Digging His Job
Ken Wysocky

In an age where most things - even heavy equipment - can be considered disposable, excavator Chuck Eggers remains as attached to his equipment as an auger on a skidsteer. To understand just how attached he is, consider that Eggers' "newest" bulldozer is about 30 years old. In fact, a list of his machines reveals only one blemish on an otherwise spotless record for favoring older machines: he went wild and bought a 2004 John Deere 250 skid-steer. "I really let it all hang out and ran with it," chuckles Eggers, who owns E & P Excavating in Marine, Minn. "Actually, it's nice to have something new that you use a little more than the other machines. "I like the John Deere because it's simple to maintain; you put the boom in the air and take off a side panel, and the whole engine is there for you. When you do your own maintenance, you look at those things." Eggers' fondness for what he affectionately calls his "antique road show" of equipment is fostered in large part by a conservative business streak. It's the kind of fiscal cautiousness a man develops after he's driven over enough economic bumps to know that a head-on collision with the bulldozer blade of lean times is never that far off. In short, he abhors being in debt just for the sake of owning a new machine. "Dirt doesn't change that much," Eggers quips. "It just needs to be moved, and I can use an old machine just as easily as a new one - and without a big monthly payment. "I want machines that work for me - bringing in money - rather than me work for them to pay off a loan," he continues. "I want machines that put money in the bank. In these hard economic times, I'd be out of business if I had all new equipment." Eggers counts himself fortunate to possess mechanical skills that enable him to keep machines running year after year, decade after decade, long after many contractors would've pulled the plug. And last but not least, he adheres to an old-fashioned belief that if you take care of your equipment, it'll take care of you. "You can't treat machines like they're indestructible," he says. "I've actually seen guys peel metal off the tracks of their bulldozers because they make them work too hard while pushing dirt around a corner. You need to push it one way, then straighten out the bulldozer and push it the other way. You need to get the most out of the machine with a minimum of wear and tear."

ROADSHOW ROSTER

The oldest machine in Eggers' yard is a 1964 Caterpillar D6B bulldozer, followed by a 1967 Caterpillar D5 bulldozer (purchased from Road Machinery and Supplies Co. in Savage, Minn.) and a 1967 Mack R Model, tandem-axle dump truck. Other equipment includes a 1969 Hough wheel loader; a 1978 International TD7E bulldozer; a 1989 Komatsu PC60 trackhoe excavator; a 1997 Caterpillar 312BL trackhoe (bought from Chippewa Valley Equipment in Holcombe, Wis.); and the aforementioned baby of the bunch, the John Deere skid-steer (purchased from Polfus Implement Inc. in New Richmond, Wis.). A 1978 Chevrolet K-20 pickup truck with a utility box serves as E & P's service vehicle. Eggers also relies on attachments to make his business go. He owns seven attachments for the John Deere skid-steer, including a Rhino brush cutter (bought at Polfus Implement) and a homemade snowplow. Shafer Metal in Shafer, Minn., makes the five other attachments: a rock bucket, a "spoon" tree spade, a leveling bar, a 72-inch construction bucket and a rock rake. Eggers bought the implements direct from Shafer. The Caterpillar 312BL trackhoe came with a mechanical thumb; a ripper tooth; a 4- foot, flat-bottom bucket and a 3-foot digging bucket with teeth, all made by Caterpillar. Versatility makes attachments an attractive option, Eggers says, emphasizing that he bought them incrementally over the years, as he needed them. "With attachments, I don't need to buy five different machines to do five different jobs," he notes.

