IronCast: Ep. 15 | Compact Construction Equipment On-Site with SLC Excavating

In this episode of The IronCast, we take the conversation straight to the jobsite with the team at SLC Excavating to explore the real-world impact of compact construction equipment.

Set against an active project, this episode highlights how today’s compact machines are redefining productivity—especially in tight, challenging environments where larger equipment simply can’t operate efficiently. From site prep to material handling, the SLC crew shares how versatility, maneuverability, and smart machine selection play a critical role in getting the job done right.

We dive into:

• Why bigger isn’t always better on modern jobsites
• How compact equipment boosts efficiency in limited-access areas
• The day-to-day realities of running a crew with a versatile fleet
• Insights from operators who rely on these machines to stay productive

You’ll also hear firsthand stories from the field, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at how contractors make decisions that balance performance, cost, and practicality.

Whether you’re an operator, contractor, or just passionate about heavy equipment, this episode offers a grounded perspective on how compact machines are earning their place as essential tools on today’s jobsites.

Real conversations. Real equipment. Real jobsite insight.

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:01

Welcome to the Iron Cast Podcast. We are here, first time ever, on site. We're doing the podcast episode on an actual job site because here at the Iron Cast, it is real people, real conversations, all things iron and everything in between. And this is the real deal here. And I actually brought some special friends with me here today that met me out here on the job site. First up is uh the honorable Brady Yinks from GTE. Welcome, Brady.

Speaker 1 0:33

Thank you.

Speaker 3 0:34

Thank you for coming. Thank you for being willing. Brady is our is a fabulous salesman, uh covering mostly uh Lancaster County. Yes. And so here he has his friend and my friend as well, Trevor Ellsworth with SLC Excavating.

Speaker 0:51

Oops, wrong button.

Speaker 3 0:56

There it is. Trevor is on the icast. Welcome to the club. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for allowing us to kind of commandeer the uh job site here. This is actually one of your jobs you're doing. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the job site that we're at here today, what we're working on here?

Speaker 2 1:13

Sure. So so this one is a one of our parks and playgrounds sites here. We've been doing a lot of sport courts, whether it's basketball, pickleball, tennis. We also do playgrounds and stuff. This one happens to be a basketball court and two pickleball courts. There was an existing basketball court here on site when we got here. We ended up taking down some trees to make room for another court. So we demoed the old basketball court. In its place will go the two pickleball courts, and then in a different area that was previously lawn will be the basketball. Aside from that, some small little improvements. There's some walking trails to get to each court as well as the existing pavilion. And then aside from that, there's a small amount of storm work with a new inlet and pipe run and a new drinking fountain. Aside from that, we're looking at things going pretty smoothly so far. Current state of the project is we've gotten in, done most, if not all, of our demo work. We have everything stripped down to subgrade and prepping to start put bringing in stone tomorrow to fill the courts in and get those underway so we can get paving here. Excellent. How long have you been on this job? So we started this job two and a half weeks ago. First stage was putting up the ES controls and then bringing in our land clearing guy. He had to remove, I think it was about eight trees total. Yeah. So he came in, took those down. That took him about a week, and we had some some foul weather during that time. So a little bit of a hold up there. And then really hit the ground running with our our crew with our men here last Monday. So we've been here working under with our equipment and our men for about a week and a half now. And right now I've got three people over there. Job site is currently being run by my foreman Joe Morris. And then I do have two operators here as well, Mike Ryanier and Sarah Harden helping out.

Speaker 3 3:02

And they're awesome. What an awesome crew. Seems like they work really well together. As what would you say is your general type of dirt work that you do?

Speaker 2 3:14

So general type of dirt work. So we're a smaller excavation company. We handle small site work packages. We've been starting to get grow a little bit. We've been really in working terms about three years into our business now. So as we keep growing, which has been exponential and quicker than I think we expected, starting to get some slightly larger projects underway. But about half our projects is site work, traditional excavation, you know, buildings and such. And then the other half is public work, whether it's parks and playgrounds, that includes the sport courts and everything like that. On the public work side, we actually are certified playground installers. So we do the site prep for that job as well as install the physical playground itself. And then we'll put in all the basketball and pickleball nets and posts and such like that. And then really the rest of the project, as far as material goes, like blacktop and concrete fences, that's all subcontracted out under us. But that's kind of about 50% of our work being on the public work and park and recreation side. And then about 50% is the larger medium scale site work.

Speaker 3 4:24

Nice. Some of the larger scale, what are some of the machine uh John Deere machines that you're running on those sites?

