Subscribe Today!

Picture Your Perfect Tractor

Mix and match parts to create the ultimate utility tractor

By Keith Gribbins

Building a superior machine is like assembling the pieces of a puzzle. Everyone’s end-uses are somewhat unique, so conceptualizing the ideal skid steer, excavator or tractor is the ability to effectively envision the sum of its many systems and components — and then choose which ones fit your exact operations.

When designing a dedicated work tractor, for instance, pictures come to mind of prototypes and schematics, engines and transmissions, PTOs and implements and the ultimate operator’s station. You need to envision a guidebook to buying the perfect compact utility tractor for your landscape, construction or even large acreage worksites. more

Masters of Multi-Tasking
The Mobilized Workspace of Walk-in Trucks more

Tractor Trivia
Industry Experts Discuss the Latest in Compact Tractor Technologies more

Building Rental Power
Understanding the Importance of a Rental Power Source more

Hybrid Visions
Class 6 and 7 Electric-Diesel Commercial Trucks Are Helping Contractors See Green

By Mike Elwell

The challenge of providing a cleaner world coupled with the demand for a dwindling energy source is fueling innovation in the truck world. Construction and landscape crews utilize machines and trucks all day long — often seven days a week — which means they invest heavily in diesel and gas products that affect their bottom line every month.

To help balance these increasing fuel costs with more economical products, truck manufacturers are now offering fleets a greener and more fuel-efficient alternative — Class 6 and 7 hybrid-electric commercial trucks. These trucks offer a significant improvement in fuel economy, ranging from 30 to 60 percent depending on application. In addition, they also feature reduced emissions and noise, which make the trucks more community-friendly. more

Fuel for Thought
Understanding the Ins and Outs of Biodiesel for Compact Construction Equipment

By Don Miksch

With the growing demand for alternative fuels, the biomass market is quickly maturing. Construction and landscape equipment manufacturers are releasing news of biodiesel-ready machines, so alternative fuel producers are popping up across the country. New sources of biofuel are being discovered at an incredible rate, and a distribution network is being built to meet the supply and demand. As the market becomes popular, professionals will need to understand their alternatives in the expanding fuel source industry. more

Chariots of the Gods
The Monster Department, All-Terrain Transports and Polaris’ 2009 Press Launch

By Keith Gribbins

Most readers probably don’t realize it, but Compact Equipment has a fairly large cryptozoology division (also known as the Monster Department). Sure, they work in the basement, usually doubling on the nightshift, and it’s mostly just watching old X-Files reruns, but it’s an underappreciated wing of the business (and that’s coming from the president).

Let me start by saying we are first and foremost a construction, landscape and rental equipment magazine, the only publication that specifically covers the versatility and productivity of small machines like skid steers and mini excavators. But in our spare time (to let off a little magazine steam), we enjoy the pseudo-studies of cryptids — those animals that don’t necessarily fall into any sort of “contemporary” zoological catalogue (like your average lake monster or Sasquatch family). more

Diggin' in the Dirt
Three Tips for Renting a Backhoe Loader to Use in Utility Work

By Amber Reed

Public and private utilities, landscape crews, general contractors and rental houses put backhoe loaders to good use, particularly when it comes to installing or repairing utilities, moving and loading products at nurseries, tackling residential reconstruction and everything in between. The duality of a loader backhoe involves dig and load operations — the two irreducible elements on most construction sites. Fitted with an iron-clad digging arm on the back and steel loader bucket on the front, a backhoe loader can excavate and move product and spoils with ease and efficiency.

Having the right machine can save a contractor both time and money. Here are three tips to make renting a backhoe loader easy: more

• Terex’s TX860B TLB
• Volvo BL70 Backhoe Loader
• Yanmar’s CBL 40 Compact Backhoe Loader
• Kubota B26 Tractor Loader Backhoe
• Allmand’s TLB-225
• Komatsu WB146-5
• Caterpillar E-Series Backhoe Loaders
• JCB’s Backhoe Loaders

more