A little bit of everything

You got that right Landclearer. Thanks for the compliment, and we love the barn door. Keeps the abuse down a little bit on the body.

Another little demo and dig for an addition. Only being able to work till 5 without working in the dark, and a shortage of trucks and dump sites are slowing us down. This dig took us parts of 2 days. Took about 120 yards of fill out.

Finishing up excavation.

This project, when we originally bid on it, was 3 separate additions. A new front entry way, a family room off the back, and included removing the east foundation wall, and adding a second garage bay, 2 cars deep onto the side, and dropping the existing garage floor 2 feet. We were a little leary about this portion of the project.

The owner wound up scrapping the front entry, and making the back addition bigger, and going with another GC/ excavation contractor. Fast forward 6 months, and the project is about halfway done. We get called in by the other excavation contractor to remove and lower the floor, and grade out the stone for the new floor. Funny how the world goes round.

Hey Jim,

You guys do some nice looking work as well as tough jobs. That is a great pic with the Superduty, dump and trailer. How does the truck handle with the loader on the tag.

Thanks Landclearer. We try to keep a neat site. Obviously the last one wasn't ours, I didn't get a finished picture, but it looked pretty good when we were done considering they were 20 ton of stone short, all the water from cutting the floor, and it was pitch black out.

Thanks, that was actually the first time we had it on our trailer. We have both of our bigger loaders registered year round and just run them down the road. This job was about 20 minutes from our shop, but mostly highway, so we decided it would just be easier to try trailering it.

It rode really well. Machine is about 18,500 pounds, 10' 1" tall and the trailer deck is 96" x 24' x 34", so we were actually under 13'. The heaviest machine we've had on the trailer is a Dressta TD 9M. Although I think the specs say it weighs under 20,000, it feels like it's about 6,000 pounds more than the loader.

Thanks for the info Jim. We have a 928 and a L70 but do not haul on our tag due to height. The only thing I can say about the TD9 is you might have had it to far up on the trailer. I know a lot of guys like to put the blade against the headboard but in my opinion it makes for a bad ride. On our trailer I keep a dozer blade about 2.5 feet from the headboard.

Keep on posting, I enjoy your pics.

Ya I wouldn't want our 200 on a tag, I have see a guy around here with a WA 200 on a 20 ton before. Must be right at or most likely over 13'6".

As far as the dozer, we always try to have most of the weight over the axles, even when it's just a Bobcat or Excavator.

Thanks again for the compliments, much appreciated.

Cool Jim. Your SA dump is a sweet truck. I would like to have one similarly spec'd but with a 14' bed built heavy like yours with at least one side that either laid or folded down for loading and unloading RCP and other bulky items.

Your wheel loader is the ticket for the jobs you do. In my thread I was asked why I was using a track loader instead of a wheel loader and explained it just doesn't fit for the majority of the work we do. On the flip side your wheel loader is the ticket for getting in and out of the jobs you do, being able to move material quickly. I assume you also plow with it?

Good stuff keep it coming.:drinkup

Thanks CM for the compliments. We really lucked out with that truck. Had a 2000 F750 33k gvw that was a great truck. Traded it in the end of 07 on a 2008 F750 33k gvw that we had for 8 months and it was literally at Ford for 5 or 6 months with Cat motor problems. Luckily we've dealt with, and continue to deal with our Ford dealer for 25+ years, they stood behind it, and bought it back after 8 months for $3,000 less than purchase price (which was about $80,000, heard they sold it for $50,000). I wound up finding this truck down at a dealer in CT, brand new 2006 International 7400 in August of 08. Original sticker was about $92,000, they marked it down to about $75,000, and when we were done painting it and changing a couple things I think it was about $82,000. That same truck now is about $120,000 with all the emissions BS.

We will probably keep that at least until my father is all done. He has talked about maybe wanting a short 7600 ten wheeler, with like a 12'6" body with 48" sides and a 60" gate, but I think we're more focused on growing our excavation side, not enough money in trucking.

As for the loaders, you nailed it CM. Up until 5 years ago all we've ever owned is Bobcat equipment. We've been getting nailed with snow the last 5 years, and the Bobcats were just maxed out for stacking and pushing back. Our Bobcat dealer had just gotten an 2006 Ingersoll Rand WL 440 in with a 1.5 yard bucket and forks and we're having fun in their yard with it. It only had 250 hours on it. The service guys were kind of pissed when we came in and bought it. We wound up getting a 2 yard bucket and another fork frame to put a 10' Fisher MC plow on it. We added the 2007 Komatsu WA 150 almost 2 years ago when we added a third parking lot. Got it with only 1,400 hours, JRB coupler, 2 yard bucket, JRB forks, and a 12' Protech pusher for it out of NY for a steal. Then added a 2013 Doosan DL 200 with only 900 hours, and JRB coupler and 2.5 yard bucket this Spring after our snowiest winter ever. You can see in the last picture we've fabbed up a JRB quick coupler plate as a plow hitch and that's getting a 10' Everest power angle plow for doing streets this year. Finally had them all back at the shop today to get them serviced and ready for winter.

Originally they were just for snow, but we've really found a niche putting them on our 100 - 500 yard digs, getting the trucks in and out.

Hey Jim, just out of curiosity, which do you like better the Komotsu or the Doosan?