Speaker 2 4:29

So currently our two largest excavators are two, John Deere 160s. Yep. One is a G, one is a P. And then I do have a 655 loader and a 650 dozer. We have got into quite a few projects here in the past year and a half where we've had to bring on larger iron. We actually just had rented a John Deere 750p dozer, and that worked out very well at a job out in Chambersburg. And then we moved that to another site up closer to Carlisle. Again, fantastic machine. My my main dozer operator, he was very happy to have it there. Yeah. And then we've done a few smarter sort of larger excavators on some projects as well here and there. Really, it's all about the needs of the project. I'm usually it's specialty type instances where it's not going to be there for the longevity, but it's maybe too heavy of a structure or a a deep pipe run or something. We need that type of machine that we don't have the capability of owning at the moment.

Speaker 3 5:28

So, Brady, just to have you chime in here, because I know you deal with with I know Kevin and Trevor and everybody there and Lake at SLC on the sales end. I mean, I deal with them on the product support end and you know, making sure the stuff's doing what it's supposed to do. But Brady, on on jobs where you see, I mean, and you you've got a wide variety of different customers that you're helping out and you know with equipment needs, and specifically like what Trevor's talking about on job sites where you know and I like the way you put that out, like 50%, you know, is Zig's kind of cruise, correct, Trevor? Correct. Yeah, and then there's larger jobs. Brady, what what do we offer at GTE as far as rental packages, and how do you navigate that with our customers specifically too? I mean, you've got some rentals out with SLC. We got one actually here on the job site of 333p. How do you how do you navigate that?

Speaker 1 6:27

Really, it's specific to the job and the need on the job. And and this is generally speaking, but we'll talk specific to SLC. And they've been a great partner to deal with when they need equipment, whether it be sales or rental. And so, I mean, we offer just about anything construction-wise as far as equipment goes in our rental fleet, pending availability, but uh most times we can come through. Trevor knows Kevin or Blake, if they call me, you know, they call me with a need, and we I use our resources within the company to find the machine that they need and and get them set up so that they can get it out on the job and and get their get their work done.

Speaker 3 7:11

Nice. So out here on this job here, we have you can probably you probably heard it even in the background, which I kind of like that. I like that we're doing this on site. We've never done this before, so I have no clue how this is going to turn out. Feel bad for Rachel, who's gonna have to edit this later, but uh, she does a great job and and she's around taking pictures. We're we're kind of highlighting on this specific job the uh compact line. I'm a big fan of the John Deere compact equipment. I've been around a lot of it, and you know, with the compact equipment, it's come a long way. Would you say so, Brady?

Speaker 1 7:46

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, and and it's equipment that you know can help you get jobs, smaller jobs done, tight spaces, and it's really become for a lot of people a starting point for you know, entrepreneurs, owner operators starting up where they can start up with a couple of compact pieces of equipment to start their business and then grow from there as they see fit.

Speaker 3 8:12

Awesome. So, Trevor, same question to you, specifically with our with the John Deere compact equipment. What is what is the biggest value that you've seen navigating 50%, but also I'm sure there's compact equipment on the larger jobs. Like, and maybe talk a little bit about how that niche has helped you and specifically to the John Deere equipment on the 50%, the job site that we're at here now, the playground that we're putting in, also with the the larger jobs.

Speaker 2 8:42

Sure. So when it comes to the public work, I'll start there with the parks and playground side of things. The compact equipment, I mean, most of the time, I'd say close to 80% of the projects we've done that are parks and playgrounds are in and already at a existing park, oftentimes requiring tearing out some of the playground while keeping some of the features that's already there. So the ability to come in with a larger machine is just really not possible for a lot of those. There's a lot of active trees. I mean, right now we're sitting under a very healthy, mature tree. A lot of these parks don't want to lose those. So having to navigate and install new areas and excavate around all these obstacles really does require the smaller, more compact machines. Predominantly on those sites, you'll see the CTLs and the 35 excavators. Yeah. Sometimes, like here shortly, I've got a pipe run here. I'm gonna need to probably bring an 85 excavator up here to run and do that to be able to lift the structure. But that's really about as big as I usually put on the on the smaller parks and playgrounds. So they just require the the compact side of things. But what makes it really nice is specifically with the John Deere's, they've come a long way and are very, very smooth and active, even though it's compact size, they make things very efficient and we're able to move things quickly, accurately. And most of my operators, actually, all my operators really do enjoy all the features, the comfort level that comes with a John Deere. Right. It just makes for a very, very good operating experience. And they actually enjoy, you know, coming and running those machines. But yeah, when it comes to the compact side of things, it's it's a necessity, and having something that has a good product support as well as the availability for rentals if I need to, it just really puts the whole thing together for us. Yeah. When it goes to the larger sites, yeah, you're right, we do still have compact equipment there as well. Actually, I've got guys today down in Leola near Lancaster City. They are they have two skid loaders inside of a building stoning in the floor for a gym. Nice. So they had a small entryway, they actually have one of our 160s inside that building too. It was just wide enough to put the uh 160 through. But the the roof is up, it's it's inside of a about-to-be gymnasium. So we're prepping the concrete or the stone for the concrete floor to be poured next week. So we get a lot of even our site work side, not public side, really get into a lot of tight, small areas, and that's kind of become our niche. We've done various things, and it's always a challenging figure how to fit that machine some places. And when most excavators look at us, they think even a 160 is pretty compact considering where I've put it before. We've done projects where we've been inside of colleges, I've had mini excavators inside elevators down in basements. So we're pretty open to to try anything, and thankfully from across the board, there's support for compact equipment to be able to do that and get the job done.

