The Road to the Rockies is Paved with Lower Fueling & Fleet Costs

Niki Patterson, western regional sales manager, Thunder Creek Equipment

Road construction — especially DOT (department of transportation) work — is more competitive and heavily regulated than ever. Experienced contractors like Alyson and Brycen Buum, owners of AB Underground, know that being competitive in their bids, profitable in their work, and compliant in their day-to-day operations requires a deliberate deployment of their people, equipment and resources.

Based in Lasalle, Colorado, the contractor specializes in underground utilities, earthmoving, and stream and creek restoration, and has performed related work in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and New Mexico. The challenges of operating a decentralized fleet and business stretched across hundreds of miles and relying on preventive maintenance resources far from home is challenging at best, and debilitating at worst.

Realizing that “there had to be a better way” than relying on employees with 100-gallon slip tanks in the back of their pickup truck for refueling, AB Underground invested in a 690-gallon Thunder Creek Multi-Tank Oil (MTO) preventive maintenance trailer. The innovative design from Thunder Creek allows AB Underground’s employees to haul the trailers with bulk diesel and service fluids without requiring the drivers to hold HAZMAT or CDL endorsements.

With thousands of miles and more than 300,000 gallons of diesel and other fluids pumped through the trailer, the company has realized numerous benefits that lower their operating costs and make them more profitable in their field operations:

• More equipment uptime/less downtime waiting for diesel or service
• Less labor (time) and mileage wasted on refueling trips with pickup trucks and smaller transfer tanks
• Less money wasted on fuel taxes while also ensuring compliance by hauling both on- and off-road diesel
• Less time spent on fueling equipment each day due to pump speed (up to 40 GPM)
• Fewer equipment downtime events related to emissions systems failures caused by contaminated DEF
• Simplified daily PM activities with dedicated reclaim system to handle waste oils
• Lower labor costs and greater flexibility by hauling these bulk fluids and service elements in a trailer that does not require the driver to have a CDL or HAZMAT endorsement.
• Improved security and quality: the ability to lock and secure the fluids helps minimize theft and contamination. 

Engineered for the Open Road. Built to Lighten the Ledger.

Thunder Creek was the first manufacturer to introduce non-HAZMAT, non-CDL bulk diesel transportation for off-road equipment, and has evolved that platform in numerous ways to include more PM and service-oriented operations. This includes the MTO 690 deployed by AB Underground. 

The trailer accomplishes the no HAZMAT, no CDL designations by storing all service fluids in capacities of 115 gallons or less and segmenting them in a way that their quantities never combine to exceed legal volumes. Tanks are configured in quantities of 115 gallons, 55 gallons, and 25 gallons, and are capable of holding fresh oil (engine and hydraulic), coolant, reclaimed oils, and diesel, and AB Underground has additionally configured its trailer with a 100-gallon DEF tank that runs with Thunder Creek’s proprietary two-in-one closed loop pumping system. 

Each tank/system is isolated and has to be intentionally engaged to make it available for use/connected to other tanks. All tanks can be automatically shut off and fully disconnected during travel.

One of the biggest advantages of the dedicated and controlled fueling and service trailer is the ability to control their own timing for fueling and service while not relying on third-party wet hosing services, or smaller 100-gallon transfer tanks.   

“Being a DOT highway contractor, we don’t have the opportunity for large fuelers to come in off shift,” says Brycen. “All our work is done primarily in lane closures, so a fueler is not able to come in after shift because he has to reach our equipment in a lane closure. So, if we can get in there during the day, during the working hours, fuel something, get the trailer back in the staging area, then the superintendent can perform the rest of their duties that day.”

The trailer also offers a significant advantage in time savings. Equipped with an optional 40-gallons-per-minute pump, the trailer fuels much faster than the pickup-mounted tanks and other fueling methods.

“The pumping speed on the Thunder Creek is probably the favorite thing that our guys have, just because of the 40-gallons a minute. When you’re running your typical electric fuel pumps, they claim 15 gallons per minute, but they end up being about six, seven gallons total. We can fuel a whole spread of tractors or dozers in the time that it would take to pump 100 gallons off of a slip tank.”

Ease of Compliance and Being Smart with Taxed/Untaxed Fuels

Speed is not the only advantage as it relates to diesel, and the multi-tank design allows for other benefits beyond not requiring a HAZMAT. AB Underground hauls both on-road (clear) and off-road (red dyed) diesel in separate tanks on the trailer,. The operator can activate only the tanks with the clear diesel, or only the tanks with the dyed diesel, and pump into the appropriate machines or vehicles.

