BUILDING THE FUTURE — page 4

INTRODUCING THE ZAXIS 130-5 — page 7

DHSP GOLD KEY EVENT — page 8

THE POWER OF RELATIONSHIPS — page 10

SECOND ISSUE 2013

A HITACHI CONSTRUCTION AND MINING PRODUCTS PUBLICATION

BREAKOUT

A HITACHI CONSTRUCTION AND MINING PRODUCTS PUBLICATION

BREAKOUT

Kelly Granatier, Director, Sales, Hitachi Division

Thinking ouTside The box

Construction contractors, have you considered

checking out our Hitachi Forester line?

Although typically used by logging companies,

the Hitachi Forester is quite versatile, offering key

features and advantages not usually found in con-

struction excavators.

The Foresters are built using heavy-duty structures

and next-size-up components. They come standard

with high and wide heavy-duty undercarriages, mak-

ing them ideal for those tough applications where

standard excavators may not be the best solution.

They also come standard with forestry-approved

cabs that can be ftted to risers of different heights,

making them ideal for accessing truck and railcar

beds. Combine with heavy-duty sheet metal and

purpose-built engine covers, and you have machines

well-suited for scrap and demolition applications.

Another plus is that Foresters can be confgured

to work in a variety of applications and can be

ftted at the factory with a number of powerful

attachments. Confgurations include Road Builders,

Processors, Log Loaders, Live Heels, Butt-N-Tops,

and Power Clams.

So keep the Hitachi Forester in mind when you

quote your next project. Available in 210, 240, 290,

and 370 sizes, a Forester might just be your best

solution.

ON INSIDEthe

eliminaTe conTaminanTs

and exTend machine life

Particle contamination is as equally

destructive to your feet as moisture

contamination.

Corrective action usually involves

an expensive, messy, time-consuming

cleanup process that doesn’t even

guarantee success. But an alternative is

a portable oil-fltration system. It will

trap the smallest of particles, cleaning

oil at a fraction of the cost.

Use portable oil-filtration systems:

n To salvage contaminated oil

n To clean the machine after

catastrophic failure (flush first)

n To evacuate oil from a system

n To clean a system contaminated

by attachments

n To extend the life of hydraulic oil

Not all oil can be cleaned. When a

system has severe moisture contamina-

tion, a portable fltration system will

alert you when the water-saturation

level has hit 75 percent and the oil

must be replaced.

Techknowledge

The Thick and Thin of

oil ViscosiTy

When oil viscosity test results are

abnormal, chances are something else

is wrong in the system or engine.

Factors can include:

n Fluid dilution of water, fuel, or coolant,

or the addition of incorrect oil

nContamination from soot, sludge,

or additives

nOperating temperature colder or

warmer than typical or recommended

operating conditions

nOxidation when oxygen from water,

air, or contaminants attaches to the

oil, thickens, and forms deposits

(sludge)

nOil moving through a pump or motor

system, or exposed to high heat,

causing the molecular units to break

or cut (shear), lowering the viscosity,

and thinning the oil

Be sure to perform frequent oil

sampling relative to machine-usage

hours and oil type to see if abnormal

viscosity, is alerting you to a problem.

serVicing diesel parTiculaTe filTers

Diesel particulate flters (DPFs) are designed to clean themselves through a two-

step regeneration process. But when signifcant amounts of ash have collected,

an alert light on the cab dashboard will instruct you to contact a certifed exhaust

flter cleaning facility for service. This may occur beyond the 3,000- or 5,000-hour

EPA minimum.

At the cleaning facility, a DPF is thoroughly inspected to determine whether

it can be cleaned or has become defective and needs to be scrapped.

The cleaning process begins by subjecting the DPF to pin-gauging and

air-fow testing. This determines how plugged the DPF has become. It will

then either undergo thermal or pneumatic cleaning, or both. After cleaning

is complete, the DPF is then retested with the pin-gauging technique to measure

the cleaning results.

3

Building thefuture

ost interstates were built in the

1950s and ’60s. However I-69,

which will ultimately connect Mexico

to Canada, got its start in 1991, and

will snake diagonally through eight

states. In 2007 it was designated as

one of six “Corridors of the Future.”

