Advanced Wall Structures, Inc.

[Advanced Wall Structures]

Originally Posted by Nelson M Martin

how do you like the roller suspension on the T770

I like it a lot and it makes a hell of a difference. Going over a curb used to be painful and now I don't even think about it.

I've put close to 60 hours on the machine so far. My only complaint is if you have a tall beverage in the cup holder and you have the seat all the way forward then they hit sometimes.

This guy sucks at driving, so I took a picture





Moving day... I'm finally done with this site! Over 13,000 square feet later.









Last wall finished:












Yeah yeah I know the tracks weren't shoveled on the 160 before I left. But the next site is literally 3 miles away and I needed to get the machines out before small utilities came through and made leaving harder. I shoveled them out at the new site though.

[Advanced Wall Structures]

Small wall at the new site:







I'll finish that tomorrow.


ANNNNNND the foreman from the dirt moving company almost tipped over their packer. I wish he had because he's an ******* to everyone.

[pitrack]

Awesome. Just curious how do you guys charge for these kind of walls? I'm assuming by the square foot? What's the ballpark figure for price per square foot? (If that's how you guys charge)

[Advanced Wall Structures]

Originally Posted by pitrack

Awesome. Just curious how do you guys charge for these kind of walls? I'm assuming by the square foot? What's the ballpark figure for price per square foot? (If that's how you guys charge)

We charge by the square foot. Price is dependent on things like back fill material, if we need to use geo-grid, machine time for digging is another thing. The walls are supposed to be cut out already for us but sometimes they aren't. 15-22 PSF

CAT 345C and two CAT 740 site trucks are making the cut for one of the many large walls on this site:

[stuvecorp]

Originally Posted by Advanced Wall Structures

It's quite handy for us if we end up making a deal with him. You never know though.

Here's a video of the Towtem in action. I tore down the wall I'm rebuilding currently and took out the cedar fence above because the wall ended up being another 3-4 feet away from the curb.

PS I dropped a boulder on the curb.... twice but it didn't chip it and the tar is just a temporary wear layer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nknCjTsf0Ho

Yeah, it sucks to be trying to sell equipment right now. I keep hearing prices and demand is up but am not seeing it.

That was an oops dropping the rocks... Does the grapple leave scratch marks on the rocks? How about showing/explaining the joystick controls for the excavators/Towtem?

You did 13,000 square feet in that one subdivision?

[Advanced Wall Structures]

Originally Posted by stuvecorp

Yeah, it sucks to be trying to sell equipment right now. I keep hearing prices and demand is up but am not seeing it.

That was an oops dropping the rocks... Does the grapple leave scratch marks on the rocks? How about showing/explaining the joystick controls for the excavators/Towtem?

You did 13,000 square feet in that one subdivision?

The bigger rocks it leaves scratch marks but a month or so later and after a couple rains they go away. It's hard to not scratch the big ones because they like to move around. My next site there is a boulder the sewer crew dug up and its 7'x7.5'x3'. Should be fun to try and move that thing.

I went through my notes today to organize them and the total square footage of walls I billed out for that development was 15,315. Twelve walls total.

Oh and trust me, that curb is really green still and I threw out a couple swear words. Got out and inspected after I shut the video off and to my surprise it didn't chip. Usually if you just breathe on it something cracks.

The controls for the CX75 and CX160 are completely different but I don't have any issues switching between the two.

The CX75 uses the aux foot pedal on the floor to the right to control the grapple.

Push pedal towards you - close
Push pedal away from you - open

Then there is a button on the right joystick that you hold down and then the pedal rotates clockwise when pushed towards and counterclockwise when pushed away. It sucks sometimes because you can't do both functions at once.

The CX160 has 2 replacement joysticks with 2 thumb buttons on each

Right Joystick

Top Button - Open Grapple
Bottom Button - Close Grapple

Left Joystick

Top Button - Counter-clockwise rotation of Grapple
Bottom Button - Clockwise rotation of Grapple.

The 160 is great because you can open/close and rotate at the same time. Only thing is the solenoids we bought with the grapple were a pretty penny. They are proven though as some guys have 8-9 years on the solenoids and the only thing that goes bad with them is the electronic boards and they are 70 bucks to replace. Not a big deal at all considering the abuse they take.

I'm pushing to have the same control setup in the 75 when we replace the rotobec. I have no problems switching between the machines but our other employees don't find it so easy.

The development I am in now has 32,000 square feet of walls (11,320 linear feet), and it is bound to go up because we are the last straw for making grade work on these topographically extreme sites. What the engineers put on paper doesn't always work on the site. That wall I did today ended up being 8 feet tall and it was supposed to be 4 feet max with a foot buried on the plans.

