During a six-week period in the late summer of 2004, four hurricanes ravaged much of Florida, including multiple passes through Osceola County in the Orlando area. Each of the hurricanes resulted in mounds of debris from buildings as well as fallen trees and vegetation that clogged important drainage canals. Crews from the Osceola County Road and Bridge Department as well as private contractors, including Wright's Excavating in the St. Cloud-Kissimmee area, used Gradall® excavators to handle a full range of jobs quickly and efficiently. New Model XL 4100-II excavators, as well as their predecessors, Model XL 4100 machines, are driven at highway speeds to multiple sites. Meanwhile, Model XL 4300-II and Model XL 3300 excavators are called upon for numerous rough terrain jobs, maneuvering easily both on and off paved surfaces.

Gradall Versatility Advantages

The efficient use of grapple attachments is critical for quick hurricane damage cleanup. Using the telescoping, tilting boom, operators can position the grapple to pick up and move material from multiple directions and angles - even reaching under tree limbs and beneath fences and bridges where conventional booms cannot work. County crews removing trees from drainage ditches can use a Gradall excavator boom and grapple to pick up large tree trunks and then turn and break the trunks on the ground, creating smaller pieces that will fit into trucks. Load-sensing high pressure hydraulics automatically adjust to handle heavier loads or more demanding ditching and material removal without the need for operator mode selection. In inhabited residential, commercial and industrial areas, cleanup contractors work quickly to load and haul away vegetation as well as roofing and other parts of buildings and water-damaged contents. The fast load cycle times plus the tilting Gradall boom's ability to maneuver big loads into trucks is critical to keep the process moving. "The Gradall can load a truck in about 8 minutes," said one contractor. "That's fast. In fact, our trucks can't hardly keep up."