Setting up Remote Field Shop for Earthmoving and paving equipment

We will soon be engaging on a project for a customer where we will have to setup a preventive and corrective maintenance shop.

The area is in the desert so everything will run off of generator power. The setup has to be somewhat moveable but not necessarily mobile.

Equipment fleet includes:

6 graders
8 wheel loaders
5 dozers (D4,D6,D9)
6 Rock dumps (740)
4 Case IH tractors with pull scrappers
10 compactors (2 soil, 6 asphalt, 2 pneumatic)
Several Passenger trucks
2 pavers


I am involved with procurement and need advice on the key pieces of equipment needed to provide maintenance and repairs for a year.

Any and all advice on possible available solutions or advice on resilient equipment will be greatly appreciated.

For example we anticipate the need for a repair truck with a crane.

Thank you

What desert are we talking about? Parts are not going to be easy to obtain. What machines are you going to have? Rental, owned? With the new blades and ag tractor/ pans, you are going to need some dealership support.

Sahara desert. Equipment owned. For the list of machines see original message. The age of the machines will vary between 2007 and 2011. We will be working with the local dealership (1000km away). They will send us one of their techs.?we also have our own.

Parts are not an issue we will be stocking all the maintenance kits at the different intervals onsite.

The unknown will be which parts to stock that most likely to fail. Regardless we can always get parts onsite in no more than 3-5 days.

My biggest unknown is making sure we have elk the tools onsite to service the machines. If you were to support such an effort what would you make sure to have in terms of tools and machinery onsite outside of obviously the plethora of hand tools.

* For example would you need a heavy duty lift or can we do without one.

* What about an engine crane ?

* Air compressor (what size)

* which pneumatic tools

* any hydraulic hose repair parts and tools needed ?

Like I said looking for advice.

Moussa

To set up a facility to maintain 40 something pieces of equipment for a year in a remote location is a non-trivial exercise. Now, you'll not find a more helpful bunch of people then on this forum but I'm slightly concerned that you're asking strangers on the internet for advice on a project like this. Instead of getting bogged down in a thousand different well meaning but inevitably conflicting posts, I would be advertising to hire an experienced maintenance guy to manage the job.

You say you have your own techs. Have you asked them for their opinion?

Agreed. Your point is well taken. I am indeed consulting with my maintenance guys. I also intend to do as you have suggested with the consultant. I am very aware of the sites solicitation rules ...

The point was for me to educate myself and make sure that I can hold and intelligent conversation with my staff in Africa and any consultants we will use to make sure we have all bases covered.

Do note however, it is a very austere environment. We are not looking for a 1st rate shop as you might find in a dealership. It has to be simple, functional and relatively complete to do preventive maintenance and minor repairs. Any major repairs will require taking the machines to a dealership shop about 1000 miles away.

Moussa

I may be way off here because I've never worked in the desert but I would find a good used reefer trailer ( insulated and air conditioned ).
I would also get a truck with a fifth wheel plate and a knuckle boom crane mounted behind the cab. That way you can move the trailer and lift some stuff like wheels and cabs.
With the trailer you could hook some sort of shading tarps out over the machine but leave 3 sides open to let the air flow through much like an awning.
I would also recommend mostly electric rechargeable power tools to cut down on air compressor needs.

Something like this is surely going to have to grow itself organically over time. If it was me, I'd pack a shipping container up with the basics (welder, compressor, air tools, hand tools, jacks, maybe a gantry crane you can knock down) and send it over. Then make weekly or monthly additions. In a few months it should be pretty well sorted.

Since you have never run a setup like this before, it seems impossible to plan for every eventuality. You just do your best and add as you go.

I wonder with the cost involved if it would be more economical to add a few more spare machines to the fleet to keep the project rolling than to go all-out on the mechanic shop at first.

Especially operating in a remote environment.

In my business it seems that there is always some obscure part missing that holds up a project and I can imagine that would be worse in Africa.

Yair . . .

Hoo boy, where to start.

fulatoro

It does seem a little strange that you would come here to an anonymous blog for advise on such a complex undertaking.

I am sure though (given time for folks to respond) you could build up a real world data base of weak spots and components that fail once you have a list of makes and models of machinery . . . as you have mentioned the scheduled service items lists will be available from the dealer, that's the easy stuff.

