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✔✔“I’ve partnered with CustomWorks fornearly 10 years, which has helped mebetter provide our customers with safe,rugged equipment solutions,” said JasonCherry, Sales Representative for FlintEquipment’s Atlanta office. “With theirhelp and willingness to work weekendsand a Memorial Day holiday, we were ableto quickly customize the initial excavatororder with the appropriate enhancementsand get Benton-Georgia on the jobsite inless than two weeks. Each machine wasin CustomWorks’ facility for less than fourdays total.”A total of 10 John Deere excavators,varying in size and custom features, weremodified as part of two different ordersand pre-delivered by CustomWorks to thePennsylvania jobsite directly. Some of themodifications and added work done to theexcavators included:To provide extra grip on the slippery 45-degree slopes, 100 raised,single grouser bars were individually welded to the top of the 350model excavator track pads.✔✔✔• Grouser Bar Work — To provide extragrip on the sloped terrain, approximately 100 raised,single grouser bars were individually welded to thetop of the excavator track pads on each of the four350 model excavators. This took approximately threedays of total labor.• Grouser Bars Shipped On-Site — For the 200 modelexcavators that were not customized with grouserbars, Flint Equipment shipped extra grouser bars tothe jobsite so they could be installed if needed.• Customized Auxiliary Hydraulic Line Kits — Toprotect the pipe being laid, the job required Benton-Georgia to sort out the backfill so it mainly consistedof 2-in.-minus dirt without any rocks or abrasivematerials. To accomplish this, special hydraulicsystems were installed on four of the 350 modelexcavators so the contractor could use an Outlaw“padding” bucket to separate out the material and ahammer (hydraulic breaker) with the same machine.CustomWorks reconfigured the way the hydrauliccircuit was routed back to the hydraulic tank, so thecontractor could reverse the hydraulic direction ifthey had to clear a jam in the bucket. A case drain linewas also added to these excavators.• Common Hydraulic Line Kits — Two of the 200model excavators received two-way electric solenoidhydraulic line kits that enabled the contractorto more effectively use hydraulic grapples andhydraulic thumbs.• Arm Installation — The job required immediatemachine turnaround, so Flint Equipment utilizedCustomWorks to install arms on two of the excavatorsthat didn’t yet have them.Two major unexpected floods nearly derailed theproject, delaying the crew one week each time. Someof the Marcellus Shale was so steep and slippery fromthe rain that Benton-Georgia was forced to hook awinch system on the back of each excavator to winchthe machine up the terrain and ensure it would stay inplace while performing the work.“These heavy-duty, customized excavators were oneof the main reasons we were able to build the pipelinesystem in the timeframe that the customer asked for,”said Lightner. “The grouser bars really helped keepthe machine from sliding off the mountain slopes. Thedifferent hydraulic kits provided added versatility anduse of accessories that helped us do our job better,whether that was breaking out the rock to dig the ditchor backfilling the ditch to the specified requirements.Instead of just digging, we were able to do multipletasks on a difficult foundation with each machine.”One Job Leads To AnotherBenton-Georgia was able to successfully layapproximately six miles of pipe in 45-ft lengths in lessthan the required three-month window. Finishing thejob ahead of schedule, the contractor has been awardedmore than six more natural gas pipeline jobs since. Todate, Lightner estimates that he’s used the customizedexcavators to lay approximately 30 miles of pipelineranging from 6 in. in diameter up to 24 in.“The machines and customizations are holding up well,as we are still using them today,” stated Lightner. “We usethem in a very harsh environment, yet they still perform.We won’t hesitate to work with Flint Equipment again,especially when we need equipment customizations.”Tim Adkisson is the Market Manager for CustomWorks, a brandcompany of Paladin based in Davenport, IA. He can be reachedat (563) 386-9666 or tadkisson@paladinbrands.com.30 Utility Contractor | July 2012