Jake Alhauser of Carlie’s Mobile Crushing grabs a remote control, enters a command, and 117,000 pounds of machinery begins to move. With Jake walking casually beside it, the crusher rambles down a one lane quarry road to its next destination. Watching the scene it’s easy to lose track of just how large the mobile crusher is because it’s so maneuverable and responsive.
That maneuverability means the crusher can easily be placed on downtown demolition sites. It
takes about five minutes to roll one off a lowboy, and put it to work crushing on-site concrete and
asphalt into base rock that can be used on the project. Because it is self-contained, it requires
no additional set up. According to Bill Fellows, the general manager of Carlie’s, “ It’s portable, so we can take it anywhere, and crushing on-site means a lot less trucking onto the freeways.” That means less congestion downtown, and it also means the contractor has a convenient source of recycled material where the work is being done.
Carlie’s Fast Trax 4250 crusher is a closed circuit machine with the crusher, screener, and recirculator all in one unit. In addition, it comes with its own dust control which attaches to a water tank. The combination is powered by a Cummins Diesel, Tier III. Easy to transport, the operating width of 15 ft 7 in can be streamlined to 11 ft 1 in for transport. The overall length measures 67 ft 7 1//2 in, and the height 11 ft 5 in. Cranked up and running, The Fast Trax can chew up material to 21 in at a rate of 400 tph.
The Construction Gang got a chance to watch Jake put it through its paces. At the controls of an excavator sitting atop a 15 foot high pile of broken concrete and asphalt, he began scooping up chunks. Swinging the boom, he expertly filled the hopper as the crusher went to work. In seconds, a cone of 1 inch-minus base rock began to form at the far end of the combine. Meanwhile, softball size pieces of debris bounced crazily back up the recycling circuit, to be sent back though the innards again. A magnet in one of the belts attracted any steel which was then harmlessly directed out the side of the crusher. Because Jake was just running the rig for us momentarily, it wasn’t hooked up to the dust control. The value of that attachment became clear to us in no time.
Jake finds the 4250 easy to use and maintain: “It only takes about a half an hour to grease the whole thing, and it’s much more userfriendly than our last one.” Except for normal wear to wear plates and belts, he says it has been basically problem free. One potential problem with crushers has been plugging them up, but the 4250 makes getting at the crusher mouth relatively easy, according to Ed Kanable of Modern Machinery.
Kanable also noted the extra savings a closed circuit unit provides: “You can travel from job to job
without a special truck, and you don’t need to bring in another wheel loader or dozer. That saves
thousands of dollars.” In addition, the operation is safer because crusher can be controlled remotely, with the operator in the excavator, not on the ground.
Carlie’s Mobile crushing maintains a yard downtown at 1201 N.W. Naito Parkway, under the west side of the Broadway Bridge. Fellows said that they normally stock about 3,000-5,000 tons of material there. He likes meeting the challenges contractors bring to him: “There’s no work too difficult for us.”
Kanable sees equipment like the 4250 as a key to the future of the industry: “Let’s reuse this material instead of throwing it in a hole.”
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