Dump trucks come in many different configurations with each one specified to accomplish a specific task in the construction chain.

Standard dump truck
The standard dump truck is a full truck chassis with the dump body mounted onto the frame.  The dump body is raised by a hydraulic ram lift that is mounted forward of the front bulkhead, normally between the truck cab and the dump body.

The standard dump truck also has one front axle, and one or more rear axles which normally has dual wheels on each side.  The common configurations for standard dump trucks include the six wheeler and ten wheeler.

Transfer dump truck
For the amount of noise made when transferring, the transfer dump truck is easy to recognize.  It’s a standard dump truck that pulls a separate trailer which can be loaded with sand, asphalt, gravel, dirt, etc.

The B box or aggregate container on the trailer is powered by an electric motor and rides on wheels and rolls off of the trailer and into the main dump box.  The biggest advantage with this configuration is to maximize payload capacity without having to sacrifice the maneuverability of the short and nimble dump truck standards.

Semi trailer end dump truck
The semi end dump truck is a tractor trailer combination where the trailer itself contains the hydraulic hoist.  The average semi end dump truck has a 3 axle tractor that pulls a 2 axle semi trailer.  The advantage to having a semi end dump truck is rapid unloading.

Semi trailer bottom dump truck
A bottom dump truck is a 3 axle tractor that pulls a 2 axle trailer with a clam shell type dump gate in the belly of the trailer.  The biggest advantage of a semi bottom dump truck is the ability to lay material in a wind row.  This type of truck is also maneuverable in reverse as well, unlike the double and triple trailer configurations.

Double and triple trailer
The double and triple bottom dump trucks consist of a 2 axle tractor pulling a semi axle semi trailer and an additional trailer.  These types of dump trucks allow the driver to lay material in wind rows without having to leave the cab or stop the truck.  The biggest disadvantage is the difficulty in going in reverse.

Side dump trucks
Side dump trucks consist of a 3 axle trailer pulling a 2 axle semi trailer. It offers hydraulic rams that tilt the dump body onto the side, which spills the material to the left or right side of the trailer.  The biggest advantages with these types of dump trucks are that they allow rapid unloading and carry more weight than other dump trucks.

In addition to this, side dump trucks are almost impossible to tip over while dumping, unlike the semi end dump trucks which are very prone to being upset or tipped over.  The length of these trucks impede maneuverability and limit versatility.

Off road dump trucks
Off road trucks resemble heavy construction equipment more than they do highway dump trucks.  They are used strictly for off road mining and heavy dirt hauling jobs, such as excavation work.  They are  very big in size, and perfect for those time when you need to dig out roads and need something to haul the massive amounts of dirt to another location.

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The term site prep is a broad term that can include several different tasks, such as clearing and grubbing, soil erosion, sediment control, storm drains, water and sewer pipes, topsoil stripping, rock removal, underground utility, and several other tasks.

Soil erosion and management To protect the quality of the water, soil erosion and sediment control measures are vital.  With most locations, storm water permitting is required.  All erosion and sediment control measures and devices must be in place and inspected before the first tree drops or first shovel full of dirt is removed.

The designs for storm water management systems are becoming more and more complex.  The detension basins have complex and spiraling side slopes and bottoms that have almost flat grades.

Clearing
The limits of clearing can be marked with a GPS dozer.  By following the outline of the display in the cab, the bulldozer can cut a path through the wooded area so other equipment will have a clear line to go by.

The traditional method used to clear debris, such as burning, is rapidly fading away.  The air pollution standards will prevent any type of burning of most areas across the United States.

Site prep made easy

Depending on the job site, what you have to do will vary greatly.  With excavation, what is needed to complete a job is as different as night and day.  No matter what type of work you are doing, it will almost always require the use of heavy machinery.

Clearing lots for houses, grading roads, laying pipe, fixing water leaks, and digging foundations are just some of the most common tasks found with the art of excavation.  To do this type of work, it takes a special individual as work is outdoors year round, meaning that you freeze in the winter and burn up in the summer.

