California big dirt scraper operators

[Gavin84w]

OK, while we have a lot of scraper guys around here at the moment, lets see if we can put down who the big fleet owners currently in and around California are and perhaps list there fleets.

ACI 660,657 & 651
Ralph D Mietzel ???????
Ebenstiener ???????
McCoy & Sons 660 & 657
Independent Construction Company 666,657,637 & 631 ??????
Sukut 657, 651 ???????

Share the knowledge gents, lets find out what is belching smoke!!!!!!

 

[637slayer]

i typed in aci and it came back arch coal inc. is that the same aci you are talking about? they are right here in wy also if its the same.

 

[fensoncont.]

I believe the ACI he is speaking of is Atflitch (spelling?) Construction Inc., very large dirt company in Califronia. They are a very private company though from what I've heard.

 

[Mass-X]

Sukut Construction might be the biggest dirt moving contractor in the nation. Right now most of their scrapers are parked due to the collapse of the housing market. But they're big and know how to move dirt. www.sukut.com

Pinnick Inc, formerly Signs & Pinnick runs a big fleet of 657E's. Solely a dirt moving contractor, they move dirt fast which earned them the title "Screams & Panic" from a bunch of the Local #12 scraper hands. www.pinnickinc.com

Teichert Construction does a lot of mass grading work in California. Last time I was out there they were working on a large residential development with Granite Construction. www.http://www.teichert.com/teichert-construction.cfm

Ralph D. Mitzel has a pretty decent fleet of scrapers. All of which are old, but kept in cherry condition. He recently laid off one of his 651B hands after 10 years, who ended up spending the summer working for me running a 16. Last I heard he had most of his iron parked due to current market conditions.

Granite Construction is a pretty big player in mass grading in California as well. They're spread out so much nationwide that their fleet fluctuates quite regularly, but I've seen several of their projects in California with decent sized spreads of 637G's and 657E's.

I know Kiewit Pacific Co. has 22 657E's on the Schaeffer Ranch project in central California currently. There used to be video on YouTube of those scrapers on that project.

Skanska USA Civil has done some big Federal Highway projects in California involving some decent scraper fleets. I don't know what their current status is, but I know from watching the Central Federal Lands Highway Division's website they're a pretty active player in federal transportation projects on the west coast. www.usacivil.skanska.com

 

[Gavin84w]

Thats right ACI in Cal, check www.acigrading.com real nice fleet shot on the opening page.

Another couple of big scraper outfits i have come across is Coburn Equipment Inc, Cobra Equipment rental and Don McCoy Corporation anybody have any detail on them????

 

[9420pullpan]

i heard for an operator from Desilva Gates that they have the largest fleet of 657's in CA

i believe that they also have somewhere around ten 666 running everyday as well

 

[Dozerboy]

A lot of these guys started parking or cutting there fleet way back then the new CA emission regs came out a while ago too.

 

[RollOver Pete]

Here are some of Sukut's 657E's on a rental job I worked last year in Ventura Ca.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=N9cLWv85nPc

 

[Gavin84w]

Good stuff, there has just been a bunch of new videos put on youtube, if you put in Cat scrapers they should come up. Some great 657B P/P stuff with an onboard camera at the rear of the puller and you can see the action for a full cycle and the sweet sound of a D346 & D343!!

There is some french 631E/D10R stuff on there too, gee they move dirt a bit different and when you see old mate launch the D10R backwards off a bench to push the next scraper uphill well, hmmmm. Not to mention the angle of the shank for ripping, but good stuff nonetheless.

 

[Mr Euclid]

Here are a few more links to companies:

Don McCoy: http://www.donmccoycorporation.com/index.html

Another McCoy, Dennis this time but not sure how big there fleet is:http://www.mccoyandsons.com/default.htm

From what I can remember CA Rasmussen have/or did have a large fleet at some point but I think they may have scaled down in the past couple of years. A year or two ago I remember there being a number of 666's and 651/657's up for auction with Ritchie Bros which I believe where theirs. Anyone know what size their scraper fleet is at the moment and what it contains ?

Nonetheless they have some nice old photos on the website of when they did have 666's here:
http://www.carasmussen.com/74-2.htm http://www.carasmussen.com/74-3.htm http://www.carasmussen.com/74-14.htm

Guy.F.Atkinson Do they still have a large equipment fleet ?

OE3 have an article and a couple of pictures of the scrapers on Kiewits Schaeffer Ranch project here http://www.oe3.org/news/archives.html

Do Independent have a website ?

 

[fensoncont.]

Thanks for the links, I typed Independent Construction in Google and couldn't get anything for a company in California.

 

[Kenny R]

A few other large scraper contractors to add to the list would be
MESA
http://mesacontracting.com/
STICE
http://sticeco.com
Earth Tek
http://www.earthtekeng.com/
Here's a few pics of some of McCoy's Scrapers at a project directly behind me...

 

[Kenny R]

Here's some pics of Sukut's scrapers... The thing that amazes me so much about Sukut how many large scale projects they have going on at one time... These pics are of just 2 of the who knows how many projects they currently have going on at the moment... Check out my website http://www.socalearthmovers.com if you want to see more pics I have a few hundred shots scrapers alone that I've photographed:usa

 

[637slayer]

cool pictures, especially that one with the 57 turning and the ocean in the background, thats one to enlarge and put on my frontroom wall, i noticed some little rocks in one of them, maybe those cali guys dont just dig in "tater dirt" all the time. that one loaded 57 looked like he was traveling with his can pretty high, the boss better keep his eye on that guy, lol. he was in the lead too.

 

[surfer-joe]

Ebensteiner went out of business a few years ago. I sold them a bunch of scrapers from the east coast back in the late 80's. They had one of the larger scraper fleets in California at one time.

 

[alan627b]

In my post with the california scraper pictures, several of them had COBRA decals on the sides. Is this a company or a rental/lease company? Just curious,
alan627b

 

[RollOver Pete]

Yeah...
Cobra is in the rental business.

 

[alan627b]

Thanks, Pete.
alan627b

 

[Burnout]

Hey guys... stumbled upon this post and since you posted the links of the bigger companies with Scrapers in CA, I was wondering who has the largest fleet of scrapers in North America?

I work for Sureway and the rumor goin around our Earthworks Division is that we have the largest fleet of "buggies" out there. At my last count they had 45+ 657E/G's kickin around, and at least 40 627B/E/G's. I have only seen 4 pull pans and their all small ones. It just made me curious as to what some of these other companies are running for fleet size.

 

[992G]

Desilva Gates purchased 24 657E's in 2004 from Peterson Tractor up in the bay area, plus all the other support equipment to go with it. There are 8 of them now on machinery trader.