Plagued by controversy on many sides,

I-69 currently exists in bits and pieces.

One of those missing links, in Indiana

between Evansville and Bloomington,

is slated for 2014 completion. Prepping

for their I-69 contracts, U.S. Aggre-

gate, owned by the Heritage Group,

purchased the old Springville Quarry,

idled since the 1970s. In July 2012,

Young Trucking of Unionville, Indiana,

was contracted to remove the quarry’s

overburden and add roads, readying it

so Springville can output riprap for box

culverts and base rock for paving.

“Actually, we have several contracts

on the I-69 project,” explains Greg

Young, whose wife, Karen, is the owner

of Young Trucking. “We’re work-

ing with just about everybody who is

connected to it. The bulk of the work

won’t happen until 2014 when the

pavement goes down, but the quarry

has kept us quite busy. We’re also doing

utility work for the University of Indi-

ana as well as subcontracting to other

companies.”

aT The quarry

So far, Young Trucking has moved

about a million yards of overburden

at the quarry since they’ve been onsite.

For a while, they were running both

day and night shifts to satisfy the quar-

ry’s timeline, but things have settled

down to a single day shift. “We’re hop-

ing to continue to stay and work at the

quarry, doing more than our current

contract stripping,” says Young.

Greg’s son, Jake, is the primary

operator of the 470. He and his dad

took the plastic wrapper off the exca-

vator’s seat, and the machine has been

in use ever since.

“It’s got over 1,500 hours on it now,

and we haven’t had a lick of trouble

with it,” says Jake. “It’s quick, well bal-

anced, and very dependable. We

had another brand down here, but

everybody just wanted to run the

Hitachi. So the 470 has stayed, and

the other one is gone. The company

where Dad and I used to work had a

number of Hitachis, and they worked

well there too.”

“We found the Hitachi was far more

stable than the other brand we tried,”

adds Greg. “Hitachi outswings that

other one, and I’m convinced the over-

all balance is much better. The other

machine was always tipping and light

in the rear. And after taking care of a

few new-machine bugs within the frst

several hours we had it, we’ve run that

470 20 hours a day for a number of

months until the quarry was ready to

scale back. We’ve never had a hiccup.

“Even though we’re working in shot

rock, some of the rock is still as big as

a pickup truck. But the Hitachi always

has the power to load. It will also

crawl while you are digging without

any problems or hesitation, it doesn’t

go through oil, and the Isuzu engine is

very dependable.”

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4

all in The family

Young Trucking is a family business,

with everyone contributing. Mom

Karen is the owner and handles the

accounting. Dad Greg has the contacts

and puts together the bids. Son Jake

is currently operating the Hitachi

ZX470LC-5 at the quarry, and son

Josh runs their truck shop.

But it wasn’t always that way. Both

Greg and Jake had been working for

a construction company that did utili-

ties and demolition. But in the early

’90s, when the company decided to

get out of the trucking business and

use independent contractors, Greg saw

an opportunity to build a proftable

business for himself and his family. He

bought one of the trucks, enlisted his

wife, and subcontracted back to his

place of employment — all with his

employer’s blessing. Over the years, as

Greg built a feet, Jake left that contrac-

tor and went to work for the family’s

trucking business. When the number of

trucks hit 50, there were just too many

irons in the fre. Greg knew it was time

5

to retire from his day job and devote

all his time to the family business.

“Thanks to my wife and sons, the

trucking business was in good shape

when I retired. Ever since the housing

market plunge of 2008, we’ve had to

work harder to keep our trucks run-

ning. As we are a minority-owned busi-

ness, we’ve been fortunate to qualify

for more government public works.

This has helped us be ready for the

even larger contracts associated with

I-69. Heavy-highway work is a totally

different animal than commercial or

residential. No fuel surcharges are

allowed, yet you’re bidding on work

three years down the road. I’ve gone

through some learning experiences

that will serve us well on the interstate

contracts.”

Most of the company’s work is

construction-related trucking. They

are qualifed to haul aggregate, wet

concrete, asphalt, and overburden, and

most of their upcoming I-69 work will

be trucking materials. They especially

seek aggregate haul work. Besides the

heavy-highway players, Young Truck-

ing has about 750 other customers.

