With more choices than ever, it pays to know what to look for when you're buying grading and excavating tools.

By Greg Northcutt

By themselves, the brawniest bulldozers, the most sophisticated excavators, or even the most basic of backhoes or compact loaders, for that matter, won't make you any money. To convert all the potential performance of these machines into productive and profitable work, you also need the right tools, such as buckets, blades, and other attachments.

When it comes to outfitting your earthmoving machines for work, you certainly don't lack for choices. Consider buckets, the single most popular tool. One attachment manufacturer offers no less than a dozen different styles—and that's just for excavators. Look around and you'll find general-purpose buckets as well as buckets made specifically for digging dirt or sand or rock, cleaning ditches, or grading slopes. Depending on make and model, you can choose buckets made for medium-duty, heavy-duty, and even extra-severe-duty uses with either pin-on or quick-attach hookups.

You can mount rippers on motor graders, wheel compactors on backhoes, and box blades on skid-steer loaders, just to name a few of your many choices. In addition, you can add devices that tilt or rotate tools for extra convenience and versatility when working in tight areas or sloping terrain.

Manufacturers sell attachments under their own brand or as original equipment manufacturer (OEM) items. Some might specialize in one type of attachment or attachments for one type of grading or excavating machine. Others might offer a broad selection. For example, Werk-Brau Co. Inc. in Findlay, OH, which makes about 60 different styles and sizes of tools, offers a wide range of attachments for various pieces of equipment, including excavators, crawler loaders, articulated wheel loaders, rubber-tire backhoes, and skid-steer loaders.

Still, despite the abundance of readily available off-the-shelf attachments, you might need a tool designed specifically for your type of business or maybe even one particular project. You're in luck there too, thanks to manufacturers that do custom work. Werk-Brau is one of many that tailor-make tools to your specifications.

The company has made several stick extensions for a customer working on Boston's Big Dig project that lengthen the reach of its excavators by as much as 19 ft., reports Kory Bacon, Werk-Brau's national sales manager. An extension consists of a boot that fits over the end of the excavator's boom. "We put a 3º angle in this boot so the operator could actually dig under the machine when needed," he states.

Another time, one of Werk-Brau's customers wanted to use an articulated wheel loader to size rock. So the company built a rock bucket with tines spaced 6 in. apart to retain rocks of the desired diameter. Such customization can solve some truly unique problems. One of the company's customers, an operator of a solid waste transfer station, needed a way to compact material after an articulated wheel loader pushed the material over a ledge and into a rolloff trailer box. "The arms of the loader wouldn't go down far enough to use the bottom of the bucket to press against the material in the box," Bacon notes. "So we designed a bucket where the coupler hinges were located high on the bucket. That allowed the bucket to hang low enough to push down against the material in the box."

When it comes to performance, there's more to a blade, thumb, or other attachment than meets the eye. For example, many contractors tend to compare tools in terms of readily apparent features, such as price and weight. However, as Bacon points out, that might not give you an accurate picture of on-the-job performance.

"A really heavy bucket may last a long time, but it may not dig the way you want it to," he remarks. "The right design and the use of good materials in the proper places can make a big difference in performance. Making a bucket that is narrower in the back than the front and wider on the bottom than on top reduces resistance when you bring the bucket through a trench and increases productivity. It may look similar to another make of bucket without that feature. But if you compare them side by side on the job, you'll see the difference."

Evaluating Tools

Slopeboard in the fully raised position

Slopeboard mounted on a Cat D9R, creating stable walls in a phosphate min pit

Bill Colwell and his brother Ben, who own Colwell Equipment in Ramona, CA, can attest to the differences in performance of construction equipment attachments. While their attachments might not match yours, their experience points to some of the principles it pays to consider when selecting grading and excavating tools.

For the last 25 years, their general engineering contracting firm has been using bulldozers for earthmoving work on projects ranging from single-family house pads to roads and reservoirs. Currently the company operates eight dozers; five are equipped with slope boards. These hydraulically operated tools, which mount on the side of the tractor, are hinged for raising or lowering. They are used in the horizontal position for smoothing fills and angled for cutting slopes with gradients ranging from 2:1 to 1:1 or steeper. In fact, Bill Colwell reports, the tools are even used to cut vertical slopes for shoring.

