Rival Hydrovac is a new Hydrovac product designed to address issues the Hydro Excavation Industry is currently faced with.
The Industry began in the 1980’s, primarily to service Oil and Gas Clients in the Western Canadian Oil Patch. For this reason the trucks were designed and built with these applications and geography in mind. The industry began to blossom in the late 1990’s and many of these trucks were showing up in urban settings. Although these trucks were very large and very heavy, the growth in the city markets continues to this day.
Weight and size challenges have been known by service providers and manufacturers for many years; however there was very little motivation for change due to the fact that demand allowed for the current approach to prosper.
Of late, due to the density of these large units in metropolitan centers, government agencies are becoming aware of just how heavy these units are when loaded with debris. Generally speaking, the large units weight 50,000 LBS empty. They hold 12 Yards of debris. A yard of debris weighs 2500-3000 LBS. So when you add those two numbers together you have a problem. Most companies continue to state that the trucks are designed to travel full of water and dispose of debris on site. Unfortunately this is not realistic in urban environments and is seldom actually the case.
The partners of Rival, having been involved in the growth of the industry for many years, acknowledged this fact and began engineering work on a truck that would be better suited for the current growth in the cities.
After a year of engineering, our trucks are beginning to come off the assembly line. The challenge was to make the trucks legal full of debris, but allow the trucks to still perform at a level that make them competitive on the job site.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How much debris will the Rival hold? How can I compete with trucks that hold more mud?
The debris capacity of the Rival T7 is 7 cubic yards. The Rival has the ability to pressure off, which is a feature unavailable to the vast majority of Hydrovac units. This allows the user to offload the flow able contents into another tank, trailer or truck, who can shuttle the material to disposal. Through using this approach, the productivity level of the Rival will exceed that of a conventional large Hydrovac unit.
How much water will the Rival hold? How do I compete with larger capacity trucks?
The Rival truck, due to weight restraints, holds 800 gallons of fresh water. This is half of the large units. Our recommendation is to operate the wash pump at 6 to 8 GPM to in essence make the water capacity larger. The trailer or truck used to support these units will also hold fresh water and be able to refill a truck as required.
Why is the water pump smaller in available flow than the conventional large Hydrovac units?
Most large units currently have water pumps that can push up to 25 GPM of water. The reality is, they never do. The vast majority of tips and nozzles utilized in this industry range from 6 to 12 GPM. The Rival pump will accomplish this task. Our recommendation is to operate the unit in average soils at 6 to 8 GPM. An additional benefit of using a water pump sized properly to the application is that the replacement parts or a replacement pump is much more competitively priced. Badger runs their trucks at about 10 GPM and 2000 PSI.
Can a Rival keep up with a larger truck when limited by hose and dig tube diameters?
The Rival unit features 6” plumbing and a 5” dig tube. The large units feature 8” plumbing and a 6” dig tube. So from a picking up rocks perspective you are losing an inch of rock size. The advantage to the 6” plumbing is that you increase air speed and optimize the blower performance. There would be few jobs that this factor would influence production.
It would seem as though the Rival lacks storage space.
It does not have near as much storage space as the largest units. The Rival was engineered to maximize features, while limiting footprint and weight. We feel as though there is enough space for the required tools of the job. Remote hose will not fit on the fenders of the Rival truck. It would have to be transported separately or on the top of the truck.
How will the blower perform as compared to the larger trucks?
The Rival blower is a Robuschi RBDV105. This blower is capable of 2800 CFM and Full Vacuum. Blower performance is measured in two ways. Vacuum and CFM. This blower will create full vacuum, just the same as the largest blower. It will create less CFM than the large blowers however it is doing so through a 6” plumbed system, which creates very similar air speed at the dig tube as the large blowers. Diameter of 6” to 8” hose is about half in terms of volume, forcing the air to speed up to get through the hose. Rival anticipates very little difference in performance as compared to the largest blower units, except in extreme applications.
How does the boom compare to those on the largest units?
The Rival boom is a 6 inch boom complete with a 5 inch dig tube. A 6 inch dig tube can also be used but it is recommended that a 5 inch is the selected size to prevent rocks from stopping half way up the hose. The large units use 8” booms with either 6 or 8 inch dig tubes. In rocky conditions there will be times when the larger boom will perform better. With the Rival there will be more lifting of rocks out of the hole that do not fit in the tube. So each 5 to 7 inch rock will be deadheaded out of the hole with the Rival unit.
