The right knowledge, skills and experience is crucial to success in the onsite installation business, but all the expertise in the world gets you nowhere if you don’t have efficient, reliable equipment to execute the work.

Here, installers we featured this year talk about some of the products and equipment they rely on daily. What’s your favorite? Let us know in the comments.

Chris Rhodaback, A&B Septic Service, Albany, Oregon

Our new septic service truck — a 2021 Peterbilt 567 from Imperial Industries with a 4,200-gallon stainless steel tank and National Vacuum Equipment pump.

Darius E. Melton, 2M Pumping Service, Hot Springs, Arkansas

I like my secondary truck, the backup truck, because if you have an issue with the primary truck you can always go back to the shop and grab the other one and keep the clients happy. We bought our primary truck — the tank new, the truck used — a 2001 Mack with a 3,400-gallon steel tank and Masport pump. Our backup is a 1998 International with a 2,500-gallon steel tank and Jurop pump.

Rick Maguire, Maguire Wastewater Solutions, Virden, Illinois

Our Caterpillar 305 mini-excavator is great for getting into tight places. It’s also nice for any compaction issues we have installing systems.

Jason Guarino, Jason Guarino Excavating and Septic Services, Millsboro, Delaware 

I love Kubota. DOWRA hosts some backhoe rodeos and I’ve taken both first place and third place because of a Kubota excavator. I don’t own my own excavator yet but I just purchased a skid-steer. I love the power and the strength and the speed of it. It helps me get my jobs done a lot smoother and cleaner and faster.

Mike Sample, Sample Excavating, Glen Arm, Maryland

I love my mini-excavator, a Yanmar ViO35. I wish I’d had that 30 years ago. We’d get on tight sites and I’d end up digging pipe repairs with a shovel rather than listen to a homeowner gripe about lawn damage from a big backhoe. There are a lot of jobs we used to do with a big rubber-tired backhoe that can now be done with a mini-excavator. They can be used to set pre-treatment systems, which are fiberglass, not concrete. Tracked skid-steers are another thing that really made the world better.

Jason Birdsong, JT Septic Co., Claremore, Oklahoma

Our CASE 580L backhoe was one of the first big machines I bought. It’s hard to find someone who can run it these days, so if it goes to a job, I have to go with it. It mostly just sits in the barn as we have gone to mini-excavators and skid-steers. But I love to get it out and play every now and then. 

Dwayne Crocker, Crocker Septic Tank Service, Kathleen, Georgia

By far the machine I have the most fun on is my John Deere 455 track loader. I just lose track of time. 

Walter Clay Kucharski, Walt Kucharski Septic Service, Inc., Richfield, Ohio 

A few years ago I purchased a 2009 Kenworth with a 5,000-gallon tank. Having that capacity really opened up our commercial side — fewer loads, higher volume. We just pulled out 35,000 gallons from a barge on the river and since we now have two 5,000-gallon trucks we were able to do it in three hours. The truck has been a pain in repairs, but it makes the money back every time it goes out.

Clint Britt, TBC Septic, Elizabeth, Colorado

This is not real exciting but operators will understand. After years of hauling just a single piece of equipment to jobs (often having to make two or three trips), we finally invested in a Landoll 950 50-foot drop-deck trailer. No more manually lifting heavy ramps or being worried about weight. This thing has two automatic ramps and can haul two-plus pieces of heavy equipment. It saves tons of time — and my back.

Valentino Garcia, Garcia Excavation Services, Fredericksburg, Virginia

In my free time I work with lathes and milling machines and I invented a little track machine that weighs less than 200 pounds, goes 15 to 20 miles per hour, and fits in a pickup truck — my “Track Buddy.” It took me a couple years to design and build it but now I use it all the time. It can go anywhere on the job site, whether it’s wet or dry. We work on a lot of 3-acre lots. The drainfield is usually in the far back of the lot but we park our trucks on the road, so when you forget something it could take 10 or 20 minutes to walk back to the truck. But now we just get on this machine. I also like our Caterpillar 312EL excavator and our Takeuchi TL10 skid-steer (not too big, not too small, not too heavy) which work together.

Mike Lile, Reed’s Plumbing and Excavating, Springfield, Missouri

Skid-steers and mini-excavators are really versatile, low impact and easy to haul. We used to use backhoes but the mini-excavator has taken over. If you add the cost of buying a skid-steer and a mini-excavator, it is more expensive than purchasing a backhoe, but you can make that up on the installation time and labor. And it does a neater job, a cleaner job on the backfill and cleanup side of the project. We’ve got four Caterpillar skid-steers and one CASE and four Caterpillar mini-excavators.

Larry Maznek, Maznek Septic Service, Bedford, New Hampshire

The pump trucks and the Crust Buster are hand in hand on that. I have a 2005 Peterbilt built out by Amthor International with a 4,100-gallon steel tank and National Vacuum Equipment pump. It was the 2015 Classy Truck of the Year. It was a roll-off and when I used to install, I’d take the drum off and use it as a dump truck. It really kept me going. My other vacuum truck is a 2015 Peterbilt with a 4,600-gallon steel tank and Masport pump built out by Pik Rite. They both carry Crust Busters. We use those on every tank to stir the sludge off the bottom and then pump it down. It does a better job. You don’t have to back flush. People are impressed with it when they see it operating.