As he explains, a slope board doesn't have the carrying capacity of a dozer blade because of size and weight limitations. But it can be used to make light cuts during grading to increase dozer production.

"We've found that slope boards do a better, more accurate job than using a dozer blade to backdrag across the face of a slope or using a motor grader to bring a slope down to grade," Colwell maintains.

The Colwells' latest slope board is made by Mountain West Attachments Inc. in Logan, UT, for their Caterpillar D6RXL dozer that is equipped with a semi-U blade. They prefer it to a previous unit, which it replaces. Among the features they like about the Mountain West slope board:

Effective, Versatile Design

This particular model has a 6-ft. moldboard with an optional 2-ft. extension. Although a smooth, reversible cutting edge is available, the Colwells use a serrated edge that is handy for creating erosion-controlling ridges when running parallel to the slope. They've mounted it on the left side of the dozer. Other models can be mounted on the right side and a few operators mount slope boards on both sides.

A 4-in. cylinder raises or lowers the blade from horizontal to vertical or anywhere in between in one stroke. "The geometry of the slope board allows us to grade very precisely," Colwell relates. "When you're cutting reverse slopes, it doesn't dig and remove too much material."

With the slope board in the vertical position, the overall width of the dozer and attachment is less than 12 ft., eliminating the need for a pilot car when transporting the tractor on a lowboy trailer. It also helps prevent damage when operating the tractor near other equipment, he points out.

Simple Installation

An exclusive installation tool adds to the ease of mounting the Mountain West slope board. "Welding the lugs on and mounting this attachment is the easiest of any slope board I've done," Colwell explains. "You just hook up three sets of hydraulic lines and one electrical line. You don't have to cut up the tractor to make it fit. That helps protect the resale value if I want to sell the tractor."

Low Maintenance

The mounting lugs are on top of the push arm and behind the dozer blade. Unlike the low mounting of his previous unit, this minimizes damage to the slope board and the dozer.

"With the other unit, the hinges would get bombarded by big rocks and stumps, and dirt would get packed into hinges and grease fittings," he notes.

Easy Operation

A screw-on trigger control replaces the knob on the dozer blade tilt-control lever. Squeezing the trigger raises or lowers the slope board. Releasing it allows the lever to control the tilt of the blade.

Durable Construction

The slope board features heat-treated, wear-resistant pins and bushings at all pivot points. The moldboard is built with high-strength alloy steel, while the frame features high-strength structural tubing with a solid center pivot beam. "It's lighter than other slope boards we've used, which reduces wear and tear on the dozer," Colwell points out. "Yet it's as strong, if not stronger, than other makes we've used. In the year and a half we've used it, we've had no problems with breaking or bending."

More information on Mountain West slope boards is available by phone, 888/904-5284, or on-line at www.mwattachments.com.

The Colwells also have found differences in the performance of rippers. In fact, they were dissatisfied with the ripper they had been using. "It didn't rip as deep or raise as far above the ground as we wanted. Also, it lacked the hydraulic force we wanted. If we hooked a big rock, it would stop the tractor."

They replaced it with a Lewis Ripper. They like it so well that they are now a dealer for the unit. Equipped with four hydraulic cylinders, it can be used with as many as three shanks. The Colwells use it with two shanks to rip as deep as about 24-29 in. That's deeper than their previous ripper would allow; it raises more than 1 ft. higher above the ground, Colwell notes. It's also built more solidly, he adds. "When you're track-walking a slope, it makes the tractor more balanced so that when you're backing up the slope, there's more weight on the back to make it stick to the slope better."

Lewis rippers are manufactured by Gessner Industries in standard and customized models to fit a wide range of crawler tractors, loaders, and graders. More information is available by phone at 760/789-7274.

