Everyone wants to save time and money. Contractors across the country are quickly learning that articulated wheel dumpers and tracked dumpers are an excellent alternative for hauling job site materials, saving time and money in the process.
Dumpers are a great choice for landscape contractors as well as many applications such as nurseries, golf courses, municipalities and cemeteries. They are ideal for golf course or landscape maintenance because of their manoeuvrability, and they don’t tear up the greens and lawns.
For over 40 years dumpers have been hauling everything from clay, stone, gravel, backfill, asphalt, turf, concrete as well as traffic signs and cones to, from and around job sites. Dumpers are an off-road vehicle perfect for handling medium volumes in the 50 to 1000 metre range. When it comes to transportation of materials on the job they close the wide gap between a skid steer bucket and big articulated trucks.
To describe dumpers as versatile is an understatement. In a nutshell, dumpers can access tight areas, don’t tear up the landscape or turf like large trucks while their off-road manoeuvrability and ability to dump from both sides make them extremely functional. Some manufacturers, like Wacker Neuson, feature a hydrostatic drive that has no gear box or clutch that can wear or break, making them extremely rugged machines.
A key feature allows the dump bucket, or skip, to swivel 180 degrees, 90 degrees to the right and left of centre. This side dumping, matched with excellent visibility from the operator’s platform, makes the unit ideal for spreading material. Utility contractors especially find this useful for backfilling trenches. The contractor can easily load the fill material into the dumper and then drive right up next to the trench, turn the dumper bed toward the trench and drive along the trench dumping the backfill as it moves along. Specialised concrete contractors also find the side dump extremely convenient for delivering concrete to larger slabs avoiding the use of concrete pumps.