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“Every truck we’ve got is designed for our needs and the crew running it.”
In today?EUR??,,????'???s lingering soft economy, landscape superintendents will need every advantage at their disposal to keep their operations profitable and efficient, despite ever tightening margins. Trucks customized to a contractor?EUR??,,????'???s specific application can help crews and equipment work at full capacity while avoiding missed deadlines, voided warranties, and unnecessary capital outlays.
Successful equipment managers and superintendents must track equipment work cycle times as never before. Any interruption of the work cycle, like a hydraulic hose break in a front loader, could cost thousands of dollars per day per incident. For this reason, efficient, onsite preventative maintenance and repair–in the form of lube, fuel, water and maintenance trucks–is essential.
?EUR??,,????'??Without preventive maintenance, you?EUR??,,????'???re in serious trouble,?EUR??,,????'?? said Rodger McGrady, equipment manager at Riverton Coal?EUR??,,????'???s Charleston, West Virginia location. ?EUR??,,????'??Oil needs to be checked daily, as do bearings and moving parts. Neglecting to do so can ruin engines, transmissions, differentials or drivelines–especially for the heavy loads we carry. If you don?EUR??,,????'???t properly service and maintain your equipment, you won?EUR??,,????'???t be in business very long.?EUR??,,????'??
Not only must increasingly complex and expensive equipment be properly maintained according to stringent warranty requirements, but also it must be done efficiently. Simply missing a maintenance interval could make a company liable for a $30,000 engine replacement, if needed. ?EUR??,,????'??You can?EUR??,,????'???t have machines down or operators and crews standing around waiting for fuel or service,?EUR??,,????'?? said John Mihm, equipment manager at RLO Contractors, an excavating, grading, and land clearing contractor based in Dayton, Maryland. ?EUR??,,????'??Jobs must be done efficiently and deadlines hit. To do so, equipment must be in operating shape, and most of it is designed to be checked every 10 hours or once per shift. If not, it?EUR??,,????'???s going to run out of fuel, lose pins and bushings from not getting greased, and shorten equipment life. If a warranty is voided from lack of proper maintenance, every dime comes out of your pocket.?EUR??,,????'??
All preventive maintenance equipment doesn?EUR??,,????'???t suit all equipment managers equally. The prevailing mentality is to find an ?EUR??,,????'??off-the-lot?EUR??,,????'?? or standard lube, fuel, water, or maintenance truck. While appearing to be a good idea, this solution often causes more problems than it solves. Equipment managers have individual needs as distinct as their fingerprints, and ?EUR??,,????'??one-size-fits-all?EUR??,,????'?? solutions simply don?EUR??,,????'???t address these unique needs. Instead, customized solutions designed specifically for each owner?EUR??,,????'???s application are required to produce the best maintenance at the lowest cost. Why? Type and quantity of machinery varies at each job site and for each company. Obviously, a coal mining operation with dump trucks capable of hauling 100 tons of coal per load will have vastly different maintenance requirements than a landscape superintendent readying a college campus site for the fall semester. Proper maintenance demands a unique combination of elements–for instance fuel, lube, and water capabilities–to keep equipment running smoothly and project deadlines on target.
The number of factors to consider in properly outfitting preventative maintenance trucks is nearly endless. Weight distribution, terrain driven, tank and pump capacity, reel length, weather and temperature requirements, storage areas for filters and waste products, as well as the need for extra lights, generators, cranes, air compressors, pressure washers and other special gear all need consideration. Trying to find a ?EUR??,,????'??standard,?EUR??,,????'?? off-the-lot lube, fuel, water or maintenance truck that has all the elements you need is a virtual impossibility. ?EUR??,,????'??No two equipment managers have identical maintenance needs because their equipment, crews, and applications are different,?EUR??,,????'?? says Mihm. ?EUR??,,????'??Yet the lube, fuel, and preventive maintenance trucks have to perform efficiently every day to keep operations running smoothly. We only want to stop machines once a day. We don?EUR??,,????'???t want one truck doing lubes and oil changes, with another providing fuel. Staffing two trucks to do a single job not only doubles the equipment and labor costs, but also doubles the down time. That?EUR??,,????'???s unacceptable.?EUR??,,????'??