Assessing Another Grading Tool

Although it represents a completely different scale and type of application, a laser-equipped grader attached to a skid-steer or compact track loader is another example of how the right tool on the right machine can help you do more and better work with less time and effort, while making more money.

The sequence of hooking up an attachment on an excavator

Contractor Bryan Western, who owns Century Concrete Construction Inc. in Scotts, MI, developed what was probably the first such unit in the late 1980s. He wanted a faster, more accurate alternative to using a skid-steer loader equipped with a conventional grader attachment and hand labor for preparing a large commercial flatwork project using a transit and stakes. So, working with Spectra Physics, he mounted one of its laser control systems (now part of the Trimble family of machine control systems) on his Bobcat grader attachment.

After several weeks of tuning and tweaking the system, he achieved the results he wanted. In fact, over the next dozen years, the unit racked up more than 13,000 hours of service before Western traded the grader in on a new, improved Bobcat grader. It's mounted on a Bobcat T200 compact track loader. However, he's still using the original laser control system and receivers.

The grader features a 7-ft., six-way hydraulically controlled moldboard operated with switches mounted on the loader's steer levers for fingertip control. The laser system automatically moves the blade up or down to keep the base material exactly on grade. That saves both concrete and the amount of time and labor required for site preparation.

"We pour about 1 million square feet of concrete a year, and we use our laser-grader attachment for about 98% of that work," Western says. In addition to concrete flatwork, the unit is used for grading slopes for paving contractors and for grading athletic fields.

"Our laser-grader attachment allows us to work where large equipment can't," he notes. "We use it to prepare 20,000-square-foot sites at warehouses or large retail stores, as well as areas as small as about 2,000 square feet."

General contractor Pat Wolgast is another longtime user of laser-equipped grader attachments with compact loaders. Currently his company, Wolgast Corporation in Saginaw, MI, uses a Bobcat laser-grader attachment with a Bobcat 763 skid-steer loader or a Bobcat T200 compact track loader on a variety of commercial projects to prepare sites for concrete floors. That includes working inside buildings when necessary.

These contractors point out features they like about this type of attachment:

More Productivity. Western says his crew can precision grade 10,000 ft.² in an hour with the laser-grader attachment. Without it, the job would require an entire day and five laborers using a skid-steer loader with a bucket. "Even then we still wouldn't achieve anywhere near the same grading accuracy."

Quality Results. Wolgast rates extremely precise grading accuracy as the major benefit of the laser-grader attachment. "It allows us to achieve the uniform thickness that our customers want when pouring floors," Western explains. "They get exactly what they're paying for. That kind of quality control means satisfied customers."

Simple Setup and Operation. Installing the laser system requires no hard wiring. Hooking up the attachment and preparing the laser system for a job takes about 10 minutes, he reports.

Durable Construction. The grader features a strong, modular frame; a replaceable cutting that can be reversed for extended wear; and flotation tires for better flotation on soft ground.

A Good Complement for Other Equipment. "Using the grader attachment with a compact track loader is a match made in heaven," Western remarks. "Before, when we used a skid-steer loader with oversize tires or over-the-tire steel tracks, we never got the traction we get from the rubber tracks of our track loader."

The grader attachment also works well when combined with a vibratory roller attachment. "After grading 10,000 square feet with the laser grader for the next day's pour, we can unhook and put on the vibratory roller and in 10 minutes have the site compacted," he says.

Both Western and Wolgast bought their grader attachments from Carleton Equipment in Kalamazoo, MI. Sales Manager T.R. Cagney has extensive experience with the laser-grader tools. For more information, contact him at 269/343-2943. Information is also available from Bobcat Company on-line at www.bobcat.com.

Shopping Around

Buckets and hydraulic thumbs are the most popular attachments for grading and excavating work, and manufacturers continue to tweak their designs and features to improve value and performance. You also can find other tools for making money when moving dirt. Here are a few examples.

Doing More With Buckets

Grading and excavating contractors themselves have been the source of more than one idea for improving an existing attachment or developing an entirely new tool for saving time and labor. At least two of them have developed blades that allow you to use a tooth bucket for more than excavating a hole or digging a trench.