Landclearer, it's hard to say because I haven't ran the Doosan much. The Doosan has a few quirks I don't like, for instance the speedometer is in KPH, and the directional buttons on the joystick are a little more complicated than just the regular toggle switch like the Ingersoll Rand and Komatsu have. Also the Doosan is a little harder to see the quick coupler when connecting attachments. Also the Doosan is 6 years newer, so there's that. Overall I'd probably say I like the Komatsu the best, but I hope to get a few hours on the Doosan this winter. We've bought all our loaders used, and have just looked for the best deal considering condition of the machine. We were looking at WA 200s and DL 200s. The nicest used WA 200 we found had 1,500 - 2,000 hours, and were 2012 models for $115,000. The DL 200 had 900 hours, comparable specs, and they gave it the 1,000 hour service and fixed a couple minor things for $90,000. We felt the 20% difference in price couldn't justify going with the Komatsu.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the info on Doosan. I have never run one so was just curious. Your Komatsu is hydrostatic right? If it is, what do you think of it? The doosan has a transmission?

Hi Landclearer,

Yes, all 3 loaders are hydrostatic. The Komatsu and Doosan both have 4 forward gears and 2 reverse gears. Both also have Auto Shift. All 3 also have forwarded/neutral/reverse selector switches on the top of the joystick. The IR and Komatsu have a 3 position toggle switch, real simple. The Doosan has 3 buttons on the top of the joystick, (Forward/neutral/reverse, left to right), horn below that, and an activation button on the back of the joystick. In order to change direction with the joystick buttons, you must click the activation button once, then hold the activation button along with one of the 3 directional buttons. That will put it in whatever button you chose, then you can just click whichever button you want to choose direction. A little complicated, but once you use it a few times it's not that bad. Overall, they're all nice machines, no real complaints.

Haven't been on here in a while, figured I'd update the post a little on what's been keeping us busy this year. If there's any interest I'll add some more pictures.

First, some snow pictures from what little we had this past year. A year after having our snowiest winter ever, getting 120" in about 2 months, we didn't even reach our average, but still stayed fairly busy.

First picture, replaced my 2010 F250 with a 2016 F350. Nothing major wrong with the old one, had a couple minor issues showing, and we had a really good year and needed a write off. Biggest reason for updating was wanted to avoid price increase/unknowns with the new aluminum body series coming out.

Next 3 pictures are the lots I'm in charge of in the winter, those two loaders work extremely well together, once both operators get our system down. Last picture the Doosan with other pieces on plowing streets for a city. Definitely the newest piece by a few years. I didn't get a chance to run it plowing, as it was my father's baby.

This Spring we were back to the pool demo job to do a 1,300 SF Bluestone imitation paver deck around the spa we saved. Replumbed the spa, piped all of the downspouts to a new infiltration system, installed electrical conduit for low voltage lighting, put new coping on the spa, prepped for and installed the new patio, new handrail on the spa (not pictured), loam, rake, seed and fertilizer. Came out pretty good.

First picture piping downspouts to where the new infiltration system will be. Second, patio laid out, cut to sub base, compacted and ready for gravel. (Spa is under the plywood). Third 3/4" gravel base in, finish graded, compacted, ready for stone dust and pavers. Fourth new coping on, me on the T590 shuffling pallets, and our 4 guy crew laid 1,250 SF of pavers ranging in size from 10"x20" to 30"x30" in one 6 hour Saturday. Fifth spreading and raking 60 yards of loam, putting this one to bed.

That stone paver patio is slick!:thumbsup

What are the normal spec's for the infiltration system? Here we mostly have heavy clay soils with rock so infiltration systems are limited where they can be used effectively.

Last one for now. Added another skid this Spring. S570 with every option except high flow. We sold our last S185 before we bought the Doosan, as it wasn't being used much. Kind of regret doing that as it was a great machine. This is the size machine we always like, as we put the offset rims on it and the machine is only 60" wide over the tires. Main reason we bought it was for snow work, doing sidewalks at a big office complex with a blower, but it will be nice to have a skid and 5' wide machine in the fleet again.

Second picture, picking up the new S570 with my new F350. You can tell we go the extra mile to keep our company colors the same. Ford didn't offer the red and silver two tone like my last 2 trucks have been, so the new truck came in and went right to paint.

First picture, a little job at a Country Club redoing the main entrance way. We were the sub of a sub on this one. Removing existing concrete stairs, walkway, handicap ramp and landing. Super was spoon feeding us info, at first it was just remove concrete. Almost felt like a frost wall under slab, so I cleaned out all of the concrete. Super came out at the end of the day to finally show us the prints, and tell us we needed to excavate for footings and frost walls. Had a feeling one of them was already there, even though it wasn't shown on the prints. Came back the next day, exposed the existing wall, and dug for a little return and a couple of footings. Luckily I felt the wall when hammering and didn't damage too much of the CMU, score for the concrete guy we were working for.

Third picture return wall excavated for at top left, and existing frost wall exposed, exactly where prints showed new wall. Had to dig a couple small 3'x3' footings at each end of entrance way also for extension of the stone walls.

Fourth picture backfilling the irrigation sleeve and staircase/handicap ramp.

Fifth installing 6" of 3/4" stone under all of the concrete.

Thanks CM. Infiltration is usually done by an engineer with a flow study to determine amount of storage needed, which just dictates how many chambers are needed. Specs usually just refer to manufacturers' install specs, in this case Stormtech. Landscape Architect for some reason called for elevation of this chamber to be only a couple feet under finished grade, but we just installed not designed. We put about 8 ton of 3/4" stone around it, even though specs only called for about 5. Figured I'd throw a finished pic up of the patio since I guess I didn't before.