Day: December 30, 2021

Construction Blogs

Preserving the Past: Top 5 Antique Equipment Stories of 2021

David Oliver

In 2020, we started an ongoing feature focusing on collectors of antique equipment and their favorite finds.

Little did we know that the stories would become so popular.

Readers seem to appreciate the historical significance of the old equipment and the personal stories behind them. And the collectors we’ve spoken with love to show their vintage machines, many of which underwent painstaking restorations. Along with being fans of antique equipment, they hope to reach a new generation and help preserve a bit of our country’s construction past.

So here are the top five antique construction equipment stories on equipmentworld.com for 2021, with links in case you want to read more:


Mike Oberloier1. 95 Years Under Water: Rare, Long-Lost Steam Shovel Rescued to be Restored

An old steam shovel at the bottom of a Michigan lake since 1925 couldn’t be rescued. Then a dam break in 2020 changed everything. Because of it, Mike Oberloier was able to resurrect a dream his father had back in 1975, when he led an unsuccessful diving expedition to find the lost steam shovel of Wixom Lake. A Herculean group effort has recovered the old shovel, and Mike has been working to restore it. The early-1900s Thew Type-O shovel is believed to be one of only two left in the world.

1956 Caterpillar D6 original operator
A shot of Erik Christenbury’s antique Cat with the original operator he bought it from.Erik Christenbury2. Almost Famous: This “Like New” 1956 Cat D6 Dozer Gets a Shot at the Movies

As founder and president of Chapter 12 of the Antique Caterpillar Machinery Owners Club, Erik Christenbury often gets calls from people wanting to display antique Caterpillar construction equipment. But one that stands out in his mind came about seven years ago from a coordinator on a major motion picture. Erik agreed to let them use his 1956 Cat D6 9U dozer. He had bought the machine about a year earlier – a rare find as it had less than 900 operating hours on it and all original parts. But he didn’t realize until later that they expected him to bring it to New Orleans, more than 800 miles from his home in South Carolina, and get filmed operating it. It turned into a long, strange, yet memorable experience.

Restored 1958 Case terratrac 320 dozer
A proud Casey Havemann with his restored 1958 Case Terratrac 320.Casey Havemann3. Casey’s Rare Case: Teen Restores 1958 Terratrac 320 Dozer

Casey Havemann is the youngest collector we’ve interviewed. But Casey showed he has the heart of a true aficionado of antique construction equipment when he found a rare 1958 Case Terratrac 320 dozer. He then spent 600 hours restoring it while he was in high school. His restoration work involved a lengthy parts search, parts fabrication, and taking the crawler tractor apart piece by piece and putting it back together again – twice.

Holt Caterpillar 10-ton tractor
The Holt Caterpillar 10-Ton back on the Vouk property in St. Stephen, Minnesota.Scott Vouk4. “Impossible” Quest Brings Home Family’s Century-Old Holt Caterpillar 10-Ton Tractor

Scott Vouk was 6 years old in 2001 when the Holt Caterpillar 10-Ton tractor was auctioned off. It was sold along with all the other equipment at the Vouk family’s antique steam show after his great uncle passed away. William Vouk Sr. had bought the Holt in 1938 for the family threshing and sawmill business. After the auction, the family thought it was gone for good, but 25-year-old Scott Vouk didn’t give up. In 2021, he managed to do what many of his relatives didn’t believe possible. He brought the century-old tractor home. 

1956 Cat D4 dozer restored
Nancy McDonnell with her 1956 Cat D4Nancy McConnell5. A Dozer of Her Own: It Was Nancy’s Turn To Restore a 1956 Cat D4

Nancy McDonnell had been watching her husband and others operating vintage construction equipment at antique machine shows, and she decided it was time she had a turn. After a local search in the late 1990s, the Germantown, Ohio, couple found a hidden treasure in two beat-up 1956 Cat D4 dozers. Neither dozer was good enough on its own, but by combining the good parts, they were able to put together one excellent restored dozer to operate at antique shows and give Nancy her first piece of construction equipment.

