Special attachments can expand your business and profitability.

By Paul Hull

“Buckets!” was a favorite exclamation in mixed company of my neighbor ’Arry Butcher (of unsophisticated but would-be-gentlemanly London heritage) when he was unusually upset. At that time I thought a bucket was a bucket, and you could categorize them only by size: small, medium, or large.

Photo: Ditch Witdh

Photo: Rayco

Have you looked at the buckets that are available today? Each size and style is perfect for a particular purpose. Each one is the best for certain materials. You can be certain that bucket you need for your project is available, and not necessarily more expensive just because it is the one you need. The materials of construction, the shape, the curvature of the sides, the metal and hardness of the front edge, the geometry of the base—they are all defined today to suit particular (but not uncommon) situations. If your supplier tells you otherwise and tries to explain why the buckets he has in stock are the right ones, do some more research.

Buckets are not the only attachments that have been designed and made for actual applications. Many of the attachments and configurations available today are the results of requests and comments from customers. You’ll often read or hear about products that “are the result of customer feedback and our unparalleled commitment to those customers,” but most specialty attachments and specific advances in machines are exactly that. The skid-steer loader (from Melroe before it became Bobcat) had three wheels to start with. Somebody in that proverbial construction site where contractors are struck by brilliant ideas realized that four would be even better. Hydraulic breakers used to be pretty much the same until somebody understood that the fewer moving parts inside those vibrating shells they had, the better they would serve and last. While excavators, backhoes, dozers, and loaders have gone through many series and number changes, attachments have changed more practically according to the needs of their users than any other products in construction equipment. One of the delightful aspects of these changes is the collection of names you can find today, names that often describe exactly what the specialty attachment is supposed to do. For many contractors, the names are more helpful than tags like the TRC33K-SPE (D Series) or the HCY.GRYL.4500 (2006 Update).

What’s in a Name?
What, do you think, does a Slab Crab do on Main Street? With Kenco’s Slab Crab one person can remove, pick up, and unload concrete slabs and bridge decks. It can be a pavement removal bucket and works with excavators of several sizes (from 20,000 to 150,000 pounds). There’s a similar attachment for skid-steers and backhoes, often used for work on sidewalks and driveways. Allied-Gator offers a gripping attachment that mounts on a loader bucket. It’s called the Claw Bucket, and its goal is to make the collection of scrap materials or job-site leftovers more efficient. The Claw Bucket has two sets of tines and a guarded grid screen. They pick up and sift debris, leaving behind the dirt and soil but keeping the larger materials that you want to take away. The Claw Bucket clamps shut with such force that it cannot be pried open by material. The Claw Bucket also has an extremely wide opening, allowing the operator to perform all standard bucket functions without interference while utilizing this innovative attachment.

Photo: Caterpillar

You can bet on finding a bucket that perfectly suits your particular situation.

There are many attachments designed specifically for land clearance work. One of them is the “Forestry Mower” from Rayco. Again, its name describes its action. Contractor Bob Fine in Pioneer, CA, mulches standing underbrush and stunted trees in the nearby woods and then drives the resulting nutrient-rich fiber into the ground. “This forestry mower actually mows small-diameter trees and brush,” says Fine. “It reduces them to a mulch-like residue without the flying debris often associated with similar work.” It also leaves the ground in a condition where disastrous fires are less likely. Barda Equipment offers a good range of brush cutters, delimbers, and feller bunchers. The Brown Brontosaurus (from John Brown & Sons) will cut and mulch trees up to 12 inches in one operation. This is another specialty attachment imagined—then built—by an experienced contractor who knew exactly what was needed to do the job right. Amulet includes land clearing attachments in its range, too. If you are involved in land clearing or right-of-way work you could look at what Pro Mac has to offer: flail and rotary brush cutters, stump grinders.

The SHARC is an attachment/bucket that works like a trencher for your backhoe. It’s from Leading Edge Attachments and has been described as a multi-ripper. The ripping teeth are staggered and they break the ground in sequential order, while the bucket picks up the material … just like a bucket. This powerful tool has been used successfully on rocky or frosty ground, and some contractors say it works better and faster than hydraulic hammers under those conditions. SHARC, we were told, stands for Shanks on an ARC, a technical name really, but this powerful attachment does eat up its target with inexorable efficiency.

What would a contractor do with an extra thumb? Rockland Manufacturing offers several thumbs among its broad range of specialty attachments, including the Smart Thumb for backhoes with extendable inner sticks. It has a hydraulic clamping system without the cost of a control valve, stick plumbing, or an extra hydraulic cylinder. The user installs a mounting pad (3 by 5 inches, just like those cards at school) on the outer stick of the backhoe and then installs the thumb in less than two minutes. It’s just as quick to remove it if site conditions dictate you don’t need it. Now, that’s what makes an attachment practical. If you don’t need it any more on this job, you can take it off and change it for another more suitable. You can transport several attachments for a single machine to your job site and use the one that is most effective for the current task, even if that task takes only a few minutes. With many attachments mountable by the operator from the cab (something you should definitely find out about before acquisition), four or five of them with one carrier machine can save time and labor.

