Forty Years of Tracks & Treads - Finning Canada

SPECIAL REPORT: Finning's Tech Products
Get into the Mind of a Heavy Equipment Operator
SPRING 2007
www.finning.ca
Forty Years of Tracks & Treads
Non-deliverable mail should be directed to: 10259 105 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 1E3
Canadian Publications Mail Product Sales Agreement #40020055

Relax, it’s Covered.

14
18
Departments
4 The Finning Focus
Happy 40th anniversary to us
6 Safer in Whitehorse; Beetle
devastation; Cat on a seawall;
Dozer in repose; Cat in China;
Joysticks in Cat cabs; Action
on global warming
12 Yesterday/Today
Cat’s going small again,
50 years after compact D2s
were discontinued
13 Yellow Iron
New products and services
from Finning
22 Safety First
“Please leave a message,”
Finning’s new wireless policy
34 Meeting the Challenge
Cat 637G scrapers at work in
a B.C. mine
36 Field Test
Cat’s largest zero tail swing
excavator hits the logging
roads
41 Bill’s Business
Bill branches into landscaping.
But where will he find the
equipment
CONTENTS SPRING 2007
Features
14 Meet the Operators
Find out what it's like to get
into the head of a Cat heavy
equipment operator
18 The Rental Route
A B.C. contractor is staying cashpositive
and busy with his Cat
rental and lease fleet
30 Strike a Chord
An Alberta Company grows
(and grows) with the oil patch
38 More Powertrain to You
With equipment rebuilds, “as
good as new” can be even better
7
Special Report
23 Finning's Tech Products
24 Take A Look At Tech
Check out some of Finning’s
technologically advanced tools designed
to improve productivity
27 Inspector Gadget
Meet some of the operators who’ve
chosen to equip their yellow iron with
the latest high-tech tools
On the Cover
It's true, Tracks & Treads has
reached middle age
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads

The Finning Focus
Light the candles, raise your buckets
and blades. Tracks & Treads turns 40!
b y J E F F H O W A R D
jeff howard,
publications manager,
finning (canada)
It was back in March of 1967 when stories
about enterprising equipment owners, mammoth
projects, durable Cat iron and Finning’s unswerving
commitment to service started reaching a relatively
small list of Finning customers. Those were
the days when the Leafs, led by rugged defenceman
Tim Horton, were winning the Stanley Cup. Back
then 10,000 San Fransicans were marching against
the Vietnam War and a hunk of burnin’ love named
Elvis was marrying his sweetheart Priscilla.
Meanwhile, at Finning’s head offices, “girl
Fridays,” attired in dresses and skirts because pantsuits
weren’t dress code approved until 1968, were
busy stuffing and stamping to get that first issue of
Tracks & Treads out on time.
The internal announcement of the new magazine
stated: “Our company has just come out with
its first edition of Tracks & Treads, a publication produced
by our sales development staff for the benefit
of customers and ‘influencers.’ The magazine will
contain articles covering the full range of industries
served.” Since that time, T&T has faithfully
recorded the progress of industrial enterprise, serving
as an unofficial guide to the history of western
Canadian development.
That first 16-page issue featured stories on dual
D9Gs working the Yellowhead Pass, a focus on preventive
maintenance and an item on the Malibu
Princess. Interestingly, there was also a story on a
way to “ease the critical labour shortage.”
When the magazine was hatched in smoky
Vancouver sales offices, the mood was upbeat.
Minister of Highways Phil Gaglardi had flown in
to speak at a company sales meeting. The colourful
former Pentecostal minister preached a gospel of
growth: “There is unlimited avenue for exploration
and opportunity in British Columbia.” Seems we’re
back to those heady days again in B.C.
It was also in 1967 when Caterpillar introduced
the stylized, three-part “C” as its corporate
symbol and moved in to new world-headquarter
buildings in downtown Peoria. The compnay
had also just resumed selling equipment to the
U.S.S.R. after a three-decade hiatus. About that
time, actor John Wayne sat behind the controls
of a D7 in the film Hellfighters.
Circulation for Tracks & Treads has grown dramatically
since that time – our glossy, full-colour
quarterly magazine is now mailed to nearly
30,000 readers. If a story about your exploits is
featured in these pages, they’re reading about
you in Brisbane, Australia and Barranquilla,
Columbia. You’ll also be duly noted in Carrot,
Saskatchewan and up in Cambridge Bay,
Nunavut, not to mention Haines Junction,
Yukon and Hollola, Finland.
It’s our mission at Tracks & Treads to keep you,
wherever you are, in touch with relevant business,
technology, product and service information
in a lively and engaging manner. And it’s
thanks to you and our sales force that the magazine
continues to prosper. Your ideas, suggestions
and input keep us treading the right track,
so to speak.
To mark this 40th year of publication, I’d
like to hear from you – what are your ideas for
Tracks & Treads What do you like, or don’t you
like, about the magazine Where would you like
us to focus in the next 40 years What are your
memorable equipment-related stories Now that
our magazine is somewhat of an established
entity, perhaps it’s time you addressed the rest
of the Tracks & Treads community. Just drop me
an e-mail: jhoward@finning.ca – or mail your
item to me at the address listed on the cover of
the magazine. We’ll feature your comments in
future 40th anniversary editions and beyond.
And thanks again for coming to the party!
tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

SPRING 2007 Volume 47, No. 1
Publisher
Ruth Kelly
rkelly@venturepublishing.ca
Forty Years Ago...
associate Publisher
Joyce Byrne
jbyrne@venturepublishing.ca
Executive Editor
Jeff Howard
jhoward@finning.ca
Editor
Mifi Purvis
mpurvis@venturepublishing.ca
ASSOCIATE Editor
Noemi Lopinto
nlopinto@venturepublishing.ca
EditorIAL INTERN
Lindsey Norris
lnorris@venturepublishing.ca
art director
Charles Burke
cburke@venturepublishing.ca
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Catherine Lizotte
Production
Gunnar Blodgett
circulation coordinator
Andrea Cruickshank
Advertising representative
Anita McGillis
amcgillis@venturepublishing.ca
Contributing Writers
Lynn Coady, Robin Brunet, Jim Stirling,
Katherine Fawcett, David DiCenzo,
Rick Overwater, Keith Haddock,
Tony Kryzanowski
Contributing PHOTOGRAPHERS
and illustrators
Sylvie Bourbonnière, Keith Haddock,
Lisa Rebnord, Thea Stratton,
James Vassallo, Chip Zdarsky
Tracks & Treads is published to provide its readers
with relevant business, technology,
product and service information in a lively
and engaging manner.
Tracks & Treads is published for
Finning (Canada) by
Venture Publishing Inc.
10259-105 Street
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1E3
Phone: 780-990-0839
Fax: 780-425-4921
Contents © 2007 by Finning (Canada)
No part of this publication should be
reproduced without written permission.
Tell us what you think
Tracks & Treads would love to hear from you. Tell us what you think of the
magazine, its stories, its columns, its look. Tell us how we can improve the
magazine and make it a more interesting read.
Send your comments to executive editor Jeff Howard by e-mail at jhoward@finning.ca
or the old-fashioned way to: Jeff Howard, Tracks & Treads, Finning (Canada),
16830 - 107 Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, T5P 4C3
www.finning.ca
www.finning.ca
Spring 2007 • tracks & treads

groundbreaker
News &
Reviews
groundbreaker
M-Series Gets Joysticks
Anyone who knows their Cat history knows
that motor graders have long been an important
piece of equipment for Caterpillar Inc.
These machines have been manufactured for
more than 80 years and are renowned for
being one of the most complex pieces of iron
to operate, thanks to the dozen-plus levers accompanying
the steering wheel.
Operators across the continent have the
sore hands to prove it.
While their purpose remains crucial for
many businesses, the actual running of the
graders just got a whole lot easier with the
launch of Cat’s new M-Series graders, which
will replace the H-Series. Featuring seven new
models – the 120M, 140M, 160M, 12M, 14M,
16M and 24M – the latest line of machines
employs the use of a handy joystick-operated,
electro-hydraulic control system that will flip
the user’s world upside down. For the better,
that is.
“This is a revolutionary machine,” says
Edmonton-based Finning Industry Marketing
Manager Jim Serink.
Serink says that the new joystick system
will translate to a 78% drop in hand movements
for operators, making what was a really
complex and tiring job that much simpler. But
less stress on the mitts of employees is only
one of the many benefits of Cat’s new M-Series.
The removal of the multiple levers opens up
the cab of the grader, significantly improving
the lines of sight.
“The new series greatly improves visibility,”
Serink says of the M-Series models.
In addition to lowering the impact on the
operator, the new design utilizes hydraulic
brakes rather than air; has better torque than
the H-Series (42% more); includes a power
management system that delivers horsepower
in increments of five HP as transmission gear
selection increases; has new C-Series ACERT
Technology engines and drive train features.
Improving on downtime, Cat’s redesign allows
for faster and more convenient DCM adjustments,
resulting in shorter service times.
Serink points out that the innovative graders
will have a big impact on the entire work
force. “People can learn their craft much more
easily on these new machines,” he says.
Cat may have three-quarters of a century
of motor grader manufacturing under its belt,
but this latest M-Series, slated to make its
debut in April, promises to have the most significant
impact for the future. As Serink says,
“It’s a quantum leap forward.”
By David DiCenzo
tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