 

Construction Management

Contractor of the Year Finalist: Building on Family Faith, Oak Hill Contractors Expands Beyond its Mining Reclamation Start

David Oliver

Josh Burkholder grew up on his family farm and times were tough. Searching for ways to bring in family income, he started mowing lawns and then turned to construction. It’s a move that came out of necessity and he now says it “grew beyond anything I ever imagined.”


This growth shouldn’t be a surprise when you look at his background. “My dad always drilled customer service into us,” Burkholder says. “We’re here to serve the customer. That’s where our bread and butter come from.”

Along the way, several people have given his company a hand up, Burkholder says.

There was the small community bank that loaned him the money for his first piece of equipment: a zero-turn lawnmower. “We still use them, “ Burkholder says, “even though we’ve outgrown them to some extent.”

He also credits an engineering team with a local mining company with seeing Oak Hill’s potential in doing the mine’s reclamation work. In 2010, the mining company hired Oak Hill to move 170,000 yards of dirt, a job that they bid at around $500,000. “That was monstrous for us at the time,” Burkholder says.

“They really went out on a limb for us,” Burkholder adds. “They were instrumental in taking us from a couple of boys with a dozer to a company that could actually compete and perform major jobs.”

Oak Hill used a combination of owned and rented excavators, dozers and articulated trucks along with tractors and pull-behind scrapers to complete that first mining job. “A lot of the earthmoving involved short moves so we could do things efficiently,” Burkholder says.

Family first
Jon (left) and Josh Burkholder along with 'assistants' (left to right) Alex, Kaden and Karson Burkholder.
Jon (left) and Josh Burkholder along with “assistants” (left to right) Alex, Kaden and Karson Burkholder.Equipment World

Family is a central theme at the company, part of the Burkholder’s deep Mennonite faith. Burkholder’s brother Jon manages the fleet, shop operations and projects. “He’s a lot more detail oriented,” Burkholder says. “It’s a good partnership. There’s a lot give and take, and it’s worked out really well.”

The family also had a narrow escape. While visiting an accounting firm in Pennsylvania, their plane crashed on takeoff. Burkholder, Jon and their dad Eugene all sustained serious injuries.

“We essentially flew into the side of a hill,” Burkholder says. “It’s a miracle we survived because the plane was structurally destroyed even though there was not a lot of visual damage.”

The accident happened in late 2015. “In 2016, our company basically ran on autopilot after coming off a good year,” Burkholder says. “I would go into the office and look at the stacks of paper, and I just couldn’t concentrate.”

The company rebounded in 2017 after another large mining project came through, but that also marked the last year that mining reclamation projects were the company’s primary income source.

Tandem excavators at work on a $4 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineer job along the Ohio River.
Tandem excavators at work on a $4 million U.S. Army Corps of Engineer job along the Ohio River.Equipment WorldThree years ago, Oak Hill was almost 100% devoted to coal mine reclamation jobs. Those projects are now down to 30% of the company’s work as it has expanded into landfill cell construction and U.S. Army Corps of Engineer work. Corps work has stretched Oak Hill beyond it’s normal 150-mile geographical footprint; it’s now performing levee work on the Texas-Louisiana border, something Burkholder sees the company doing only on a limited basis.

Oak Hill crews are currently working a job alongside the Ohio River that involves both earthmoving and marine construction. “When bidding it, there was a question of which approach you would take – working from the land or from the water,” Burkholder explains. “We saw very little work that we couldn’t do from land, and it’s been an awesome contract.”

Oak Hill bid the project with crawler carriers but found that its tractors and 21-yard pull-behind scrapers were a better fit for the soft underfoot conditions. “The difference was in the volume of dirt they could move, but we’re still pulling one instead of two. There’s a lot of rolling resistance.”

Growth ahead?
Oak Hill contractors serves several markets including coal mine reclamation, landfill cell construction and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects.
Oak Hill contractors serves several markets including coal mine reclamation, landfill cell construction and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects.

Oak Hill’s annual revenues are now in the $14 million to $15 million range. “I see a huge variable in the bottom line if we can go from there to $18 million, because we have the infrastructure in place,” Burkholder says. “A lot of the overhead costs are taken care of.”

