Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/521868
EquipmentWorld.com | June 2015 53 contractor of the year | by Marcia Gruver Doyle | MGruver@randallreilly.com EquipmentWorld.com | June 2015 53 crawler carriers | by Chris Hill | ChrisHill@randallreilly.com The miniature powerhouse: CRAWLER CARRIER Morooka www.morookacarriers.com Model: MST 3000VD Base specifi cations: Length: 20 feet, 2 inches Width: 10 feet, 5 inches Minimum ground clearance: 20 inches Machine weight: 31,320 pounds Carrying capacity: 33,100 pounds Ground pressure full capacity/unloaded: 4.8 psi/2.6 psi M any folks worth their salt live and work by the edict that you must have the right tool for the right job. And rightfully so: But many a good idea and great tool have been borne from situations when the right tool just wasn't available. What is available now for jobs requir- ing a gentle touch on the landscape and hard-to-reach sites is the crawler carrier. While they seemingly serve a small niche market within construc- tion, they are being used in a growing variety of industries and applications, including oil and natural gas explora- tion, mining, forestry and wetland reclamation. These machines have primarily been prized for their dump bed functions, which is why they're sometimes referred to as crawler dumpers. However, their versatility with attachments and imple- ments, and customizability, have turned them into miniature powerhouses. What's so unique besides the look? Well, their physical appearance alludes to one of their big advantages – their foot- print. We're not talking about the sheer size, but the impact the tracks have on the soil. And it's interesting that they were once used initially to go in to an area with sensitive surfaces to place ground protection mats down on which other equipment could travel. Then it started to make sense to just simply use the crawler carriers for this work. Bradford Clubb, president of Flyway Excavating in Lititz, Pennsylvania, is one contractor who did just that. His opera- tion does a lot of site preparation work, in addition to waterway improvement