groundbreaker
Cat in China
China has always been synonymous with
innovation. After all, we’re talking about
one of the oldest civilizations on the planet
– and there’s no substitute for experience. The
Chinese own the longest continuously used
written language in the world, and invented a
few useful things, such as pasta, the compass,
gunpowder and paper.
They also happen to have one of the fastest
growing economies in the world. So it’s understandable
that Caterpillar Inc. is looking closer
at the Far East. Last November, Caterpillar
announced it was moving its Asia Pacific
Operations Headquarters from Tokyo to offices
in Beijing, a major hub of transportation
that is gearing up to host the 2008 Summer
Olympics.
“Caterpillar is growing in China, and moving
our Asia Pacific Operations headquarters,
a key element of our business model, to Beijing
will provide a sharper focus for operational
excellence for Team Caterpillar,” Caterpillar
Vice President Rich Lavin recently said. “Operational
and sales success in China is a critical
success factor for the company’s long-term
growth and profitability. This move will help
us achieve those goals while contributing to
the growth, development and ever-improving
quality of life in China.”
Caterpillar certainly has a history in China.
It first sold products there in 1975. The Beijing
office opened three years later and by the
1980s, Cat launched technology transfer agreements
with Chinese manufacturers, who began
building Caterpillar licensed products.
There are currently 13 Cat-operated facilities
in that country.
China was included in a list of seven critical
success factors outlined in the company’s strategy
plan to deliver Caterpillar’s Vision 2020.
With an increasing list of customers contributing
to the development and modernization of
the nation’s infrastructure and economy, the
switch was a sensible and timely decision.
“ The movement of our Asia Pacif ic
Operations headquarters is a clear indication
of China’s strategic importance to Caterpillar,”
said Stu Levenick, Caterpillar group president
with responsibility for Asia. He cites Cat management’s
strong desire to expand the company’s
manufacturing base and deploy its global
business model. By moving to Beijing, Cat can
provide enhanced support for customers in
that market, as well as the Asia Pacific theatre.
“Caterpillar is
growing in
China, and
moving our
Asia Pacific
Operations
headquarters
to Beijing
will provide a
sharper focus
for operational
excellence
for Team
Caterpillar.”
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads

groundbreaker
Safer in Whitehorse
For the 17 employees of Finning’s Whitehorse branch, an
emphasis on safety isn’t a choice – it’s an absolute. In a land
where the temperature can easily plummet to the -50˚C
range, you either take care of business or pay a hefty price.
With so much at stake for this dedicated Finning crew,
a team safety effort is required. The Whitehorse team got
the ultimate nod from Finning last November when they
received the 2005 President’s Award for being the safest
branch in Canada.
“It’s a pride thing,” says Derek Loyst, the Health and
Safety Advisor for the remote outfit and an employee at
Finning for 31 years. “It’s all about awareness and educating
each other. We’re most interested in doing this for personal
reasons.”
The branch has been “work safe” (no days missed for a
safety reason) for an incredible nine years running. That’s a
departure for some businesses in the area, which has a typically
high number of worker claims. Loyst has been working
closely with both the Worker’s Compensation Board
and the Yukon Construction Safety Association to get those
numbers down.
Loyst says the whole team has bought into the idea of
safety, and the results are obvious. The branch is one of
just 10 local businesses that have received a Certificate of
Recognition from the two associations for their spotless
safety record.
Some of the branch’s unique northern policies include:
the use of a big plastic emergency container complete
with flashlights, food, batteries, matches and lighters for
all trucks out in the field; satellite phones in the vehicles
(there is no cell phone reception) and a Global Star portable
satellite phone; a buddy system for employees; and a
tracking system with a branch account for keeping tabs
on employee comings and goings. The tracking system also
involves customer input, so they can help locate an errant
worker if something has gone wrong.
“The customers have bought into this, too,” says Branch
Qué pasa
The Mexican state of Chihuahua sees the benefits
of yellow iron. It has initiated a public works
initiative by replacing old machines with an all-
Caterpillar fleet.
The state managers knew it was time to improve
roads and communication and modernize waste man-
Operations Manager Wade Harrison. “It’s really nice, not
only when we’re looking after our guys but the customer
as well.”
Loyst says you just can’t take chances in such a harsh
environment. That means everyone strictly adheres to the
safety precautions.
“Many people don’t realize that you can freeze to death
in a matter of minutes out here,” he explains. “It’s too remote.
A lot can go wrong in an hour.”
Some of the employees at the branch took a while to
come around and see the value of the emphasis on safety
but that’s not a problem now, says Loyst. The branch has
a safety meeting every morning at 9:45 a.m., and an open
forum is held every Thursday to explain any new safety
protocols to the team.
“There’s constant dialogue,” says Loyst. “I’ve learned
that in keeping close ties with my employees, I always
know what’s going on.”
The President’s Award has a place of honour in the front
office of the branch. Finning President Ian Reid personally
made the trek up to Whitehorse for an official presentation
of the plaque, and to take the group out for dinner.
“As far away as we are, we have huge challenges compared
to down south,” Harrison adds. “To merit an award
like this, you truly have to have a complete effort by
everybody. If you don’t, it just won’t work.”
agement, but knew its old machines simply weren’t up to
the task.
Chihuahua, ironically, is big, covering more than 12%
of Mexico and it varies widely in climate and terrain. State
managers looked over criteria, product support needs, and
terms of payment and decided to go all-Cat. They haven’t
looked back. Today, the average Cat in Chihuahua operates
185 hours per month with much more uptime. And those
Mexican roads are getting a little smoother.
tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

groundbreaker
Pine Beetle Update
Brian Mulvihill has a lengthy history in the forest industry,
but Finning’s Industry Marketing Manager for Forest Products
has never seen anything like the devastation
caused by the pine beetle infestations
that have gutted B.C.’s central interior.
“The magnitude of this is unfathomable,”
says Mulvihill. “You can drive
for hours in the forest and not see a
live mountain lodgepole pine.”
Like anyone who’s seen the devastation,
Mulvihill sounds nearly
incredulous. “It’s beyond the point of
control. Now we’re just trying to recover
as much fibre as possible.”
According to the Ministry of Forests and Range,
a projected 80% of the province’s merchantable pine in the
southern and central interior could be killed off by the year
2013. Numerous factors have contributed to the problem,
the origins of which date back to 1993.
“It’s been a perfect storm of events,” Mulvihill says of the
contributing causes to this natural phenomenon. The mountain
pine beetle prefers mature timber and the province is
believed to have three times more mature lodgepole than
it did 90 years ago. Combine that fact with recent hot, dry
summers that have stressed the trees and left them more susceptible
to attack, and a lack of deep cold in the winters that
normally kills the beetles. Now the problem has reached
epic proportions.
Finning has been involved in dealing with the aftermath,
supplying harvesting equipment, material handling
equipment and truck engines as B.C. companies do their
best to clean up the mess. The two most common machines
they supply are skidders and delimber Processors.
“We’re working with the contractors who do the harvesting
and the major saw mills,” says Mulvihill. “We’ve
had to ramp up the supply of equipment and bring in
more inventory.
“We’ve also had to modify some of the equipment,
like adding wider tires to skidders to assist in
the fundamental practice of getting in there to extract
the dead trees.”
Mulvihill says the wide tires on the skidders are for
floatation in wet ground. Because dead trees do not hold
water, liquid builds up in the soil, increasing the water
tables in the forest.
The floatation tires keep the machines from
disturbing the wet soil, reducing soil degradation,
compaction and rutting.
Mulvihill says there is no joy in the sales of
wood, given that the beetles have affected the
livelihood of so many.
Last September, the B.C. government released the
Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan, a document that
provides a detailed framework for provincial ministries
to mitigate the effects of the infestation over the next five
years, to ensure long-term sustainability.
“The big question that no one can answer,” Mulvihill
says, “is what will things look like 10 years from now”
Dozer in Repose: Clint Barber, leadhand at the Ekati Diamond
Mine in the Northwest Territories, snapped this sweet
shot of D10R against a beautiful northern sky. Ekati is about
340 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife and accessible by
winter road for only about 70 days per year. Crews fly in and
out on mostly two-week rotations.
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads

groundbreaker
Lordy, Lordy
It’s true – we’re 40. The first issue of Tracks
& Treads was published by Finning Canada in
the spring of 1967. Reading it now, it looks
almost current. Stories deal with coping with
downtime, the labour shortage and Cat special
training for operators. While there’s no
mention of GPS devices, satellite tracking or
computerized in-cab joysticks in the premier
issue, it’s nice to know that some things don’t
change. And Cat reliability and commitment
to quality and customer service are included.
Drop us a line to wish us a happy anniversary
or to share your Cat recollections: jhoward@
finning.ca.
Too Hot
To Handle
In a bold move, Caterpillar joined forces with a group of businesses
and environmental organizations to call on U.S. policy
gurus to establish a mandatory emissions reduction program to
address climate change. Cat counts among its partners in the adhoc
group such forces as Alcoa, Duke Energy, DuPont, General
Electric, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Center
on Global Climate Change and World Resources Institute. The
group, known as the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, outlined
its guiding principles and recommendations.
“Caterpillar believes in the need for a market-based approach
to the aggressive development of current and future clean technologies
that reduce emissions and sustain the environment,”
Cat chairman and CEO Jim Owens says. “As a global manufacturer,
we’re committed to finding policy solutions that meet the
needs of our customers.”
Owens says that reducing greenhouse gas emissions should
provide more economic opportunities than risks for industry
and the economy. “The goals of reduced emissions and economic
growth are not mutually exclusive,” he says.
Cat on the
World’s Longest
Earthen Seawall
Expand your knowledge of world trivia and
learn this: At 33 kilometres, the Saemangeum
seawall in South Korea is the longest earthen
seawall in the world. Now expand your Cat
trivia: 34 Cat machines helped complete it.
Started in the 1990s, the project converted
tidal flats along the west coast of the country
into new agricultural land and a freshwater reservoir
for local economy and local residents.
To finish the job, contractors used several
machines, including 735 and 769D off highway
trucks and 330 CL and 345 CL hydraulic
excavators. Subcontractors own many of the
machines and 19 units were short-term rentals
provided by Ruecon Industry Company Ltd.,
the Cat Rental Store owned by Cat dealer Hae
In Corporation.
10 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

groundbreaker
By the Numbers
Number of types of
kissing described by
William Cane,
in his book
“Kiss Like a Star”:
60
Number of Hershey’s kisses
made each day:
80,000,000
Estimated annual non-residential
construction spending in B.C. for 2005:
$11,400,000,000
Forecast for 2008:
$17,300,000,000
Percentage of British Columbians who
say that managing growth should be a
priority for the government:
Cost of 30-second
2007 Super Bowl
ad spot:
$2,600,000
60
Average cost to produce such an ad:
$1,000,000
Amount of Google stock YouTube
receptionist Shannon Hermes,
who joined the company in mid-
2005, received in the Google
takeover of YouTube :
$1,300,000
Cost to produce Doritos “make
your own” Super Bowl ad by
22-year-old winner Weston
Phillips:
$12.79
Number of YouTube
views of a clip of a
balding man dancing:
39,000,000
Number of times cedric73’s
66-second YouTube posting of
a Cat 345B at work had been
viewed as of 11 p.m.
on February 9:
10,981
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 11