With growth in mind, Burkholder is considering adding a salesperson and a controller. “We’re trying to get better prepared for the long haul,” he says. “I’m trying to transition out of thinking I have to do everything to training other people so that I’m not so tied down with the nitty-gritty.”

The “long haul,” as Burkholder puts it, is also present as he sees the children – now still quite young – grow up in his family.

“Those who are going to survive in this industry are going to stay in the harness and figure out ways to adapt and get it done,” he says.

“We have finite resources and a finite amount of people. Good technicians are hard to find, so I now look at what investment can we make that makes us flow better and be more profitable each season.”

For example, this year Oak Hill had tractors and pull-behind scrapers available for jobs, but no artics, which prompted him to rent six trucks for a job near St. Louis. “But it’s going to be painful for me to write that rental check,” he admits. “I like to own the equipment we’re using.”

The company built its current office and shop in 2017. “I can’t imagine what we’d do without that shop and its overhead crane,” Burkholder says. “We do a high percentage of our own work.” The company also has an equipment division that manages buying and selling used fleet and trucking services.

“When you’re getting the operator from them, you’re actually getting an operator and not just getting somebody that is sitting in a seat,” says client Chris Russell with Hamilton County Coal. “They are great communicators and that makes a big difference.”

“Josh and Jon are people of their word,” says Kevin Gore with client JennMar Services. “I couldn’t have higher praise for anybody that I work with.”

For an overview of Oak Hill Contractors’ operations, check out this video:

CMSBrowserComponents.load({ el: ‘#vue-1640788002617-893’, name: ‘OEmbed’, props: {“mountPoint”:”/__oembed”,”url”:”https://youtu.be/dond-laUmdU”,”attrs”:{“type”:”oembed”,”id”:”https://youtu.be/dond-laUmdU”,”element”:”aside”}}, hydrate: false });

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.3555pacific.com/?p=915

Construction Services

Oshkosh Corp. suing former JLG employee and Sany America

David Oliver

Oshkosh Corporation, the parent company of aerial lift manufacturer JLG Industries, has filed a lawsuit against McKenzie Ditty and Sany America, alleging the former JLG mechanical engineer provided the Chinese equipment manufacturer with confidential information on recently-patented boom lift technology.

A patent for an internally supported power track for boom lifts was granted in April 2021, and according to a report by the Oshkosh Examiner, Ditty was persuaded to move from JLG to Sany with a “50% pay increase” in September.

The suit was filed with the Winnebago County Circuit Court on October 21, 2021.

“Ditty may have taken or retained JLG confidential information and trade secrets after his departure from the company, failing to immediately surrender or return it to the company,” Oshkosh said. “Furthermore, prior to departing from JLG, Ditty wiped his company-issued cell phone before returning it.”

“Ditty was intimately involved with and helped to design and develop the new generation of JLG’s boom lift product line and has substantial knowledge of the new products, new technology and other confidential information and trade secrets relating to same,” Oshkosh said.

The Oshkosh Examiner reported that Oshkosh Corporation is requesting a court order that would block Sany from “misappropriating or threatening to misappropriate JLG’s trade secrets,” as well as monetary damages.

Access equipment is the largest segment of Oshkosh’s business, with revenues increasing by 22% for the 2021 fiscal year. China is an important market for that equipment. 

In its October 28 earnings report, John C. Pfeifer, president and CEO of Oshkosh said, “Access equipment, which faced an extreme decline in demand in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has since experienced the most rapid rebound of any of our businesses. The access leadership team has taken measured steps to preserve the health of the industry by addressing unfair competition through our trade case. We believe that we are in the early stages of a multiyear growth cycle for access equipment as the rental companies work to lower the overall age of their fleets, which were at historically high levels entering 2021.”

Pfeifer added: “The access equipment segment in China has slowed a bit as China’s economy has slowed a little bit, but it’s still a very robust market and it will be one of the biggest markets in the world. It’s already the biggest construction market in the world. So, while it slowed a little bit, we’re still very bullish on China. We’ve got great operations there, incredible people there who do a great job addressing the marketplace.”

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.3555pacific.com/?p=912