Tag Archives: Fuel

Heavy equipment fuel consumption

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It is probably heavy equipment that consume more fuel in a week than your car in an entire month. Well, this is the fact of the day and one need to accept it. Though many heavy equipment manufacturing companies claim that they are in the mode of producing machines that will consume less fuel and will be more efficient as far as the production is concerned. However, the fact also remains that such heavy equipment will be very expensive that it will not be in the range of every owner of the construction company. Therefore, it has become a reason of worry for most of the companies as they feel that they have to work by paying more for the fuel and if they can afford to ever buy an eco-friendly machine then they will move on to it.

We also need to understand why the consumption of fuel increases in a machine year after year. The basic answer to this is perhaps we fail to take good care of the machine which is one of the most crucial reasons why it starts getting converted from low fuel consumption to a high fuel consumption machine. There may be many other reasons associated with it but this must be the main reason. Taking good care of the machine involves timely servicing, cleaning the stuff with power washer to get the dirt out of the system, lubricating its interiors on a timely basis and also changing the engine oil to lengthen its life span.

Also most of the heavy equipment are overworked. For instance, there is a big project in hand and there has been unanimous decision to keep the machines working all through the day. Here the equipment do not get much time to cool down especially during the summers where it has to experience the maximum brunt. It is in no way good to keep the equipment unhealthy because at the end of the day things will come back to you and there will be a point when you will find them not working and you will run out of machines.

Servicing the machine on a monthly basis will ensure the good health of it and that will also increase its fuel efficiency leading to less consumption of fuel. So you do not spend a fortune on buying gas. Other than this, you should also follow the user manual to understand what you can do to keep the fuel consumption intact. A bit of research is also needed when you are in the mode of buying heavy equipment. You should do your study well and understand which machine consumes how much of fuel. That becomes an important task while you are into the shopping mode.

These researches can be done by collecting information from internet or by reading magazines that’s related with heavy equipment or by simply asking for suggestions from your friends or peers. These things really help you to take an informed decision and also save good deal of money by buying machines that consumes less fuel.

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Construction equipment fuel consumption chart

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While many construction companies are spending a good deal of money in doing some research work pertaining to what can be done to reduce fuel consumption and continue with the same productivity. They are yet to come out with some solid answers. Though many heavy equipment producing companies are already in the mode of producing machines that they claim are fuel efficient but it seems that in order to make it fuel efficient they have to cut short some features of the machine somewhere which is not appreciated by the construction companies. What the construction companies are looking for is a solution to this problem which does not compromise on the existing features. So you just can’t take away what you have already given in order to make lives a bit comfortable. It is perhaps not the way it works. The heavy equipment companies have to come out with some solid solutions that do not play around with what they already have.

This has led to the need of creating a chart so that the companies can analyze where things are going wrong and what they can do to fix it. They also have to keep into consideration the cost that they will incur in making a machine which is highly fuel efficient as that might not have proportionate number of buyers. So overall, they might find themselves to be in a bigger problem which they might never want to be in the first place.

Komatsu has introduced PC200-8 Hybrid excavator which shows an exorbitant reduction in fuel consumption. It claims that the Hybrid excavator is able to reduce fuel consumption by around 25% than the conventional excavators sold by the company. They are also planning to make their machines more eco-friendly. This has been a challenge that many heavy equipment companies are facing for many years. As per their claims, they also state that there has been a fuel reduction of maximum 41% on sites where the upper structure of the machine turns more often. In their tests they have taken 3 different types of companies. First is the one that deals with waste soil disposal, another is into civil engineering and the third one does sludge disposal. The PC200-8 Hybrid excavator has shown up to 30% fuel reduction in the first company, 31% in the second company and the maximum was 41% in the third company.

Simultaneously there are other heavy equipment companies that have jumped in the race of producing machines that are fuel efficient and also provides a great deal of comfort to its users. Caterpillar wanted to ensure that people keep their trust on its products and do not change their loyalties to other companies and therefore they have brought in a series of different kinds of machines that are fuel efficient. However, the next big question that comes up is that are buyers ready to pay the cost of machines that promises of fuel reduction. Well, there are few giant construction and mining companies that are more interested in saving fuel and hence they would like to go for such products but for the rest, they have to wait for the prices of such machines to go little down.

