Yancy Bros. Co. hosted a machine control and guidance demonstration at the I-75 Business Park in Macon, Ga., on Dec. 2. The event allowed guests the opportunity to take advantage of a total “hands on” demonstration of some of the newest technology and equipment from Trimble and Accugrade. Most of the attendees also stayed for a catered barbeque lunch and time to further discuss their demo experiences.

The demo consisted of a series of six different stations including a Trimble Total Station and GPS Rover. Machine control configurations included: a Cat D6N equipped with Accugrade Dual GPS; Cat D5K with Accugrade Dual Laser; Cat 336DL equipped with Accugrade Dual GPS, Cat 12M with Accugrade UTS; and a 12M with Accugrade Cross Slope system.

Russ Allen, Manager-Finance Reporting and Analysis,Vulcan Materials, Sandy Springs, Ga., had never tested equipment with machine control. The demo served as an opportunity for Allen to become completely familiar with machine control when looking at the cost-benefit aspect for his company.

After operating the Cat 12M with Accugrade Cross Slope, Allen stated “I think we could save on training expense. Our operators could learn this very quickly.” He further added that getting their haul roads in optimal condition without guesswork would be a big asset to their operations.

Kevin Lane, Corporate Accounts Manager-Yancey Bros. Co., Austell, Ga., added, “There’s value in this technology for the quarries. If the haul roads at a quarry are not maintained correctly, you can lose a lot of time and production when moving material. Correctly maintaining and sloping a haul road, like we’re showing here at this demo, minimizes damage and rutting and can be a huge advantage in getting more tons per day/per week/per month from a pit to the crusher. This is what we are stressing to the quarry customers, reduction in cost per ton for hauling their product. More tons per day means overall quarry costs go down which equates to being able to bid product at a lower cost with increased sales potential.”

Veteran equipment operator, Tommy Walker of W.S. Jackson Construction Company, Sandersville, Ga., was impressed with his test of the Accugrade Dual GPS system on the Cat 336DL excavator. His company has tried other machine control technology and Walker liked the simplicity of machine operation with the Accugrade system, and stated “I like the way this machine is set up and I like what I see here.”

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