Even slight miscalculations can be costly in terms of wasteful logistics and downtime, and could be the mistake that voids a warranty, or triggers a premature and costly repair. For example, if a site preparer needs five oil products to adequately service his fleet of equipment, does he need five 100-gallon tanks, or three 100-gallon tanks and two 500-gallon? Buying an improperly outfitted lube truck could mean failing to complete necessary lubes each day, while carrying around too much oil of other types. Every truck a contractor owns or uses must meet myriad federal and state regulations just to be allowed on the road. Failure to comply with Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency or Occupational Safety & Health Administration regulations–not to mention the unique laws in each of 50 states–could require extensive body, suspension or cab adjustments before road use is permitted.
?EUR??,,????'??If you don’t properly service and maintain your equipment, you won’t be in business very long.”
To meet Maryland?EUR??,,????'???s tough bridge laws and to avoid a federal road use tax, for example, Mihm needed his trucks to stay under 55,000 pounds while fully-loaded?EUR??,,????'??+including oil, fuel, tools, and filters, with a driver and helper in the cab. Even minor violations can produce big headaches for contractors, who must keep work cycle times on track to turn a profit. If a fully-outfitted truck exceeds federal, state or bridge weight allowances by even a small amount, the driver could be forced to stop and pump off product. This could require driving a second truck to receive excess product, which would throw an entire construction project off schedule.
When Mihm became equipment manager at RLO Contractors 14 years ago, the company was already using preventative maintenance trucks to care for its equipment fleet. But the standard trucks not only failed to fit their specific needs, but also required excessive maintenance themselves. ?EUR??,,????'??The lube truck breakdowns were all too common,?EUR??,,????'?? says Mihm. ?EUR??,,????'??We suffered from poor tank welding as well as poor pump and reel quality. Leaks between the tanks caused product mixing, for example of an engine oil with hydraulic or gear oil. We could?EUR??,,????'???ve lost engines, hydraulic systems, final drives, or had to make other serious repairs in our fleet due to the product mixing. On top of that, we had problems with the fuel and waste oil reels for years. We used to keep a spare reel for each truck, along with extra springs and latches, just in case.?EUR??,,????'??
In search of a better solution, Mihm turned to Elliott Machine Works (EMW), the leading manufacturer of mobile service equipment since 1948. Elliott Machine Works specializes in providing custom solutions based on individual consultations with each client. These consultations are designed to elicit exactly what is needed and wanted for each specific application, so the final product matches the needs of its owner.
At Mihm?EUR??,,????'???s request, EMW initially rebuilt lube bodies on older trucks for RLO Contractors, and then began building entire lube bodies custom suited to their needs. Today, EMW custom equips five lube trucks and one water truck for RLO Contractors?EUR??,,????'??? fleet of 55 trucks and 110 pieces of equipment, from excavators to skid loaders, for site preparation work. ?EUR??,,????'??Now every inch of our lube trucks is efficiently used, and the breakdown problems have stopped,?EUR??,,????'?? says Mihm. ?EUR??,,????'??Every time we switch truck bodies for new tank sizes or to meet new regulations, we depend on Elliott Machine Works. They keep me up to date on any laws that have changed or are about to change, and on the best equipment currently available. They build our tanks, storage compartments and such to any size we require and make sure our weight distribution works out. Since they build our trucks to stay under 55,000 pounds, we haven?EUR??,,????'???t had to pay a federal road use tax for 10 years. That?EUR??,,????'???s about $2,000 savings per year.?EUR??,,????'??