Speaker 3 11:44

And speaking of compact, I mean, you know, you also have that the home roller, which is a part of the John Deere world as well, with uh, you know, the act, you know, getting on the the the Virgin group and the Hom rollers and and the those small double tan, you know, the tandem rollers, the smooth drums. Easy equipment to get on a trailer, send with a small crew. Brady, I got a question for you here.

Speaker 1 12:10

All right.

Speaker 3 12:10

I'm you know you've sold some other brands in the past, right? I have. Yeah. And for the last three years or so, you've been other than wearing a Phillies shirt, which I don't know if people knew that. You're wearing a Phillies shirt today.

Speaker 1 12:26

People know. Yeah, people know they see it. They see it.

Speaker 3 12:29

What about those that are just listening?

Speaker 1 12:30

Those that are listening.

Speaker 3 12:31

Can they hear the Phillies shirt from here?

Speaker 1 12:33

I don't think they can. They also cheering. Right, because we're not there. Like there's a ball field behind. Yeah, there's a ball. It's a ball field, but they're not playing. Right, it's not the Phillies. Well, we are digressing. Not the park.

Speaker 3 12:45

No, I forget what I was gonna ask you because of your shirt. But you've have sold, you know, some other brands in the past, and now for the last three years selling the John Deere brand. Speaking of compact equipment here, and Trevor, this question's coming to you next, just so you're ready. Because we're kind of going off the cup here. Cusp, I guess they call that.

Speaker 1 13:05

Some off the cuff. Off the cuff. Off the cuff, it is. Yeah, that's the saying.

Speaker 3 13:10

Okay, off the cuff.

Speaker 1 13:11

Yeah.

Speaker 3 13:11

So we're going off the cuff here a little bit, just talking, and this is just a real conversation talking about equipment, that's which is what I love. And I got two awesome people here on a job site, which is something that we do every day, right? Talk about equipment out on job sites, in shops, stuff like that. So in the last three years of selling John Deere compact equipment, Brady, what's something really noticeable that was different, better, or or that stood out? Let's just put it that way. What stood out about the John Deere compact equipment?

Speaker 1 13:44

So what has stood out to me is, and I'll specifically talk about CTLs, is the the power and quality, I would say, of the machine. So selling other brands in the past and knowing them, not knowing as much about Deer at that time as a competitive machine, I have been, I would say I've been impressed. And that's and I say that meaning like I haven't been personally impressed, like I'm personally impressed by the machine, but what I've I've been impressed by is its reception from operators and and you know customers, business partners, you know, as far as again the power and quality of the machine. There's a great cab in the on these P series CTLs as well. And and then on the mini excavators, uh, on that line, really just the again, I'd say uh quality there and just smoothness and reali reliability. Like very few times do I get calls about those machines being unreliable.

Speaker 3 14:58

Right. Same question to you, Trevor. What stands out the most? I mean, you guys have a decent amount of John Deere compact equipment, and it seems like that that fleet's growing and you're you're getting rentals and things like that. I know we talked to some operators here earlier, and they they you know they said some great things too. What stands out to you though?

Speaker 2 15:20

So yeah, I would say majority of my fleet is is compact equipment. We have a total of four CTLs, two of which are John Deere, and then three John Deere 35s. They all do a fantastic job, but uh really comes down to also the support of the product from from GTE, how you guys stand behind it and have the availability when we do get in a pinch or we do have more jobs coming up where we need more of any variety that you guys are are there to help, you know, get that, whether it be you know, a phone call to Brady and you know he helps out get more machines on site and we're gonna pinch where one of ours goes down or whatever. Sometimes we need to replace that with a machine while that g gets repaired. Right. And and you guys are usually right there ready to go, and and that's been a huge benefit for us and it's able to keep the work moving forward.

Speaker 3 16:12

So product support as far as keeping machines running. What what have you noticed on the GTE side that seems to stand out as well as far as you know, let's say preventive maintenance and proactiveness?

Speaker 2 16:26

Sure. So when it comes to preventative maintenance, you guys have a very good how should I say this? Like I get text messages and emails ahead of time when services are due. That's that system you have in place is is very helpful for for us as well, I'm sure most of your customers, but which is uh like our connected support.

