federal government. “We do those waterways from start to finish,” Wynkoop said. “We shape the waterway, seed it, and if needed, put in fabric liners or any structures.”
The laser is an integral tool the Wynkoops use when building waterways. “I’ve used a laser ever since I started dozing,” acknowledged Wynkoop. “My brother uses the laser, but he’s such a natural operator that he could probably do as well without it. Many people do waterways around here, but we take pride in knowing we have done some of the better-looking ones.”
The remainder of Wynkoop Equipment Co.’s work is new construction for buildings and houses. “We might put in some water lines or a street,” said Wynkoop, “but most of our work is ag-related.”
A 2003 job found Wynkoop finishing the parking lot for a new church in Tipton, Iowa. “We made the pad for it in 2002 and dug the footings,” Wynkoop stated. “We built part of the parking lot earlier in the year so they could operate the church and we finished the job last fall.”
Unique railcar bridge projects
Several unique jobs involved making bridges out of railcars. “We took a 100-foot-long railroad car, cut it in half, and laid the two pieces side by side to replace a bridge on an acreage near West Branch, Iowa,” said Wynkoop. “We took the old bridge out with two excavators but kept the footings from the old bridge. Using both excavators as cranes, we lifted the railcar halves onto the footings, then welded them together. We installed similar railcar bridges in Lost Nation and Stanwood, Iowa, except we dug and poured the footings.”
Equipment uptime important
When Todd Wynkoop started his company, he bought used equipment he could work on himself. But as business picked up, he found that downtime and repairs were costing him money and production, so he turned to Road Machinery & Supplies Co. and territory manager Delane Wolter for new Dressta and Komatsu equipment.
Wynkoop’s fleet now includes a new Dressta TD-15H crawler tractor, a Komatsu PC200LC-6 hydraulic excavator and a Load King 553SS trailer from RMS.
“My time is worth more now,” affirmed
Wynkoop. “I can’t spend it fixing old machinery.
So we bought this new Dressta TD-15H crawler
tractor last fall. I won’t have to work on it nearly
as much as our older equipment. If I’m not
working on it, I can be working with it. We’ll
probably buy new machines from now on.”
The new Dressta TD-15H tractor is equipped with a seven-yard blade and features a unique two-speed steering system. “We’re not pushing rocks or trees, so we can make gradual turns,” noted Wynkoop. “With the Dressta, you always have power to both tracks, and until I experienced it, I thought it was a sales pitch. It actually does power around the corner.
“The two-speed steering is exceptional,” Wynkoop continued. “I also like the balance, the gradability with the large blade and the visibility. It’s the biggest dozer we have, but it’s not so big that I can’t transport it where I need to. It’s a lot more powerful than our other dozer, so it does quite a bit more work per hour.”
Wynkoop says his Dressta is easy to service
and maintain. “I can take this machine apart
with regular tools, and because we do all our
own work, that’s a huge plus for us,” he noted.
Wynkoop still owns a 1973 Dresser TD-15C
dozer he bought used. “I hope my new Dressta
TD-15H lasts as long as this 31-year-old C,” he
said. “It has about 20,000 hours on it now, and
it had 6,000 or 7,000 hours when I bought it.”
The Wynkoops also like their Komatsu PC200LC-6 excavator, which is equipped with a thumb attachment. “We use the thumb virtually all the time,” Wynkoop said. “Even digging dirt, we try to get more of it with the thumb. Timm always uses it in demolition. We can pull fencing and posts, we can drive posts. We just built a bridge and used the hoe to push the pilings.”