Excavating contractor Bill Hall of Ft. Madison, IA, markets the Squeegee Blade for rubber-tired backhoes and compact excavators that eliminates the need for shovels, rakes, or other equipment when backfilling trenches. The smooth-edge, one-piece unit can be installed in less than a minute without any tools, he reports.

"After digging a trench, you can mount this blade on your bucket to pull spoil back over the trench as you back out in your same tracks," he explains. "Wings on each side of the blade keep the material coming to you. It saves time by eliminating the need for hand labor or other machines, like a skid-steer loader or dozer, to do the job. Also, unlike trying to use the side of your trenching bucket to do the job, you don't leave tooth marks or tear up sod."

The blades are made with 0.5-in. abrasive-resistant steel on the front and 0.5-in. hot-rolled steel on the back and feature a replaceable T-120 cutting edge for large excavators. They are available in lengths of 29-72 in. for compact excavators and backhoes. Custom-made units are available in lengths of 4-10 ft. for larger excavators. Prices range from $375 to $1,850.

Hall also offers the Crumber Blade for backhoes and excavators that fits on tooth buckets to produce a smooth ditch bottom.

More information is available by calling 888/372-8933 or via the Web at www.HallsDirtBlade.com.

The patented Flyin'Blade system is another contractor-developed tool that converts a bucket into a multipurpose attachment. "It combines a grading beam, a muck bucket, hydraulic tilt, and quick-disconnect to convert an excavator bucket into a hydraulic angling blade for grading ditches and contouring slopes," describes DaVida Todd, sales and marketing director for Excavator Versatility Inc. in Portland, OR.

"You can take it to your dig site and set it aside until you need it," she notes. "When you're ready to clean up or backfill, just couple into the Flyin'Blade and clean or grade as you back out. It allows you to finish grade in one pass or you can use the hydraulic tilt function to sculpt and grade from uneven surfaces or from above or below hillsides."

The currently available model is the 60-in. blade for use on 24-in.-wide digging buckets for 8,000- to 10,000-lb. mini-excavators. It's priced at $3,950 for the bucket, blade, and hydraulic tilt system.

For more information, call 503/572-1197 or visit www.flyingblade.info.

More Secure Hookups

8-ft. Add-A-Boot

16-ft. Add-A-Stick

Quick-couplers for attaching tools to excavators enjoy widespread popularity in Europe. Now they're starting to catch on in North America, particularly the hydraulically operated units that allow you to hook up attachments without leaving the cab.

"In the past we sold about as many manual quick-couplers as hydraulic ones," recalls Gerry Kealy, sales manager for attachment-maker Geith, based in Petersburg, VA. "Now about 70% of the quick-couplers we sell are hydraulic.'

Typically quick-couplers for excavators are designed to fit a specific make of machine, because of differences among manufacturers in stick width and the distance between the front and rear pins that secure the bucket or other attachment to the boom.

A new Geith quick-coupler, called the Claw and designed for excavators in the 15,000-lb. or heavier classes, adapts to these different dimensions. "It allows a single excavator to pick up attachments made for 11 different brands of excavators without any modification," points out Kealy. "A built-in sliding mechanism can accommodate up to 3 inches of variation in the pin-to-pin distance."

As he states, preventing accidental release of attachment is an important consideration with hydraulic quick-couplers. An available hydraulic kit for the Claw offers two safety features. It prevents unlocking a bucket or an attachment unless the tool is in the fully curled position. This kit also includes a secondary mechanical lock. Once an attachment is hooked up to the quick-coupler, a spring-loaded clam or sleeve automatically engages the front pin to secure the tool.

"The pin is completely enclosed by the clam, and you can see this from the operator's seat," Kealy says. "Once the pin is engaged, the attachment remains secured even if the hydraulic system fails. Also, if you want to keep this kit when you sell the excavator, it's easy to convert the quick-coupler to manual operation." For details, call 800/762-4090 or go on-line at www.geith.com.

