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I could get hooked on Heavy Equipment Forums

Something about stopping in on Heavy Equipment Forums makes me feel like a skinny kid surrounded by Real Men Who Do Real Work, but then I’m reminded that most new machinery has joysticks and power steering and the whole idea of machines is to avoid manual labor.

One issue that has some equipment people up in arms is the new California emissions controls, which won’t be such a big deal for very large operators who go through a lot of machinery and constantly have to upgrade. Medium to small contractors with only a few tractors will have to make the same engine upgrades as the big guys, which could put them out of business, as this post notes:

Now we have a situation where ALL machines that get used over 100 hours per year need to be replaced of retrofitted. The large companies that replace their machines regularly already do this, so it is of minimal concern to them. The mid size contractor who typically buys a used machine is now bearing the brunt of this cost, as now he needs a new machine whether he has work for it for 5,000 hrs per year, od 200 hrs per year.

The very small user, the property owner or owner operator with one machine is not affected as much, as there are exemptions for them. Although the opportunities for the owner operator will get limited as more jobs require tier 3 or newer machines or you can’t work there.
The average sitework contractor is bearing the brunt of this reegulation, because most of them do not do a volume of work to justify the payments on brand new iron, and if they do, they likely fall in the larger first catagory.

For a contractor doing small to mid sized jobs, the only way he can get the work is by using older, less expensive iron, as the jobs are not of a long enough duration to pay off a new piece, and if it does not work for just a short while, it will choke you with the payments.

The real kicker here is that when all the studies were done, they found that just the federal rules on the manufacturers would get the emissions to the same place by normal fleet retirement only a few years later than this massive retrofit and replacement they have enacted. I think it was 3 or 4 years to get to THE SAME PLACE!!

Now we have been forced down a road that will break the backs of many small to mid sized companies, as they will not be able to finance the amount of new equipment and retrofits that the law says we need just to operate.

Rest of the thread’s here.

And this one is fun: newbie asks which tractor he needs to build a fishing pond on his farm.

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Tom Mangan posted at 11:18 pm February 5th, 2009 |

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