Pit & Quarry, July 2017

LOADING A Canadian producer realizes a number of benefits by adding two wheel loaders to its fleet EDITED BY KEVIN YANIK ne indicator of whether a machine will work in any application is putting that machine under the stress of actual operating O conditions before buying it Canadian based Fowler Construction did just that before adding two new 320 hp 1121F wheel loaders from Case Construction Equipment to its fleet working both to load trucks with aggregate and feed the companys asphalt plants that serve its paving operation We recorded fuel operational comforts for the operator the strength of the machine and we were very well pleased says Mark Genders equipment manager at Fowler Construction We came out at 396 gallons an hour It outperformed the current loaders on site The operators felt very comfortable Fostering growth Fowler Construction was founded in Bracebridge Ontario Canada in 1949 by Archie Fowler Glen Coates and Ralph Boothby With beginnings in the logging industry Fowler expanded over the years and now offers services in road construction aggregate and asphalt production as well as water and sewer work golf course and sports court construction seasonal road maintenance and excavation and site preparation With more than 400 employees Fowler is one of the largest employers in the Muskoka Ontario area and the company continues to accelerate the growth of the business Part of the companys growth strategy is to add new equipment as needed Fowler went with the 320 hp wheel loaders with 6 cu yd buckets because that size was optimal both for its summer pit plant operation as well as for winter snow removal and other seasonal work For Fowler one of the most important elements of its testing process was evaluating fuel consumption The fuel savings Genders has experienced with the 1121F wheel loader are the result of several components of the machine working together the selective catalytic reduction SCR engine four operating modes that allow the operator to tailor the machine output to the application and a unique cooling design that requires less machine effort and fuel to operate One advantage of achieving greater fuel efficiency is extended runtime Genders says With multiple aggregate sites spread across a region spanning more than 90 miles those extended runtimes result in fewer required visits from a fuel truck he says With our geographical region where our pits and quarries and our jobs are so spread out I might not be able to have a fuel truck there for 10 to 12 hours so the site has to run independently until our fuel supply is delivered That means a huge amount to us Genders attributes some of the machines fuel savings to the design of its boom Z bar and hydraulics I think a big factor that plays into it is the design of the front loader frame Genders says Its whether or not the machine has the capability of loading the bucket and coming up through the pile rather than the machine actually fighting itself The 1121F is well balanced where it can run at a lower rim pull but more 12 PIT QUARRY July 2017 pitandquarry com PHOTOS COURTESY OF CASE CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT Stress reducers The 1121F with a 6 cu yd bucket typically fills a truck at Fowler Construction in three passes