Yesterday/Today
By keith haddock
HALF A CENTURY AGO, CATERPILLAR DISCONTINUED ITS SMALLEST
CRAWLER TRACTOR, THE D2. NOW THE INDUSTRY HAS TURNED FULL
CIRCLE WITH “COMPACT EQUIPMENT,” COMPRISING A MAJOR PORTION
OF CATERPILLAR’S SALES ONCE AGAIN
Old is New
Again
Caterpillar’s agricultural roots go deep.
The two companies that joined forces to
form the Caterpillar Tractor Company
in 1925 had been building combine
harvesters and other farm equipment
since the late 1800s. When Holt Manufacturing
Company and C.L. Best Tractor
Company merged in 1925, combine harvesters
and crawler tractors were the new
company’s only products. Agriculture
was by far the company’s largest market
and the construction equipment industry
was still at its embryo stage. But in a
few short years, all this would change,
bringing earthmoving equipment to the
forefront of the company’s activities.
Caterpillar launched its first diesel
tractor in 1931. By the end of that decade
diesel power had almost eclipsed gasoline
in crawler tractors, and Caterpillar’s
famous D-series tractor models, in sizes
from the D2 to the D8, were firmly established.
The few remaining gasoline models
were discontinued during the Second
World War. Caterpillar introduced its
smallest diesel tractor, the D2, in 1938.
Offered in two versions, the 3J (40-
inch track gauge) and 5J (50-inch track
gauge), the D2 was designed as a small,
economical tractor, intended to continue
in the tradition of the company’s former
small gasoline tractors such as the twoton,
Fifteen and Twenty models. It certainly
lived up to that tradition. It turned
out to be a reliable machine with low
operation costs. Though the company
targetted the agricultural market, the D2
followed in the footsteps of the larger D4
introduced a year earlier, and found its
way into a wide variety of applications
ranging from small landscape contracting
to surface coal mining.
CATERPILLAR D2, 5J series from early 1940s
The 3J and 5J weighed 6,610 pounds
without attachments and carried the
Caterpillar D3400, four-cylinder, 3 3/4
x 5-inch bore and stroke diesel engine
rated at 25.5 drawbar-horsepower and
31.5 belt-horsepower.
The D2 3J/5J series continued through
the Second World War up to 1947, by
which time 19,161 units had been sold.
In 1947, the D2 3J became the 4U, and
the 5J became the 5U. Both tractors
retained their respective gauges of 40
inches and 50 inches. The radiator housing
was altered from the previous design,
but the big change was a brand-new diesel
engine under the hood. This was the
Caterpillar D311, four-cylinder, 4x5-inch
bore and stroke diesel, giving the D2 up
to 32 drawbar-horsepower and 38 belthorsepower.
As with other long-running
models, Caterpillar incorporated product
improvements from time to time,
and the D2 was no exception. Power was
increased to 35 drawbar-horsepower
in 1952 and then to 38 drawbar-horsepower
1954. An oil clutch was added in
1955.
After selling over 26,454 units of the
4U/5U series, Caterpillar discontinued
the D2 in 1957. This was at a time when
bigger was better. The company was
preparing itself for a multitude of massive
earthmoving projects, such as the
Interstate Highway System and many
hydro dams. Caterpillar’s focus temporarily
shifted from agriculture, only to
return to its roots in the mid-1980s with
its line of rubber-tracked Challenger
agricultural tractors. Finally, in 1997,
the company reintroduced the line of
combine harvesters from Claas in 1997.
Caterpillar has indeed come full circle.
Now its line of compact machines, this
time much smaller than the D2, represents
a growing segment of the equipment
market.
2
photograph courtesy of keith haddock
12 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

yellowiron
New Products and Ser vices from Finning
Caterpillar machines are built to be rebuilt
The extensive Caterpillar Certified Rebuild program
incorporates the very latest Cat technology and critical
engineering updates into your machine at a fraction of the
cost of buying new. After a thorough evaluation, including
more than 350 tests and inspections and the automatic
replacement of approximately 7,000 parts, you get a likenew
machine and warranty.
Edmonton oil lab on the move
Finning’s Edmonton oil lab will move to a new improved
facility in mid-March. The substantially expanded lab will
provide improved service to customers through the installation
of additional state-of-the-art fluid analysis instrumentation.
To tour the new facility, call (780) 443-7240 and set
up an appointment. Please note the new address: Finning
Fluids Analysis Lab, 15810-114th Avenue, Edmonton, AB
T5M 2Z4. For additional information: www.finning.ca.
For all your insurance needs
For contractors and equipment operators, Finning offers
a multiple-line insurance program for fleet auto liability;
commercial general liability; equipment, buildings and
contents; bonding and many other miscellaneous forms
of insurance. Flexibility, insurance expertise and an understanding
of the heavy equipment industry enables us to
customize insurance packages for any size of business.
Call Finning Insurance Services today at 1-888-FINNING.
The WAVS of the future
The new, versatile Caterpillar Work Area Vision System
(WAVS) provides machine operators with views from as
many as three cameras. While not intended to be used in
place of direct views or installed mirrors, WAVS is a great
asset for operators at any level. Developed specifically for
rugged applications and environments, WAVS is simple to
install on any machine and is easy to use, offering powerful
capabilities and features to improve productivity.
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 13

14 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca
illustrations BY lisa rebnord

Meet the
Operators
B y L y n n C o a d y
They operate machines big
and small safely and nobody
gets hurt – except for the
occasional egg
I
n the yard of the Finning Caterpillar dealership
in Edmonton, surrounded by machines that
seem to me like towering, rumbling leviathans,
Niles Wheeler is trying to convince me how
small and insignificant these particular Cats are.
A mammoth dozer goes thundering past and my instinct is to
duck out of sight like a small Jurassic mammal who’s suddenly
found itself trapped in a dinosaur’s party pit.
“There goes a little D6R,” remarks Wheeler, in a voice like
he’s ready to reach out and give the thing a pat. This particular
cutie has 200 horse power and weighs 40,400 pounds.
But size is relative in the mind of an experienced heavy
equipment operator like the aptly-named Niles Wheeler. He
now works for Finning as an Application Specialist and is a
Cat Certified Instructor. Wheeler ran a dozer in a mine for
10 years before moving into forestry and becoming equally
proficient at practically everything else – skidders, processors,
excavators, wheel loaders. Most of the machines in this
yard, he informs me, are for smaller jobs. Were we to head
up to the coal mine at Tumbler Ridge where his friend Terry
Mockford works, however, that’s where I’d see some “really
big machines.”
We move to admire an articulated truck, the wheels of
which are approximately as tall as me. “This 740,” says Wheeler,
“that’ll take about 40 tons. Weighs 72,400 pounds.”
Seems big to me. Wheeler shrugs. “Trucks up at the mine
weigh more like 200,000.”
OK, so I try to stop being so impressed by sheer size, and
instead ask about the no-doubt mind-bending complexity
involved in operating these massive machines. Wheeler
favours me with yet another shrug, remarking, “A lot of this
work you could do blindfolded.” I begin to wonder if I’m
being teased.
I’ve come into this imagining steel-jawed operators, their
brows furrowed in concentration as they maneuver an excavator
blade ever so delicately around pipes filled with combustible
gas and the like. I assumed the operation would be
more or less comparable – in terms of stress anyway – to the
process of disarming a bomb in a movie. You know: Bruce
Willis fumbles with the casing before being confronted with
a mish-mash of death-making circuitry. Whatever you do, don’t
touch the red wire! Someone shrieks over Bruce’s radio, just as
his big, clumsy fingers connect. This, approximately, was my
view of heavy equipment operation. I mean, these machines
are huge. They ferry around enormous logs, unfathomable
tonnages of dirt and ore. Just as Bruce has to maneuver his
fingers with as much delicacy as he can muster, so, I imagined,
must a heavy equipment operator exist in an almost Zen-like
state of superhuman concentration to keep the bucket of his
M313C Wheel excavator from swinging into the nearest shift
supervisor.
Wheeler disabuses me of this. It’s not that safety isn’t paramount
when it comes to heavy equipment operation, and it’s
not that the machines don’t require a delicate touch, but these
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 15

are, says Wheeler ‘finesse machines’. An
850 horsepower 230,100 lb D11R tractor
is a ‘finesse machine’
“It becomes second nature after a
while, running your machine,” Wheeler
insists. “You develop a feel for it. A
rhythm.” When I ask what machine is the
most complicated to operate, Wheeler
immediately interprets the question in
terms of application, not operation. There
is, I will learn, good reason for this.
“For me, it’s the dozer,” he replies.
“I like it because there’s so much to do.
When it comes to running the equipment,
I’m a perfectionist. I like the dump
to be smooth. I don’t like running the
machine and having it bouncing over
rocks and boulders. And in a dozer,
you’re doing that a lot,” he laughs.
There is an art to operating dozers,
Wheeler explains, to ‘smoothing out
the dump.’ Or it might be more precise
to call it a science. Whatever the case,
Wheeler has spent years perfecting it,
and admits to being a bit too obsessive
at times. “I want my push to be a finished
push, and so I try too hard.”
Wheeler begins to explain to me the
geometry of slot dozing. The dirt has to
be moved in a precisely calculated way
Oh great – it’s
mathematical. I’m
even more daunted
by the process than
previously.
so that, as he mentioned before, the
operator isn’t backing up over rocks and
boulders and the big windrow of dirt
that ends up in the middle of the yard
once you’ve made a pass on either side.
Oh great – it’s mathematical. I’m
even more daunted by the process than
previously. Enormous machines are one
thing, but math
Wheeler nods. “It’s all about application,”
he stresses. “The machines themselves
aren’t complicated, but there’s a
huge amount of technique and knowledge
around how to move dirt that comes
with the job.”
“Same with the loader,” continues
Wheeler. “You work a face a certain way,
and if the material gets higher than the
loader, it comes down. So you work from
left to right, which leaves an opening for
the truck to come in. You’ve got a profile
going where you’ve always got a straight
face. And the face is that mountain of
material in front of you. You always have
to look at angle position. If it’s going
straight up and down, it can sluff at any
time. If you taper it in on the top, then at
least it’s going to slow itself down before
it falls.”
So it’s dangerous work if you don’t do
it right.
“Yes, it’s very dangerous if you don’t
do it right,” Wheeler says. “I’ve seen
these trucks,” he gestures at another
‘small’ truck, a 777F with 938 horsepower
and a 100-ton capacity, “I’ve seen
these on their sides so many times it is
not even funny.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. But if
I was hoping an old hand like Wheeler
would favour me with some harrowing
tales of hair’s-breadth near-misses, I’m
in for a disappointment. Wheeler is a
safety nut, and that’s how he trains his
operators. “It’s like defensive driving,
you’re always thinking ahead.”
The only remotely hairy happenings
Wheeler has experienced personally
involve going into skids, from which he’s
always managed to expertly maneuver
himself before the dozer ends up somewhere
inconvenient. That, and hitting a
pair of elk with his pickup truck while
on his way to a site.
In fact, the overriding safety concern
of heavy equipment operation, I’m told
by both Wheeler and his friend Terry
Mockford, is the battle againt boredom.
Wheeler says this is why there’s no
excuse for incidents as far as he’s con-
16 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

