Trades in Reliability and Dependability

Whether it’s a small job or a big one, it makes no never-mind to Chris Crandall. As he plies his trade in the neighborhoods along the shores of upstate New York’s Lake George, he can take justifiable pride in a hard-earned reputation for the quality of his work – built on a steadfast reliability and dependability that customers appreciate.

Some 25 years ago Chris would not likely have predicted the relationships he’s been able to build with those customers who might easily be defined as the rich and famous as well as countless others who fit neatly into the comfortable middle class category.

“Many of my customers are people whose names are easily recognizable from among the titans of industry or the glitterati of the entertainment world,” he says, declining to drop names in deference to their privacy. Suffice to say this home grown site-work contractor is as much at ease maneuvering his Case 160B excavator around a half-million dollar job on $30 million lake estate as he is with his track loader on a couple thousand dollar septic tank installation at a more modest summer camp.

Chris launched his Adirondack mountain business the day he purchased his first Case backhoe and a single axle dump truck at an auction in 1984. “At the time I was working full-time at a local marina,” Chris recalls. In between cell phone calls from workers he now keeps busy at jobsites scattered around this picturesque lake, which is just inside the “blue line,” as the boundary of the Adirondack State Park is known in these parts, Chris deftly pays attention as one customer drives away and another approaches. She needs confirmation that Chris will be available later in the day when a real estate agent is expected at the site where he’s excavating for some foundation rehab work and the installation of a new septic system.

All the while he moves with the unruffled ease of someone who is confident of his abilities, not to mention the dependability of the equipment that powers his day-to-day operations.

Seventy-five percent of the work that Crandall Excavating does is residential work and most of that is on or near this mountain resort and vacation community. Understandably, it is in an area rife with competition. In spite of this, or maybe because of it, the Crandall fleet of equipment continues to grow. Besides the 160B, which he added in the fall of 2007, the company employs a Case 210 excavator, the 550 and 550G Case bulldozers, a Case 850D bulldozer, the track loader and a roller that was purchased just last fall, along with several other pieces.

Today, Chris is quick to brag on Josh Clark, the Monroe Tractor salesman he’s come to rely on. “I go back quite a ways with Josh,” he says, referring the purchases he made with Josh’s help over the past decade, even before Monroe Tractor acquired S.C. Hansen. “I was a little guy,” says Chris. “And, many dealers shrugged-off the little guys. But, I found a reliable product in Case Equipment and they were willing to help me get started.”

While most of Crandall Excavating’s relationship with Monroe Tractor, and  S.C. Hansen before that, has been through purchasing of equipment, “we’ve also rented equipment as well, and likely will need to rent again,” says Chris.

All the purchases aren’t necessarily big pieces of equipment, however. Crandall is especially pleased with one “accessory” that Josh Clark helped add to the Crandall inventory. “We make a lot of use of the JRB hydraulic quick coupler.” It allows an operator to switch buckets without even getting out of his machine – a time saving maneuver Chris was quick to demonstrate. With the quick coupler Crandall can make use of varied size buckets (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6-foot) as well as a grapple that’s particularly useful in jobs where buildings or other structures need to be removed from a site before other site work can be completed.

To Chris, his relationship with Monroe Tractor is all about reliability and dependability, two valuable traits his customers have come to expect from Crandall Excavating and two that he appreciates in Monroe Tractor. Chris chuckles when he recounts Josh Clark encouraging him to replace his Case 210 excavator with a newer model.

“While I may need to depend on a salesman who can recognize when a new piece of equipment will help my operation, and I’ll need a newer model sooner rather than later,” Chris agrees, he also notes that while the 210 has had a lot of hours put on it since he bought it in 2002, he’s not interested in replacing it because “it’s still reliable.” So, I may be making room for another piece of equipment in the garage, but the 210 will likely continue to uphold both his penchant for reliability and dependability as well as Monroe Tractor’s.

For more information visit www.MonroeTractor.com
or call the Monroe Tractor sales office nearest you:
Henrietta, NY: 585-334-3867; Buffalo, NY: 716-681-7100; or Syracuse, NY: 315-452-0000.

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