[stuvecorp]

Originally Posted by Advanced Wall Structures

The bigger rocks it leaves scratch marks but a month or so later and after a couple rains they go away. It's hard to not scratch the big ones because they like to move around. My next site there is a boulder the sewer crew dug up and its 7'x7.5'x3'. Should be fun to try and move that thing.

I went through my notes today to organize them and the total square footage of walls I billed out for that development was 15,315. Twelve walls total.

Oh and trust me, that curb is really green still and I threw out a couple swear words. Got out and inspected after I shut the video off and to my surprise it didn't chip. Usually if you just breathe on it something cracks.

The controls for the CX75 and CX160 are completely different but I don't have any issues switching between the two.

The CX75 uses the aux foot pedal on the floor to the right to control the grapple.

Push pedal towards you - close
Push pedal away from you - open

Then there is a button on the right joystick that you hold down and then the pedal rotates clockwise when pushed towards and counterclockwise when pushed away. It sucks sometimes because you can't do both functions at once.

The CX160 has 2 replacement joysticks with 2 thumb buttons on each

Right Joystick

Top Button - Open Grapple
Bottom Button - Close Grapple

Left Joystick

Top Button - Counter-clockwise rotation of Grapple
Bottom Button - Clockwise rotation of Grapple.

The 160 is great because you can open/close and rotate at the same time. Only thing is the solenoids we bought with the grapple were a pretty penny. They are proven though as some guys have 8-9 years on the solenoids and the only thing that goes bad with them is the electronic boards and they are 70 bucks to replace. Not a big deal at all considering the abuse they take.

I'm pushing to have the same control setup in the 75 when we replace the rotobec. I have no problems switching between the machines but our other employees don't find it so easy.

The development I am in now has 32,000 square feet of walls (11,320 linear feet), and it is bound to go up because we are the last straw for making grade work on these topographically extreme sites. What the engineers put on paper doesn't always work on the site. That wall I did today ended up being 8 feet tall and it was supposed to be 4 feet max with a foot buried on the plans.

That is sweet square footage. How long did it take there?

Thanks for explaining the controls, that was another part Towtem said it was worth spending the money on. I could see how it would be frustrating if you go back and forth between the 75 and 160. How long before you get a 225 setup?

[Advanced Wall Structures]

Originally Posted by stuvecorp

That is sweet square footage. How long did it take there?

Thanks for explaining the controls, that was another part Towtem said it was worth spending the money on. I could see how it would be frustrating if you go back and forth between the 75 and 160. How long before you get a 225 setup?

I've been there since late last October (not since the frost came in though) but only had the 75 then.... don't really mind switching between the two. I wish there was a 160 size zero tail swing machine, that's what I really would like. That's the one thing I like about the 75, I don't have to worry about where or what the rear end is swinging into.

Would be nice to have a little bigger machine, especially for the 20 foot tall wall I have to do. But even though we have been blessed with work this year we don't want to get ahead of ourselves with payments. All of our stuff belongs to us finally besides the new Bobcat and the packer we bought for it. It's been a tough couple of years and things are finally looking a bit better. Plus if we went any bigger than a 160 we would need overweight permits to move it all the time. Granted I stay on a site for awhile but that could get annoying.

Being busy and buried in work is nice but at the end of the day it's a deal where we need to step back and separate what we need from what we want as far as equipment and new stuff goes.

[stuvecorp]

Originally Posted by Advanced Wall Structures

I've been there since late last October (not since the frost came in though) but only had the 75 then.... don't really mind switching between the two. I wish there was a 160 size zero tail swing machine, that's what I really would like. That's the one thing I like about the 75, I don't have to worry about where or what the rear end is swinging into.

Would be nice to have a little bigger machine, especially for the 20 foot tall wall I have to do. But even though we have been blessed with work this year we don't want to get ahead of ourselves with payments. All of our stuff belongs to us finally besides the new Bobcat and the packer we bought for it. It's been a tough couple of years and things are finally looking a bit better. Plus if we went any bigger than a 160 we would need overweight permits to move it all the time. Granted I stay on a site for awhile but that could get annoying.

Being busy and buried in work is nice but at the end of the day it's a deal where we need to step back and separate what we need from what we want as far as equipment and new stuff goes.

That would be nice to stay at one site as long as it is close, right?

It is nice to not have to worry about hitting things with the excavator tail. I can see the pain in the permits, especially in the Cities. It must have been a huge jump in productivity when you got the 160 setup. It's weird, here I never hear(or see) about any boulder work like what you are doing.

It's hard to keep things reined in and is so easy to get too much equipment or grow too much I think.

[coopers]

I'm really enjoying these pictures. You do good work. We have a high need for rockeries in WA too due to our topography but our rock is more pointed and rouch due to the type of rock we get when we blast. Have you guys looked at Deere/Hitachi hoes as well?
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