Laying pipe is a task that takes skill.  You first must dig the trench for the pipe, making sure that the elevation is right, and that the pipe will meet the specifications listed in the blueprints.  There are several different types of pipe that needs to be layed, including water, sewer, and storm drains.

When you first begin your job, you’ll need to have the proper permits from the area that you are going to be disturbing the ground in.  Once you have the proper permits, you can begin your work.  With some jobs, you’ll need to document on paper just how much land you disturb each day.

Sometimes with excavation, the job site and plans will call for ponds or temporary ponds.  This can be fun to do, although you have to be careful as well.  Very common with sub divisions, ponds are something that take a lot of skill to dig right.

Manholes are something else that you will encounter as well.  You can use machinery to set them in place, although they will need to go a certain way.  The easiest way to put them in place is by using an excavator, as you can lower it down and have a couple of workers set it in place.

Anytime you are working on an excavation site, you should always be careful and make sure you do things by the book.  There are always rules and regulations that you need to follow.  Excavation is a very fun trade, although you’ll need to be well versed with following plans, running machinery, and having fun outdoors.

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Within the industry of excavation, many more techniques may be utilized, with each dig having its own particular features that may necessitate differences of approach.  Resources and other practical issues don’t allow archaeologists to carry out excavations whenever and wherever they choose, as many known sites have been deliberately left alone and non excavated.

Initially, excavation involves the removal of any topsoil that is uncovered by machine.  What is dug up may be examined by a metal detector for stray finds but unless the excavation site has remained untouched for a long period of time, there is a small layer of modern material on the surface that is of limited archaeological interest.

In rural areas, any type of archaeological features should be visible beneath the surface.  With urban areas, they may be thick layers of human deposits and only the uppermost will be visible to the naked eye.  With either case, the first task is drawing a scaled site plan that will show the edges of the excavation.

This plan can be composed using tape measures, or as it is more common these days, an electronic total station.  A grid is normally set up, to divide the site.

Excavation is also useful for digging out houses and trenches.  When clearing dirt out for roads or sub divisions, excavation is what takes care of things.  Even though there are a few means, the term excavation is used anytime that the earth or dirt is disturbed.

Heavy machinery is also very common with excavation, such as excavators or backhoes.  Excavating crews run the equipment and dig up soil and rocks for whatever the purpose may be.  Excavators are the most used machinery, as they can move a lot of dirt in a little bit of time.

Anytime you are taking part in excavation, you should always use common sense and be safe.  If you plan to get down into a hole or trench, you should always use a trench box.  Even though the hole may not be that deep, excavation sites can always cave in and at that point – things are very dangerous and possibly even deadly.

For digging up rare artifacts or putting in houses or roads, excavation is something that has been around for years and years.  There is a lot to learn with excavation, as you’ll need to know how to run machinery, shoot grade, and how to properly dig holes and trenches so they won’t cave in.

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Types
The most common type of design with forklifts is the counter balance.  Other types of designs include the reach truck and side loader, both of which are used in environments where the space is at a minimum.

Control and capability
Forklifts are available in many types and different load capacities.  In the average warehouse setting, most forklifts have load capacities of around five tons.

Along with the control to raise and lower the forks, you can also tilt the mast to compensate for the tendency of the load to angle the blades towards the ground and risk slipping it off the forks.  The tilt will also provide a limited
ability to operate on ground that isn’t level.

There are some variations that allow you to move the forks and backrest laterally, which allows easier placement of a load.  In addition to this,
there are some machines that offer hydraulic control to move the forks together or further apart, which removes the need for you to get out of the cab to manually adjust for a different size load.

Another forklift variation that is sometimes used in manufacturing facilities, will utilize forklifts with a clamp attachment that you can open and close around a load, instead of having to use forks.  Products such as boxes, cartons, etc., can be moved with the clamp attachment.

Safety
Forklifts are rated for loads at a specified maximum weight and a specified forward type center of gravity.  All of this information is located on a nameplate that is provided by the manufacturer and the loads cannot exceed these specifications.