Speaker 3 16:47

Yes. Yep. Tyler Schollenberger, who actually was on the Ironcast a few episodes ago or so talking about that. So yeah, he's he's what we call the unsung hero. And it's just uh I'm sure he's like just you know, and th you know, just so thrilled to hear that you know that that does play a big part in the that plays a big part in it.

Speaker 2 17:05

Also just the uh ability for us to call. I've I've had other dealers where I've had to call for for parts and whether it's preventive maintenance or you know, a fix after the fact, and the the service and even the friendliness is is not there with some of them. Some of them are decent, but you guys are are usually very on top of things, so that's very helpful. And then you guys are always more than willing to work with us and you know either bring parts to us or make it easy and available for me to pick it up. So that's always convenient as well, and a huge, huge benefit for what we do with you guys. And then overall the service again behind it is just calling the service department is a it's a friendly, good experience at the end of the day.

Speaker 3 17:49

Awesome. Well, we appreciate we appreciate that feedback.

Speaker 1 17:52

Yeah, I love hearing that.

Speaker 3 17:54

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's good to hear that sometimes when we're in the trenches, Brady, you know, it's it's good to hear that you know the hard work does pay off. So Trevor, I'd really like to get to know you. What is your role at SLC and and how long have you been there?

Speaker 2 18:11

Sure. So so my role as general superintendent. SLC started the December of 22 officially. Really kind of got boots on the ground here springtime of 23. I've been there I think January 3rd of 23, so right right from the beginning there. Yeah. Initially we started with three guys in the field. It was myself and then an operator and a laborer. Now we have 27 guys in the field. Wow. 28, including myself, then. So we've definitely grown a lot in the past three years. Now, some of those are some are interns and some are help. We've done a lot with CTC kids and Pentecids and college kids helping, you know, they help us during the summer during busy months. We get them work experience, job experience, and an introduction to the field. So that's been helpful. I'm not trying to get away from the first question though. But uh, so yeah, that's how long I've been here. Previously, most of us, or I shouldn't say most now, some of us came from a previous comp excavation company that had shut down in December of 22. So that's kind of how SLC got started. Kind of came from a core group and then started bringing people on and growing from there. I got a lot of young talent, which is extremely helpful.

Speaker 3 19:27

Yep.

Speaker 2 19:29

Before here, excavation-wise, I only worked at one other company. I was with them for about five years, five, six years. So I got almost 10 years. I think one more year would be, yeah, 10 years, nine years right now, doing excavation. Yeah, I kind of fell in love. I started when I was 25 and just came into the industry and started a labor and kind of worked my way up from there. And I've been given a lot of opportunities and a lot of support from a lot of key people, which has really helped me thrive as well as getting everything else done aside from that. So I kind of started, I shouldn't say later in the game, but I know a lot of people start construction and such when they get out of high school. Not so the case with me. I actually was talking to a friend of mine looking for a job. I was currently enrolled in Millersville at the time, did one year at Millersville University, and he's like, hey, I did excavation for a little while, you might like it. So I sat down on the computer and I applied to every single excavation company in the county. And the previous company called me back and said, Hey, you know, we'd like to have you come in for an interview. And yeah, came in and was there till till they shut down there in 22 and helped helped fund us or found SLC there, and we've been moving forward ever since.

Speaker 3 20:45

So what uh uh over the last 10 years, uh what stands out the most? What what do you love the most about the construction industry?

Speaker 2 20:54

What I love most about the construction industry is at the end of the day, you get to go home and you you did something or helped do something that was is going to be appreciated for a very long time, whether it's you know, help do the foundation for a building. I mean, more than likely that building is gonna be standing for a while. You can drive past previous jobs and see you what hard work you with your crew put into that and physically, tangibly see it and feel it, as well as knowing that you helped accomplish something. That's a big drive for me. I've done other jobs where at the end of the day it it there's nothing to look back and stand behind and see something physically being done. Yeah. So being able to put forth physical effort and accomplish things, sometimes it's challenging, sometimes stuff you don't always want to do. But once it's done, usually that's what kind of bonds accrue together is getting through times like that and building that, and you develop great relationships. It's it's very hands on physical. So that's a huge plus. Being, you know, I spend most of my days outside, and days like today are a great day to be outside. Oh. Maybe I would not be not be sucking in an office trying to look out the window and imagine what it's like outside.

Speaker 3 22:04

I can't believe this is what I'm doing right now for a job. Sitting here under a shaded tree on a beautiful July, or no, it's June. On a beautiful June day with some good friends and great people, you know. And we're on a job site. There's equipment running in the background. And what I think is really cool, the three of us, this was not our original career.

Speaker 1 22:31

No.

Speaker 3 22:31

We we we were in somewhat similar, but you know, we were all in different careers. Brady, what what do you what do you love most about the construction industry?

