Ryan McCourt and the professional staff at McCourt Construction maintain a strong knowledge of a wide variety of heavy construction equipment and materials.
If you are starting to get into construction by trade or hobby, there are a lot of pieces of equipment you will need to become acquainted with. Here’s a brief summary of some of the main pieces of heavy equipment you may want to familiarize yourself with when getting started on any big construction job.
Front Loaders – Front loaders are machines with a scoop or bucket attached to an articulated arm. They are used for digging and loading. The bucket is attached to a tractor and may be removable in some cases. These are used for loading materials into trucks, clearing rubble or digging. They are commonly used to remove snow. Also they are used to load materials like sand, snow or dirt into bigger trucks. They come in many different sizes and varieties.
Vibratory Roller – Sometimes called a road roller, a vibratory roller is used to compact different surfaces such as concrete, soil, gravel, or asphalt. These rollers use the weight of the vehicle to compress the surface being rolled. They are used to build roads and spread bulk materials evenly into the ground. These vary in size from being a simple drum attached to a handle or a ride on vibratory roller that can weigh around 44,000 lbs.
Bull Dozers – A bulldozer is a large tracked piece of construction equipment. It comes equipped with a heavy plate on the front end. The tracked wheels give them an excellent ground holding capacity. The plate on the front is referred to as a blade. The blade is a heavy metal plate on the front end of the tractor used to push or shove sand, soil or anything that needs moving. On the back of the bulldozer is a claw like device called a ripper. The ripper is used to break the ground surface pavement into small manageable pieces which are easy to transport or remove.
Backhoes – The backhoe can go by a few different names such as a rear actor or back actor. This piece of excavating equipment consists of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. They can be employed to dig up large mounds of dirt. They are good for digging out tree roots. And also for digging trenches used to lay pipes, or for digging ditches.
Wheeled Excavators – Excavators, also called diggers or mechanical shovels are large machines used to remove soil from the earth. They come in a wide variety of sizes and use hydraulics or a wire rope pulley system to dig holes or trenches. These have a large boom arm and a cab that is mounted on a pivot. The bucket can be replaced with different attachments depending on the necessity of the job. The smallest of these machines can fit through a doorway. While the larger ones can weigh over 180,000 lbs.
So those are some of the main pieces of equipment that you may want to get to know better before beginning any construction project, or just for personal knowledge. Each one of these machines can be modified to evolve into new machines which can work in ways that the originals cannot.
These pieces of heavy equipment and more are available for sale and rent at McCourt Construction. Contact McCourt Construction today to learn more.
