Build a Tractor Backhoe
For small jobs, a backhoe attachment for a compact tractor can handle light excavation to transplanting trees to stump removal. Start with your tractor’s power. The most critical assessment to make for your compact tractor regarding power is to compare…
Marijuana Legalization: What does it mean for you as an employer?
[This article originally appeared in the Trenchless Technology July 2015 print issue] Currently, 23 states including the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Colorado Washington, Oregon and Alaska have also legalized the…
Publisher’s Message: Construction Market Update
The world of construction can be broken down into many categories, continents with names like residential, nonresidential, public, oil and gas, highway and bridges, employment, material costs and beyond. Each sector or metric has its ups and downs, but…
Backhoe Loader Maintenance Musts
Backhoe loaders are one of the most popular types of compact equipment around. In 2014, around 15,000 backhoes were sold in North America, and the backhoe market has grown by around 8 percent each of the past two years. Globally the backhoe remains one…
Utility Contractors Raise ICUEE: The Ultimate Utility Construction Trade Show Returns to Louisville Sept. 29-Oct. 1
ICUEE is dubbed the Demo Expo. Why? Because the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Ky., is maybe the best convention center in the United States that allows exhibitors and visitors to dig and operate machines. If you’re looking to get hands-on…
B.Y.O.B. (Build Your Own Backhoe)
With buckets on both ends, a backhoe loader became famous for specializing in the two essentials of construction — digging and loading. Since a backhoe loader packs a productive punch in one versatile machine, this multifaceted tool remains a popular…
Buying and Maintaining a Skid Steer/Track Loader Backhoe Attachment
Digging a big hole doesn’t necessarily mean getting buried in big expenses — especially when dig operations are occasional and precise. Buying, owning and operating a dedicated digging machine like a mini excavator or backhoe loader will add tens of…
We Interview Three Big Players in the Walk-Behind Trencher Market
Some 70 years ago, laborers dropped their picks and spades and celebrated the arrival of the first compact trenching machine. The little cup-and-chain-on-a-boom trenchers made waterline and electric line excavations almost child’s play. These walk-behind…
How Predictive Maintenance and Telematics Are Paving the Future of Equipment
For compact or earth moving equipment, reliability is essential. Unscheduled downtime is not merely an inconvenience but can also create a major strain on an organization’s resources. Asset life cycle can be difficult to manage, especially when dealing…
The Latest Welding Technologies and Processes for Pipe-Focused Fabricators
The construction market continues to rebound, with construction activities expected to grow at 5 percent in 2015, according to the Q2 Construction Outlook released by FMI Corp. Areas with strong growth forecasted include residential, manufacturing,…
Turn Your Compact Track Loader into a Mulching Master
As valuable as vegetation is, it usually needs to be managed in some fashion. Sometimes to build new, we must clear the old — trees, saplings, bushes and fields for new construction. Other times we need to manicure overgrown right-of-ways or remove…
Picking the Ideal Trench Box to Work Safely in Trenches
When protective systems are not used in excavations, bad things happen. Contractor employees are killed or injured every year when trenches collapse on them. How to avoid such tragedy seems simple enough: Shore up walls or otherwise shield workers…