Another hydraulic quick-coupler designed for improved safety is Werk-Brau's Z-Lok model. It's built for attachments that meet OEM fit-up specifications and is available for most makes and models of hydraulic excavators weighing 20,000-125,000 lb. One safety feature prevents the coupler from being disengaged unintentionally in any position other than full curl, notes Bacon. Also, the coupler's locked wedges are held in place by a hydraulic cylinder that includes a check valve and two heavy-compression springs that hold the wedge in the locked position if hydraulic pressure is unintentionally lost. Details are available by phone at 800/537-9561 or on-line at www.werkbrau.com.

A New Twist on Thumbs

Recently Geith introduced the Auto-Klamp heavy-duty rigid thumb, which folds away automatically to store within the base plate of the boom. "You don't have to remove any pins to take the thumb off when you're not using it," Kealy notes. "Just turn the boom 90° and one person can fold the thumb away in seconds. It has proven itself in almost 4,000 working hours over three years in stringent test conditions." The device has four working angles from 60° to 90°. For details call 800/762-4090 or go on-line at www.geith.com.

Adding Extra Reach to Excavators

Two devices for extending the reach of 30,000- to 250,000-lb.-class hydraulic excavators on jobs ranging from cleaning ditches and sediment ponds to building dams and placing riprap are available from L&G Products Co. Inc. in Rock Creek, MN. Developed by a contractor, the Add-A-Stick is custom-built to add 8-26 ft. to an excavator's reach and digging depth.

"It doesn't result in just an extra-long dipperstick," explains Glenice Heineman, the company's vice president. "Instead the excavator retains a true excavator digging configuration with a resulting longer boom section and a truly active, longer dipper stick. The Add-A-Stick can be mounted or removed in about one to two hours, and you can transport smaller excavators with the tool installed."

The unit also can be operated with an auxiliary valve. "This unique feature allows you to use the excavator front end normally or to activate a third live knuckleboom for more precision in loading and, where space is limited, to grade much closer to the machine," Heineman adds.

The company also manufactures the Add-A-Boot, a fixed extension for various sizes and brands of excavators, which provides 4-8 ft. more reach. It is made with A514 steel and hardened bushings and requires no additional hydraulics. For more information, call 800/745-2564 or visit www.add-a-stick.net.

Labor-Saving Alternatives to Hand Tools

Introduced half a dozen years or so ago, compact utility loaders have caught on with landscape contractors who use these machines in lieu of shovels and wheel barrows when gates, doorways, and other narrow access points limit the use of even skid-steer loaders. Now the machines are beginning to catch on with other types of contractors who do digging and excavating work, reports Brad Paine, associate marketing manager with The Toro Company.

"Now that compact utility loaders have entered the rental market, other construction contractors are becoming aware of the capabilities of these machines," he observes. "They offer the ability to use hydraulically operated attachments to save work in tight areas. The auxiliary hydraulic power of compact utility loaders for operating attachments is similar to that of midsize skid-steer loaders. Also, models equipped with rubber tracks can work on lawns without damaging turf the way skid-steer loaders do."

Toro's list of 35 attachments for compact utility loaders includes a variety of earthmoving tools:

Auger choices include a high-torque power head that can operate bits up to 30-in. in diameter and drill as deep as 5 ft. A variety of teeth, including those designed to penetrate rocky or frozen ground, are available.

The backhoe attachment offers a 151º swing arc and maximum digging depth of 6.5 ft. This tool folds up to a 34.5-in. width for fitting through gates and for ease of transport. Choose from 9-, 12-, and 16-in.-wide buckets. Bucket choices include a 4-ft.³ standard model, a 34.5-in.-wide narrow bucket, and a four-in-one bucket. The trencher will dig a 4- to 12-in.-wide ditch as deep as 3.5 ft. An optional crumber is designed to leave a clean trench bottom. For more information call 800/DIG-TORO (344-8676) or go on-line at www.toro.com.

Greg Northcutt is a frequent contributor to Grading & Excavation Contractor.

GEC - July/August 2003

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