Volvo EC15B hydraulic thumb....home made.

[joispoi]

Oh, I looked at a job on Friday. It was a straight forward driveway job with concrete curbing for a brand new house. I gave the price for the work and the people said okay and then asked if I could take a look at something else. They said they were having surface water problems. I asked to see their stamped blueprints that their builder had given them.....the masons left out 1 course of block for the foundation leaving the house 8" lower than specified by the plans. There's one more job heading to court before I'll get near it.

 

[CM1995]

You do commercial projects? All this time I thought you were running a fried chicken shack.

:bouncegri

Truth be known, those chicken finger places make very good money. I am personal friends with one of the owners of that job I did and they own 7, he's not hurting..

So far the "no truck" thing works well for now. Fortunately I have two good friends - one runs tandem and tri's and the other has roll-off trucks. Dumps for the dirt work and roll-offs for the demo's. We feed work back and forth to each other as it arises and works out pretty well.

I can see your roll-off truck pairing nicely with the mini plus opening up other avenues for hauling and disposal, plus no need for a trailer. What do you primarily use the truck for? I enjoy discussing different ways of doing business with other folks in the business, learned a lot here on HEF.

Same here on waiting for projects to start. Currently finishing up a 1500' long ditch remediation project that involves lining it with 4700 tons of Class 1 rip-rap, should be done this week. The next project is demo and site work for a dollar store that involves taking down 3 buildings, one is a defunct "exotic entertainment center", it should be interesting and I'll post a thread on this one.

The asbestos crew is scheduled to come in first and that will take a week, they were supposed to start today. I rode by the site today and no asbestos crew nor have the utilities been disconnected. These projects are a different animal in the ownership, a developer buys the site, builds the building and then leases it back to the retail store. It is the ultimate in "hurry up and wait" scenario.

I asked to see their stamped blueprints that their builder had given them.....the masons left out 1 course of block for the foundation leaving the house 8" lower than specified by the plans. There's one more job heading to court before I'll get near it.

Full body shudders on that one!:spaz

 

[joispoi]

Hopefully, all this hurry up and wait will make 2014 a decent year....and maybe even make this business look profitable if you don't look at the 2 year average.

I use the roll off truck mostly as a dump truck. When I drop the container, I can load it with the mini. If I'm working off a pile it takes about 10-12 minutes to put 8 yards in the box (not that I'd ever do that with weight restrictions and all that). It works pretty well for the small jobs and in particular the limited access jobs.....I don't expect any calls to build highways any time soon.

Around here, 20% profit seems to be the magic number that the new house builders shoot for. If a customer talks them down in price, the "builders" (usually a guy who shows up once every couple of weeks in shiny loafers) will beat down their subcontractors to get the profit that they want. It's amazing some of the corners that get cut in order to make a quick profit.

 

[joispoi]

Here are a coupe of shots I took at a job on Thursday where I was removing concrete and had the truck on the job.

 

[CM1995]

Cool, I like that hook lift. What brand is it?

I can see how that truck compliments an operation and not to big for your mini. With a truck and a bin that size, you could easily ad a skid and haul both with the truck.

Had a Ampliroll on a Hino chassis for the roll-off company I was partners in. Would like to have another 26-30K lb hook lift on a 33K GVW chassis with a tag axle. The versatility would be handier than a shirt pocket. Conex box for job site storage, flat bed for materials, skid/box like you have for hauling and a water tank for the dry months when we need water on site. One truck/tag/insurance/etc and multiple uses.

And if money was no option or I was a gov't agency rolleyes, a Palfinger behind the cab would be ideal.

 

[joispoi]

The hook lift is made by a company called Force Hydraulique. I've seen roll off flat beds with the crane mounted directly to the flatbed. It's a good alternative if you're not hoisting everyday. It keeps the tare weight down.



A skid may be in the future, but I think the next addition is going to be a 5 ton mini then a dumper. ( I'm very tempted to jump on the E50 band wagon.)

Why would you want a tag axle on a 33k gvw truck? 33k isn't all that heavy and the extra weight of the tag increases the tare.

 

[CM1995]

The tag axle would serve two purposes - one being able to carry extra weight/payload and supply an extra set of brakes. I have a 54K tag trailer that moves my equipment - hired truck and my trailer. I would pull the trailer with a truck like that every now and then, tag axle down. Raise the tag axle when not needed and make the truck more maneuverable.

 

[joispoi]

That makes sense for the trailer. The reason I asked was that I had a 26 ton truck with a tag axle. The tare weight was about 4 tons more than my current 19 ton truck. The net payload capacity was only about 3 tons more. Granted, it was good for 40 tons combined truck and trailer weight but I don't have a trailer.