What is so great about the Rival truck? Why is Tim Dell so cocky about it?
Size and Weight
The Rival truck was created to allow for business owners and their employees to be able to provide highly efficient Hydrovac services within the constraints of the law. The current situation does not allow for this. The large trucks are built to legally haul water to a job site and hypothetically dispose of the spoils on location. This is an unrealistic concept. It just cannot happen in most locations. Therefore the current choice is to either run full and hope for the best, or run with 3 yard loads. Either choice is a poor one. To use a huge truck to haul 3 yards is highly inefficient. The truck is expensive to build and operate and to not use it to its capacity is a waste of resources. To operate thousands of pounds overweight is even worse. This industry was born out of a desire to add safety to the excavation of underground lines. To dig safely and then drive away at 100,000 LBS is a confusing concept. The Rival truck can excavate at competitive rates and haul away a full 7 yard load. There is no worry about the DOT or the extended liability of an accident when operating outside of the legislated limits. These large units weigh in the neighbourhood of 50,000 LBS empty. The Rival weighs 33,000 LBS.
These large units are often 35-40 feet in length and 13 + feet in height. The Rival is 30 feet long and just over 11’ at its highest point. Because of this, turning is much easier and fitting the truck into tight area is relatively easy. Rival has also added dual back up cameras to add to the driveability and safety.
It is the believe of Rival that enforcement will continue to get more aggressive in policing the weights that these trucks travel at. It is already a major issue in several urban markets. Ticket amounts are crushing to a small operator and in some jurisdictions it is obvious that these units are being targeted. The days of operating overweight in the city are coming to an end in our opinion. When you think about it, this is one of the only trucking businesses where the vehicle has to operate at tens of thousands of pounds overweight to be used as built.
The weight discussion is the main advantage to being the person with a Rival unit in a marketplace as opposed to the one competing with one. Being able to proactively go to municipalities informing them as to this situation and offering a solution will put a business owner on the right side of the trend. Instead of hoping to avoid the issue through creative driving, you can use it to leverage support from customers.
Additional Fantastic Features of the Rival Hydrovac
The Rival unit was engineered from the ground up by a seasoned licensed engineer. This process took a full year and over 3000 man hours. Every detail was attended to at a level unusual to these trucks.
- Full opening rear door with automatic latching system. These latches are unlike anything seen on these trucks. They allow for a full opening door, built to absorb vacuum and pressure without traditional manual wing nut latches.
- Fold down rear access ladder with a good size walk way with a retractable railing and engineered tie offs. This provides a safe working area on top of the truck when performing maintenance.
- The Rival truck will pressure off loads. This means you have twp ways to offload the load. You can hoist the tank and dump through the full opening rear door. Or you can actuate the 6” full port boom mounted stainless valve, close off the air to the boom and run the blower in pressure mode forcing flow able loads through one of two heated 6” rear valves. This feature allows controlled offloading into a container, open top, roll off, Rival Trailer, or other contained tank or area. This is a terrific feature. Bear in mind, it will not fully empty the tank; however anything that can flow will leave the tank.
- One of the largest advantages of this unit is the look of it. These trucks look very distinct. They will be noticed by everyone. If you are the only guy in your town with them, we are confident that people will quickly notice the guy with the cool units.
- The availability of matching trailer units. Rival can provide the same look and capacities as the truck but in trailer form. This trailer is a support unit, not a vacuum trailer. This means that the trailer can be pulled by the truck and be used to refill the truck with water and to pressure off into. So when using the trailer, you will have in essence a unit that holds 14 yards and 1600 gallons of water, yet can transport that load legally. In the event of a large job, the truck can remain working on site and the trailer can by shuttled by a secondary vehicle. This would be a way to sell yourself as being able to move the most dirt in a day regardless of the size of the competitive unit because you are not leaving the jobsite. Additionally when you did leave you are doing so in compliance.
IF YOU READ ALL THIS, THANKS. WE ARE HOPEFUL YOU AGREE THAT WE HAVE AN INTERESTING CONCEPT. TALK SOON.
TIM DELL