NEW FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND MACHINE WORKS ON LAKE RESTORATION

By Jeff Jacobsmeyer

SPECIAL TO CEG Case photo

Reasoner Grading of Creighton, Mo., takes on a variety of commercial, residential and utility grading projects, but one area the company has started to carve a niche for itself is in the development/restoration of small lakes and ponds — both for recreational and public works purposes.

A local municipality recently purchased a small lake to add to its park system, and Reasoner Grading was contracted to help return what was a neglected patch of land into something that would both be functional and appealing to residents.

“We do this work [because everyone] can share the experience with all their friends, and then we take care of the utility side of things, so that we can improve people’s water quality, their overall life and help the community grow,” said Zac Reasoner, co-owner of Reasoner Grading.

This project allowed Reasoner to deploy one of the industry’s newest machines and newest product categories — the Case Minotaur DL550 compact dozer loader — to significantly reduce the amount of time it took him to do the job, and to simplify the overall deployment of equipment out to the site. Reasoner purchased the new machine from VLP an EquipmentShare Company. VLP — the Case dealer in Missouri and Kansas — has locations in Kansas City and Joplin, Mo., as well as Wichita, Topeka and Garden City, Kan.

“Before Minotaur, we’d have had a large dozer out here, a skid steer and a mid-sized excavator to handle the workload that would need to be done,” he said. “[Doing it with] one machine was so much easier because you could just send one person, and we cut down a bunch of hillsides that took a third [of the time] we originally thought it would have with the scope of equipment that we need by being able to bring in that one machine, just stay in the one machine, and continue doing what you need to do.”

“The mobility of it is so much easier. You can use a pickup and a one-ton with a heavy gooseneck compared to a lowboy, and the fuel savings is just amazing; what you can save on not having two or three pieces of equipment to do what the one can, and just the overall labor. I can continue on other places with different projects going on and not having as much manpower on one site. “We completed the project definitely faster than we would have — just having the one operator here and being able to move on to other projects.”

What Is a Minotaur?

The Case Minotaur DL550 compact dozer loader is a firstof-its-kind machine and equipment category hitting Case dealers now. It features a fully integrated C-frame with six-way blade that connects back into the chassis of the machine. This design provides the stability and smooth operating plane of a small dozer while ensuring that all operating power is channeled through the whole body of the machine. This establishes greater performance and long-

Zac Reasoner, co-owner of Reasoner Grading, with the new Case Minotaur DL550 compact dozer loader. term reliability compared to the simple combination of a dozer blade attachment and a traditional compact track loader. The C-frame and six-way blade can then be disconnected, and the machine can couple up to hundreds of attachments available for other front-end loaders such as skid steers, compact track loaders and compact wheel loaders. “On the dozer side of it, you can move the material that you need to quicker — it’s more agile,” said Reasoner. “The mobility of it is just so much easier when you have a project that’s not huge, but you still need a dozer. Then, the versatility of it — when you’re done with the project, you load out the material that was leftover and continue Case photo The machine features electro-hydraulic dozer controls that on.” The new machine measures out well as both a compact adjust blade, steering and shuttle sensitivity to smooth, mod- dozer and as a massive site loader: 18,600 lbs.; drawbar erate or aggressive to meet the operator’s preference. pull up to 25,826 lbs.; 5,500 lb.-rated operating capacity (50 percent tipping load); Case photo and 140.2 in. of hinge pinThe Case Minotaur DL550 compact height in a vertical lift designdozer loader is a first-of-its-kind machine and equipment category hitting Case dealers now. that makes it easy to load high-sided trucks. And, ultimately, the method of switching between configurations is intuitive and allows for easy changeover. “It just takes a couple of minutes,” he said. “It’s amazing how simple it is.”

Heart of a Dozer

Reasoner weighs the advantages of his full-sized dozer (40,000+ lbs. at 185 hp) and the Case Minotaur DL550 (18,000+ lbs. at 114 hp) when attacking a job.

see MINOTAUR page 62

GARY CARLSON EQUIPMENT CO.

1380 WEST COUNTY ROAD C ROSEVILLE, MN 55113

GARY CARLSON EQUIPMENT

10630 NASSAU STREET NE

BLAINE, MN 55449

www.garycarlsonequip.com

PHONE: 763.792.9123 X 102 CELL: 651.755.5426