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Offering more gizmos
than the proverbial Swiss Army knife, the ever-expanding attachments
business is providing contractors with more options to do the job
faster, more efficiently, and more safely. (And a person with one
machine can do a lot of damage in a big hurry.)
No longer just a luxury,
this equipment is becoming a survival mechanism for many contractors
as the grading and excavation business becomes even more competitive
in the new millennium. According to industry professionals, the
role that attachments play in the business has taken center stage.
You need to catch up with the times and learn to adapt or you might
be doomed to failure.
"If you don't recognize
the value of attachments and you don't recognize the role they can
play in your company and the bottom line for your performance, the
world is going to pass you by," declares Scott Guimond, president
of National Attachments, a manufacturer and distributor of attachments
worldwide in Gorham, ME. "There is nothing worse than watching
your competition bid you down. You're thinking, 'How can he bid
so low?' He's laughing all the way to the bank. He can do it better
and faster. We're not providing just a tool. We're giving you an
edge."
Dozens of attachments
are now available for all kinds of light and heavy machinery that
can be converted at the flip of a switch or the twist of a pin.
Having the proper tool on the job site to do the job correctly and
safely can save hundreds of dollars. The role of rental companies
in the business is profound as contractors often need a tool or
a piece of equipment at a minute's notice. Knowing they have a variety
of equipment on-call, they can bid lower with confidence.
The key is being a quick-change
artist - having the equipment to quickly move one tool off and another
on to your frontloader, excavator, skid-steer, or Bobcat. "If
one guy can change five different tools in 10 minutes, he's got
the edge over someone who needs all day," comments Guimond.
"Contractors are realizing in almost a wholesale manner that
they need flexibility with their machine. An excavator is no longer
just an excavator. It's a tool carrier."
One operator might dig
dirt, hammer rock, load rock with a grapple, dig trenches for pipe,
place crushed stone in the bottom of the trench, put in the pipe,
and cover and compact the soil - all with one excavator.
"Twenty years ago
you had a loader, a forklift, and a sweeper," says Jon Shaw
of Shaw Brothers Construction of Gorham, ME. "Today you have
one machine to do all three of these."
Shaw praises the Nye
Quick Hitch System. "It allows us to react to job-site changes.
If we hit rock, we are able to send a hammer to a job and mount
it on the excavator that's already there." When it comes to
rentals, the number-one issue is the quick change, he notes. "The
most important thing is if it has a quick-switch bucket system and
how many sized buckets you have available. The hitch is more valuable
than the attachment is. You can't really get the use of the attachments
without the quick hitch. We continually have to find more efficient
ways to perform this work each year, because you really can't get
more money out of these items. You've got to find ways to do jobs
more efficiently than your competition."
In the past, if someone
was laying down 3-ft. pipe and 6-in. pipe at the same job site,
he would use the same bucket. Shaw says his company's excavators
carry a variety of buckets to meet the needs of the job, both for
digging up the proper amount of dirt and tailoring the bucket for
the various soil conditions. Excavation of too much dirt wastes
fuel. Frequently, the excess dirt proves to be unsuitable and has
to be trucked off-site at great expense.
One of the benefits of
rental attachments, he points out, is that it's easier and cheaper
to move a bucket, a hammer, or a pulverizer attachment than it is
to transport a 100,000-lb. excavator. "We take the attachments
from job to job without taking the whole machine. We usually have
25 sites going, but we don't need 25 hammers."
Shaw points out that
hydraulic hammers and pulverizer attachments have allowed them to
pick up demolition work on bridges and commercial and industrial
buildings.
With the fanfare of a
100-mi. police escort, Shaw's firm brought in a long boom, or "long-reach,"
attachment to demolish a steeple that was the only structure remaining
after a church fire in Saco, ME. Authorities made a heated after-hours
statewide search for a contractor with the necessary equipment for
the job. Shaw Brothers was able to bring down the steeple without
damaging a nearby residence. In addition, without the use of the
extension, there was a high likelihood that the operator could have
gotten crushed by the falling debris.