One of the most important aspects of operating a forklift is the rear wheel steering.  Even though this helps to increase maneuverability in tight
cornering situations, it differs from the traditional experience of a driver with other wheeled vehicles as there is no caster action.

Another critical aspect of the forklift is the instability.  Both the forklift and the load must be considered a unit, with a varying center of
gravity with every movement of the load.  You must never negotiate a turn with a forklift at full speed with a raised load, as this can easily tip the forklift over.

Normally, to drive a forklift, you’ll need to pass a basic test.  They aren’t difficult to operate, although you’ll need to be safe when you operate them.  Once you have operated one for a while, you’ll have no problems being safe.

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The loader assembly may be a removable attachment or permanently mounted on the vehicle.  Often times, the bucket can be replaced with other devices or tools, such as forks or a hydraulically operated bucket.

Larger style front loaders, such as the Caterpillar 950G or the Volvo L120E, normally have only a front bucket and are known as front loaders, where the small front loaders are often times equipped with a small backhoe as well and called backhoe loaders or loader backhoes.

Loaders are primarily used for loading materials into trucks, laying pipe, clearing rubble, and also digging.  Loaders aren’t the most efficient machines for digging, as they can’t dig very deep below the level of their wheels, like the backhoe can.

The deep bucket on the front loader can normally store around 3 – 6 cubic meters of dirt, as the bucket capacity of the loader is much bigger than the bucket capacity of a backhoe loader.  Loaders aren’t classified as excavating machinery, as their primary purpose is other than moving dirt.

In construction areas, mainly when fixing roads in the middle of the city, front loaders are used to transport building materials such as pipe, bricks, metal bars, and digging tools.

Front loaders are also very useful for snow removal as well, as you can use their bucket or as a snow plow.  They can clear snow from the streets and highways, even parking lots.  They will sometimes load the snow into dump trucks which will then haul it away.

Unlike the bulldozer, most loaders are wheeled and not tracked.  The wheels will provide better mobility and speed and won’t damage paved roads near as much as tracks, although this will come at the cost of reduced traction.

Unlike backhoes or tractors fitted with a steel bucket, large loaders don’t use automotive  steering mechanisms, as they instead steer by a hydraulically actuated pivot point set exactly between the front and rear axles.  This is known as articulated steering and will allow the front axle to be solid, therefore allowing it to carry a heavier weight.

Articulated steering will also give a reduced turn in radius for a given wheelbase.  With the front wheels and attachment rotating on the same axis, the operator is able to steer his load in an arc after positioning the machine, which can come in quite handy.  The problem is that when the machine is twisted to one side and a heavy load is lifted high in the air, it has a bigger risk of turning over.

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Harvesters were developed in Sweden and Finland, and today they do nearly all of the commercial felling in these countries.  They work best for less difficult terrain for the clear cutting area of forest.  For steep hills or removing individual trees, chain saws are normally preferred.  In the nordic countries, small and agile harvesters are used for thinning operations and manual cutting is only used during extreme conditions or by self employed owners of the forest or wooded area.

The leading manufacturers of harvesters include Timberjack (which is owned by John Deere) and Valmet, which is owned by Komatsu.

Normally, harvesters are built on a robust all terrain vehicle, which can either be wheeled or tracked.  Sometimes, the vehicle can be articulated to provide tight turning around obstacles.  A diesel engine will provide power for both the vehicle and the harvesting mechanism through a hydraulic drive.

An articulated, extensible boom that is similiar to that of an excavator, will reach out from the vehicle to carry the head of the harvester.  There are even some commercial harvesters that are  adaptations of excavators with a new harvester head, while the others are purpose built vehicles.

The normal harvester head may consist of:
1.  A chain saw to cut the tree at the base and also to cut it to length.  The saw is hydraulically powered rather than using a 2 stroke engine of a portable version.  It offers a more robust chain and a higher output power than any saw carried by man.
2.  Two curved de-limbing knives that can reach around the trunk to remove branches.
3.  Two feed rollers to reach out and grasp the tree.  The wheels will pivot apart to allow the tree to be embraced by the head of the harvester, and pivot together to hug the tree tight.
4.  Two more curved knives for de-limbing.