Photo: Case

Today's attachments and configurations often result from customer comments.

Factory-installed thumbs are now available for the E Series backhoe loaders from Caterpillar, in both hydraulic and stiff-link versions. They are compatible with all bucket and coupler combinations on both standard and extendible stick machines. The thumbs allow the backhoe operators to handle irregular shaped objects that may be awkward to handle if they used only a bucket. The two-piece design means that the bolt-on tines can be changed for different bucket and coupler combinations, so that the thumb and bucket teeth mesh correctly. Backhoe loaders with thumbs could be ideal for handling brush, metal, poles, trash, logs, rocks, and debris in site cleanup, land clearing construction, and material handling.

We mentioned breakers earlier. We tend to think of them as huge, heavy tools and remind ourselves that we shouldn’t try to use 6,000-pound breakers from a skid-steer loader. Not all breaking and demolition, however, is done by big excavators. Indeco, North America, introduced a powerful new line of breakers, the HP Series (HP for high performance). The hydraulic efficiency has been increased across the entire range, improving the intelligent variable speed and power system that automatically senses the hardness of the material being broken. The breaker automatically adjusts the impact per blow for maximum operating efficiency. With operating weights ranging from 230 to 17,200 pounds and MBMB energy classes from 200 to 16,000, the Indeco HP Series offers 19 different models to match a variety of construction equipment sizes with a wide range of applications. For smaller applications with mini-excavators, skid-steers, and backhoes, the Indeco HP Series is tough enough for breaking through concrete or rock on utility jobs. The new breaker line has been completely redesigned for the smaller range of breakers with a much slimmer profile for easier entry into restricted areas and narrow openings. The casing has also been super silenced, to comply with night work and indoor demolition noise requirements. You can guess these improvements came from suggestions by experienced users who wanted their specialty attachments to be even more specialized. The slim-line design is also in the larger breakers to improve maneuverability and increase operator visibility. The larger HP breakers, for excavator mounting, are for breaking rock, concrete, and other materials on quarry, highway, or demolition jobs.

Another leading manufacturer of breakers and associated specialty attachments is BTI (now part of Astec Industries). The company’s mechanical pulverizers have been engineered to suit both primary and secondary demolition work, so the contractor can demolish, process, and sort the material with the same attachment. That’s specialization! The unit works from the excavator’s tilt cylinder; that means no special plumbing is required. The teeth and cutting blades are replaceable, and you don’t have to haul everything back to the yard to do it. The pivot pin connection is separate. Why? That protects the excavator’s stick from potential damage.

Independent or Machine-Brand Related?
Many specialty attachments started as single products from independent manufacturers, companies that made only the attachments and not the carrier machines. That has changed somewhat in the last decade. There are still some excellent, independent makers of attachments (standard and specialty) but more of the machine makers are offering their own attachments. One good reason why machine manufacturers like Volvo, Caterpillar, Bobcat, Doosan, and CNH now offer so many attachments is that they would like their customers to buy carrier machines and matching attachments from the same, single source. Some major manufacturers have acquired independent makers of attachments so that they could do this; that is all in the best interests of the customer. In these times when cutting costs may be the best way to better profitability, a contractor who can have machines with multiple capabilities is going to outbid and beat competitors who still rely on single-purpose machines and many workers. Machines with their attachments are, in fact, less expensive than underused employees. The simplest way to give any loader, excavator, or backhoe versatility is to provide it with attachments. Contractors have expanded their businesses successfully by acquiring some specialty attachments that allow their standard equipment to undertake a wider scope of work. En route, some of the workers have learned new skills, too, and become more productive.

Photo: Compact Power

Even the smallest machines, such as mini skid-steers, take attachments.

Here’s a recent story of how a new attachment was imagined and then made. Bob Harr, owner and founder of Harr Technologies in Mosca, CO, came up with his idea for a culvert cleaning attachment after seeing county workers struggling in their efforts to replace a clogged culvert pipe. “I knew I could use one of my HDD machines and build some tools to clean the culvert pipes,” explains Harr. In two years, his company had built more than 170 of the attachments (which go on a horizontal directional machine, such as a Vermeer, who now helps distribute the attachment). Harr’s company has cleaned more than 1,800 culverts in 38 states. At a demonstration of this specialty attachment in Pennsylvania, the attendees were impressed by how quickly the sample culvert was cleaned and how little water was required. We can probably count the number of culverts in this country in the hundreds of thousands (if not in millions). They are essential items you don’t really notice until you look for them. Count them on a 20-mile stretch of state highway or interstate. They need cleaning to be efficient; they are expensive to replace. This special application is one example of how a specialty attachment is born and grows up. It is also an example of how a contractor expands his business and profits with little new investment.