You are very upfront and have stated you have little experience in such a project and the best I can do is wish you luck and just pick up on a couple of your comments to maybe put things into perspective.

I worked in remote parts of Australia and the Pacific islands all my life and statements like "parts are not an issue and we can have them on site in three to five days" will prove to be a pipe dream . . . anywhere . . . let alone in Africa.

The notion that you can load a piece of equipment onto a truck and take it to the dealer for repairs a thousand miles away needs some serious reconsideration . . . your definition of what are "major" and "minor" repairs will change.

To me, it seems a somewhat odd equipment list and, a general indication as to the nature (i.e. airport, industrial installation, predominantly sand/rock) and duration of the project would be helpful to folks on here. There are those who may be able to give advise on individual machines . . . the more details you can give the more interest it will create and the more feedback you will get.

I wish you all the best on what is an interesting project.

Cheers.

I would begin by talking to the dealers of the respective manufacturers for information about the parts and tools necessary to maintain the listed equipment. Holt and Shepard my provide complete shop, maintenance and repair service at the site, as will tire dealers.

Speak to the AGC in California, they have a lot of information about setting up camps because of all the big dam work that has been done in the West.

There are companies that will provide food and shelter services on a per person basis for work camps.

This is not going to be a small project to set up, and you are going to get some well meant, but conflicting information.

I'm on the same page as Mobiltech. Get a used reefer trailer. This is how I have done camp jobs in remote areas (except we had to heat the trailer)
As mentioned by other members, set up with all your basics. I usually find that the most common issues is with hydraulic hoses blowing or leaking. So a hose press would be a top priority for me. Not sure on all the brands you have, so that will decide what hose ends you will need.

I'm sure you have done this already, but have the dealership do a good inspection of every piece before it leaves to work. The more you can fix at home the better. Oil samples would also be a good idea. And after oil samples are done, change every fluid on the machine.

If you can get one, bring a skid steer. Its like a little mobile crane, and works great for changing tires.

I don't see any excavators in your list? Are you using the wheel loaders to fill the trucks?

Just put Nige on retainer, he's not doing anything anyway is he? (Ducking!) :tong

Check out some dome sheds which attach to the top of shipping containers, easy to transport and set up, that's what we have used in remote sites in Australia, there are a lot of different sizes available.
Set up the containers as small workshops with all the tools required.
Also you can get shipping containers set up as service centres with 1000 Ltr oil pods, 20ft container will hold eight pods accessed from either end, centre door access to hose reels.

I really only have one thing to contribute to this...

Well, two actually, but one of them is kind of obvious and I learned both in the Army.

Interchangeability
To the maximum extent possible, does everything run on diesel? Your machines are certainly going to. You may as well use diesel powered wheeled vehicles too. Diesel powered generators, heaters, etc...
You have "X" number of wheeled vehicles, probably mainly pickup trucks and full size SUV's, etc. Are they the same brand? Wear the same tire? members of the same manufacturers "generation"?
Nothing is perfect, but Thoreau was correct about simplicity.

Redundancy
Strive for redundant capability, not redundant gear.
Things don't always work the way we think they will.
There's not much point in having two things that won't work for the same reason.

That's all I've got.

Good luck though.

This sounds like a real nightmare i am a hour and a half away from a Big City and it takes more than 3 to 5 days on most easy stuff.

Yair . . .

ericscher makes a good point lost on many of todays managers/designers . . . "back in the day" much of that line up of equipment could have been specified with 71 series GM engines.

Cheers.

I also like the dome sheds set on containers, lots of storage, light, airy and very versatile (much better than a dark green maintenance tent in the desert). I agree with ericscher with respect to redundancy but no longer subscribe to the "travel light freeze at night" methods...If doable/affordable would like two of everything as far as tooling is concerned (air compressors, welding machines, etc.) Also ericsher, who is Thoreau?
Regards, Bob

If extreme heat will be an issue during the time period of the project, the insulated reefer containers are not all that much more expensive and the cooling package will run off your generator quite handily.

Thank you for all the advice. Let me give a little bit more context...This a remote location in the Sahara desert. We have been operating in that area for the past year and half. We setup a quarry, a crusher and an asphalt plant in that area without mains power or easy water access. We have been doing a mill and overlay project of an airport runway. This new effort is for the construction of a new runway hence all the earthworks equipment and paving equipment.

I am not coming at this totally blind. We have dealt with 120F heat, rainstorms with winds upwards of 60mph, sandstorms, floods...