The majority are small and diversifed

in their needs.

“A couple of our trucks are set up

with conveyors so we can spread top-

soil or shoot a combination of soil and

seed,” explains Greg. “We have excava-

tors and other equipment for loading

our trucks and spreading what we

deliver. Earthwork is a carryover from

my previous employer. Both Jake and I

always liked earthwork, so we’ve kept

our hand in it. It’s one reason why we

jumped on the quarry project.

“I think Hitachi makes a very good

machine. I like the idea that they don’t

make 150 products like some other

brands do. They mainly build excava-

tors, including the large mining ones,

and haul trucks. They put all their at-

tention into that, and it shows.”

Young Trucking is serviced by Rudd

Equipment, Indianapolis, Indiana.

View more about this story at

www.hitachiconstruction.com/young

(Right) Karen Young, Owner, Young Trucking.

(Below) Jake Young, Operator, ZX470LC-5.

Josh and Greg Young in front of some of the

family’s fleet of dump and special-use trucks.

6

hat happens when you special-

ize in excavators? You create

an extremely versatile excavator like

the ZX130-5. Replacing the ZX120-3,

our latest model is designed to appeal

to owner/operators who tackle a wide

variety of jobs like digging basements,

loading trucks, and placing pipe. It

packs impressive productivity, thanks

in part to its power-boost capability

and optional backfll blade. And it has

excellent fuel economy due to its Isuzu

engine. The result is one small, power-

ful, and maneuverable excavator that is

easily transported.

Short-throw, low-effort controls,

unmatched metering, and smooth

multifunction operation provide fnesse

and precision when they’re needed.

Three work modes allow an opera-

tor to choose a digging style that fts

the job. High Productivity (HP) deliv-

ers more power and faster hydraulic

response. Power (P) delivers a balance

of power, speed, and fuel economy for

normal operation. And Economy (E)

maximizes fuel effciency while deliver-

ing an enhanced level of productivity.

The power-boost button helps muscle

through tough spots.

Other options include a heated air-

suspension seat, additional lighting,

a rearview camera, control-pattern

change valve, high-fow auxiliary

hydraulic package, and more. Your

Hitachi dealer can even add iPod

connectivity.

The ZX130-5, like all ZX Dash-5

Excavators, comes standard-equipped

with three years of ZXLink™ Ultimate,

enabling 24/7 online access to machine

location, health, utilization, fuel con-

sumption, and other valuable informa-

tion for better understanding of costs

and jobsite performance.

For more information about the

Zaxis 130-5 Excavator, go online to

www.hitachiconstruction.com or visit

your local Hitachi dealer.

W

Hitachi introduces the

the perfect model for owner/operators

ZAXIS130-5

7

ou might think Jim Dent Con-

struction Ltd. of Hope, British

Columbia, has bitten into a mother

of a timber project high in the Coast

Mountains of northern British Colum-

bia. But in reality, the company is doing

the pioneering work for the building of

BC Hydro’s largest transmission line in

recent years.

“We have about 12 months to clear

timber and build access roads over

120 km (74.5 miles), which amounts

to 600 hectares (1,482 acres) of clear-

ing and 60 km (37 miles) of road build-

ing,” says Sandy Dent, in partnership

with his dad, Jim. “It’s all remote camp

work, all new construction in

the bush.”

And that’s the reason for the four

new Foresters.

“We can’t afford any downtime,”

says Dent. “That’s the reason for the

new Foresters. It’s for the guarding,

and the more heavy-duty undercarriage

and track components. The straight

civil machines get banged up too bad.

But that’s not to say we don’t already

have some of those machines at the

site. We have two Hitachi ZX350s, a

330, and an older EX300 there now,

and they’re all fully guarded. With the

y

The Dent family was impressed with the

factory tour they received and how each

Forester is made to last.

Jim Dent Construction Ltd. buys four ZX370-3 Foresters to tackle

8

addition of the four Forester models,

we’ll really have the feet we need to

meet our commitments. We will have at

least one of the Foresters building road

and two in the bush clearing. We’ll be

piling most of the wood and burning,

and we’ll be doing a lot of raking. So,

the fourth Forester might rake.”