Photo: Kenco

Not really a thumb but more like a wrist is the Power Tilt attachment from Helac. It lets a backhoe or excavator operator set a position and work from it without constant changes. It makes the job go more quickly with fewer repositioning maneuvers to reach the work. Do you do trench work? From Werk-Brau’s array of attachments come the EZ-Tilt Sloping Attachment for excavators and backhoes and the Wheel Compactor for most makes of backhoes. The former enhances the machine’s grading capability. The operator can tilt the bucket up to 45 degrees to maintain a level trench even with the machine at an angle. The Wheel Compactor (on a backhoe) will compact the fill material as the trench is being backfilled. That’s a lot safer than some other methods. American Compaction Equipment also offers compaction wheels (called the Diamond series), and they can be mounted on backhoes, skid-steers, or excavators. Another leading independent, Rockland, offers the Super Sort bucket that sorts material while you dig. The operator simply digs, separates, and dumps. Material left in the bucket is unloaded first, followed by material from the separator.

Ever noticed untidy mowing along the interstate? Now the Spider from US Ditcher allows you to cut both sides of the guardrail or safety cables in a median. It’s a three-point-hitch category II guardrail mower that offers front and/or rear mounting. It has two mowing arms and two mowing heads that straddle the obstacle and mow simultaneously on either side with a mowing width of 30 inches on each side of the guardrail, to give a 60-inch straight mowing pattern. And there are important safety features that stall the machine if you do anything potentially unsafe.

Not all vegetation is gentle grass, is it? The Alamo Group has an array of mowers worth investigating, in configurations and sizes that cover almost any situation. Among the weapons from Loftness/US Attachments is the Timber Ax. Designed for skid-steer loaders with high-flow hydraulics, it will cut and mulch brush or trees up to 6 inches in diameter, in one pass. This tool uses reverse rotation, with the knives rotating upwards so that the material is lifted off the ground for a better cutting action. Shinn Cutter makes attachments that can cut down complete trees. They work from excavators and have been popular for clearing lots for grading contractors. The same company makes stump grinders. You could use both types of attachments on one site, to clear a right of way and then remove the stumps. Changing the attachments takes about 45 minutes. Mounted on a crawler dozer, the IronWolf Slasher “SST” can clear, mulch, and process standing trees, stumps, brush, and rock. Mulching as it goes, it blends the material back into the soil, creating a stable base and eliminating the need for burning.

Photo: Toro

Specialty attachments are likely available for machines you already have.

Even those little machines, such as the Toro Dingo utility loader, take attachments, 35 of them for that particular range. Toro has high-torque and high-speed trenchers, too, for compact utility loaders. For the most compact XT850 excavator/tool carrier from Ditch Witch there are more than 70 attachments, including ones that specialize in tasks from cleanup to breaking hard materials. Check out what’s available with Compact Power’s Boxer Brute TRX mini skid-steers. A month ago I was most impressed by a trencher attachment to a Bobcat mini track loader; I just stood on the platform and off (down and along, to tell the truth) we went. Driving a utility vehicle from the same manufacturer, with five attachment options all controlled from the operator’s area with a joystick, showed what versatility the future could bring our industry. CEAttachments offers dozens of special attachments for skid-steers, including blades, augers, brooms, and grapples. One specialty attachment that stopped us in our tracks was a grapple made by Northshore Manufacturing and called a Builtrite. It was on the front of a Cat skid-steer loader, and the large rock it was grappling was being used for a garden wall. The grapple held the rock steadily, and the skid-steer remained stable and its usual nippy self.

There are at least 25 models of telehandler available around the popular 6,000-pound category, and they all take attachments for particular tasks. They can take buckets for loading, but please remember that a telehandler is not a loader and should not be subjected to that digging, even if it can accept a bucket. The geometry of a telehandler is not usually right for digging. Models from such makers as Terex, Manitou, Pettibone, Ingersoll-Rand, Mustang, and JLG offer a variety of attachments for picking up, lifting, and positioning materials at building sites. Ask about remote control, too. JCB’s Loadall machines (able to lift 4,000 pounds to 13 feet) are compact enough to access places previously open only to skid-steer loaders. We’ve read recently that telehandlers may be the skid-steer loaders of tomorrow, meaning that they will be the next ultra-popular machines. Naturally, there already are many attachments for them that increase their capabilities beyond the pick-up-and-lift level.

If this article seems to have become a list of potential suppliers for your specialty attachment need, that’s hopefully what you need before you undertake projects that, to you, are currently specialty but could become a definite, regular profit center. Most specialty attachments suitable for your jobs are likely to be attachable to the equipment you already have. Here are some questions to ask yourself if you plan to expand your business or grow your profits through the use of specialty attachments. What equipment do I have? What attachments can I acquire at a reasonable cost that would expand the capability of my machines to generate 10% more business … 20% … 30%? You and your operators probably have the necessary skills to run new, specialty attachments. You are all set to go!

Paul Hull writes on construction topics for several international magazines.

GEC - November/December 2006

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