Wingra also operates an MS 952 screening plant from Kleemann, and it demoed an MS 15 Z screening plant late last year that impressed Wise.
“It actually worked out well,” he says, adding that Roland Machinery Co. serves Wingra as its Kleemann dealer. “We don’t have a need for it right now, but it did a really good job and made quite a bit of riprap.”
Other approaches
New isn’t always the path Wingra Stone takes to find equipment solutions. Although Wingra recently purchased a pair of John Deere 824 wheel loaders and it is waiting on a dragline replacement to arrive at its Zander Quarry in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, used equipment has a place at just about every Wingra aggregate operation.
“Take a jaw,” Wise says. “It may be old, but there’s nothing to a jaw. It’s the same with screens if you maintain them. They’re a lot nicer when they’re new, but for what we’re doing they work. There’s only so many moving parts in them.”
Still, certain applications require a more unique approach with equipment. Take one at the Zander Quarry as an example.
“It’s easier to find an excavator operator than a dragline operator,” Wise says. “With C. Norris [Manufacturing] out of Ohio, they specialize in making long sticks for excavators that are built to dig down. So we’re putting an 80-ft. stick on the Hitachi 870 with a 4-yd. bucket, matching the size of the bucket to the dragline. We’ll be able to get another 10 ft. deeper.”