The Dents frst thought about buy-

ing more civil or standard Hitachi

excavators, and paying to have them

“guarded-up” by Wajax Equipment,

their Hitachi dealer.

“As we developed our quotes for

new ZX350-5 and custom guard-

ing, I thought we should also price

the ZX370-3 Foresters,” says Mike

Bottom, Dent’s Wajax salesman. “I

expected there would be some differ-

ence because the factory packs so much

more into their machines than just the

guarding. But I wasn’t sure about how

close we might come. And, as the com-

pany doing the customization, if the

Dents chose that route, we wanted to

be realistic in our timing for the work.”

Ultimately, it was decided that for

this project, the Hitachi 370 Forester

was a better value than the guarded

Hitachi 350. It not only provided the

extra guarding, but it had more travel

power, a larger fuel tank, and a signif-

cantly larger, higher, and safer cab for

extreme conditions.

Jim Dent Construction Ltd. is serviced by

Wajax Equipment, Langley, British Columbia.

deere-hitachi plants love gold key events

Each Hitachi excavator or forester machine

built in North American manufacturing

plants are made to order and available

with multiple customizations. When a

significant order is placed, the buyer is

encouraged to come to the factory once

the machines are completed. The buyer is

then the first to drive them out of the plant,

with the enthusiastic encouragement of

all the employees who helped build the

equipment.

buys four ZX370-3 Foresters to tackle a huge BC Hydro job

9

The power of

The Vancouver Airport Authority was one of

Jacob Bros. Construction’s first clients. Here

the company is finishing a portion of dyke

construction.

relationships

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10

acob Bros. Construction, Ltd, of

Surrey, British Columbia, is the

tale of building relationships and al-

ways working to exceed expectations.

The three brothers grew up in a

construction family, working under the

tutelage of their carpenter father, but

never contemplated the prospect of

working together. While construction

of some sort was likely an inevitable

outcome, their mother strongly encour-

aged them all to go to university and

earn an opportunity to have a “good

job.” Scott and Todd did just that, but

as the youngest brother, Jason followed

his strong entrepreneurial spirit and

chose a more direct path into construc-

tion after high school.

Fast-forward 20 or so years. The

two brothers, who got “good jobs”

with their post-secondary education,

work at well-established construction

companies, both as operating manag-

ers. And surprisingly, their younger

brother owns his own civil construction

company, performing subcontract and

general contracting services. All three

work in the same general market area.

Jason, having already achieved great

success with his own company, is now

eager to grow his business into a larger

company, with the ability to execute

larger and more complicated infrastruc-

ture projects.

Scott Jacob explains what happened

next. “Jason and I were in Victoria at-

tending the BC Roadbuilders AGM and

Christmas party, and Todd happened

to be in Victoria on other business.

This afforded an opportunity to get

together over a beer and a catch up

on each other’s respective careers and

ongoing challenges.” Over the course

of a few more hours, and a few more

beers, it became clear that each of the

brothers had reached a bit of a cross

road with their own situation, and out

of that, the idea of joining forces under

a new company structure was born.

Jason laid it down. He said, “It might

be pretty good for all of us if we pooled

our mutual experience to create a single

company that we jointly own.” The

more they talked, the better the idea

sounded.

They realized each of the three of

them had spent over 20 years building

relationships, and they knew they could

leverage these relationships even further

with their own company. The time they

had spent working for their carpenter

father in the early years was reason to

believe they could manage the chal-

lenges of working together as brothers,

while navigating the challenges associ-

ated with building a business within the

ever-changing construction industry.

And so the brothers shook hands, and

embarked upon the journey of build-

ing their own company — Jacob Bros.

Construction Ltd.

“We were very fortunate,” says Scott.

“With our combined experience, some

additional capital we each brought,

and the great launching point Jason’s

original company provided, we were

quickly able to get established as a new

company. We had a lot of individual

experience we could reference as we

began to establish relationships with

banks, bonding companies, and poten-

tial clients.”