That excavator attachment,
however, is not a quick hitch by any stretch. It's about a four-hour
changeover.
Dee Sellers, vice president
of Dee Sellers Concrete in Fayetteville, NC, says that the fact
that the necessary tools are available for rent nearby is figured
in when his company submits a bid. "To be able to feel confident
that we can get an attachment is important because on a minute's
notice we might need a piece of equipment. We use quite a few different
attachments. I don't know how we would do some of our projects without
them."
When doing a parking-lot
paving job, his crew arrived on the scene to find 6-8 in. of old
concrete already down. "With the [rental] supply company close
by, we were able to get a hydraulic hammer for a skid-steer without
any downtime. Without that I would have had to contract somebody
to do it for us and probably would have lost a lot of money. You
can peck away at it with the air hammer, but it's a lot faster (with
the hydro hammer)."
He says his firm also
uses an auger attachment for installing iron bollards. "Without
it, it would be kind of tough. Without it we would have to hire
an electrical contractor with an auger because a hand-held auger
wouldn't cut it."
Sellers also uses a backhoe
attachment on a Bobcat to get into tight areas for deep digs for
small footings and removal of underground tanks.
His company saves money
by renting a street-sweep attachment for its skid-steer, rather
than renting or buying a street sweeper. "It's not cost-effective
to buy an expensive machine compared to the cost of renting an attachment,"
states Sellers. He also uses a spreader attachment on his skid-steer
for grading work.
"The attachments
make you more versatile," asserts Eric Monson, owner of Strole's
Tri-Service located in Los Osos, CA. "You can do more by yourself
rather than having to sub someone in. If I want to do demolition,
I can rent a breaker. If I want to do fencing, I can rent an auger.
If you can think of it, there's an attachment for it. Time is money.
If it's taking you twice as long to do the job without the right
attachment, your profit margin goes down."
He says he uses sweepers,
grinders, breakers, and augers on his Bobcat and a thumb for picking
up rocks, concrete, bushes, and trees with his excavator.
Without the auger attachment,
he would be forced to use his backhoe to dig a larger hole than
he wants for such projects as installing fence posts for a corral,
putting up a perimeter fencing for a residence, or planting trees.
Renting is the only way
to go for certain pieces of equipment, according to Monson. He notes
that it would not be prudent for him to purchase a breaker for an
auger. "I can't justify buying them if I don't use the products
all of the time. I don't use the auger all of the time. It's not
feasible for me to buy one. I don't do enough demo work to buy a
breaker. In addition, the vibrations can destroy the machine that
it's on and also [the breaker] itself. There's also a benefit to
renting because sometimes it's hard to carry all of your attachments
because you have to have a big-enough truck or trailer."
He has also rented rollers
for base compaction and one of the more versatile pieces, the four-in-one
"combo" bucket. "With the four-in-one bucket I can
grade; perform demolition, pickup, and removal; and use the fork
attachment. It's one of your more versatile pieces."
When building a road,
Monson ties into already laid concrete with a dowel attachment that
goes on his Bobcat. He also utilizes a box scraper attachment for
fine grading for drainage and roadwork.
"There are always
new attachments," he points out. "You see something and
you say, 'I wish they had an attachment.' You then read a magazine,
and boom, there it is."
"Attachments basically
allow you to use a piece of equipment to its full potential,"
says Chuck Poss of C.W. Poss Inc. in Fullerton, CA. "A lot
of equipment has different attachments. It allows you to do the
work of two or three machines in one."
Poss points out that
he uses a compactor wheel, a thumb attachment, and a pulverizer
on the end of his excavator, as well as a shank ripper, rock rakes,
buckets, and vibraplate attachments on a backhoe. His company also
uses a forklift attachment on its frontloaders.
If they are confronted
with rockier soil than expected, they rent a hydraulic hammer rather
than go to the trouble of bringing in a bigger piece of equipment.