cerned. Once running your machine
becomes second nature, there’s nothing
to do but concentrate on doing the
job right and with caution. But even
then, a 12-hour shift of loading and
dumping can lead to tedium. Periods of
engagement are punctuated by periods
of monotony. The skilled operator has
to learn how to deal with both. Many
operators have recently, and gratefully,
discovered the joys of satellite radio.
“It’s really saved a lot of people in the
mining industry,” Wheeler tells me.
In Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where there
is no local radio station, dozer operator
Terry Mockford agrees. “It can get
repetitive,” he says. “Dozing the truck
dump, moving rocks off the road, digging
out coal. When I first started operating
the machines, only one or two
people had satellite radio. Now most
guys bring it, especially on the overnight
shifts.”
Whatever you do,
don’t touch the red wire!
Someone shrieks
over Bruce’s radio,
just as his big, clumsy
fingers connect. This,
approximately, was
my view of heavy
equipment operation.
Wheeler is a country music fan, whereas
Mockford likes to listen to something
called ‘Raw Dog,’ the uncut comedy
channel. “It’s quite amusing,” he tells
me with an air of understatement. “The
younger guys like to listen to hard rock
and that sort of thing.”
To hear Mockford tell it, night shifts
can get interesting. Despite the monotony,
the lack of ‘white hard hats’ makes for
a more relaxing environment. “We crack
jokes to each other on the two-way radio
and have little codes to let each other
know what channel they should tune
into on their Sirius,” he says. “The shifters
allow it, because nobody likes to the
work night shift.” Besides, even with the
more casual atmosphere of night shift,
there’s still no compromise to safety.
Mockford was an excavator operator
before moving to Tumbler Ridge in September
and taking over a Cat D10 dozer.
Like Wheeler, he prefers running dozers.
But running the dozer keeps Mockford
busy without a lot of stress. In heavy
equipment operation, this is the happiest
of mediums. You’re neither too bored,
nor under too much pressure. “All I have
to do as a dozer guy is move the dump
over,” he affirms. “Sometimes it can be
boring if you’re waiting around for
trucks, but I’ll just smooth the dump
over and make it nice for them while I’m
waiting.”
Near the end of my tour of the
Finning yard, Niles Wheeler lets me in on
another little-known way heavy equipment
operators show off their skills.
“I put on shows out here sometimes,
with the backhoes.”
Pardon me Shows
He nods. “There’re guys who run
these things on a daily basis who can
pick up a penny off the floor.”
Not literally – he must be kidding.
“Seriously,” says Wheeler. “I can’t do
it myself. I can go out there and pick up
that piece of wood or something with
the bucket, but there’s guys who can pick
up a penny, or an egg off a pylon without
breaking it. So we put on shows for people,
picking up loops, laying them over
pylons, picking up eggs.” Sometimes,
Wheeler tells me, they’ll even let one of
the spectators, a non-operator, have a
turn behind the controls. The results
Wheeler smiles. “Not many eggs
make it.”
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 17

COMPANY PROFILE: Storey’s Excavating
x
James Storey of Storey’s Excavating
photography by JAMES VASSALLO
18 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

A Prince Rupert
contractor stays flexible
with a rented and leased
fleet of Cats
The Rental
Route
B y j i m S t i r l i n g
James Storey’s favourite Chinese restaurant in
downtown Prince Rupert is about to close for the
night. There’s just enough time for him to have a
brimming bowl of wonton soup.
Storey isn’t complaining about being rushed,
tucking in with characteristic gusto. He’s used to
grabbing meals when he can, like business opportunities. And, as
he anticipated, the business opportunities are beginning to fall
nicely into place.
Construction of a new container port is underway in British
Columbia’s northwest coast (see sidebar, page 21). And there are
other excavation, environmental and general construction projects
happening in and around Prince Rupert that are suited to his
Caterpillar fleet. His equipment and crews are keeping busy.
The immediate future looks as hot as the wonton soup and as
energizing.
It wasn’t always this way.
Storey’s Excavating has endured its share of struggles. It’s taken
on the small jobs no one else seemed to want. But Storey says,
regardless of job size he always tries to treat his customers the
way he likes to be treated. Maybe that’s why word of mouth has
brought him much of his business. And why he’s been able to
fulfill each job’s obligations by renting his equipment through
Finning and building up sufficient equity in each machine to
finance the next one.
Storey was born in Prince Rupert but attended school in
B.C.’s Lower Mainland during Vancouver’s Expo 86. “The city
exploded,” he recalls. He figures the container port expansion
and other industrial growth will have a similar in-scale impact on
his hometown. And that’s exactly what’s happening, says the 36-
year-old entrepreneur who with his wife, Selina, has two young
daughters.
“I’m watching my neighbourhood change. There are different
conditions, the need for different machines and there’s a different
profile of work up here,” he points out. He says that in small communities,
it’s easy for an operator to get stuck in a certain way of
doing things.
You can’t say that about Storey. One of the first things he did on
an acreage he acquired in the local industrial park was to stockpile
and sell fill material. He stored material, such as recycled concrete,
rip-rapping, shot rock mixes, sand and gravel. The typical subsoil
around Prince Rupert is rock interspersed with pockets of gumbo.
Fill is in demand.
Storey’s first machine was a used excavator he acquired from
Finning in 1999. “It had lots of hours on it but it’s a versatile machine
for up here and I could avoid a big capital outlay,” he explains.
The pair of them – Storey and the machine – went to work
on jobs including a pulp mill shutdown. It was tough for a while
but he kept plugging away. “The big thing throughout the slow
times was I really tried to concentrate on my credit rating,” says
Storey. “And when I made money, I made sure it stayed in operating
capital. I made sure we did the work on time and developed a
good name.”
That’s paid off handsomely. He was back at the pulp mill in
2004 for remedial environmental projects. The first was a $4,500
job that everyone else seemed too busy to take on. Storey took it
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 19

COMPANY PROFILE: Storey’s Excavating
At work on the new Prince Rupert
Container Port Facility
and it worked out well. “The project manager was happy and
there was more work to be put out for bid. That’s when I called
Finning with a business plan,” he says.
He rented new equipment, starting with a loader, and as the
project evolved he added a rock truck and a Cat 325, both with
full warranties. “I wanted zero downtime, no breakdowns. I
didn’t want to let people down. You pay now or you pay later.”
Storey knew that if he did have a breakdown that couldn’t be
repaired easily in the field, Finning would find him a new piece
until his rental was fixed. It allowed him the flexibility he needed
at the time.
Going the rental route also meant the machines were 100%
write-offs tax wise, he adds. “But the best thing for us is that
it allowed us to invest in a sizeable expansion. In 10 months,
we had enough equity in the loader and hoe to pay both
machines off.”
Storey’s Finning dealership is in Terrace, about 140 kilometres
east of Prince Rupert. “The Finning finance people are very easy
to deal with. There’s no other way to do it, I don’t think. The
depth of the Finning fleet, both new and used, is second to none
and they’ll find you the machine you want,” says Storey.
“With the new equipment it’s power by the hour and you get
the maintenance with one monthly payment.”
As of late 2006, Storey’s equipment included three excavators,
his orginal used machine, a Cat 320 and a 325; a 950E
loader; a D5H; D300 rock truck; four gravel trucks and a low
bed and tractor.
“People said I was crazy getting my own low bed. During the
month of June, I picked up enough work to pay for it,” he says
with a smile. “We’re 24/7 mobile and there’s no looking back.”
As the company’s workload increases, Storey is examining
the possibility of leasing his next new machine, likely a Cat in
the 320 or 325 class.
To Storey, leasing comes with a similar catalogue of advantages
as renting. It’s not an addition to the debt load and leased
equipment has full warranty for any problems that might develop.
And, if the company were to go out of business for any reason,
Caterpillar equipment is a benchmark brand that holds its
value well, notes Storey.
“My take on business is to keep reliable, relatively new machines
with about 7,000 hours as the sort of magic figure for rotating
upgrades. I don’t want to be super-huge but I do want to maintain
a core of 10 to 12 people for year-round work,” he explains. And
James Storey must be on to a good business formula: the Prince
Rupert Chamber of Commerce awarded him a business excellence
prize for 2006. “We want to do a good job for people, service the
town properly and be a presence on the north coast.”
He is tackling his goals in a systematic and admirable fashion.
Foji Dhansaw is Finning’s sales manager in Terrace and he’s been
working with Storey and watching his business progress with
interest. “He’s been with Finning from the ground up and used
rental payments to successfully build up the equity in his Cat
equipment,” says Dhansaw of his Prince Rupert customer.
“Here’s a young, gung-ho guy who’s not afraid to do things his
way and that’s good to see,” he adds. “He’s sort of brought the
big city to the small community.”
20 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