By the time they were ready to open

their doors, it was late Spring 2008

and the construction industry was in

the midst of an absolute “boom.” Work

was plentiful, and the brothers had sev-

eral large building projects, as well as a

steady fow of private development site

works. The biggest challenges appeared

to be attracting staff and establishing

company structure. However; by the

J

11

Fall of 2008 it was a very different

world. With the economic crisis under-

way, many of the secured projects were

cancelled and the steady fow of private

development work stopped abruptly.

The construction boom was suddenly

over, and work was at an absolute pre-

mium — many established companies

had a backlog of work to keep resourc-

es busy, but for Jacob Bros. there was

no option but to compete aggressively

for new work that was in scarce supply.

Fortunately, the Federal’s Provincial

Governments were committed to stabi-

lizing the economy through infrastruc-

ture spending programs. Jacob Bros.

was able to adapt and leverage past re-

lationships and past experience, shifting

their corporate focus towards public

infrastructure projects throughout Brit-

ish Columbia. “Using the knowledge

and experience we already had with BC

Ministry of Transportation and High-

ways work, this was a natural area of

focus,” says Scott.

The brothers also focused on raising

the profle of the business to ensure

private owners, engineers, architects,

and anyone else who might provide

work opportunities knew that Jacob

Bros. was established and committed to

making their place within the industry

— in spite of what had become very

challenging times.

“We decided our best opportunity

to communicate the message of Ja-

cob Bros.’ commitment to building

a successful company to staff and to

industry stakeholders was to simply

follow through with our plan of having

an open house. We compiled a list of

people from our past individual careers,

sent out several hundred invitations

asking people to join us in an open

house to see and to hear what we were

building. In the context of what had

become a very down economy, and

an industry that had fallen off of what

seemed like endless good times, we

were not at all sure what to expect

for a turnout.”

A rare heavy snow hit the Greater

Vancouver area the day of their open

house. The city had all but shut down.

Incredibly, what could have been a

real disappointment turned out to be a

tremendous success, and most of those

invited braved the road conditions

and showed up to the event. “We had

attendees from as far away as Calgary,

Vancouver Island, and some important

dignitaries including the Minister of

Transportation and Highways.” The

event marked a formal launch of the

business, and the brothers began what

would become a corporate focus to

Jacob Bros. Construction is providing the labor

and equipment for filling and placing wire-

mesh components for what is probably the

largest MSE project in North America.

12

build upon those many relationships,

and to build many more.

One relationship that predates the

open house is with Wajax Equipment,

the Hitachi dealer.

“My brother Jason is in charge of

our feet of equipment and all mechani-

cal support issues. And the relationship

he has with Wajax Industries and

Hitachi excavators go way back. I

think that’s the point of what we’re

all about. In this case, we work with

one salesman and one company for the

bulk of our excavators. Michael Wood

from Wajax and Jason developed a re-

lationship years ago, and I must say the

Wajax support has been phenomenal.

The pricing up-front is very competi-

tive, and after-the-sale support has

been great.”

building relaTionships — yVr

“Five years later, our focus on rela-

tionships is working. We aggressively

invest in building relationships — not

only with clients that we’d like to do

business with, but also subcontractors

and suppliers, and our staff.”

Great examples of how their relation-

ships have paid off are the two projects

that Breakout recently visited.

“In the frst month after we started

our business, we started building a

relationship with the Vancouver Air-

port Authority (YVR). I had worked

with YVR in the past, and knew them

to be a client we could identify with.

Work at YVR requires competitive

pricing, but also a tremendous com-

mitment to quality, safety, the environ-

ment, and adhering to schedules. The

balanced approach that YVR takes

to these needs results in their being a

company that recognizes “value” as

opposed to simply price — making

them exactly the type of owner we were

keen to sell our services to. We took

time to understand their needs,

get prequalifed through their safety

program, and then set about winning

work and investing into equipment

needed to support their projects.”

As a result, Jacob Bros. has enjoyed

a steady stream of airport work since

the beginning. The current YVR Dyke

Upgrade project is one in a series of

projects the company has won over the

past four years, and has the privilege

to work on. Tidal waters lap at the

edge of the airport property, so YVR

has a perimeter dyke system that was

constructed with the airport infrastruc-

ture. They are now in the process of

raising the dykes to current food levels,

re-sloping, and then upgrading the road

surface to a paved two-lane roadway.