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Which one consumes more fuel – brand new heavy equipment or old heavy equipment?

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For every construction management company, it is very important to buy all the heavy construction equipment for doing the construction job smoothly. Therefore, the companies always look for the very best construction equipment. No matter what the brand is, irrespective of that, the construction companies always look for the condition of the equipment and their cost effectiveness to consider whether the company should buy the equipment or not.

What are the factors that the construction company should look for before buying heavy equipment?

As the construction equipment come at a huge cost, therefore, it becomes quite expensive for the construction companies to buy all the variety of heavy equipment. It quickly burns a hole in the pocket to buy the brand new equipment from the house of Caterpillar Inc., John Deere and many others. This is a reason why the companies shift to buying the used, second hand or old heavy construction equipment. But compromising with the condition of the equipment many times leads to a deterioration of the production or increases the maintenance. So buying the equipment which is properly working and has not been facing any frequent visits to the service center is the best option. The cab, the engine condition, the age or the date of manufacturing of the equipment and the how long the equipment can perform under heavy and continuous work load or extreme condition, are the very basic factors that the buyers should always look for. Apart from this, one of the very main factors that a buyer must consider before taking any decision is to check whether the equipment consumes a heavy amount of fuel or not. This is because any heavy construction equipment always requires quite a heavy amount of fuel consumption to run properly. As the machines have to perform for a long 10 hours a day almost without any break, the cost of fuel consumption also increases incredibly. So fuel consumption rate must be considered before buying the equipment.

Which heavy construction equipment consumes more fuel – old or new?

When talking about the average fuel consumption rate in the heavy construction equipment, approximately all the equipment consume 7 to 8 gallons of fuel per hour. As the equipment works more and becomes old, the consumption rate increases. This is because the strength of the engine weakens. With the adverse condition of the construction site and the age of the equipment increasing more, the fuel consumption rate increases up to a 10 gal/ hour rate. Therefore, on the basis of fuel consumption rate, a buyer should always buy the newer models of the equipment. However, it is also a fact that the fuel consumption rate varies among the manufacturing companies. This will reduce the other costs. So when you are up to buying the heavy construction equipment, you must consider all these factors before making your decision.

How Much of Fuel Does My Heavy Equipment Consume

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In order to make profits in your business, you would want your machines to give you more work and consume less fuel. However, most of the time, it’s contrary to what we expect. With fuel prices on the rise, we apparently do not have a technology that runs these machines on something which does not hurt our pocket. In such a scenario, it would be prudent to empower yourselves with the knowledge of technologies that can help you in your endeavour to save money on fuel. The question is from where we can get information of such new devices that reduces the consumption of fuel in heavy equipments. We would be discussing this in details and will try to cover the easiest ways by which one can save money on fuel.
Do away with the old ones:- Instead of keep on dragging your old machine which badly needs some sort of upgrades, it would be wise enough to just do away with the old piece and get a new one. The machines manufactured in today’s time are equipped with numerous gadgets that are eco friendly and give more stress on various fuel saving measures. You may also want to consider renting out your old equipments to small time contractors and get new ones in place of them.
Heavy equipments that moves on electricity:- Heavy equipments manufacturers are already in the phase of producing machines that work on electricity. This will result in zero consumption of fuel and will also cease releasing of poisonous gases in the environment. These machines are still in the trial phase and may need some time to capture the attention of potential buyers. Other than this, it is also expected that these machines would be very expensive. This might be something that may go negative with the heavy equipments and may also deter construction or mining companies to go for the deal. The heavy equipment manufacturing companies should seek every possible measure to ensure that the price of the equipments do not shoot up than the ones available today.
Once we have everything in place and the companies start producing green heavy equipments (it’s the name given for the machines that runs on electricity), we’ll find them to be more productive with marginal expenses on maintenance. All you need to be doing is charge the batteries of the machine at regular intervals and it will work all day long.
Keep browsing net for devices that reduces the consumption of fuel:- As long as we do not have the “Green Heavy Equipments” available in the market, we have to look for alternatives that can be pretty effective in keeping down the consumption of fuel. These details are all available on the internet. You need to spend some time doing research on things like these. Once you catch hold on something which speaks about devices used to reduce the consumption of fuel, you can as well get the contact details of the dealers who sell them. You can reach out to them and apply those devices to see the difference.