Compactors, Compact Excavators, Cold Planers

Construction equipment financing has two primary options, loan or lease. As the owner of a business that typically uses construction equipment, the business owner has to consider both options which have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Business Loans Can Help Buy Needed Construction Equipment

Equipment used in the construction industry in most cases will not become obsolete during the life of the technology. Bulldozers, backhoes, and other digging equipment have essentially been the same for years. If maintain properly, construction equipment will last for years past what a lease would offer.

Owning the equipment outright can be a huge increase in profit margin once the debt is paid off. Once this happens your business accrues equity. This equity can be used later on down the road to help secure business financing if the need arises. However, we have found out that unsecured lines of credit offered the small business person all the extra working capital they need. Finanlly, you can also count off the equipment using yearly depreciation.

The Benefits of a Leasing Construction Equipment

The primary benefit of leasing construction equipment is that it offers great tax benefits to business owners. This is especially true in terms of what is called a “true lease”, where you get a 100% deduction. If you do not know what we mean by a true lease, the Internal Revenue Service uses the term “true lease” to define how it is structured.

To qualify for “true lease” status, the construction equipment must be declared at fault fair market value when the leases end. This all this sounds complicated, but it really isn’t. If you have questions it is good to consult with a professional tax consultant to help you figure out your best options.

The fact that you can often get the equipment that you need without any down payment is one of the primary benefits to some. Businesses, like start-ups, that are not flush with cash love this aspect if they can find it. Lease payments are typically fixed for the term of the lease and give the business owner a good idea what to budget.

Something To Think About When Considering Leasing Verses Buying

Whether you choose buying or leasing, you need to consider all the facts. Things like tax benefits, your business plans, etc. are some of things you need to look at. I would advise that you consult with a tax consultant and think long and hard about the long term goals of your construction company.

Posted by admin | No Comments »

When Ross Cook and his family started Coastal Tipper Hire on the Gold Coast 13 years ago, he had little idea that it would grow into a company employing 80 people and operating 50 trucks, seven wheel loaders, five excavators, mobile crushing and screening plant and sand pits, quarries and recycling yards.

All Coast Recycling started in 2004 as a way to secure supply of raw materials, and it processes skip and tipper rubble and returns from concrete agitators to produce scalps for use under slabs, soils, 20 mm bedding material for pipes and 75 mm material used for drainage behind retaining walls and base course for temporary and permanent roads.

These products are supplied to the Gold Coast and Brisbane, and an operation will soon open on the Sunshine Coast.

Because of his past good relationship with Daewoo /Doosan Construction Equipment Australia salesman Drago Leskarac, Cook agreed to trial a Doosan 300DL loader in his Reedy Creek quarry when he was looking for a wheel loader for his Southport recycling yard. Ross looks for reliability, economy, driver comfort and resale value when considering equipment, and looks to replace equipment after three years so that it remains reliable.

The loader works hard, with 10 hour days during the week and six hours on Saturdays, and over 800 hours have been clocked up in a little over five months. Apart from loading trucks (200 – 250 per day), the loader cleans out under the crushers, pushes up stockpiles and carries slabs of concrete (often too big to fit in the bucket) to the crusher.

Operator Peter Jupe says, “The automatic transmission works well, and the loader gets good power to the ground for pushing up stockpiles. “

The loader’s cab comfort also got a tick, with the quietness, roominess and good vision getting special mention, and detail items like the heated external mirrors and the location of the grease points have also impressed Peter.

Posted by admin | No Comments »

Sometimes it’s better to think twice before spending a lot of money on new heavy equipment or construction machinery. You can save an large amount of your investment funds by buying used machinery. But before you get to make such a decision you might want to think it through. Used heavy equipment might be a solution for your business as long as you make sure the used machinery works as it should. Of course, it is used, but used machinery is typically refurbished and has technical reviews. But perhaps your personal experience is better than all that criteria. Even if the used machinery looks just fine, is a famous brand or the seller convinced you about the quality of his or her used machinery, you should get try to test it before you buy it. Always try to test the used machinery before you buy it or have someone to test the used machinery for you. Scrape, dig, lift, dump, push, whatever the vehicle has function for.

Go through all the used machinery functions and they all work. Visual inspection is another way of checking the used heavy equipment. Even if you have already made up your mind about buying used heavy machinery, you should be entitled to a good bargain. And a good bargain means you get good quality used heavy equipment for less. Take your time inspecting the used heavy equipment, and try to cover all the important areas. Used heavy equipment paint quality is not critical.

However rust is an issue, so try to see if there are any rust patches or holes covered just for “cosmetic” reason. Grab a tool and try pushing or even hitting on suspected areas of the used heavy machinery to see if there is any rust falling on the ground. Slide under the used machinery and search for leaks. Test the possible leaking problem of the used machinery after you’ve been through the test drive. Also check valves and hoses before the test drive, and see after it if there are any leaks present in these places. The testing shouldn’t stop here. Listen to the engine running for more than a minute or two. Also listen to the hydraulics when the used heavy equipment is performing its special duties. Try to detect any kind weird smells like burning oil or electrical short circuits. When you get behind the wheel or the levers, try to feel if the controls work as they should.