Jacob Bros. is transporting granular

fll material to the site by barge, which

again underscores the closeness of the

water. The company uses part of their

feet of ZX350LC-5 Hitachi excavators

to load 40-ton rock trucks.

building relaTionships —

souTh fraser perimeTer road

The other project Breakout visited is

Jacob Bros.’ work on the South Fraser

Perimeter Road for the BC Ministry

of Transportation and Highways —

working directly for the Joint Venture

— Fraser Transportation Group (FTG).

Jacob Bros. is providing the labor and

equipment to construct mechanically

stabilized earth-fll (MSE) walls for

the new freeway in locations where a

split-grade cross-section is necessary to

suit the site topography. “These will be

some of the largest MSE walls ever con-

structed in North America. The scale of

these walls is absolutely impressive.”

The company invested heavily to

perform this work effciently and cost

effectively. “On a labor and equip-

ment only project, effciency of opera-

tions is critical. And with our work

forming a crucial part of the overall

project, deadlines are always tight and

of singular importance to the overall

project schedule. Our job is to handle

and fll the wire baskets and granular

fll provided by the Joint Venture. The

MSE walls then become a series of

stacked and interwoven baskets. It’s an

interesting job because it’s big and very

labor intensive, but uses relatively small

iron. We’re primarily using our Hitachi

ZX210 and some zero tail-swing Hita-

chis as well. These excavators are doing

a very good job for us there. They’re

fast, agile, and have more than enough

power to handle the fll.

“I always get the sense that Wajax

and Michael, our salesman, are go-

ing the extra mile to make sure that

whatever we need gets looked after.”

As a consequence, the color orange is

predominant on every earthworking

project the company undertakes.

“I always knew that Hitachi made a

good product, but now I can say they

make an exceptional product. They

really do!”

Jacob Bros. Construction, Ltd. is serviced

by Wajax Equipment, Vancouver Island and

Langley, British Columbia.

View more about this story at

www.hitachiconstruction.com/jacobbros

Scott Jacob, Partner, Jacob Bros. Construction.

13

ocated in the heart of North

America’s West Coast logging

industry, the Deere-Hitachi Specialty

Products (DHSP) plant in Langley,

British Columbia, has developed a

modern production approach that

allows it to build each of its products

to order for a variety of logging or

extreme applications.

Logging applications often prove

to be the roughest on excavator-type

machines because of the bush-like

locations and typically mountainous

terrain where they work.

Each Hitachi made at the plant,

designated Forester models, feature

a purpose-built mainframe with a

strengthened boom tower. “Our under-

carriages are much more robust,” notes

Dave McFarlane, Product Marketing

Manager, DHSP. “And the same goes

for most other fabrications as well as

the components we use. For example,

on our ZX370-3 Forester, we use the

standard ZX470 track components.

So, you have standard, easy-to-replace

Hitachi rollers, drive motors, and track

gear on a smaller machine.”

The roomy cabs are different from

those on standard excavators. They are

like the Forester itself, purpose-built for

the woods, with multiple riser heights

and either-side or rear entry.

The Isuzu Tier 3-certifed engine

meets all rural application requirements

and boasts excellent fuel economy. That

lower fuel consumption is enhanced for

multiple-day use without refueling by

a standard high-capacity 1,049-L (277

gal.) tank.

Although most of the plant’s produc-

tion goes to West Coast logging opera-

tions, DHSP does enjoy sales through

the dealerships it serves across Canada,

the U.S, and some foreign markets.

Tough machines

for EXTREME usel

14

PRSRT STD

AUTO

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

STEVENS POINT, WI

PERMIT NO. 272

DKD1048 Litho in U.S.A. (13-05) Hitachi Construction and Mining Products • 1515 5th Avenue • Moline, IL 61265 • www.hitachiconstruction.com

A jack-of-all-trades is good at some things but great at nothing. That’s why at

Hitachi, we stay on course specializing in excavators. By not getting sidetracked,

we make exactly what you want. Great, reliable excavators. ThaT’s all.

N e v e r s i d e t r a c k e d .

hitachiconstruction.com