WHY IS THE MATERIAL HANDLER/WHEEL LOADER COMBO WORKING WELL FOR YOUR OPERATION?

JOHNSON: It all comes down to space. We don’t have a lot of room to work, and the material handler takes up just a small circle on the floor. It does a lot of pre-sorting of materials, loads our waste processing system evenly and frees up our loaders for other work. It’s a very good front-end piece of equipment that allows our whole system to function more efficiently.

BESIDES BETTER USE OF SPACE, WHAT OTHER BENEFITS DOES THE MATERIAL HANDLER DELIVER?

JOHNSON: It uses very little fuel compared to a loader. There’s no tire wear. It has great visibility for the operator, so he can pick and sort material easily. We’ve equipped ours with a rotating grapple attachment that lets the operator flip items around, pull them out and toss them to the side. That means our guys don’t have to pull them out by hand, which is a safety benefit.

More uptime is another big advantage. Because the operator running the material handler can pull out undesirables, those items aren’t getting into our waste processing system and causing damage. We’ve seen it all here — from boa constrictors to headstones and everything it between. Being able to pre-sort with the material handler saves on maintenance and labor costs, and it improves productivity.

YOUR OPERATORS WERE USED TO RUNNING LOADERS. DID THEY HAVE ANY TROUBLE SWITCHING TO THE MATERIAL HANDLER?

JOHNSON: A couple of our guys had some excavator experience, so they were familiar with the basic operation of the machine. Caterpillar also provided a lot of front-end training. They came to our facility several times to make sure our operators knew how to handle the machine properly and set it up so it was stable. They even talked to our maintenance team about some steps they could take to keep the material handler up and running.

DID YOU RUN INTO ANY ISSUES WITH THE MATERIAL HANDLER?

JOHNSON: We did have some overheating issues initially. Our building is fully enclosed, and there’s not much air flow. It can get well over 115 degrees inside. Caterpillar came out numerous times, tried different fixes and eventually solved the problem. Now they’ve introduced the next generation of material handlers with a completely different cooling package. We got a chance to demo one of the new machines, and it works great. It’s nice to see an equipment manufacturer that listens to its customers and makes changes based on our feedback.

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND OTHER MRFS TURN TO CATERPILLAR FOR ADVICE ON MACHINE SELECTION?

JOHNSON: Absolutely. I turn to the Cat Waste Group often when I run into an issue. People will come to me with a question, and I’ll say, “I don’t know the answer, but I know who to ask.” Or I’ll have an idea about something we want to try, and I’ll call Caterpillar to see if they think the machine can handle it. It’s great to have them as an expert resource we can tap into. I call them at the craziest hours, and they always answer. That says a lot about Caterpillar.

Would your operation benefit from a material handler/wheel loader set-up? Would you like expert advice on choosing equipment? Your local Cat dealer can connect you with the Cat Waste team.