However, you should keep in mind one thing: even the new heavy equipment may be faulty at times, which is why you should be prepared to face all problems that may arise with your used machinery, and not just assume the problem was caused by the fact that the machinery was old. As a final advice on your shopping adventure for used heavy equipment, try to avoid buying from individuals that have no knowledge of construction equipment. Construction equipment dealers can often provide maintenance service and warranty with your used heavy equipment that can stretch from 30 to 60 days, making sure that unexpected problems will be dealt with professionally. And, of course, don’t forget to negotiate the price of used heavy equipment. You can find a dealer that is flexible with pricing and negotiation and give you a better deal that a private owner. Good luck shopping for used machinery.

Posted by admin | No Comments »

Excavators are heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining. An excavator, also called a 360-degree excavator or digger, sometimes abbreviated simply to a 360, is an engineering vehicle consisting of a backhoe and cab mounted on a pivot (turntable is a more apt description) atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. The term excavator is sometimes used as a general term for any piece of digging equipment.

Roles of Excavators

Excavators are used in many roles:

1- Digging of trenches, holes, foundations
2- Demolition
3- General grading/landscaping
4- Heavy lift, e.g. lifting and placing of pipes
5- River dredging
6- Mining, especially, but not only open-pit mining
7- Brush cutting with hydraulic attachments

Varieties of Excavators

Excavators come in a wide variety of sizes. The smaller ones are called a mini-excavator or compact excavator. One manufacturer’s largest model weighs 84,980 kg (187,360 lb) and has a maximum bucket size of 4.5 m³ (5.9 yd³). The same manufacturer’s smallest mini-excavator weighs 1470 kg (3240 lb), has a maximum bucket size of 0.036 m³ (0.048 yd³) and the width of its tracks can be adjusted to 89 cm (35 inches). Another company makes a mini excavator that will fit through a doorway with tracks that can be adjusted to only 70 cm (28 inches) wide.

Often the bucket can be replaced with other tools like a breaker, a grapple or an auger. Excavators are usually employed together with loaders and bulldozers. Most smaller excavators have a small backfill (or dozer-) blade. It’s a horizontal bulldozer like blade attached to the undercarriage and is used for pushing removed material back into a hole.

Examples of Excavators

1- Compact excavator

A compact hydraulic excavator is a tracked or wheeled vehicle with an approximate operating weight of 6 metric tons (13,228 lbs). It generally includes a standard backfill blade and features independent boom swing. The compact hydraulic excavator is also referred to as a mini excavator.

The compact hydraulic excavator is somewhat unique from other construction equipment in that all movement and functions of the machine are accomplished through the transfer of hydraulic fluid. The compact excavator’s work group and blade are activated by hydraulic fluid acting upon hydraulic cylinders. The excavator’s slew (rotation) and travel functions are also activated by hydraulic fluid powering hydraulic motors.

2- Dragline excavator

Dragline excavation systems are heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining. In civil engineering the smaller types are used for road and port construction. The larger types are used in strip-mining operations to extract coal and these are amongst the largest mobile equipment (not water-borne), and weigh in the vinicity of 2000 metric tonnes, though specimens weighing up to 13,000 metric tonnes have also been constructed.

A dragline bucket system consists of a large bucket which is suspended from a boom (a large truss like structure). The bucket is maneuvered by means of a number of ropes and chains. The hoistrope, powered by large diesel or electric motors, supports the bucket and hoist-coupler assembly from the boom. The dragrope is used to draw the bucket assembly horizontally. By skillful maneuver of the hoist and the dragropes the bucket is controlled for various operations.

3- Bucket-wheel excavator

Bucket-wheel excavators are heavy equipment used in surface mining and civil engineering. The excavation component itself is a large rotating wheel mounted on an arm or boom. On the outer edge of the wheel is a series of scoops or buckets. As the wheel turns, the buckets remove soil or rock from the target area and carry it around to the backside of the wheel, where it falls onto a conveyor, which carries it up the arm toward the main body of the excavator. Additional conveyors then may carry it further; in some cases, several long conveyors are placed end-to-end, each supported by a large vehicular base.

Especially large bucket-wheel excavators, over 200 meters long and up to 100 meters in height, are used in German strip-mining operations, and are the largest earth-movers in the world. These tremendous machines can cost over $100 million, take 5 years to assemble, require 5 people to operate, weigh more than 13,000 tons, and have a theoretical capacity of more than 12,000m³/h. Specifically, the RB293 bucket wheel excavator manufactured by MAN Takraf is recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest land vehicle.

Posted by admin | No Comments »