Speaker 1 22:44

I love that every day's so for me, every day is different. And I I if I had to put my stamp on the one thing I love the most, it's actually the relationships that I form, have formed, continue to form and strengthen throughout the the industry. And that's with you know co-workers, it's with you know customers, thank you, business partners, and because it is a like I view it as a uh a partnership with the uh contractors that I deal with, like SLC and others, because I want to be, I feel like I'm part of it. Like what uh what Trevor just said about you know being able to drive by and see, you know, things that you were a part of, right? And and even though I'm not physically out there a part of any of these projects, like I do also like I drive by some of those projects with the same, a similar mindset. Like, you know, I was a little bit part of it because I supplied equipment, you know, for that project that was completed. Or, you know, I have a you know, like I know the contractor that completed that project, and that's you know, kind of makes me feel a little bit a part of that. So yeah, I'd say I'd say the relationships and the fact that every day is a little bit different, and I get to help solve problems, really.

Speaker 3 24:05

I would say the exact same, and and it is great working with you. It's thank you. And that's what I've learned coming into this industry. I I think Brady, you and I have been in it almost the same.

Speaker 1 24:17

I think a similar amount of time. So I'm going on 13 years, I think. Yeah, I'm starts to get jumbled a little bit.

Speaker 3 24:22

I'm at 13. And it's and you're 10. I mean, we're all kind of in that in that same realm. But yeah, but I what I love most too is you know, just to say that, you know, it's I didn't realize how important relationships are. You know, in a business standpoint, you know, it it it's like we're business partners. Would you say that, Trevor?

Speaker 2 24:44

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 3 24:45

Yeah, yeah. You have to be business partners. We're helping each other's companies, we're helping each other out, and to to provide you know, the levels of support that we need, not just for GTE, but so you guys can support your customers as well. We got to keep this machine up and running, Brady. Absolutely. Absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about SLC here. Uh, we we kind of got started a little bit, but let's let's dive in some more. You guys are really growing.

Speaker 2 25:20

Yes, quickly.

Speaker 3 25:21

And the other thing I noticed was there's a big presence out there in the in the social media fields as well. But it seems like you guys have a really good handle on you know putting your name out there in a in a certain way as far as branding. And you know, I see your trucks, they look great. I see the equipment, it looks great. You know, you keep it clean. Obviously, today it's completely dry, there's dust everywhere. I'm kind of getting the allergy thing going on here with all this dust, but you know, we're gonna we're gonna tough through it. But tell me a little bit about you know your your marketing end and and getting your name out there.

Speaker 2 26:02

Yeah, so as far as the market ends, we do have in-house marketing that's been very beneficial and helpful getting us going, getting us kind of recognized and seen to a degree. All of our all of our trucks are very, very bright, easily seen. I personally do like the graphics. It does look, it does look sharp, but you definitely notice that us coming down the road. It's not just another typical, you know, one-paint scheme truck with a logo in the door. It is a it's a full wrap, it says it everywhere across the across the vehicle. So that definitely helps people recognize us. At first, it was kind of you know, who's these guys just moving through with one or two pickup trucks? Now I have, I think it's seven or eight trucks that have the full wrap plus two dump trucks. I think people have recognized now that you know who we are. We've built a lot of relationships with customers, with dealers and suppliers, and it's really truly come a long way as far as when I make a phone call, everyone's like, oh, what in is it CLS or CSL or they get the name wrong. Now they they all recognize who we are, at least you know in our immediate area, which is kind of what we're focused on. So that's been helpful as far as the the marketing goes. I know right now we're actually in the middle of working on a website, and we do occasionally post videos with our marketing personnel and such. So that's been helpful getting our name out that way as well. As plus any support that's anytime you guys come out and do anything like this in the past or any type of event and tag us in there, that also helps us get out there and you know see more photos and stuff of our job sites.

Speaker 3 27:32

Yeah, and we appreciate you guys, you know, as our customers, we're business partners, and you know, we we're kind of out here highlighting the compact equipment. I think we always want to steer to the big equipment, Brady. What'd you say? It's like, oh, look at that big dozer, and that that stuff is cool, but you know, the compact line is out there. The compact line, it seems like everybody and their brother seems to be selling that stuff these days. There's a lot of different manufacturers, there's a you know, a lot of different things happening, there's a lot of innovations coming. I mean, as far as attachments, geez, we could talk for hours on all the different attachments, we can't even probably name them all. And every day it seems like I'm getting some some new request, like, oh, I saw this out there. I'm like, it makes my head spin. When it comes to finding and and selecting attachments, I'm gonna throw this. You guys can, you know, just take this and run with it. Take the ball, send it down the field. You know, how do you figure out what attachments you need? How do you know, you know, when it's time to buy the attachment, rent the attachment? I mean, I'm sure a lot of people, this this is probably like the biggest question when it comes to attachments. Would you say so?