For efficient lube/fuel use, one of EMW?EUR??,,????'???s exclusive features is a hydraulic dispensing system that delivers from 9 to 12 gallons-per-minute (gpm) of up to three products simultaneously with a single touch of an electric powered master switch that controls the load-sensing, pressure-compensated system. Hydraulic or pneumatic fuel pumping systems can deliver up to 90 gpm of product and for safety, fuel tanks offer flanged heads and baffles, full-length flashing and roll-over protection.
At Riverton Coal, equipment manager McGrady faced a number of special concerns that standard lube or fuel trucks couldn?EUR??,,????'???t begin to address. Since mining operations had to continue almost 120 hours per week?EUR??,,????'??+on equipment capable of hauling 150 tons per load and costing more than $1,000,000 in some cases–he had to get preventive maintenance right. The preventative maintenance had to be done efficiently, despite 10-degree temperatures that made pumping unheated oil and grease take three times as long as normal. McGrady found a solution with EMW, which custom outfitted three lube/fuel trucks with tanks for seven types of oil, two types of chassis grease, waste oil recovery and antifreeze. The enclosed truck bodies have heated interiors that keep the oil and grease at room temperature for fast delivery, as well as interior and exterior lights for nighttime use. ?EUR??,,????'??Elliott Machine Works addressed our specific needs,?EUR??,,????'?? says McGrady. ?EUR??,,????'??Based on the rough terrain at our location and our requirements, they helped us spec out the lube/fuel trucks?EUR??,,????'??? length, width, wheel base, load both full and empty, as well as front and rear axle capacities. For efficiency, operators just quick connect a hose, and turn on a vacuum pump to recover oil out of an engine or transmission. They put another hose in and pull a trigger to fill up what?EUR??,,????'???s needed. It?EUR??,,????'???s all hydraulic driven, and keeps things efficient and clean.?EUR??,,????'??
For convenience, EMW offers hydraulic driven compressor packages furnishing up to 60 cubic feet-per-minute (cfm – a measure of how much air pressure can be generated per minute to run devices) along with pneumatic waste oil systems with both suction and discharge capacity. Reel compartments on request can be separated from the cab body by an insulated bulkhead for temperature control. Swing-out doors, dome lights, and a drop deck reel compartment are also available.
As equipment manager for Superior Paving, a highway construction contractor based in Gainesville, Virginia, Chris Griffith attends to the maintenance of more than 200 pieces of equipment from pavers and rollers to milling equipment and dump trucks. To meet their diverse maintenance needs in service of the crews that use them, Griffith also turned to EMW. Each crew has its own truck tailored to its specific application. The asphalt crew?EUR??,,????'???s truck carries 150 gallons of diesel fuel, 1,500 gallons of water, 30 gallons each of hydraulic oil and engine oil and a truck-bed-mounted air compressor to run a jackhammer. ?EUR??,,????'??Every truck we?EUR??,,????'???ve got is designed for our needs and the crew running it,?EUR??,,????'?? says Griffith. ?EUR??,,????'??The milling crew?EUR??,,????'???s water truck, for example, has air actuated valves at three carefully chosen discharge points at the right front, right rear, and mid-ship right side. That way, the operator can simply hook up a hose, then from the cab flip a few switches without having to manually turn valves. This saves a few minutes every time he hooks up, for about one hour total time savings per day.?EUR??,,????'??
For applicability in a variety of cleaning and dust control situations, EMW offers water tanks of up to 5,000 gallon capacity, with spray capability up to 45 feet in width and 150 feet in distance–which puts even coal piles and cranes within reach. Pump drives offer up to 650 gpm at 70 psi (pounds-per-square-inch). Flusher heads, spray heads, spray bars, water cannons, and three-way piping are available in both remote and manual control. In today?EUR??,,????'???s lingering soft economy, landscape superintendents will need every advantage at their disposal to keep their operations profitable and efficient, despite ever tightening margins. The customization of preventive maintenance vehicles will be a necessary ingredient in maximizing staff and equipment productivity, increasing profitability.
For more information, contact Elliott Machine Works Inc., at 800-299-0412 or visit them online at www.elliottmachine.com.
Raleigh, North Carolina
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
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