Port of Call
The port. Those two little words are instantly recognizable in
British Columbia’s northwest. They’re galvanizing a region with a
much anticipated surge of optimism.
Maybe that explains why each time James Storey’s Cat excavators
bite into the rock and muck of Kaien Island in Prince
Rupert, it’s much more than material handling on just another
construction job. He’s helping to forge a future.
After nearly a century of pundits predicting its success, the
port of Prince Rupert – the ultimate Cinderella city – is finally
going to the ball. And it’s going big. Construction on the first
phase of a $170 million container port is underway. It will capitalize
on Asia’s economic emergence and Prince Rupert’s strategic
advantages of a deep sea port with transportation infrastructure,
room to grow and a location closer to markets than any other port
on North America’s west coast.
Storey and other local contractors are hitched to the adventure.
And the opportunities.
The excavation work is right up Storey’s alley. The work will
prepare the site for the towering, customized cranes and support
equipment necessary to unload and reload the largest container
vessels currently sailing the world’s oceans.
“This last winter was tough at times,” Storey says. His company
had to cope with the typical winter slowdown, but he didn’t
want to let anyone go. He wanted to be able to hit the ground running.
“I knew we would need the guys for the port,” he recalls.
“Now, we’re focused on it. Mass excavation of the site is going
to be required in the next few months.” And that’s going to be
followed by extensive compaction, he adds. And even as a small
contractor, Storey and his Cat equipment plan on playing their
role. “It’s a unique project, everything’s going on down there,”
he says, relishing the challenges. Many parties are involved in a
time-pressured schedule to make it happen, he says. It will be a
job to remember.
The container port’s first phase will allow Prince Rupert to
handle about 500,000 20-foot equivalent containers every
year. The second phase, scheduled for completion in 2010, will
expand capacity to two million containers and boost investment
cost to $500 million. The Prince Rupert Port Authority predicts a
second container terminal by 2015, doubling the port’s capacity
to four million containers annually.
Prince Rupert, of course, has heard the promises before. But
this time it really is the coastal community’s turn.
PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES VASSALLO
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 21

Safety First
By Rick Overwater
A new safety policy makes Canadian Roadways just a little safer
Cellphones
and Driving
Don’t Mix
We’ve all used the daily commute to get
a phone call out of the way at least once – if
not nearly every single day. Still, despite
it being common practice, statistics say
approximately three-quarters of Canadians
believe cellphone use while driving is hazardous.
That’s not exactly breaking news
considering the amount of media coverage
cellphone use has received lately. But look
a little deeper into the subject and you may
be surprised, if not downright shocked.
When you dial home to remind your
spouse that your son needs a ride home
from hockey practice, you probably
don’t equate your driving ability with
that of a drunk driver. But you are
wrong. “It’s actually the equivalent
of being impaired,” says Dr. Louis
Francescutti, founder of the Coalition
for Cellphone-Free Driving. “There are
studies where they’ve actually put people
in simulators and fed them alcohol,
tested their driving ability and then did
the same thing with people talking on cellphones.
There’s a very strong correlation.”
Francescutti, one of Canada’s foremost injury
prevention advocates, is an emergency
physician in Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra
Hospital and a professor at the University
of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.
He says misconceptions about the
use of mobile communication devices are
common, citing the supposed advantages of
hands-free phones and headsets as a prime
example.
“It has absolutely no difference whatsoever.
It’s the conversation itself that’s the
distracter,” says Francescutti. “People ask
‘what’s the difference between talking on
a cellphone and talking to another passen-
ger’ and the difference is that a passenger
adjusts the conversation based on traffic
flow, speed, weather conditions etcetera, as
opposed to somebody who is on the other
end of the line.”
For years now, the information has been
piling up. Organizations ranging from Harvard
University to the city of Grande Prairie
to corporations like Exxon have launched
their own studies, all coming up with facts
that point to one conclusion: cellphone use
and driving don’t mix. A recent study conducted
by Exxon determined that drivers
who are talking on a cellphone take three
times longer than impaired drivers do to
activate the brakes, and show a reduced
ability to maintain lane position in heavy
vehicles.
That’s no surprise to Francescutti, whose
Coalition for Cellphone-Free Driving is counting
an increasing number of high profile
companies such as Halliburton, Schlumberger
and Sterling Crane among its safetyminded
membership. Finning (Canada) is
one of the newest members, and according
to Tom Petras, Finning’s Environment,
Health and Safety Manager, joining the
coalition made perfect sense.
“We always reflect on our core values
and safety is a value that influences everything
we do,” says Petras. “What really
prompted us was that there’s an endless
number of studies that keep coming out
on the risks of cellphone use while driving.
It’s unbelievable.” Finning has now banned
the use of all wireless communications
devices by employees and onsite personnel
while driving motor vehicles. (The company
makes and exception to this ban for
drivers on logging and mine roads where
frequent calls are necessary to prevent collisions
with logging and mining trucks.)
Violation of the policy can result in discipline
up to and including termination
of employment – but Petras doubts such
measures will be needed.
“The feedback has been really positive
thus far,” says Petras. “It sounds contrary
but we’ve talked to people who say productivity
actually goes up because memory
and recollection of phone calls degrades
when they’re trying to drive and take a
call.” He points to a recent press release
from AMEC, a global engineering firm
that polled its employees one year after
implementing a similar ban.
Despite some skepticism at first,
more than 95% of employees reported
no decrease in productivity at all. In fact,
83% have now reduced or quit using cellphones
while driving outside of work hours
as well. And that’s something both Petras
and Francescutti hope to see with Finning
employees.
“It’s the same sort of attitude and philosophy
people should have in their
private lives,” says Francescutti. He adds
that the pressure you might feel to answer
your phone can be eased by changing the
outgoing voicemail message to indicate that
you may be unavailable simply because
you’re driving at the time. “Don’t put yourself
in a situation where you’re tempted to
answer,” says Fransescutti. “Let it ring if
need be. There’s no phone call that’s worth
a human life.”
illustration by sylvie bourbonnière
22 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

Special Report
Finning’s Tech
Products
24
New Tech Products
Inspector
The introduction of the
innovative Global Maintenance
System, combining
both Internet and satellite
technology, was the first
step to Finning’s technologically
advanced tools.
27Gadget
When it was time to add
a Caterpillar dozer to Steve
Deagle’s 10-piece fleet, he
chose a machine equipped
with the latest high-tech
grading tool, an AccuGrade
GPS Grade Control System.
Technology impacts every corner of our lives.
Now joy sticks have even found their way into
the cabs of heavy equipment. Finning has made
its first forays into technologically advanced
tools. These high-tech gadgets are designed to
improve productivity and safety.
Customers are using some new systems to
track maintenance and running time of their
fleets and to reduce downtime. After all, a dozer
in the shop isn’t earning. Find out about different
applications from owners and operators
who weigh in on the utility of a growing line of
tech tools. Find out what the new gadgets are all
about, how they work and how they are changing
the world of heavy equipment operation.
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 23

SPECIAL REPORT
NEW TECH PRODUCTS
take a
Look
at tech
the latest products
from cat are useful
as well as cool
B Y D A V I D D I C E N Z O
It’s virtually impossible to quantify the impact
technology has had on the world, particularly
in the last decade. Not all that long ago, our
music came in the form of vinyl, and getting up
from the couch to turn the dial on our woodpanelled
television was not a big deal, seeing
as there were only about 12 channels to choose
from. Long before the Internet became a part
of the every-day language, if you needed to do some
research, you made the trek down to the library and
flipped through the card catalogue to get to the right
book or periodical.
But the world’s a different place now. today, we can’t
get enough of our IPods, Blackberries and cellphones,
which not only let you talk to people all over the world,
but also enable you to snap a pic and e-mail it to africa
in a matter of seconds. It may be tough staying on top
of all the gadgets out there on the market but it sure is
fun trying.
technology has changed how we live, but also how
we work and that doesn’t apply to just the office. the
field of heavy equipment has been similarly changed.
Since its inception, Finning (canada) has always prided
itself on providing the top-notch caterpillar brand.
But in 2000, the company started branching out. the
introduction of the innovative Global Maintenance
System (GMS), combining both Internet and satellite
technology was the first step in a new area of business
for Finning – technologically advanced tools designed
to improve productivity.
“the GMS allows customers to track the locations
and hours on their machines and plan and track the
maintenance of those machines,” says Lyle Makus,
Finning’s Industry Marketing Manager of technology
Services.
the GMS is seen as a great preventative maintenance
tool, one that allows an owner to get daily updates on
the location and activity of their equipment, crucial
in developing a plan to maximize component life and
most important, uptime. those are serious considerations
when you invest money with multiple zeroes.
and the simplicity of the system makes it appealing
even for those who lack real technical savvy – there is
no software needed. the GMS is accessible through any
Internet-enabled computer. a yellow light means the
machine will soon be coming due for maintenance,
24 tRackS & tReadS • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

SPECIAL REPORT
NEW TECH PRODUCTS
while the red indicator means it’s overdue for service.
Easy.
That one tool was the start of something big for
Finning and its customers throughout Western Canada.
The company now produces over a dozen different
gadgets that have a positive impact on the daily business
of the customers. And while the market size is still
extremely small compared to the selling of machines,
Makus says interest is gaining momentum.
The tech bug is catching on.
“Technology gives our customers more value for
their machine investment,” says Makus, adding that
some models come already equipped with the new features.
“Machines are safer, smarter and more efficient
with the technology we sell.
“This is the way the market is heading and we want
to be out in front.”
Makus says that the GMS is one of the more popular
tools Finning sells. Also gaining momentum is the
Caterpillar WAVS (Work Area Vision System) – a stateof-the-art
tool that allows the operator of a machine
different views of the work they’re doing from as many
as three cameras. The cameras work in tandem via a
system of advanced switching algorithms. Both the
GMS and WAVS are useful in a variety of industries and
come with a relatively inexpensive price tag.
Some of the newest products in the Finning tech
line include the AccuGrade GPS system, a control and
guidance tool that allows dozer operators to grade
with increased accuracy, without the need for survey
stakes. The CAESultra is the latest version of the
proven Computer Aided Earthmoving System (CAES)
from Caterpillar, which is an electronic mine production
improvement tool that enables machines to do
precision surveys while moving material, allowing
grades and slopes to be accurately managed through
all phases of operation. MineStar is a mining industry
business solution tool that links machines in the
field with business and operating systems, connecting
operators, maintenance personnel, management and
the machines themselves to improve overall efficiency.
Cat’s Virtual Training Systems, a series of cool simulators
designed to replicate the working conditions of
machines for the purpose of training and orienting
entry-level operators at a much more manageable cost
than running an actual piece of iron.
Caterpillar WAVS, upper and lower left, are becoming
a popular feature. WAVS lets operators watch
their work from as many as three different angles.
The inside of the cab pictured above shows a Global
Maintenance System in action. With GMS, customers can
track the locations and hours on their equipment. Planning
and tracking maintenance becomes a breeze, decreasing
downtime. There’s a learning curve that comes with the
gadgets, but increasingly owners and operators are
finding it’s worth learning the new skills.
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 25