Speaker 1 28:45

It is. It is a big question. And one of the and the biggest part of that, I think, is when you know you have at least some need for an attachment, as and this is my experience working working with my contractors, but when you know you have at least some need for an attachment, it's then figuring out, well, is this a one-time need? Do I need it just for one job? Does it make sense to rent it or does it make sense to buy it? And and I'm never the person to make those decisions, obviously. Um, but we what I try to do there to be helpful is in a lot of cases, if the answer to that is an unknown, I'll say, hey, if if we have the attachment, rent it, start renting it. And then if you decide it's going to be something that you can use, you know, longer term or more often, or it makes sense to buy it, then we'll convert it to a purchase down the road.

Speaker 3 29:38

Nice. And and Trevor, you're preparing for a job, like let's say this job here, or any of the other ones, they're all kind of in that niche. How do you know what attachments to bring to a job or what to rent or what to buy?

Speaker 2 29:54

So that's definitely always a challenging part from a uh from a job aspect. If it's not something we currently own and we're looking to rent an attachment, it's really got to start thinking about is there something we currently have that we can you know do that job, make it work, and suffice? If you know, we kind of balance it out. Is it gonna take longer if we use something we currently have, or do we rent something? And then like Brady said, if we do rent something, we try to make it so that way we overlap with another job. If there's a need to have that somewhere else for us to get the most use out of us possible. So oftentimes we rent something for you know a week, two weeks, or a month or something like that. It's probably gonna see more than one job site just to be able to use it, not only from a use standpoint, but from a operator familiarity standpoint. It is kind of difficult when you get a new attachment that's as an operator you've never used before. That first day or two might might take have a learning curve and you got to figure it out. So that's sometimes a challenge, especially when it's gonna be an only a one or two-day rental and something we don't use all the time. But you know, keep it longer and use it on more jobs gets more operators used to it, or you know, one or two operators very proficient on it, so they feel more comfortable in the future next time we rent one. If we have to get a job done quickly, we've used it and we're familiar. So that's kind of how that works. Aside from that, it'll be a phone call to someone like Brady, and you know, what do you have available? And this is the needs we have. Do you have an attachment that you would recommend or that you can get that would work? So there's a lot, I mean there's attachments for everything these days. So it's kind of hard to just us to make the phone call always saying this is exactly what we want. Sometimes he might come back and say, Well, have you tried this? And we might go a different route at the end of the day, depending on what feedback we get. And then we've been very fortunate. We've every now and then we get the chance to demo something. You guys get something new in and want to put in your demo fleet and you know, get that out there as well, and have your contractors try it. So we've done stuff like that where we've tried things, and that's a great learning experience to be able to demo a piece of uh equipment or a attachment and and see what it's all about.

Speaker 3 32:07

Speaking of demos, I hear that we have some demo days coming up. What do you got there, Brady?

Speaker 1 32:13

We do have demo days coming up. So some of you may or may not know, but that there is a new excavator coming out from John Deere, and it is an all John Deere excavator.

Speaker 3 32:25

That's plate that's built played up in Penn in the United States.

Speaker 1 32:28

Played up, yep, built played up in the United States. And so we're all excited for that. And with that, once we get our first couple excavators in of the new series, then we are going to we already have a date set. I believe it is August 27th.

Speaker 3 32:46

Rachel, is that right? Is that right?

Speaker 1 32:50

Well, there's three dates, but those are there is three dates. I'm sorry. So I'm thinking of the date in Central PA, which is where I c reside and cover. So anyway, yeah. There there are other dates in our other other regions, but in any event, yeah. So we're gonna highlight the excavators at those events. We will have other equipment at those events as well. I believe a dozer and there's a roller.

Speaker 3 33:16

Yep, a roller, a dozer, and the and the excavators.

Speaker 1 33:19

Yeah, yeah. So, but we're excited about that event. I'm hoping a lot of people come to see it, get the chance to get in the seat and operate a little bit. I have a number of people who attended Con Expo earlier this year, and so those excavators were on display there, but you couldn't get in and dig with them. So not no, not in the NASA. That's not the place to do it. No, that's not.

Speaker 3 33:42

You probably get in trouble.

Speaker 1 33:43

Yeah, most likely. A little bit. Yeah. But yeah, so there's a demo days. Excited about it.

Speaker 3 33:48

And you you did invite Trevor and your head.

Speaker 1 33:51

I did, yeah. They are they are SVP'd.

Speaker 3 33:53

They are SVP'd, so we'll see that demo days to be there. And and the Ironcast will be there as well. So we'll have to get you back on, Trevor. What you know, get your get yourself in the seat of one of those things. Yeah, looking forward to it. Yeah, that's that's gonna be a fun day. So there is three different venues going on for those demo days, just you know, because there's we're across Pennsylvania here. We have the east, eastern, central, and and western Pennsylvania demo days coming up. I think the best thing to do there is just to, you know, if people are on this listening, just to contact your your sales rep and if you haven't heard about it yet, and he'll get he or she will get you a a flyer to RSVP. There's uh QR code on there.

