology and increased speed. The new models include features such as
  • Electric loaders as compared to the diesel or gasoline engines
  • Range of attachments such as grapples, forks, buckets of varying sizes.
  • Reduction in fuel transmission
  • Good cab/cabins for the operators to get greater range of visibility on all sides.
  • These factors increase productivity at a work place. If the rental service providers (RSP) can add such advanced WLs to their fleet and provide on rental basis then it will increase their business.

 

4.  RSP should have good business plan and strategy, advertise in newspapers and on websites, know about their own expenses (owning a store, ability to purchase these high end equipment, maintenance and repairs of machines, water and electricity bills.)

5.  Buying used equipment on rental basis is common for the short duration projects, hence they are in demand. Thus, RSP can also look for option of renting ‘used’ or ‘second hand’ WLs too, since purchasing such equipments is cost affordable. However, they should be careful while choosing such machines that have undergone less wear and tear and their parts are available.

6.  RSP should be careful while renting the expensive and used WLs to the buyer. They should understand the nature of work requirements of the customer and should guide them properly. They should help the customer to choose appropriate model of WL with proper loading and bucket capacity. Further, they should make sure that the buyer has the capability to pay the rental amount and would take care of the equipment and will return the equipment in good condition. After all the terms and conditions are acceptable to both parties, a rental agreement has to made between RSP and prospective buyer.

 

Use Water Trucks to control Dust on the jobsite

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The sight of a construction site is not restricted to just heavy equipment or workers working on the site but you can get to see something more, something that is dangerous in nature and it is huge proportion of dust flying on site. It is pretty natural for a construction site to b dusty but that is also taking its toll on the workers. They are getting vulnerable to various kinds of respiratory ailments which is making them weak from inside. This is a very serious issue and not much is being done to restrict this menace.

Researchers working with human health benefits organizations and other environmental friendly techniques suggest that the growing problem of dust in a construction site can be contained by spraying water which has the potential to settle the dust for some time and the workers can continue with their businesses. Since this idea has been implemented in various construction sites, there has also been a debate on the effectiveness of this method. Many feel that this is only leading to the waste of the most useful natural resource and water is not able to contain the dust for a long time. The moment water is evaporated from the soil; it gets dusty again which means that it is time to sprinkle water again on the ground. This in turn results to wastage of gallons of water just to contain the dust. Moreover, the mechanism used by construction companies to sprinkle water is also questioned.

Most of the companies sprinkle water using large pipes. That only covers a portion of the construction site but not the complete area. It makes no sense to pour water to contain dust only in one particular portion of the site. What is indeed needed is a mechanism that moves all over the site and sprinkles water everywhere so that the land is wet and dust is off the site for few hours. This gives need to the use of water trucks that can go all around the site and do its work. Construction companies are now changing their methods of dust control from using pipes to carrying water in trucks and spraying them all over the site.

These water trucks are specifically designed to carry water and can move on the site. Though they are used precisely for carrying water but can also be used to transport debris from one place to another. They are made to move real slowly so that they do not become the reason of accumulating dust and spraying it all over. They also make use of pipes to spray water but the outlet of the pipe is made in such a way that the water gets sprinkled on the ground thus restricting wastage of water.

Almost all heavy equipment producing companies manufactures water trucks. You can check the website of any such company that is into manufacturing heavy equipment and you will get to see the different models of water trucks produced by them.

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Learning the basics of heavy equipment

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Heavy equipment if learnt from the very basics can prove to be quite useful for the person who deals into it. For instance, a salesman whose job is to pitch construction equipment to big construction houses and to contractors needs to know almost everything about what he is selling. He might come across any sort of question and he needs to answer them to win their confidence. It is true that we do not want to buy a thing from a person who does not know much about it. Frankly, we will not have the confidence to buy it from him no matter how technologically advanced the stuff it is. We will always have this doubt that the person is not selling us the right thing because he couldn’t answer all our doubts. So when the salesman is dealing with heavy equipment, it is also dealing with large amount of money and nobody will want to buy the stuff from a guy who has less knowledge about the product.

Not only salesman but you can take for that matter anybody who is related to the industry that has need for heavy equipment, they need to have excellent understanding on the subject failing which can have serious consequences on their work and simultaneously on their career as well. So how do we go about learning the basics of heavy equipment and why we should start with the basics? Well, whenever you are about to learn a thing, you start from the scratch. It is because if you try to jump to the next level you will presumably and quite rightly not understand anything about the subject. They will be all interlinked to the first level which is ideally the basics. This is why you should also focus primarily on the basics of heavy equipment and learn it well. You can then steer into other dimension once you are pretty clear with the basics.

There are many institutions who teach people on heavy equipment. You can probably join one such place and gather books that will help you to learn about earth moving equipment. Books related to these subjects will be really helpful. You get to learn a lot from them. They consist basically everything that will help you know the basics of heavy equipment. Simultaneously you can also relate what is there in the books with the machine you have at your place. Please do not open up the machine because if you do so you may not know to put it back again. If you find that to be difficult then the next best solution is to use internet and check some videos that talks about the basics.

YouTube and other such websites contain a lot of videos that are referred by the best in the industry. They prefer to check out the YouTube videos if they want to know anything or fix up something on their machine. You can find them to be really helpful as far as learning the basics of heavy equipment is concerned.

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