SPECIAL REPORT
NEW TECH PRODUCTS
First introduced less than a year ago, the Virtual
training Systems product is one of the most recent in
the line of value-added products. created by the caterpillar
equipment training Solutions Group, the Virtual
training Systems uses a Pc environment and employs a
curriculum that takes a student from basic control familiarization
through to more sophisticated tasks using a
series of training modules that allow users to build on
their skills.
Simulators are soon available for numerous cat
equipment models, including hydraulic excavators,
backhoe loaders and wheel loaders, and in the coming
18 months, new variations will be released, including
one for the popular cat 777 off-highway truck.
“the Virtual training Systems have been really well
received so far,” Makus says. “Surprisingly, customers
are using them not only as a training aid but also as a
screening tool and even a marketing tool, to promote
their industries.
“caterpillar is one of the few companies offering
training software right now. and the company’s goal is
to have simulators available across the entire family of
equipment, from the smallest machines right up to the
bigger, more complex models.”
the next big thing in Finning’s line of technological
advancements is the introduction of equipment Management
Solutions. this new technology enables customers
to centrally manage the health of a machine and
its components using on-board systems and sensors
and satellite technology. data is sent to an engineer,
who can look at the information and make suggestions
to the customers regarding the health of the machine.
the technology is just getting off the ground, with
a handful of customers in the power systems area
and mining industries using it for stationary engines.
Makus says that the idea is to reduce the cost to Finning
customers by extending the life of their equipment and
components.
While many customers love the benefits these hightech
gadgets can bring to their businesses, Makus says
others with a more old-school approach are hesitant to
take the leap.
“the technology of these gadgets means a whole
new way of doing things,” he says. “change is often
met with resistance and we sometimes find there is a
‘why fix something when it isn’t broken’ mentality.”
For those who do test the waters, it’s a different
story. there’s an element of fun and adventure in trying
something new but it also makes good sense from
a business perspective,
“there is no going back for customers who use the
technology,” Makus says. “the way the market is headed,
customers are going to require technology attachments
on their machines in order to win job bids.
“Jobs can be completed faster, safer and cheaper
with technology.”
26 tRackS & tReadS • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

SPECIAL REPORT
NEW TECH PRODUCTS
Inspector
Gadget
S
customers weigh in on the
utility of Finning’s growing
line of tech tools
B Y D A V I D D I C E N Z O
teve Deagle likes to stay on the cutting edge
of technology. So last summer, when it was time
to add a caterpillar dozer to his 10-piece fleet
of iron for his small cochrane-based company
cornforth excavating Ltd. – a family business
his father-in-law started 35 years ago – deagle
chose a machine equipped with the latest hightech
grading tool. the dozer he recently purchased
from Finning came with an accuGrade GPS
Grade control System, an intelligent computer guidance
system that eliminates the need for survey stakes.
the Global Positioning System delivers incredibly precise
blade positioning, resulting in very accurate grades
that improve productivity, ultimately impacting cornforth’s
bottom line for the better.
For deagle, who took over the business nine years
ago, using the accuGrade system has been a learning
process, but with each job he does, he’s seeing more
benefits.
“I’m adventurous, I guess,” deagle says about why
he opted to try one of Finning’s newest gadgets.
“the work’s the same but instead of having someone
outside with grade sticks, you do everything from
inside the cab. the quality of the job it does is very
good. It’s really accurate. and it’s easy for the operator
to use – if the background work is done,” he says.
“and that’s my job.”
deagle is quick to admit that he’s had to do a lot of
work to manage the accuGrade. It’s his responsibility
to create a model from an autocad file with all of the
necessary specs of the job, which he then feeds into the
computer system. It computes the positioning information
on the machine, compares the position of the
blade relative to the design plan and delivers that information
to the operator via an in-cab display. With the
proper information in the system, the grade is accurate
within centimetres.
deagle says the toughest part is making sure the
information is right, so the tool is essentially only as
smart as you make it.
“at first, it was painstaking,” he explains, adding that
he’s used the accuGrade on four different jobs. “But as I
get more familiar with it, it’s definitely easier.”
the biggest beneficiary of the new high-tech system
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tRackS & tReadS 27

SPECIAL REPORT
NEW TECH PRODUCTS
Finning’s AccuGrade system, above, becomes more valuable
the more familiar Cat customers become with it.
It’s a high-tech grading tool that eliminates the need for
survey stakes, resulting in precise grades and increased
operator productivity. Operators especially appreciate
the new system. Finning’s virtual training simulators,
right, are proving a boon to owners and operators alike.
They are a cheaper, easier alternative to doing all the
training on the real machines. Plans are afoot to develop
simulators for Cat’s entire product line.
28 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

SPECIAL REPORT
NEW TECH PRODUCTS
is probably Deagle’s dozer operator.
“He’s loving it,” Deagle says with a laugh.
While Cornforth Excavating’s AccuGrade GPS is
making life easier on operators, Linden Pinay of the Vancouver
Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership
project is using some of Caterpillar’s coolest technology
to do the same. Actually, VanASEP is using the two stateof-the-art
excavator simulators, which it purchased from
Finning in October of 2006, to help find operators to fill
a much-needed industry void in B.C. The simulators are
part of Caterpillar’s line of Virtual Training Systems, a
fun tool used to screen and train potential heavy equipment
operators. Resembling a sit-down video game, the
simulators help teach basic machine operation skills,
taking the user through a series of learning modules.
They’ll eventually be available for every model in Cat’s
equipment line. They provide instant feedback, such
as the time and accuracy of a specific task, and let the
trainee know exactly how they’re making out.
“The simulators give us the opportunity to do 50 or
60 hours of training without the cost of having to run a
machine,” says Pinay.
To date, VanASEP has used the tools to train 15
individuals, while also identifying another potential
30 trainees.
According to Ron Coreau, Director of Education for
the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, the
simulators allow a student to gain an understanding
of the job and test their manual dexterity.
“It’s very sophisticated and demanding. You have
to pay attention at all times and it does recreate the
work environment,” says Coreau. “You sit in a swivel
chair much like you would find in a cab, and you operate
two joysticks, one on each arm of the chair. It’s very
authentic.
“The first time you use it gives a good understanding
of how demanding and precise the work is.”
The simulators are so much fun to try that at recent
career fairs, VanASEP’s station was the only one with a
lineup of people waiting to test their skills.
“Everyone’s impressed with it, from new people to
experienced operators,” adds Coreau.
“It’s interesting to pit an adult against a youth. It provides
scores on your success, such as measuring how
fast you load a truck, so it offers some competition. It
also shows how complex the work is, and demonstrates
the need for concentration and respect for equipment.
Ultimately, it’s to guard against mishaps down the
road because the equipment can be damaged if it’s not
used properly.”
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 29

COMPANY PROFILE: Strike Energy
Strike Energy’s President and CEO Stephen Smith
photography COURTESY STRIKE ENERGY
30 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

A young company grows
in Alberta’s oil patch and
is never short of
skilled workers
Strike
a Chord
B y K a t h e r i n e F a w c e t t
Calgary-based Strike Energy has quickly
become a shining star in the bright night sky
that is Alberta’s oil and gas sector. The threeyear-old
company constructs and maintains
pipelines, processing plants and other energy
industry support facilities in Western Canada.
With Alberta’s blistering economy, it comes as no surprise that
demand for Strike’s services is sky-high. What does come as a
surprise is how smoothly this company has managed its phenomenal
growth in a field that eats the weak for breakfast.
In 2004, Strike Energy Services Inc.’s first year in business,
they did $1.5 million worth of work. The following year, that
figure rose to $21 million. In 2006, Strike Energy’s sales and
services totalled more that $60 million. “We’ve exceeded our
expectations by a long shot,” says Strike’s president, co-founder
and right-winger on his Old-Timers hockey team, Stephen Smith.
“It took us two years to hit where we thought we’d be in five
years…it’s been fun.”
“We’ve had a pretty phenomenal growth rate,” agrees Garry
Lane, vice president of corporate services. “It’s been a whirlwind
ride, let me tell ya.” He credits the company’s wild ride of success
to his staff. “We’ve got great people. Reputation can get you
the first job, but the people that you have on the job get you the
repeats.” Clearly, Strike’s people have delivered.
The people Lane refers to now number approximately 250.
They put in more than 543,000 man-hours and drove about five
million kilometres in 2006. Strike has come a long way from a
few friends with a bright idea just three years ago.
Ron Shannon and Stephen Smith were both with Flint Canada
when the Flint Family sold their company in 1998. Working
for Flint was far from pond hockey; Flint is one of Canada’s largest
oil- and resource-related construction and production service
companies, and it was where Smith, Shannon and several others
sharpened their skates.
“Ron and I had talked on and off for quite some time about
building an energy service field company,” says Smith. “We were
just waiting for the right time.”
Flint subsequently went public, and the two knew they had
to act. “We decided, ‘Let’s go and put it together.’ So we rounded
up the others [Rory Vrolson and Wayne Pawsey] and we made
it happen.” They were soon joined by two other long-time Flint
employees – Mikki Ranger and Jerry Dzuba – and Strike Energy
Services, with a dynamic six-member first-string, was born.
“Everyone was at the right place in their careers for the challenge.
It was time.”
Smith acknowledges that while it was an exciting time, they
took nothing for granted. “We weren’t cocky about it, we were
aware of the risks. But we were quite confident. We had good
relationships, a sound business background. We felt that we
could do it.”
When venturing out on their own, many young companies
face the challenge of acquiring tools and machines to allow
them to take on jobs. Because companies like Finning had been
involved with the Strike people before they launched, they were
willing to step out on a limb for them and provide the seeds for
Strike Energy’s growth.
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 31