"You need a quick-coupler
disconnector, which a lot of machines have now, because obviously
if you can change quickly, it's for the better," he notes.
Contractors are able
to pick up additional work by using a brush-cutting attachment that
can hook up to anything - from a small backhoe to a large excavator.
"Most can't keep at work all year," states Bill Yearley
of Pro Mac Manufacturing Company of Vancouver Island, BC. With the
brush cutter, they get work on power line right-of-way maintenance,
forestry access-road maintenance, and ski-run maintenance.
At land-development sites
where it is expensive to move out debris, contractors will use the
brush cutter to grind down vegetation on-site, he says.
"Twenty percent
of our work is brush cutting," states Jeannie Mellor, office
manager for Mark Mellor Excavating in Duncan, BC. "He couldn't
do a lot of work without [the brush cutter]. It can cut up to 4
inches around."
She says her husband
has cut brush on the tracks of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Utilizing
a 5901 Case backhoe with Extendahoe, he drives on the tracks and
reaches over the side to cut the weeds.
He also received a contract
to clear brush in a swampy area on the west coast of Vancouver Island
so that fish can come up and spawn in the creek. To prevent environmental
damage in the riparian habitat, Mellor has to reach in with the
hoe. "If he was to have an oil spill, it wouldn't go into the
creek," points out Jeannie.
In addition, he does
road easements and clears brush under power lines.
Another tool that can
increase a contractor's meal ticket is a stump harvester, which
pins onto an excavator and allows for clearing of land in a most
efficient manner. "While the stump is in the ground it splits
it, excavates it, removes the dirt from it, and loads it into a
grinder," explains Guimond. "In minutes it comes out of
the ground and is turned into recyclable wood-chip products [including
bark mulch and silt fencing]."
Government-mandated recycling
programs have also resulted in additional work. An attachment that
works similarly to the human hand, the excavator-mounted "garbage
raptor" allows the operator to move hundreds of thousands of
tons of municipal refuse and recycling materials to balers or rolloff
trucks. It also crushes and "densifies" the material,
he says.
Another attachment that
can expand a contractor's work capacity is the vibratory sheet-pile
driver. It drives sheet piles into the ground and is used for stabilizing
shoreline and preventing erosion of soils. "It eliminates the
need for a crane and men on the ground," states Guimond. The
attachment allows for the sheet to be grabbed off a flatbed truck,
rotated from the horizontal position to the vertical, and driven
into the ground.
David Klingaman, district
manager for Rental Service Corporation in Gilbert, AZ, says the
landscaping business is keeping grading and excavation contractors
well fed in Arizona. "Arizona has been in the number-one or
number-two spot for growth for several years. So you have a lot
of the housing industry moving in. Landscaping is a huge business
here. It's definitely good business."
He says they rent a high
volume of plate compactions and roll compactions for backhoes and
hydraulic breakers on backhoes, excavators, and skid-steers for
demolition of hard soil conditions, namely pesky rock.
The company has also
done well renting skid-steer auger attachments for post holes and
small-plant holes. It also provides 16- to 24-in. augers for planting
of larger trees.
Contractors have been
benefiting from the presence of Ft. Bragg, one of the largest Army
bases in the nation, says Alan Lea, branch manager of United Rentals
in Fayetteville, NC. Some $96 million worth of bids have been awarded
in recent months for construction of new training areas and mock
cities for combat practice, as well as for revamping the barracks.
"We have a sales
team that calls on the job sites," he explains. "They
need all kinds of attachments." The company has been renting
a large number of hydrohammers for demo work, auger machines for
drilling holes to set poles, and material buckets to put gravel
on roofs using an external boom forklift. It also has done well
with grapple buckets and brooms.
As a result of all the
work, there has been a consistent number of transient contractors
hauling themselves into and out of the area, he says. "They're
like a fair."
Regarding his regular
rental customers and the attachments market, Lea says, "It
is starting to pick up. We've been getting more calls for attachments.