Why is this such a big deal?

On-road diesel is subject to the federal excise tax on fuel. Off-road diesel is not. The ability to separate the fuels and pump them independently from the same trailer eliminates any costly errors where an operator might put a taxed fuel into a machine or put a non-taxed fuel into a highway haul truck. Both are wasteful, and the latter example of putting non-taxed diesel into an on-highway vehicle is both costly and illegal. 

“One of the biggest benefits that we have of the Thunder Creek is being able to shut one tank off and run 100 gallons clear diesel. Some of our projects on the highway entail water trucks and on-highway tandem dump trucks. They need fuel as well. That helped us out substantially,” says Brycen.

The labor savings of having a trailer that does not require a CDL or a HAZMAT endorsement is a major benefit in a labor market where it’s hard enough to find good people, and even harder to find people with those licenses.

“The more we looked into it, the more we realized that we were going to be into the CDL/HAZMAT problem,” says Brycen. “It’s another person to depend on and if that person doesn’t show up that day, it cripples the whole fleet. Once we realized how Thunder Creek was able to comply with DOT requirements [without requiring a CDL or a HAZMAT], it was a no-brainer. It didn’t really matter what the price point was, we had to have one.”

Another advantage that the multi-tank trailer provided AB Underground was the ability to store and dispense diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). While DEF is not a new topic/resource by any means as engine emissions standards that require DEF have been enacted for more than a decade now, the handling of DEF still proves problematic for many contractors. DEF is also a chemically volatile substance in that even the most minor contaminants can alter its effectiveness and damage equipment.

Thunder Creek produced one of the industry’s first dedicated systems for the storage and transfer of DEF that focuses on keeping DEF in a “closed” system, meaning that it transfers into the storage tank, and from the storage tank into the machine, without ever being exposed to the environment. This is accomplished through a “closed loop” 2-in-1 pumping system that both pulls the DEF into the trailer tank and then pumps it into the machine using the same apparatus.

“We’ve noticed a substantial decrease in DEF-related issues since we started running that closed loop system,” says Brycen. “So, the dumping of two-and-a-half gallons in skid steers and then throwing the jug in the back of your truck…. wasn’t working. Now that we can carry 100 gallons of DEF and pump it, our emissions failures have been almost zero.”

Daily Preventive Maintenance Made Obviously Simple

Daily preventive maintenance activities have also been streamlined by providing the AB Underground team with storage tanks for both engine and hydraulic oils, as well as a reclaim system that gives them a powerful tool for disposing of service oils in the field, as well as addressing unplanned failures in the field.

“We can run two different types of oil — motor oil and hydraulic oil — [and also have] the reclaim system,” says Brycen “We were not sure that we would use [the reclaim system] as much as we do. But it comes more into play when you’ve got a hydraulic line that’s leaking, or a failure and you need to contain the oil.”

To support the daily PM activities such as cleaning/blowing out filters, as well as any other needs that arise on the jobsite, each trailer also features an integrated 35 CFM at 100 PSI air compressor equipped with a 50-foot, ½-inch hose on an auto-retracting reel.

All of this functionality is great, but it means nothing if it can’t stand up to the rigors of travel across the plains and up and down mountains and working effectively off-road when it gets there. Each trailer is built strong in Pella, Iowa. Thunder Creek has built its foundation on ASME and DOT-compliant tank fabrication and designed the business end of the trailer around that capability. This includes thick gauge steel and a baffling system that allows for smooth towing.

“The trailer handles extremely well. We primarily run it on a three quarter ton pickup truck,” says Brycen.

Ultimately, Brycen sees the benefits of the trailer being worthy/effective for any contractor, but where he sees it particularly make sense is for contractors running at least 200 gallons of diesel each day through the trailer. AB Underground runs between 400 and 500.

“If you’re burning more than 200 gallons of fuel/day, then you have to have one. You’ll never regret the purchase,” says Brycen. “My favorite feature is the hydraulic jack, the large capacity and the pump at 40 gallons a minute.”

“The ease of use for anybody to have this trailer is probably another one of those things that’s really underrated until you’ve actually dealt with [an employee] that could cripple your whole fleet or your whole day by calling in sick or not showing up at all. This trailer, being able to send it with anybody… Once you live with Thunder Creek, you’ll never do life without one.”

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