All of this is controlled by an operator who sits in the cab of the vehicle.  A control computer is used to simplify mechanical movements and keep the length and diameter of trees that have been cut.

The length is computed by counting the rotations of the gripping wheels.  The diameter is computed from the pivot angle of the gripping wheels that
hug the tree.

Harvesters are normally available for cutting trees up to 900 mm in diameter, built on vehicles that weight up to 20 t, with a boom that reaches up to a 10m radius.  The larger, more heavier vehicles do more damage to the forest, although a longer reach will help by allowing more trees to be
harvested with less movements required by the vehicle.

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The standard types of trenchers, whether dedicated units or attachments, they are versatile machines for contractors to have with them on the job.  They can be used for many different purposes, from digging valve box holes to trenches for drain pipes.  In areas that contain rocky soil, large roots, or
other problems where the other machinery can’t access the soil, the trencher will minimize downtime that was once spent digging by hand.

The many types of vibratory plows will offer even more labor saving options.  These plows eliminate the hand labor of having to lay the pipe and backfilling on numerous jobs.  Even though vibratory plows have taken their market share and are great for pulling pipe, trenchers are still very important for many different types of applications.

The impressive company Bobcat offers three different trenching attachments that are designed for use on the smaller skid steer loaders.  The attachment
models LT102, LT203, and LT304 all have digging depths from 2 – 4 feet.

Mini trenchers
The mini trenchers have been re-designed and finely tuned from the same concept that made standard trenchers so popular.  As the name suggests, they are lightweight, with the largest models weighing less than 400 pounds.  They are also compact, allowing you to put them in the back of an average
pickup truck.

They will also dig a trench around 4 inches wide, and up to 13 inches deep, neatly laying the soil on side of the trench.  Without any trouble at all, you can cover pipe with the backfill, leaving a barely visible seam in the soil.

With time being money, these types of mini trenchers are the answer when working in tight or small areas, or on jobs that have a lot of trees or shrubbery. Mini trenchers have a turning radius of less than two feet and they will easily fit through most garden gates.  Jobs that would normally need a lot of manual labor will now save you a lot of time and man power.

If you do construction or excavation work, even gardening, you’ll find trenching and plowing equipment to be essential to your work.  If you’ve
never used these types of equipment before, you’ll be amazed at just how much time you can save.

If you are just starting up your business, you’ll find this type of equipment to be just what you need.  You won’t need a lot of labor with a trencher, as you can do most of it yourself.  For saving time, money, and effort, trenching and plowing equipment is the way to go.

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Following the World War, several innovations were made in backhoes, and trench digging seemed to fade away as a profession.  By 1950, hydraulically actuated backhoes were developed, which make it possible to rapidly dig very deep trenches.  Resulting from the innovations with backhoes, and because there were no workers inside digging the trenches, the walls no longer needed to be shored.

All types of trenches have what’s known as a stand up time.  This time is the amount of time that elapses from the time the ditch is dug until the time the
trench walls start to collapse.  The stand up time is dependant on many factors, which include the type of soil, water content, trench depth, weather conditions, and whether or not the soil has been disturbed.

The stand up time can be as short as zero seconds or as long as several months, as they are very difficult to predict.  Before the trench can be dug,
someone must take soil samples as way of estimating the stand up time.  Keep in mind that the soil conditions can be dramatically different only a few feet from where the sample of the soil was taken.

After the trench has been dug, workers will go down into the trench, and perform whatever work is needed, such as laying pipe or installing telephone
lines, welding pipe, or installing valves.  If the trench walls aren’t supported, there is the possibility of the walls collapsing and trapping the workers in the trench.  Throughout history, there have been 100 – 300 people killed in the U.S. each year due to trenches collapsing.

