Utility Contractor Tulsa | Trencher
This content was written for GEI Utility Construction

In past articles we have talked about the different types of heavy equipment and machinery that a utility contractor Tulsa uses on a daily basis to help make their jobs easier and more efficient and effective. The next piece of heavy equipment we will discuss in depth is called the trencher. Before we begin explaining in detail what a trencher is, what a trencher does, what a trencher looks like and how it is powered and so on and so forth it might be good To do a quick recap on heavy equipment in general and how they are typically powered and how they are used in the utility contractor Tulsa industry.

Gables excavating or GEI Utility construction as we Collett today has been in the utility contractor business for nearly 40 years. My grandparents Roy and Ruth Gable founded Gables excavating in 1980 as a way to help better support their family of six children. They moved to Tulsa Oklahoma from Eugene Oregon in the late 70s with the hopes of starting a company that would eventually be a family business to help provide for their growing family. In 1980 Gable’s Exc. Inc. was founded and later Inc. in 1983. The very first piece of equipment that my grandfather bought to begin his business was a backhoe. We talked about backhoes in a separate article so we will not go into great detail now. However just so that any questions are answered a very quick definition of a backhoe may be in order. A backhoe is a medium sized piece of heavy equipment used for excavating and moving material. It has a boom on the rear of the machine used to dig and a loader on the front of the machine used to move spoils or other material around the job site or into dump trucks etc. Gable’s Exc. Inc. utility contractor Tulsa Oklahoma was started with one man and a Backhoe. Typical heavy equipment is powered by an engine usually a diesel or gasoline powered engine. Rather than having a transmission to move the equipment typical of most vehicles on the road today heavy machinery is usually powered by hydraulic pressure. The engine turns a hydraulic pump which then supplies hydraulic pressure under enormous pressures throughout the machine by a network of hoses. This is typically how most heavy equipment today and for quite some time is powered. In Huge amounts of force are able to be generated with the utilization of hydraulic pressure.

Coming back to the specific type of heavy equipment we are discussing today, the trencher, the hydraulic powered system is the same as in other pieces of heavy equipment. A engine and our case Diesel engines Are used to turn hydraulic pumps which pump hydraulic fluid under great pressure throughout the machine via a system of hoses to hydraulic motors that are used to power of the various functions of the machine this includes moving the machine forward and reverse, steering the front tires, steering the rear tires, powering the blade attachment which is situated in the front of the machine and used to backfill the excavation or trencher Ditch win installation is complete, and of course the stinger or Business end of the trencher. Most trenchers look similar to a chainsaw. Obviously, this is a much larger scale than your typical home owners chainsaw. They trenchers that Gable’s Exc. Inc. a utility contractor Tulsa Oklahoma uses in its operations have trenchers or stingers that can trench to a maximum depth of 6 feet in depth and cut approximately 7 to 8 inches wide. Attached to the trencher are a set of augurs situated horizontally so that when the trencher pulls the dirt up out of the ground the auger spins one direction on one side in the opposite direction on the other to move the spoils away from the trencher ditch so that the excavation can remain open.

Once the excavation has been trenched and opened up the next step is to install the product. In most cases this installed product or conduit is a PVC pipe. PVC pipe is used for a variety of applications from water to sewer to electrical and telecommunications applications. However there is a separate similar type of conduit that is being used more and more in today’s construction industry known as HDPE or high density polyethylene. This product functions in the same way as a PVC conduit but comes in a coil of different lengths ranging from 200 up to several thousand feet in length.

Once the product is installed backfill of the trencher Ditch can begin. Typically a trencher Ditch spoils are broken in to find material due to the process of trenching. Compared to excavation via an excavator or backhoe or mini excavator trencher spoils are typically broken into pieces the size of small change or even smaller. This allows the operator to use the blade which is typically situated on the Front of mini trenchers to be angled and the trencher driven down one side of the trencher ditch to push the spoils back in to the excavation. Typically at this point in the process a warning tape is installed. The warning tape serves as a warning to other utility contractor TULSA or anyone digging that they are nearing an existing utility. This is especially important due to the unreliability of locating services a warning can be the difference between a damaged utility and a more productive job site for both the customer and the contractor. Once the warning tape is installed backfill Ken resume backfill is completed repeating the process using the blade and traveling down the opposite side of the excavation to push the remaining spoils into the excavation. This is the typical process for utility installation via trencher.

GEI Utility construction is the utility contractor Tulsa has come to know and trust. Due to its 35+ year track record in Tulsa as a utility contractor Tulsa Gable’s excavating Inc. or GEI Utility Construction has been depended on by customers both large and small alike for nearly 4 decades. Over this time GEI utility Tulsa Oklahoma has refine the process of Utility Construction and set the bar for contractor Tulsa Oklahoma. If you or someone you know is in need of a utility contractor or perhaps they are unhappy with their current Utility contractor TULSA please do not hesitate to reach out to GEI today to see what our company can do to make your life easier. As always GEI Utility construction guarantees to beat our competitions price by at least 15% and deliver a no hassle, no obligation free quote within 24 hours.