Reliability and portability are important attributes to the welding equipment that Traylor Bros. Inc. uses to complete large-scale civilian construction projects.

For more than 60 years, Traylor Bros. Inc. has been a preferred contractors for large civilian construction projects — and a reliable one, too. The Indiana-based company’s experience includes building more than 100 tunnels and nearly 150 major bridges for the federal government, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, and various state and municipalities.

The company owns one of the largest and most specialized heavy civil equipment fleets in North America, with more than 2,800 pieces of major equipment. And, while Traylor Bros. leases equipment when necessary, more often than not it invests in the equipment it needs and maintains and deploys it to various job sites.

One challenge Traylor consistently faced was finding and maintaining a reliable and cost-effective welder. It claims to have worked with a countless number of welders, but it had an ongoing need to maintain or fix the equipment, even on the jobsite.

In particular, Traylor Bros. had ongoing problems with one machine’s electronically controlled motherboard. When the welder would break, the equipment would be taken to an authorized repair facility. Even after the motherboard was fixed, it remained unreliable and prone to fail immediately after returning to the jobsite, or in the following week. The uncertainty of the welder, coupled with the high cost to repair and maintain, prompted Traylor Bros. to locate for a new vendor.

The next welder the company evaluated had faulty drive belts that would fail after 3,500 hours of use. The belts were not easy to replace and, upon breaking, would cause even more damage to the welder. Again, these problems created unnecessary downtime and safety concerns for workers, which led Traylor Bros. to search for still another equipment supplier.

Having owned and maintained most of their equipment, Traylor Bros. had a very high regard and positive experience with Multiquip’s generators. When Multiquip manufactured a welder, Traylor Bros. quickly tried the 400- and 500-amp diesel models. The problems the construction group had experienced with other welders were no longer present.

Multiquip manufactures and supplies a variety of industrial products for the construction, industrial, telecom, government, military/aerospace, entertainment, and oil-and-gas exploration markets. Its portfolio covers light-to-medium construction equipment, power generators, and lighting.

Multiquip’s diesel welders were a reliable product that did not break down, and proved to be a wise investment for Traylor Bros. These new machines also eliminated downtime that was previously used to repair the welders and search for alternative options.

“When you work in high-risk civil construction, having reliable equipment to ensure employees’ safety is critical,” said Thad Pirtle, vice president and equipment manager for Traylor Bros. “Reliability also significantly impacts productivity. Since we started using Multiquip’s welders, our uptime is almost 100%.”