COMPANY PROFILE: Strike Energy
Right: President and CEO
Stephen Smith with
Vice President Garry Lane
Strike Energy at work in the Peace River area
“When this company started up, Finning helped get it off the
ground by setting us up with an excavator, some dozers and side
booms,” says Lane. “It was enough to get us up and running.”
Today the provincial map is polka-dotted with Strike’s projects,
from Waterton in southern Alberta to High Level up north. Plans
for expansion into Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories are
underway, and Strike also does modest business in Russia.
In the service division of Strike’s operations, the company offers
maintenance and service to the oil and gas industry within about
a 100-kilometre radius of their field offices. From field offices in
Edson, Whitecourt, High Level, Grande Cache, and a new facility
in Balzac, Strike Energy workers are busy on mid-sized construction
jobs for oil and gas companies, often building or maintaining
pipelines under 20 kilometres long.
On the projects side of Strike’s operations, the company offers
stand-alone work such as gas plant construction and modification,
compressor and pipeline installation and other services in areas
where there is no existing service operation.
Each job, whether in service or projects, has its own specific
equipment demands. Strike’s inventory of more than 50 Caterpillar
machines totalling approximately $9 million includes pipelayers,
side booms, dozers, excavators and skid steer loaders. The varied
Western Canadian landscape puts these machines to the test in challenging
field conditions. Workers in High Level face frozen muskeg,
32 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

PHOTOGRAPHY courtesy STRIKE ENERGY
swamps, Arctic temperatures in the winter and swarms of bugs in
the summer. At the base of the mountains, Grande Cache is rocky
and rugged, and in Pincher Creek extreme winds are a factor.
“The Cat equipment is all designed for the industry we work in,”
says Lane. “It’s top-notch. It’s very reliable, and there’s a tremendous
service network around Western Canada.” Finning has a network of
stores where Strike does most of its business; Lane says that means
servicing and accessing equipment is never a problem.
One challenge many sectors in Alberta face is a shortage of
skilled labour. Lane says Strike has not felt this pinch as acutely as
he knows other companies have. “You need to create a company
and a work environment that people want to come and work for.”
He says that word-of-mouth in the industry spreads quickly. “Word
gets out. ‘Are they a good company Are they reliable Do they have
good contracts’” He says that by keeping employees satisfied, they
are not only able to retain the ones they have, but attract new skilled
workers as needed.
On the upper management side, Smith says the team has been
hand-picked for their experience and dedication. “In the beginning,
we needed key employees to join us,” says Smith. “For the size of
business we are today, we’re set. But we’re always looking for others
to join our team.”
Strike Energy is very protective of the strong reputation they have
quickly built, but Lane says they know that even the best reputations
can come crashing down. For that reason, they make a point of not
taking on more work than they know they can handle.
“There are some jobs that we have turned down. We aren’t going
to jeopardize our reputation. We always have to ask ourselves, ‘Do
we have the right resources Can we do this right’ The thing is that
if you don’t have the right equipment and people you can go out
there and lose a million dollars overnight. Reputations can go down
the tube very quickly.”
The market continues to be strong, and Strike is poised to get
even bigger. “We’re budgeting for growth in ’07,” says Smith. “We’re
planning to add to a whole fleet of machines.”
Smith says that although he doesn’t play hockey with his coworkers,
he feels genuine team camaraderie with them. “It’s not
about one person. It’s how we work together. We’ve got a great
bunch of team players here.”
Now if only they could get him to lace up his skates.
How to Strike a Winner:
Stephen Smith’s Recipe
for Success (no guarantees)
When asked for some tips on venturing into the competitive field of
oil and gas support, Strike Energy president Stephen Smith came up with
a few suggestions that can be applied to many businesses:
Find a niche. Do your market research, identify where there’s a need
and a demand for what you’re offering. Strike identified an opportunity for
a mid-sized, multi-location, multi-service company in Alberta.
Build a business plan. Hire a professional to help you. Not everyone’s
strong in finance and forecasting, but without a business plan it’s easy to
get off track.
Gather your team. Identify experienced management partners who
share your vision and have the skills to lead. The people are what make a
company succeed or fail, and Strike’s No. 1 priority has been assembling a
strong team.
Be an attractive employer. Make your workplace an environment
where people can have a career, advance, be rewarded and enjoy their
lifestyle. Ownership options, flexible hours, flexible holidays, opportunities
for personal growth are important. At Strike, all 27 managers are also
company owners.
Find your key business partners. Whether it’s for equipment, banking,
or other services, establish those business relationships. They will
be critical to your success. Strike thanks Finning (Canada), TD Bank and
Universal Ford for supporting them during start-up.
Support the communities you’re in. Whether it’s sponsoring teams
and associations or enabling staff to volunteer their time, this kind of
support makes your company a welcome part of the community. Strike
makes an effort to support every organization or group that its employees
are involved in. It’s these little things that make a big difference. Try to
be different and creative in the ways you support your employees and
your community.
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 33

meeting the challenge
A New Extraction
Approach
p h o t o g r a p h y b y T H E A S T R A T T O N
34 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

Scrapers work from top to bottom on the hill.
the material they pick up is then dumped
at the hoppers and then fed through to the plant
calgarian mark Roen has finally
achieved his desire for detail
On the northeast corner of Vancouver Island, the
crew of one of the newest and largest gravel pits in
Canada is taking a unique approach to mining sand
and gravel. Instead of the usual front-end loaders,
haul trucks and hydraulic shovels, the Orca Sand
and Gravel crew are using two Cat 637G scrapers as
their primary production units.
“This is the first exposure I’ve had to using scrapers
for mining,” says Jim Balmer, general manager
at Orca Sand and Gravel. “Normally they’re used in
road construction and maintenance, especially on
the Prairies where you’re dealing with mud, silt, sand
and gravel on relatively fl at ground. But for actual,
primary production units in a mining or quarrying operation,
I don’t know of anywhere else where they’re used.”
Owned by Vancouver-based Polaris Minerals Corporation
and the Namgis First Nation, the Orca Sand and Gravel site
covers an extraction area of 175 hectares, about 3.8 kilometres
west of Port McNeill. After the scrapers have gathered
the aggregate material, it’s sorted and transported on
a conveyor belt to ships. The ships are bound for the San
Francisco Bay area, where dwindling local resources and a
construction boom have created a defi cit of construction
materials in other pacifi c coast cities.
Orca Sand and Gravel has permits to produce six million
tonnes of aggregate a year for 25 years. That’s a lot of sand
and gravel – but the two 500-horsepower Cat 637Gs are
efficient workhorses in this busy operation. The site is a glacial
outwash deposit, and like all such deposits, it’s made
of layers. Some layers contain more sand than gravel and
vice versa. Balmer says this can make it diffi cult to ensure
that you get a good mix of each. Using the 637Gs “allows
us to blend the material, which makes for a much better
operation,” Balmer says. “When I first heard we were going
to use them, I wasn’t sure. But it actually makes quite a bit
of sense, because our deposit is a large ridge – it has quite
a good topographic expression to it.”
The scrapers work on a long, ridge-type hill that Balmer
estimates is at a seven to eight per cent grade. He says that
as the Cat operators become more comfortable, they may
tackle a steeper grade. The site is still in the preliminary
stages of production and many of the 30-odd employees
are totally new to mining.
“Many of our employees are quite green, and we’ve done
some very intensive training,” Balmer says. “One of the
things we’re proud of is that we have working impacts and
benefi ts agreements in place with the local native bands.
Roughly 50 per cent of our 30 employees are from the
native bands in the area. We’re all extremely happy with
how things are going. It’s been a positive experience for
all of us.”
www.finning.ca spring 2007 • tracks & treads 35

field Test
Swing Time
Industry’s largest zero tail swing excavator
finds a new home in forestry road building
Equipment operators at Gormac Developments
Ltd. are often breaking trail on steep mountain
slopes that seem more suited to mountain goats
than logging equipment. On many occasions,
they are building access roads on extreme cliffs,
with a mountain face on one side and a vertical drop of several
hundred feet on the other.
It’s a harrowing business, requiring equipment capable
of precision and power. So it’s no surprise that Caterpillar’s
largest zero tail swing excavator, the 325C LCR – engineered
for construction projects primarily on narrow city streets and
highways – is starting to find favour with forestry road construction
contractors working in British Columbia’s challenging
mountainous terrain.
At Gormac, this heavier-weight excavator has earned two
thumbs up from the company owner for its efficiency, and from
equipment operators for its stability and manoeuvrability.
B y T o n y K r y z a n o w s k i
Ed Lingel, Finning general line salesman serving customers
in the Fraser Valley, says the Caterpillar 325C LCR excavator
was introduced in 2005 and has found a niche, particularly
among urban road building contractors who are usually limited
to working within the confines of one lane of traffic. He
believes that the Hope, B.C.-based Gormac Developments is
the first road building contractor to use the excavator to construct
forestry roads.
“Being able to swing within the excavator tracks gives the
operator more room to work, with less likelihood of damage
to the excavator when it is working,” Lingel says. He notes that
in the future, this excavator will be known as the Caterpillar
328D LRR excavator.
Gormac Developments purchased its Caterpillar 325C
LCR excavator last fall because owner Gord McDonald was so
impressed with the short tail swing on the Caterpillar 320C
LU excavator he had purchased two years earlier. McDonald
36 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