They don't want to spend $20,000 to $23,000 on a sweeper that is
going to sit over in a corner and be used once in a while. They
don't want to worry about storage or if it is going to walk away."
A person with a backhoe
could do a quicker job than someone with a skid and a backhoe attachment.
However, a financial decision must be made on whether to rent or
purchase a backhoe. Lea states that the rental fee for a backhoe
attachment is about $90 a day. The cost of renting a backhoe is
from $175 to $195. Purchase of a skid-steer is about $20,000-$24,000,
while a backhoe would be about $50,000.
As far as the contractor
is concerned, it all boils down to predicting how many times a piece
of equipment is going to be used, says Lea. "We tie up the
investment. They take the chance of how many times are we going
to use it. We upkeep and maintain it. If they have a problem, they
call us."
According to Greg Forbess
of United Rentals in Ft. Worth, TX, a booming economy nationwide
forces contractors to be even more efficient. "There's a shortage
of people. There is not a large labor pool because everybody is
working. If you can take an attachment and get the job done without
people, then that's the answer."
He says one man with
a hoe ram on a Bobcat can break the same amount of concrete that
two or three men could do with a jackhammer.
With the rough soil conditions
in their area, having the auger attachment is invaluable. "It's
hard to do it by hand. Conditions around here are so tough. The
drought we've been having also makes the ground even tougher."
In addition to the hoe
rams and augers, he notes that hammers and grapple attachments are
hot rental items in his area.
Work has been plentiful
as a number of fast-food restaurants, big-box developments, and
municipal building projects have been in the works.
According to Mike DeBrino,
southeast national account manager for Nations Rent Inc., the attachments
market has created a competitive atmosphere among rental firms.
"The competition has been there since day one. [Providing a
full line of attachments] adds more flexibility for the rental house
to get the customer. Some rental houses don't have everything. You
do what it takes to be above everybody else. There are cases when
you don't have it. The good thing with us is we have so many locations.
You can pick and choose to get the job done."
He relates that there
are definite benefits to renting: "The cost of the attachments
is outrageous," he says. "A piece of equipment has to
be kept hydroplumbed correctly in order to tie up. (Contractors)
have to buy the machine, buy the hydraulic attachments, and buy
the attachment. If it's down, (contractors who rent can say,) 'Bring
me another one.'"
DeBrino observes that
concrete breakers, sweepers, and root rakes are in the most demand
in his area.
"Business is increasing
at a good clip, partly because of the attachment markets,"
states Ron Crouse, construction-equipment product manager for Kubota
of Torrance, CA.
Hammers, buckets, thumbs,
quicker couplers, augers, and drills are all selling well, he observes.
A few years ago, the firm sold more than 4,000 compact excavators.
Last year 9,000 were sold nationwide. "The mini-excavator business
is increasing really fast," Crouse notes.
In this sink-or-swim
profession, grading professionals are gradually exploring the recent
advances in machinery and technology. Some, however, are slow to
make the move. "People are starting to learn of these ways
to eliminate labor time," explains Monson. "But there
are a lot of old operators who are stuck in their ways and will
not switch over. There are a lot of macho people in the construction
business."
According to Guimond,
the revolution has just begun. "The trend is meteoric. The
trend is for the products available in the marketplace to continually
evolve. The trend is for contractors to understand about the necessity
for interchangeability of tools and the necessity of a base machine
to become multifunctional. The contractor is realizing now that
one machine can do a variety of work if it is equipped with the
right attachment."
He estimates that sales
and rentals will double in the next 24 months. "The next decade
is going to yield some fabulous innovations to allow the contractor
to be faster, more efficient, and more profitable. Everybody has
debt load, everybody has employees, everybody has a beast they have
to feed. They have to learn how to do the work faster and cheaper.
That's the only way to compete."
Guest author Jack
Beardwood has more than 20 years' professional experience as a writer
for newspapers and magazines.
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