Construction: Skid Steers Move Ahead with the Times as Manufacturers Enhance Machine Prowess
Oct 31, 2022
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Heavy machine industry giants such as John Deere and Caterpillar have established the facts related to the primary elements of skid steer loaders, and according to these industry leaders these four elements are operator comfort, smart attachments, grade control and telematics.Telematics
The use of Telematics in order to access information or data from machines using remote access has certainly gained momentum indicates Luke Gribble, who is the marketing solutions manager attached with John Deere. Gribble quoted “such trends are important to be followed as they are relevant, having access to vital machine data simply means that operators will be able to better monitor their machines and the manufacturer’s agents for checking the status and maintenance requirements and even flag potential issues” This certainly impacts the long term performance of these heavy duty construction machines. “We refer to it (the telematics) as JD-Link and if you scan the industry players, most have their own systems and those who don’t are most certainly losing out to the market” said Gribble.
Operator comfort
Industry leaders such as Kobelco, Komatsu, and Kubota have always maintained heavy emphasis on operator comfort which is another trending element associated with skid steer loaders. This element of comfort is not to be taken lightly as comfort equals lesser fatigue which in turn equals to higher productivity, better safety and happier operators to say the least. Luke Gribble of John Deere indicated that by keeping operators as comfortable as possible work flow improves tremendously and technological concepts related to automating repetitive task is linked to operator comfort as well. Just like how planes fly under auto pilot, these machines could also us an auto pilot element that affords operators much needed short breaks. These short breaks coupled with a comfortable cab, enhanced camera tech enhances safety by a mile and allows operators to work with confidence and less stress. Most of these automation elements where once reserved for excavators and given the fact that skid steer loader bobcat hire is as important, it is about time a little attention is also paid to them.
Grade Control
John Deere’s latest large frame skid steer the 330-G and the 332-G) according to Luke Gribble come with an on-board grade assist indicator (optional). The indicator provides assistance in terms of roll (cross slope) and pitch (fall slope) via monitor displays in the cab. The indicators offer assistance through visuals that may be viewed in percentages or degrees which allows the operator to check the grading process in real-time from the cab. This simply means that the operators do not have to leave the cab as they once did in order to check grading progress.
Extended Tools (Smart Attachments)
Caterpillar has also introduced some significant improvements to their D3 skid steer models which according to Kevin Coleman, who is a product specialist, attached to CAT. These improvements include the ability of these machines to accommodate Smart Attachments similar to a PC’s ‘plug n play’ concept. The D3 series skid steers have been injected with a level of technology that allows them to instantly recognize smart attachments the moment they are fitted. The machine then automatically reconfigure the controls giving operators better control of these extended tools without the hassle of having to configure controls on their own which takes up time. “It is about time that this level of integration be introduced to skid steers as it increases productivity significantly by reducing down time and stress for operators who would otherwise have to spend quite a bit of time tinkering with the system”, quoted Coleman.
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