By Emily Pagura & Ryan Ruhl
From the August 2024 Issue of PLOW
Natural disasters and snowstorms can strike at any time, greatly impacting communities, businesses, and infrastructure around the country. When an extreme weather event occurs, cleaning up and revitalizing an affected area can take days, months, or even years. That’s why it is essential landscape contractors are prepared to support restoration efforts and are equipped with the proper machines to work safely and efficiently.
Equipment Selection
When working to clean up and manage wreckage produced by earthquakes, tornados, floods, and hurricanes, there are a variety of compact equipment types that are ideal for such demanding applications. When providing support in areas with significant debris and wreckage, skid steer loaders are highly recommended. Their compact size and design make it easy to maneuver around objects and obstacles, helping to maximize capability in a complicated work area.
Skid steer loaders can be easily equipped with non-pneumatic tires, such as solid rubber or flex tires without air, enabling a contractor to work without the possible setback of a flat tire. Landscapers may also want to consider adding a debris package to their machines, which typically adds an engine air pre-cleaner, a polycarbonate door, and other shielding and guards around the machine to protect both the equipment and the operator.
In addition to skid steer loaders, compact excavators equipped with the right attachments and implements can provide support in times of need. When working to clean up a site, compact excavators, equipped with thumbs or a variety of buckets, can pick up and place heavier materials, helping to clear a space efficiently and safely.
When a tilt rotator is implemented on a compact excavator, this versatile tool can be paired with a bucket to dig at an angle or carefully place dirt and rock, while the integrated grab is great for placing larger items precisely. In areas with limited access, or where the excavator’s tail swing can create limitations, the ability to reposition the work tool instead of turning the cab or tracking the machine drives greater efficiency and precision. If a compact excavator is being used to support disaster cleanup, as with the loader, it’s highly recommended to add polycarbonate doors to not only protect windshield glass and screens but create a barrier to help keep the operator safe.
Attachment Support
Selecting the right attachments to support cleanup efforts can significantly increase capability and productivity. Landscapers are encouraged to equip their fleets with a variety of attachment styles to meet the applications of natural disaster cleanup. Compact construction attachments can not only help move debris and wreckage, break up fallen objects and branches, and lift and place large materials, but they can also help maximize uptime when timely cleanup is crucial.
When there is a lot of debris to manage, including building wreckage and natural material waste like trees and branches, grapple buckets, multi-purpose buckets, and root rakes are ideal attachments to move large quantities of materials. Grapple and multi-purpose buckets can efficiently pick-up and move objects from a cleanup site, while root rakes can help collect and rake up debris from the ground to move and place it elsewhere.
Hydraulic hammers are also incredibly useful to help break up concrete and pieces of heavy solid debris. Once an item is broken into smaller pieces, it can then be scooped into a bucket and removed from the site. Similarly, mulching attachments added to skid steer loaders and compact track loaders as well as mulching drums added to compact excavators can help to clean up brush and remove fallen trees. Once the debris has been broken into smaller quantities, brooms can help collect all remaining material.
When flooding occurs, post-flood debris management can be incredibly demanding, but the usage of attachments can help simplify the job at hand. Utility and grapple buckets, especially those with larger capacity, are incredibly useful for collecting sandbags in flooding environments. Once a sandbag is exposed to flooding, it then becomes classified as hazardous waste. Therefore, compact construction equipment models such as skid steer loaders and compact track loaders equipped with buckets can successfully manage hazardous waste, removing it from the jobsite. Once the flooding has cleared, angled brooms and pickup brooms can be used to help support sediment cleanup, fully removing all debris.
Winter Weather Management
If a landscape contractor offers snow management, there are a variety of considerations that come into play. First, a contractor must identify the type of Winter precipitation they will be working in to best determine which equipment and attachments are best suited for the job. This also stands true for machine management in cold months. When configuring compact machines for Winter, contractors should swap out the machine’s hydraulic fluid for cold weather hydraulic fluid for optimal performance.
When a contractor needs to clear large quantities of snow, skid steer loaders, compact wheel loaders and compact tracks loaders are the ideal machines to choose. Wheeled machines tend to have better traction in snow, making skid steer loaders and compact wheel loaders popular choices. Compact wheel loaders can travel faster, so they can cover more ground quickly when large areas need to be cleared, or the snow needs to be carried farther to be properly removed. If clearing with a compact track loader, track choice and track pattern can play a role in machine mobility. Notably, zig-zag pattern track styles yield the most traction in Winter conditions, however, snow and ice tracks are also available and highly encouraged.
In terms of attachments, an angle broom can quickly clear snow-covered sidewalks and pathways with lots of foot traffic. For jobs where there is deeper snow, or the snow needs to be moved and placed, snowblower attachments help the operator place snow while avoiding fences, bushes, and other covered obstacles. While a snowblower attachment is considered a hard surface tool, contractors should still be cautious when clearing on concrete or brick to ensure there is no surface damage. When using a snowblower, operators must avoid gravel roads and driveways at all costs to avoid unnecessary flying objects. In addition, high-flow hydraulics may be necessary to run a high-flow snowblower.
Lastly, full cab climate control can help keep the operator more comfortable in harsh Winter conditions, making them more likely to work for longer, more productive windows of time.
Operator Advice
Supporting natural disaster cleanup can be stressful given the high-stakes environments and outcomes needed. Landscape contractors should come to the jobsite properly protected and prepared to take on demanding and dangerous work. One way operators can prepare is to ensure the compact machines on-site have their original safety structures installed. It’s fundamental that the integrity of the machine is in place before beginning work. Operators should also be fully aware of their surroundings, as there will likely be a lot of people aiding in cleanup and new or unexpected obstacles.
Related to this, optimal lighting is essential when working in storm cleanup. Contractors can greatly benefit from incorporating deluxe lighting or LED packages, which can extend hours of operation and provide enhanced visibility to an operator’s surroundings. This is especially crucial when working 24/7 to clear a road or provide access to an area where rescue operations may be necessary. Safety beacons and warning lights are also imperative when working in such situations.
Focusing on personal safety, everyone on the site should come fully equipped with the proper personal protective equipment (PPE). Gloves, hats, glasses, and the proper outerwear and footwear are critical to keeping operators safe on the job, especially when there is an increased level of debris and damage, or extreme weather conditions. (See Get Equipped: Workwear, Gear & PPE.)
Performing daily walkarounds is an important way to ensure the machine stays ready for the tasks at hand. When examining compact construction equipment, operators should check all compartments are latched properly, the air pressure of tires is within normal levels, tracks have no major damage, and the machine has the proper amount of oil. Also, always make sure engine air filters and HVAC are not clogged or frozen from debris or snow. This quick walk around can help ensure everything is ready for the next day so employees can come to the jobsite prepared to be productive.
Pagura is product marketing manager, Compact Construction Equipment, at John Deere. Pagura connects customers with the right equipment and solutions for the jobsite while supporting compact construction marketing efforts for the material handling, agriculture, and landscaping markets.
Ruhl is a John Deere Product Consultant who offers expert insights on Compact Construction Equipment to customers, operators, and dealers around the world. Ruhl shares compact equipment knowledge and experience to maximize productivity, working conditions and customer satisfaction on the jobsite.
For more information, visit Deere.com.
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