is an industry veteran, having established his road building,
excavating and site preparation business in 1974.
The company does most of its work in Hope, Fraser Valley,
and the Fraser Canyon area, where mountainous terrain
and heavy rainfall can make for difficult conditions. McDonald
says the versatility of the excavators in this environment
makes them the workhorses of his fleet; in addition to having
the horsepower to remove fallen trees and stumps, excavators
can sort out the topsoil and subsoil when the job of creating
access to a forested area begins. The gravel and rocky subsoil
is the primary material used to build the road subgrade, and
efficient management of this material in such a remote working
environment can have a direct impact on a company’s
profitability. A safe working environment for the operator is
also a primary concern, so having a heavy machine capable of
working on steep slopes is important.
Gormac Developments is frequently faced with a road
building scenario called an “end haul,” when the company
must use its rock drill and explosives to create a bench for
a roadbed on a mountainside. Material resulting from the
blasting is typically trucked away or dozed down the slope.
The Caterpillar 325C LCR must be able to swing around, pick
up rocks with its heavy-duty cleanup bucket and load the
material into trucks, without falling over the cliff or hitting
the rock face.
“The 325C LCR works at least 20% more efficiently in
this situation than our older 330 excavator,” says McDonald.
“With the zero tail swing, it actually enables us to make the
roads a little bit narrower through the rock cut areas and still
be able to function with an excavator.”
Given his experience, McDonald knew exactly what features
he wanted in a new excavator. He wanted a zero tail
swing excavator with enough weight to provide his operators
with the required stability to work on severe slopes when
managing heavy material like rocks and large trees. The 325C
LCR excavator weighs in at about 80,000 pounds, which is the
heaviest zero tail swing excavator available in the construction
industry. Yet its compact design means it can be transported
from one location to another without a pilot vehicle.
McDonald also wanted an excavator with enough power to
work efficiently in the demanding forest road building sector.
His Caterpillar 325C LCR excavator is equipped with a 3126B
ATTAC HEUI, 188 horsepower engine.
Fuel consumption was also an issue, as he wanted a
machine that would operate as long as possible between refuellings.
The 325 LCR has both a main and auxiliary fuel tank
that also functions as a counterweight. The combined fuel
capacity provides enough fuel for about two 10-hour shifts
under normal operating conditions.
Gormac Developments was among the first to install
Caterpillar’s hydraulic wedge quick-attach on its 320 boom.
Now the company’s operators can exchange a cleanup
bucket for a digging bucket and vice versa without leaving
the cab.
“It was very successful with the 320, so we installed it
on the 325 as well,” says McDonald. “Having the ability to
change buckets from inside the cab makes the machine much
more productive.”
What further intrigued him about the 325C LCR is that
it comes equipped with the larger 330 undercarriage. “The
tracks and the final drives are heavier,” McDonald says. “It’s
a high-torque drive system that works really well on these
extreme grades.” While the completed roads may have a
20% slope, he says it’s not uncommon for the excavator to
have to work in up to a 40% slope during the construction
phase. Because of the heavy and often unforgiving material
the company handles, the machine was equipped with severe
duty dig and cleanup buckets.
The 325C LCR excavator also came equipped with double
grouser pads for better traction and a heavy-duty belly pan
for greater protection when travelling and working in rocky
environments.
The cab is a Daequip FOPS designed to meet Workers’
Compensation Board regulations, supplemented with
additional Daequip custom catwalks around the cab and a
toolbox built into the frame. McDonald says he was initially
concerned with operator comfort in the smaller cab, but it has
not been an issue after 500 hours of operation. And operators
like the sliding cab door.
Having given the Caterpillar 325C LCR a complete workout
in this challenging new environment, McDonald feels
it’s definitely the right tool for the job. “For the type of
work we are doing,” he concludes, “I would say the size is
almost perfect.”
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 37

EQUIPMENT PROFILE
38 tracks & treads • Sping 2007 www.finning.ca

More
Should you buy a shiny new
machine from the showroom
or invest in a rebuild
Power to You
b y R O B I N B R U N E T
As Surrey-based Finning Product Support
salesman Wayne Wyllie puts it, “Caterpillar
machines are manufactured with every
intention of being rebuilt down the road.”
That holds true even though many owners
run their inventory full-tilt for 10,000
hours then trade the machines in for
new equipment. Some choose to bypass
machine maintenance entirely by leasing
their inventory.
That said, rebuilds are gaining favour
in some sectors, especially amongst owners
whose fleets are so immense that they
can afford to take an individual piece of
equipment out of circulation and put it in
the shop. And as Wyllie and former Fort
McMurray-based Product Support Manager
Steve Cox have found out, certified rebuilds
are increasingly attractive to owners who
think in the long term. “A warranty lasting
several years instead of six months, fixed
costs and well-scheduled rebuilds done in a
timely fashion – these are the main ingredients
that can persuade people to come to our
service departments rather than buying new
or leasing,” says Wyllie.
Cox’s success in this field has set a precedent;
his branch is responsible for accomplishing
the first-ever Powertrain Plus
rebuilds for 345s and 785s. “Nobody had
ever undertaken such a rebuild with these
Cats anywhere,” he says. “We were pretty
proud of what we did,” he laughs goodnaturedly.
The recipient of the rebuilds is Alphonse
Hutchings, owner of Cow Harbour Construction
Ltd., who has a production
machine inventory exceeding 130 units.
“He started his business with a D3, and
since then he’s purchased twelve 793s, fifteen
785s, ten D10s, a slew of 777s – the list
is endless, and there seems to be no end of
more equipment that he’s ordering,” says
Cox. The reason for Hutchings’ largesse is
Suncor Energy, the pioneers in developing
the oilsands deposits in Northern Alberta,
with whom he’s been associated for the past
two decades. Hutchings is currently presiding
over muskeg removal for Suncor and
undertaking other duties at a job site just
north of Fort McMurray.
Cow Harbour’s use of its inventory is a
testament to the durability of the Caterpillar
brand. Many of the company’s machines
have logged in excess of 15,000 hours and
are still in decent shape. However, Hutchings
and his equipment supervisor, Wally
Herritt, arranged their schedule so some
machines could undergo the Powertrain
Plus rebuild. “Initially they wanted three
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 39

EQUIPMENT PROFILE
or four rigs to be rebuilt at the same
time, but we could only do one at a
time, and that led to some nail-biting
because the other rigs they wanted
overhauled would continue working
in the field – and if they suffered an
engine failure it would mean an extra
$80,000 repair on the rebuild bill,”
says Cox.
With a Certified Plus rebuild, a
truck or other type of machine is
stripped down to the chassis. Such was
the case with the first 345 that Hutchings
sent to Finning’s Fort McMurray
facility last year. Five 345s were rebuilt
altogether in late 2006, with Hutchings
being assured of a 32-day turnaround
(based on three mechanics
working around the clock in shifts).
“We got everything from a new powertrain
to new hoses, new wiring,
and cab work such as new gauges and
headliners,” says Herritt. “Essentially
we got new machines, along with a
warranty that is better than the one
offered on new rigs. For example, the
revamped 345s each left Steve’s shop
with a two-year, 6,000 hour warranty
compared to the 5,000 hour warranty
you get with a new 345.”
Despite such an extensive rebuild
having never before been performed
anywhere in the world on a 345, Cox
says Caterpillar left them alone, trusting
them to undertake the rebuild successfully.
As for the rebuilding itself,
“it’s not as complicated as it sounds,
because the truck components are big
and whole. It’s not like we had to break
everything apart.” Herritt is impressed
with the overhauls to the point where
he would never consider maintaining
an aging fleet any other way. “There
were absolutely no hidden costs, we
got a guaranteed price up front, and
we were told of every last thing that
was done to each machine.”
Hutc hings subsequent ly approached
Cox to rebuild two 785s and
two 777s, and received comparable
turnarounds. Of course, none of this
comes cheap. “A total rebuild of the
type we provided Cow Harbour can
be as high as $880,000 for a single 785
and $630,000 for a 777,” says Cox.
“However, a new 785 costs $2.5-mil
lion and a 777 costs $1.6-million.”
“By taking the route Alphonse did, he
gets a unit that will last at least another
15,000 hours before it has to be touched
again.” Herritt says, “Once those 15,000
hours are up, we intend to submit the
machines for another rebuild.”
Wayne Wyllie has worked hard at promoting
certified rebuilds. “I won’t pretend
it’s been easy, not when you have
people that have gotten into the habit of
turning in their worn-out equipment for
new models,” he says.
Wyllie found a customer just as formidable
as Cow Harbour, namely LaFarge
Canada Inc., whose mammoth inventory
consists of everything from D3s to 775s.
“In B.C. alone the company has several
As new machinery
costs rise, will
certified rebuilds
be the wave of the
future for Finning
customers
hundred pieces of equipment, and each
machine racks up between 24,000 and
28,000 hours,” he says. As with the Cow
Harbour rebuilds, Wyllie says that that
Finning tried to “do as much to each unit
as possible within four weeks.” So far, he
has presided over Powertrain rebuilds of
two 988Fs, two 769Ds, and one 980G in
Finning’s Surrey, B.C., facility.
“We can only handle one machine
at a time, and it’s frustrating because a
769 we’re working on right now had to
wait an entire year before being stripped
down. The LaFarge workload was such
that it simply couldn’t be taken out of
circulation,” says Wyllie. “But they know
it’s way more expensive to replace a single
component at a time than get as much
overhaul done as possible in one go, so
I would definitely call them committed
customers.”
Early on, Wyllie added his own savvy
and expertise in formulating the quotes
for each project. “Originally the warranty
was for only six months, which just isn’t
viable considering the amount of stress
these machines are expected to endure
in the field,” he says. “So for our second
overhaul I said to our district rep, ‘why
don’t we assume some risks, add extras
such as exchange component installation
and hydraulics overhauls under a similar
quoting system, and put everything
under a two- or three-year warranty’
And that worked like magic.”
One of the keys to selling rebuilds is
to formulate quotes that match the final
cost very closely – within a few thousand
dollars. Wyllie has succeeded in this task,
primarily because he uses a Cost-Watcher
pricing system and seeks input from component
experts in order to come up with a
figure. Also, he develops two quotes using
two separate sets of criteria, compares
the differences and states a final rebuild
price that falls somewhere between the
two. “Also, if we find anything unexpected
during the rebuild that must be
repaired, such as cracked gears, we absorb
the expense.” During a rebuild, the
Surrey crew spends eight hours performing
a full-machine inspection, from which
Wyllie presents the client with a checklist
of potential extra repairs. The client can
tick off each item he feels needs attention
and no one is surprised at the end
of the rebuild. “As long as certain parts
are installed to qualify for the warranty
– new camshafts are a must, for example
– then rebuild programs can be tailored
to suit a wide range of client needs.”
As new machinery costs rise, will certified
rebuilds be the wave of the future
at Finning Neither Cox nor Wyllie can
say for certain. “But it certainly makes
sense, given that Cat machines are supposed
to have a 50,000-hour frame life,”
Wyllie says. Finning’s success with comprehensive
rebuilds on these major pieces
of equipment may indeed mean that
more companies will consider the rebuild
option as a cost-effective method of longterm
fleet maintenance.
But the final word goes to Herritt. “No
matter if you’re a big inventory owner or
a small one, the bottom line is: do you
want to be on the hook for several million
bucks for something taken out of the
showroom floor, or do you want to wait a
month and get something just as good for
a fraction of the cost To me, the choice
is clear.”
40 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

illustration by chip zdarsky
www.finning.ca Spring 2007 • tracks & treads 41

Count On Us
Community Building:
For decades, durable Cat machines have been building
Western Canada. Here, a Caterpillar 922 traxcavator
loads out from the road allowance on a municipal job
at Williams Lake, B.C in 1961.
42 tracks & treads • Spring 2007 www.finning.ca

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