Speaker 1 34:39

Website also.

Speaker 3 34:40

Yeah, and uh, you know, obviously you can just jump on the website, but probably good to talk to the sales rep, wouldn't it?

Speaker 1 34:46

It's always a good excuse to yeah, call your call your sales rep a call.

Speaker 3 34:49

Why didn't you give me the flyer?

Speaker 1 34:50

Exactly. But you're on it.

Speaker 3 34:52

You already do a little yep, you already got uh Trevor on board. Oh, here comes Rachel.

Speaker 34:59

Yeah, Western Thursday.

Speaker 3 35:03

All right, this just is start it over in just Pennsylvania is gonna be held on Thursday, August 20th, and that's gonna be at Camel Construction site, uh, which is in in Pittsburgh there. And the one here from uh that you mentioned, Brady, uh which is would be the central, that's gonna be held on Thursday, August 27th. That's actually on the Warheigh property. Beautiful site there. I know the Warhead guys and got a nice farm there, so we can just go rip that thing up and see what these things got. But that's on August 27th, and they're in Manheim, so it's a nice central location in your, you know, in our backyard there. Yes. And the one are actually located, you know, we're more on the eastern side here today on this job site. But the eastern one, that's gonna be held Thursday, September 3rd. And that's gonna be held at Sparks in in Industries. It's their Warwick facility in Jameson. All right. I have no clue where that is.

Speaker 1 36:01

I don't know either.

Speaker 3 36:02

I got a free phone out of it.

Speaker 1 36:03

That's perfect.

Speaker 3 36:05

So, yeah, those are the demo days. And that's exciting, you know, because you were mentioning, you know, when something new comes out to put it on a demo. Apart from the new excavator, everybody wants to, you know, see what the new excavator is. The John Deere built only excavator that's built plate up in in the United States, America. Other than that, what what what would you love to demo?

Speaker 2 36:29

So so one thing that's attachment-wise, that we've been looking into, and forgive me, I thought you may Brady have more insight than I had to have on this one, is the rotary heads we were talking about, the drum cutters.

Speaker 1 36:42

Drum cutter.

Speaker 2 36:43

So I'm not sure where where Kevin, my present, where him and Brady fell on that discussion after we went to Con Expo and and saw them out there looking at specifically, I think Epirock is what that was. Yep, Epirock drum cutter. So looking at that, and I said we'll we'll see what comes of that as far as possibly getting a demo in. So that's one thing we're we're interested in looking at. As far as demos goes, we actually just recently demoed a 333 with grade control on one of our sites. That was what back in the winter time. The smart grade. Yeah, smart grade. Yep. Yep. So that was that was really convenient. And we had our 650 dozer there with smart grade as well on it. So it was nice to see how the 333 was what it was capable of next to a a mid-sized smaller dozer on a smaller site. So again, we'd be looking at that as a GPS or smart grade capable adaptation to our parks and playgrounds where I'm not putting the big machines on. Right. So that's kind of where we're looking at going that way. And then moving forward as far as what you guys have to offer and such from Groff Tractor, looking at possibly getting into a demo or a rental of a LN160 to figure out if that is a good suitable survey type piece of equipment to or grade control as well for our small projects. Right. As I said before, you have a lot of trees and buildings around that are existing, you got to work around where GPS might not suffice. It's also a little bit smaller site to work on. And when we lay out all the playground posts and everything, average playground might have 50 to 60 different pins for all the posts. So yeah, looking at a few things we have come across a need for on our end, as well as a couple new ones that we saw when we're out in Con Expo here a few months ago. And Brady was there as well. So that was really neat to see some of the things you guys have to offer out there that we haven't seen in our market in Pennsylvania here, or as well as that you guys don't have in your rental fleet yet. So I know we work in different avenues there, but that's kind of what I'm looking forward to coming across here in the next few months.

Speaker 3 38:48

Awesome. I'm looking forward to that too.

Speaker 1 38:51

Likewise.

Speaker 3 38:51

Yeah, yeah. You know, I I noticed we were talking about attachments ever since you know I got in this industry and been around John Deere and all these attachments. I actually had to s I did I got to stop having to go to therapy since then.

Speaker 1 39:08

Tell me why, Jason.

Speaker 3 39:10

Because I no longer have any attachment issues. That was more fitting.

Speaker 1 39:21

You gotta smile at least.

Speaker 3 39:24

Grin and Barrett. Grin and Barrett. I I I said I was I was I'm only gonna do one. Like I'm limited to one. I got so many.

Speaker 1 39:37

I know you do. I got so many. You can tell me off air.

