Compact Equipment Magazine

Cover Story:

Walk-Behind Trenchers Break New Ground in Softening Markets

By Keith Gribbins

Professionals need a small machine with a good set of teeth. Shark, alligator, scorpion, rock, frost or cup — these are the names of the steel fangs you can fix to your pedestrian trencher to eat through dirt, roots and rock with velocity and accuracy.

Over the last 50 years, the pedestrian trencher has become an essential machine for digging on construction and landscape jobs, spearheading those quick cut-and-cover trenching operations.
Renting or purchasing the right chain, teeth and trencher combination allows professionals to roll onto the jobsite and saw through most types of soil, installing everything from fiber optics to water drainage. Since the first compact trenchers were unveiled, the machines have ridden the highs and lows of the housing industry. more

This Month on CE Unbound:

Backhoe Loader Bonanza
A Breakdown of the Market Technologies and User Operations for this Duel-Tasked Machine more

CUL-de-Safety
Getting to the Bottom of Compact Utility Loader Safety and Best Practices more

The Signal Turns Green
Demand for Hybrid Technologies Fuels More Fuel Efficient and Cleaner Trucks more

FEATURE STORIEs:

more
Soil Slicers Skid Steers and Trencher Attachments Join Forces for Effective Earth Eating By Pam Stask	A Good Direction The Horizontal Directional Drilling Market is Experiencing a Strong Year By Pam Stask


Big Performance Honda's Big Red MUV Fuses Automotive Features with a Utility Purpose By Pam Stask	The Green Scene GIE + EXPO Returns to Louisville for a Second Year of Success Stories Compiled by CE Staff

Changing Landscapes
An Update on the Green Industry from the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute

By Kris Kiser

Like the North American economy as a whole, the green industry is faced with numerous public policy hurdles in 2008, including climate change, ethanol, emissions and water usage. The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) is the major international trade association representing the manufacturers and the suppliers of consumer and commercial landscape machines in the green industry — outdoor power equipment such as lawnmowers, garden tractors, utility vehicles, trimmers, edgers, chainsaws, snow throwers, tillers, leaf blowers and other related products. more

Markets and Monsters
Don’t Get Scared by the Economy — Instead Get Smart and Diversify

By Keith Gribbins

Halloween seems especially ominous this year with that creepy economy monster lurking about. High gas prices, lost jobs, a weak dollar, Wall Street fire sales — he’s got his tentacles in everything.

Follow his slime trail and read about the $700 billion bailout program for distressed mortgages being negotiated by the Bush administration and congressional leaders, to fix the housing crisis. It’s an emergency injection of your tax dollars (which might be better spent on infrastructure and road projects) that is making lots of people run for pitchforks and torches. That $700 billion is actually in addition to billions more for bailouts of insurance giant American International Group (AIG), finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the government-arranged marriage of Bear Stearns and JPMorgan Chase. That’s just a part of the path of destruction left by the economy monster at press time. more

• Caterpillar 906H and 908H Toro TRX Walk-Behind Trenchers
• Vermeer RTX 100
• RAMROD Mini Skid Loaders
• Bobcat 418 Compact Excavator
• New Holland's E27B Compact Excavator
• Komatsu America's PC35MR-3 Compact Excavator
• "Tractor Supply"
• EDGE Power Racks

more

Webinars:

Sponsored by:
Title: Controlling Fleet Costs in a Tight Economy
Date: November 12, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm ET
Cost: FREE to attendees

Are your fuel costs getting out of hand? Are you concerned about escalating maintenance costs? Are your fleet operating costs climbing, but the cause is unclear? Would you like to streamline your operation but don't know where to start? Or if it's worth the expense?

Join Lance Massey with BorgSolutions for this informative webinar on how to streamline your fleet operation to reduce fuel, maintenance and labor expenses. Lance will share real world examples of how leading construction companies are combating current economic pressure by improving efficiencies and the information they use to control their fleet costs.

Log on to this FREE webinar to learn more. Attendees will be able to ask questions and interact with the presenter throughout the entire event.

Click here to register