The public has become very aware that industrial progress will often have negative side effects as well.  The place of engineers protecting the
public from these types of side effects is a very controversial issue.  The use of trench boxes on the site, will help to ease this debate.

The trench box, also called a trench shield, may be placed in the trench to prevent failures from injuring workers. The trench box consists of two large plates, normally made from steel, which are parallel to the walls of the trench, and horizontal cross members which will hold the two plates
apart.

The lower edge of the trench box rests at the bottom of the trench, with the top edge of the box extending above the top of the trench.  The workers will stay between the plates of the trench box, so that if the trench does collapse, the dirt will be stopped by the outside of the trench box.  As the work progresses, the trench box is pulled along in the trench with a backhoe or other machine.

When a project calls for a large excavation such as digging the foundation for a tall building, the supporting structure for the excavated walls will be specified in the plans.  The big problem with not using trench boxes occurs in cities, when water or sewer lines are being installed or repaired.  The engineer doesn’t specify for the trench box in the plans, but instead leaves it
up to the contractor.

Anytime you are going to be digging trenches or working in them, you should always use common sense and take your time.  Trenches can be very deadly,
especially if trench boxes aren’t used.  To be on the safe side, you should always use a trench box if you need to be in the trench.  If you don’t
need to be in the trench – do the smart thing and let the machines do all of the work.

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Skid loaders are capable of turning in their own tracks, which makes them very maneuverable and valuable for jobs that require the use of compact,
agile loader.

Unlike conventional front loaders, the lift arms lay beside the driver with the major pivot points located behind the shoulders of the operator.  Due to the operator being in close proximity to moving booms and buckets, earlier models of skid loaders weren’t as safe as conventional front loaders, particularly during entering and exiting.

Skid loaders today have fully enclosed cabs and other safety features that will protect the operator from injury.  Just like other front loaders,  the skid steer can scrape material from one location to another, carry material in a bucket,
or load material on a truck or a trailer.

Operation
A skid loader can sometimes take the place of a large excavator by digging a hole out from the inside.  The skid loader will first dig a ramp that leads to the edge of the hole.  Then, the loader will use the ramp to carry material out of the hole.

The skid loader will then reshape the ramp by making it steeper and longer as the excavation gets deeper.  This method is very useful for digging under an overhead structure where the overhead clearance doesn’t allow for the boom of a large excavator, such as those situations where you are digging a basement under a house.

The bucket of most types of skid loaders can be replaced with several specialized buckets or attachments, many of which are powered by the
hydraulic system of the loader.

History
The first 3 wheeled front end loader was invented by two brothers, Cyril and Louis Keller in their machinist shop in Minnesota back in 1957.  The Kellers built the loader to help a nearby farmer clean turkey manure from his two story barn.  The light and compact loader, with the rear caster wheel, was able to turn around within the length of itself, while performing the very same tasks as conventional front end loaders.

Down the road, the Melroe manufacturing company in Gwinner ND, purchased the rights to the Keller loader in 1958 and hired the brothers to continue their loader invention.  Resulting from the partnership, the M-200 self propelled loader was introduced at the end of 1958.

The loader featured two independent front drive wheels and a rear caster wheel, a 12.9 engine and a 750 lb lift capacity.  Two years later, they ended up replacing the caster wheel with a rear axle and introduced the M-400 loader, which was the first four wheel skid steer loader in the world.

In 1962, the Bobcat name was added to describe the key features of the machine – touch, agile, and quick.  The M-440 was powered by a 15.5 HP engine and offered a 1100 lb rated operating capacity. In the mid 1960s, the skid steer loader progressed with the introduction of the M600 loader.

Years later, the Bobcat skid steer loader experienced quite a few changes, including the development of a hydrostatic drive system, enforced cab structures, radius and vertical lift arm configurations, deluxe instrumentation, and even heating and air conditioning.

In addition to the rubber tire skid loaders of today, there are now all-wheel steer loaders and even compact track loaders. Compact track loads offer
less ground disturbance and feature better traction and control in soft, muddy, wet, and even sandy ground conditions.

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