From The Supply Post Archives: The Overachiever

May 27, 2021 - 4 years ago

First of the ‘Overachievers’ to make its way into the B.C. earth-moving scene was viewed excavating ground cover at the Municipality of Chilliwack’s 9-hectare sanitary landfill. It’s the largest of the JSW hydraulic excavator line, and has been dubbed The Overachiever in the 80,000 pound class.

From The Supply Post Archives - The Overachiever — High above the farmland of eastern Fraser Valley the Overachiever, fitted with a 2-1/2 yd. cleanup bucket, prepares to place a third bucketful of cover material into a dump truck box. This JSW BH 140 is fitted with wide pads to provide good machine stability in high saturated west coast terrain. The JSW line is sold and serviced in B.C. by Parker-Pacific Equipment Sales, Langley.

Operator Len Martens, who owns the 1¾ yd. excavator in partnership with Jerry Epp, agrees with the Overachiever label: “It’s fast, smooth and comfortable to operate. There’s always time to spare between each truck load.” Fortunately, the Overachiever has a built-in stereo system to lighten these waits between loads. Martens and Epp had temporarily leased the JSW 140 on contract to Custom Grading and Rolling Ltd., the company which manages the landfill for Chilliwack Municipality.

The landfill serves a community of 43,000 and has an average daily intake of 135 metric tonnes of garbage. Most of it hauled on site by private contractors.

Garbage is disposed of into prepared cells measuring 500’ by 75’. The garbage is dumped in to depths of 6’8”, compacted, then covered with 6” of freshly excavated material, like that being loaded on the trucks by the JSW BH140. When the cell is filled it is topped off with 12” of clean material and compacted.

This sanitary landfill is expected to serve the municipality for 14 years.

Last year the site was surrounded with a drainage ditch, 500’ long by 20’ wide at the bottom and 4’ deep, to divert drainage from higher ground, thereby minimizing seepage through the decomposing garbage.

As a further safety measure the municipality plans next year to install a leachate collecting system, which will remove sewage from the site into the existing disposal system for treatment, via the Promontory Road sewage pipe.

Other equipment used by Custom Grading and Rolling on a regular basis at the landfill include a garbage compactor, a track loader and a wheel loader.

The JSW BH 140 has completed its contract here and has been moved to another job site. Martens said the machine is comfortable seating, lots of room, easy to reach controIs and an electronic monitoring system beside the right hand which warns, visually and audibly, of 10 separate potential problems, from low fuel to dirty air cleaner. “It’s the neatest warning system I’ve seen and it allows for easy correction of problems, which reduces downtime.”

Co-owner Jerry Epp agreed and mentioned some of the more practical advantages, like low fuel consumption (less than 4.5 gallons an hour); self-cleaning crawlers; power to spare, “There’s no noticeable engine strain during digging cycles. It has the highest tractive force in its class; plus exceptional digging depth.”

The article first appeared in Supply Post, June 1986

The Overachiever: 2021 Update

Supply Post had the honour to catch up with Len Martens, and reminisce about the early days of his business. Len was kind enough to correct a number of mistakes with the original article, one being that the business named ‘Custom Grading and Rolling Ltd.’ was not his business, but rather his brother’s. Len and Gerry’s business was named ‘Husky Hoe Rentals’, and was a partnership between the two until 1988, when Len bought Gerry out.

Also, Gerry Epp’s name was spelled incorrectly! Supply Post would like to take the opportunity to correct these errors 35 years later!

Len remembered that the JSW BH 140 excavator from the article was actually the company’s first big machine. “The JSW was late being delivered,” remembers Trudi. The loss of a day cost them their first job. “It was a blessing,” she said, “because the people that did that job, didn’t get paid!” The interest rates were so high at the time that if they had taken that job, it would have cost them everything. The late delivery was a blessing, indeed!

Despite the initial setback, the business grew and thrived through every recession, and soon purchased a second JSW excavator, eventually growing to about eight working machines.

Today, Len Martens is (mostly) retired, still living in Chilliwack with his wife and business partner, Trudi. “She is the real owner of the company, and the only reason it was so successful,” he says about Trudi.

Prior to last year, the pair travelled in their fifth wheel, visiting family far and wide. They hope to be getting back on the road very soon!