Speaker 3 39:41

Yeah. So Trevor, why don't you why don't you tell me, you know, we want to get to know you a little bit here. What what really turns your crank? Like what outside of the job site, outside of work and stuff like that, what turns your crank?

Speaker 2 39:57

Sure. So uh we discussed a little before the podcast here started, but uh I do got three kids. One's about to start high school and one's about to start kindergarten, and one's the middle here. So they keep me pretty active as far as getting to all their events and sports and dance and everything like that they have going on. You're into dancing? Uh yeah, my kids, uh my daughters are. I've got two daughters on your side. No, I'm not into dancing. Actually, my my oldest daughter does competitive German dancing. And wow, she was this a year ago. I've I knew this. Yeah. I didn't. A year ago during a major competition, she was one place away from earning a spot to going to go over to compete into Germany. So she does she does very well with that. She was the youngest one, or one of the youngest ones in her age bracket at that time. So looking forward to seeing her move through that. And hopefully next year she she gets it. She works hard for it. But yeah, so the kids definitely keep me busy. Aside from that, I've got a few different hobbies. I'm always moving and doing stuff at home. Just did a bunch of yard renovations, poured a patio last weekend. I'm gonna do enjoy motorcycling and disc golf, a few outdoor type activities. I do hunt when it comes to whitetail season and such. But a lot of it's just kind of what the family's doing, and you're totally a family guy. Correct.

Speaker 3 41:14

Nice. I like it. And so is Brady.

Speaker 1 41:19

Yeah, I have three kids also, and yeah, I don't know what yeah, I don't have much spare time outside of that.

Speaker 3 41:27

It's a good thing though.

Speaker 1 41:28

It is good.

Speaker 3 41:29

Do they all they also like the Phillies?

Speaker 1 41:31

They also do like the Phillies, yeah. That's how you're raising your kids. That's right. Yeah, I'm raising them right.

Speaker 3 41:35

I see.

Speaker 1 41:36

Yeah.

Speaker 3 41:37

Well, Trevor, thank you so much for being on the Ironcast. And honestly, for you know, being the guinea pig to doing this first ever on the job site Ironcast recording, which it's turned out successful, I think. It's kind of neat. We just I feel I feel right at home. You know, I feel as much of a home here as I do in the Ironcast studio. This is pretty cool being on a job site. And thank you, Trevor, for you know, just your willingness to allow us to kind of commandeer the job site and highlight the uh can you know the compact equipment today that's doing some awesome work out there that I see. I mean, these guys are really and Gal has really made some quick work here just in the time that we were recording. Pushing some mountains out there with the with the compact equipment. Yeah, they are.

Speaker 1 42:22

It's up to the task.

Speaker 3 42:24

Yeah. Now in the parking lot, do you have to park them in the compact spot? Yeah. I'm not sure the 333 fits. That thing is a beast. But thank you also. You know, we we we love having F SLC as a business partner. We love you know working with you guys and and supporting you guys, and you know, just having that relationship and you know, the openness to, you know, allow us to showcase some awesome things that Deer's doing, that we're doing, that you're doing. I think this is such a cool thing to do. So thanks again, Trevor.

Speaker 2 42:57

Yeah, no, thanks for having me. No, I definitely enjoyed this time. No problem being the guinea pig. And thankfully I got to set the bar and not have anybody, you know, not try to achieve a bar. So anybody else can be be willing to jump over this from now on. Sky's the limit now. Yeah, exactly. So perfect. No, it doesn't matter where that falls, but uh no, thanks again for you guys for having your continued support when you know having rental needs or equipment repairs or even purchases, anything you guys do to provide us with support, and you know, you guys treat any one of my guys that calls in with respect, not just yourselves, but all of GTE's team and everything. Everyone's responsive and very easygoing when you talk to them. It's just a nice conversation, and then pretty pretty quickly we get what we need and get an answer, and we keep moving forward and keep the wheels going. Awesome.

Speaker 3 43:41

And thank you, Brady, for your willingness. My pleasure.

Speaker 1 43:44

Yeah, this was a good idea.

Speaker 3 43:47

It it literally was an idea yesterday to have you here, so I I appreciate that. Just uh jumping in and it's like nothing.

Speaker 1 43:53

You know, pivot.

Speaker 3 43:54

You're natural, you're you're just a uh you're a natural.

Speaker 1 43:56

Whatever's needed, whatever's needed.

Speaker 3 43:58

Yeah, Brady on the spot.

Speaker 1 44:00

Yeah, with that, hold on, so I have a name of this segment. Or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. Anyway, Iron Cast is on the job.

Speaker 3 44:09

Iron Cast is on the job. Yeah.

Speaker 44:13

No? Oh, wrong, sorry.

Speaker 3 44:15

That's the one. I keep hitting the wrong one today. Iron Cast is on the job. We're getting things done. And with that, the Iron Cast is out.