My estimates on parts availability are not guesses, but what we have experienced. We have had to procure parts from Europe, the US and China to deal with mechanical failures and have a pretty good logistics train to make that happen. My concern is not the logistics....We know how to handle that. I am trying to hear about people's experiences in remote locations and the things/tools/methods they have used to maintain this type of equipment. Like I said, parts supply is something we know how to resolve. I just want to make sure that I give the guys the tools they need to do the job.

Additional context, we have dirty diesel that will in many cases be contaminated (we know this becuase we have had to deal with multiple fuel pump, injector failures). We are looking at potentially installing a diesel polishing/cleaning machines.

I came to this forum to get multiple viewpoints specifically because this is a complex issue and hearing different viewpoints you can start to pull out some common threads and form a reasonable appreciation of the issues involved.

Please review the first message on this tread for the list of equipment that will be onsite. We have very capable mechanics and guys used to working in a touch environment. What they have not had is access to the best tools. We are now in a position to provide that.

This is how I am envisioning this:

1-Preventive Maintenance
2-Corrective Maintenance
3-Parts and consummables
4-Tools and equipment
5-Staffing
6-Supplies Management


1-Preventive Maintenance:
We will be procuring all maintenance kits for all the machines anticipating a total of 3000 hours of operation on all machine. Most machines will have between 4000-6500 hours on them. Based on that all parts will be stocked on site to do the scheduled maintenance

2-Corrective maintenance:
This in my mind is obviously where the most challenging aspect of this effort is. Murphy being on the staff, we can expect surprises. Having said that, all we can do is plan for habitual failures based on our field experience (Fuel quality, what we had to fix on our machines before) and that of others on these machines (you guys...). What I need to figure out here after talking to the dealer is what are the parts most likely to fail during 3000 hours or work assuming that we have done a proper inspection of the machines before shipping them Iincluding SOS analysis). If we have a failure for which we do not have the part available, then like I said we can procure it and transport to site, 5-10 days we can handle and is within acceptable bounds.

Catastrophic failures of machines is also something we can cover to some extent. We will have machine redundancy for some of the equipment that we are not able to mobilize regionally.

3-Parts and consummables: This is I think is the easy part, it is just a matter of identifying all the kits, gather all the greases, lubricants, oils and shipping...Not going to lose sleep over this

4-Tools and equipment: I need some advice here, beyond the essentials what type of tools can make the difference in being able to restore a machine fast. For example, we will have the necessary devices to read and analyze machine codes.
- Compressors
- Pneumatic Tools
- Tire repair kits
- Grease/lubing gear
- First aid kits and safety gear
- Jacks
- Welding equipment
- Hand tools
- Bench tools(vises, etc...)
- Engine lifts
-

etc...This is the easy stuff...I am sure my guys will give me a longer list, but beyond the obvious stuff are there other tools that one should have onsite?

5-Staffing: Having the right folks for the job. We have 3 of our own mechanics, we will have a mechanic from the local CAT dealer (1000km away) and 2-3 guys from South Africa.

6-Supplies Management: Obviously making sure that we are always stocked and anticipate parts and consumable needs. One thing that I need to take a guess on is how many replacement tires do we need to be on the safe side (Assuming again that we have good tires to begin with).

This is long enough. I just watned to provided context.

Thank you for all the input.

Realized the original list did not include equipment specs:

* 6 graders (CAT 120M, 4 of them with GPS)

* 8 wheel loaders (CAT 966, CAT 924)

* 5 dozers (CAT D4,D6,D9)

* 6 Rock dumps (CAT 740)

* 4 Case IH tractors with pull scrappers(STX 480)

* 10 compactors (2 soil, 6 asphalt, 2 pneumatic) -CAT or HAMM...

* Several Passenger trucks (Toyota Land Cruisers, we know how to deal with these)

* 2 pavers (Vogele 1800-2, we have a 1600-2 already and know how to maintain and fix it really well, we just had to replace the auger chain and rebuild the whole screed).

See pictures of our current installation. We already have a camp setup,we have 3 office containers with AC and plan on installing 2 additional ones for the repair crew as work/storage areas.

lantraxco said:

Just put Nige on retainer, he's not doing anything anyway is he? (Ducking!) :tong

Click to expand...

Oi....!! I resemble that remark ......!!