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Two dozen Doosan attachments
Spring 2014
Expanding a Doosan crawler or wheel excavator or wheel loader’s versatility is a cost-efficient alternative to operating dedicated machines on a jobsite. Attachments help Doosan equipment owners grow business, replace less effective machines, lower operating costs and significantly increase a machine’s flexibility.
Attachment versatility for Doosan equipment can stretch your fleet resources with their ability to adjust to changing applications, and serve as work tools to perform multiple jobs. Both wheel loaders and excavators can be used with different attachments — more than two dozen types and models — that can help increase revenue and keep machines working year-round.
Doosan attachments, which are built and configured for use with Doosan heavy equipment for durability and reliability, also offer a low initial investment with a high rate of return. When budgets are tight, it’s typically easier and more cost-effective to rent or purchase attachments to complete a special job or offer a niche service than to purchase a separate machine. Contact your local Doosan dealer to inquire about its attachment inventory when special projects or applications arise.
“With the right selection of genuine Doosan attachments, a contractor may only need to bring one excavator or one wheel loader to a jobsite,” says John Sad, Doosan heavy attachments product manager.
Excavator attachments
Doosan crawler and wheel excavators are ideal candidates for attachment integration, which can help owner-operators build a custom fit to complete projects far beyond just earthmoving. Attachment connection systems and auxiliary hydraulic flow allow many sizes of excavators to be extremely effective tool carriers for a wide variety of attachments. Those attachments include:
- Buckets
- Clamps
- Crushers
- Grapples
- Hydraulic breakers*
- Hydraulic pingrabber quick couplers
- Plate compactors
- Rippers
- Wedge-lock couplers
Shane Reardon, Doosan excavator product specialist, also dispels the notion that excavators become less versatile as their sizes increase. This industry misperception has occurred because machines have typically been dedicated to do a single job with one attachment. “Even the larger excavators can be more versatile if you put different attachments on them,” he says.
Wheel loader attachments
While attachment options for Doosan wheel loaders and excavators are typically not compatible due to different attachment change mechanisms, loader-specific attachments have turned these heavy-duty machines into valuable assets for every season. The most popular Doosan attachments for wheel loaders range from light-material, general or all-purpose material-handling buckets to heavy, rock or grading buckets.
- General purpose buckets
- Pallet forks
- Grapples
- Light-material buckets
- Snow pushers
- Multi-purpose buckets
- Hydraulic quick couplers
- Rock buckets
“With several different types of buckets and specialty attachments available, the loaders’ capabilities can be maximized to serve a wide variety of applications year-round,” says Mike Stark, Doosan wheel loader product specialist.
Multi-function machines
If you’ve ever owned compact equipment, you know the key to achieving a favorable return on investment is to reach high machine utilization. Leveraging attachments to perform certain tasks can significantly increase those rates. The same is true for Doosan heavy equipment. A multi-function machine that is productive on a daily basis not only has a greater chance of generating profit, but also can be more responsive to your needs on a jobsite.
For example, you may have a dedicated excavator only used for trenching or ditching, and if so, you may be missing an opportunity (or more).
Fit your excavator with attachments such as a grapple for land clearing, a trenching bucket to dig foundation footings or a plate compactor to finish trenches.
“There are some contractors with a mindset that they’ll bring in a piece of heavy equipment for site preparation and then assign a smaller piece of equipment for other tasks,” Sad says. “Having machines sit idle while you bring in different equipment isn’t the most efficient way to work. By utilizing attachments, operators can do more with fewer machines.”
Maneuverability on most confined worksites can still be achieved with excavators as large as 50,000 pounds and wheel loaders up to 40,000 pounds. The ideal end goal, Sad says, is to make the power unit as versatile as possible and on as many different jobsites as possible.
The key to getting the most productivity from an excavator or a wheel loader is the investment in a quality attachment change system, which is optional on most manufacturers’ machines. Some industry experts estimate that a quality automated coupler mount on an excavator can save owners up to 25 percent of their total machine operating time compared to direct-mount attachments.
According to Reardon, a quick coupler installed on the end of an excavator arm speeds up efficiency. “It allows the operator to change an attachment on a machine in a fraction of the time compared to manually using pins to connect the attachment to the excavator,” Reardon says.
Many of the efficiencies are gained from operators being able to rapidly change attachments with a quick coupler from the comfort of a cab.