ROUNDABOUT CAREER ROUTE

Eggers didn't start out as an excavator. He first worked as a carpenter and then as an over-the-road truck driver. But the constant traveling that comes with a truck-driving gig became too stressful. The last straw was when his truck spun a rod bearing in Pennsylvania, where he was stranded for three weeks until repair parts were available. So in his mid-30s, he and friend Bruce Parsons (the "P" in the company's name) started a business on the side while working full-time excavating jobs elsewhere. They bought a 1947 Allis-Chalmers HD trackscavator - Eggers, of course, overhauled the engine - and a 1966 Chevrolet dump truck. Was it scary diving into something new? Not really, Eggers recalls. "After you own a couple of over-the-road trucks and have them blow up on the road, it didn't seem very traumatic at all," he notes. "It was nice to have more control over my life." Boosted by steady side-work hauling black dirt for a local sewer excavator, Eggers and Parsons learned a lot by watching crews install septic systems and sewer lines. In fact, when work with that particular contractor dried up, they decided they knew enough to try doing it themselves full-time. Eggers went to the University of Minnesota to become a licensed septic system installer, and E & P obtained steady work installing systems for residential homes and small businesses. The duo focused primarily on residential work after judging which way the business winds were blowing, he notes. "The main thing was that new houses needed septic systems, and a lot of new homes were being built at that time," he recalls. "As a businessman, you've got to see what's going to be in demand in the future, rather than looking behind at what you've done. You have to see where the money is - it's actually relatively simple." Parsons decided to leave the business after three years, which created a whole new dynamic for Eggers.

GROWING THE BUSINESS

Eggers learned to keep an eye out for new business opportunities. For instance, he realized that growing numbers of lakefront property owners in the area needed help with erosion control. That meant there was a lot of work to be had for someone who knew how to install shoreline riprap. "It was a matter of diversifying my business," he points out. "The people who owned shorefront property usually had the money to do erosion-control projects, and many of them had to do it because the shoreline was coming right up to their houses. "I also did a lot of demolition work - mostly houses," he continues. "That's when I bought a mechanical thumb for the PC60." In the 1990s, he built erosion-control waterways in fields of row crops for local soil and water conservation districts. He also learned how to build gravel driveways and roads. In short, he figured there were few things he couldn't do if he just applied common sense. When business was slow, he learned to take whatever work he could find. Sometimes that meant wearing an auto mechanic's hat, or morphing into a roofer when required, just to be able to pay the monthly bills.

LESSONS LEARNED

When asked what lessons he's learned over the years could be valuable to someone starting a new business on their own, Eggers volunteered a few basic pointers, starting with billing customers promptly. "You don't want to wait until you need the money to bill people for your services," he observes. Second, get it in writing. A bid proposal describing exactly what you're going to do and how much it is going to cost will save headaches down the road. "It's more crucial nowadays to get it in writing than it was 15 years ago, when a handshake was good enough," Eggers comments. "If it's in writing, a homeowner will know that it's going to cost more money if, for instance, he wants a hill I graded as described moved farther out. He'll understand that I didn't plan on spending six more hours on the D5, burning fuel." Another tip: Always ask the customer to put some money down on a job as a sign of good faith. "On bigger jobs, I ask for 30 percent down before I start a job - that indicates a customer is going to pay you," he says. "I've been very fortunate, though. In all my years of doing business, the only thing I didn't get paid for was one load of dirt. That's a rarity in any business." Last but not least, don't overextend yourself with new equipment, Eggers advises. "I like to pay one off before I go buy another one," he says. "Most guys just say, ‘Where do I sign?' They get caught up in the good times and think the gravy train is never going to end. But that's not the right attitude … you have to hedge your bets."

HIGHS AND LOWS

The best thing about being in business by himself is the flexibility to do what he wants, Eggers says. "The high point is when I can drop everything and go up to Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada, rent a houseboat and go float fishing for a week, without having to worry about employees," he says. "The low point is when you have to do everything yourself. You have to constantly step back and look at the big picture to figure out what needs to be done. "Often you find you need to be in two spots at one time, or have to go see a customer right when you need to be fixing a piece of equipment you're going to use tomorrow," he continues. "And of course, the minute you have a lot of work to do, all it does is rain!" Then again, Eggers knows he's never really alone; he'll always get by with a little help from his equipment yard full of old steel friends.