Utility Work Machine: Below the Radar, on Top of the Work
Albert J. Ellis Airport
When it comes to saving time and labor around an airport, the Toolcat™ 5600 utility work machine is earning its wings. Designed and built by Bobcat Company, this unique, multi-purpose machine is ideal for a wide range of airport-related jobs—from lifting and loading to grounds maintenance and crash and rescue work.
With a 1,500-lb. rated operating capacity, the front lift arm can be equipped with a number of different Bobcat® attachments to handle a variety of work. The hydraulic lift cargo box, with its 1-ton load capacity, is ideal for carrying items and materials. The 46 hp, four-wheel drive machine has a 4,000-lb. towing capacity. These and other features, including hydrostatic drive, all-wheel steering, excellent visibility, comfortable seating for operator and passenger plus an 18-mph transport speed, add up to one high-flying, work-saving machine.
Responding to emergencies
The Albert J. Ellis Airport in Richlands, N.C., purchased a Toolcat work machine for a specific purpose and soon learned it pays off in many other uses.
In this case, the machine was purchased as an emergency vehicle. Equipped with an enclosed heated and air conditioned cab for all-weather operation, the four-wheel drive, all-wheel steer 5600 can work in terrain where other crash and rescue equipment can’t.
“We can use it where we can’t take a fire truck. For example, in swamp land off the end of one runway and in other areas where there are numerous tree stumps and small ditches,” says Reid Southerland, the airport fire chief and air side operations manager.
At the Albert J. Ellis Airport the 5600 utility work machine is a versatile and popular unit.
The versatile machine can assist fire and rescue crews in several ways. A tank containing 30 gal. of water and 3 gal. of a fire-suppressing chemical and two scuba tanks can be hauled to the scene in the cargo box. Mixing the water with the chemical agent produces a total of 600 gal. of foam. Compressed air from scuba tanks shoots the foam to smother a fuel fire.
“Before, if we couldn’t reach the crash scene with our fire truck, we’d have to drag a hose from a foam tank as far as 500 ft.,” Southerland says.
The 5600 also stands ready to haul a 500-gal. trailer tank of mixed foam to a fire, where the tank is connected to a fire truck which applies the material.
That’s much faster and easier than the old way. “We used to lift 5-gal. buckets of foam to the top of the fire truck where a firefighter would dump it into a spray tank,” Southerland explains. “The 5600 has the power to tow the loaded tank without slowing down at all.”
It’s also used with Bobcat pallet forks to unload fire-fighting equipment and other materials from trucks and to off-load shipments delivered by general aviation airplanes. “The Toolcat unit and operator replaced four or five people needed to do that work,” Southerland says.
He likes the ability to equip the 5600 with a variety of attachments. “Instead of buying a separate piece of equipment to do a specific job, you can use this one machine with different attachments to do many different jobs,” Southerland says.
Other airport-related applications of this utility work machine include patrolling the fence lines and, at times, pushing a disabled airplane off a runway. It’s also used to haul a 100-gal. motorized herbicide sprayer.
Dan Parker says the 5600 owned by the Fargo (N.D.) Jet Center is kept busy throughout the year.
Southerland has customized the machine for airport work with a roof mounted strobe light and two radios for communicating with pilots and airport personnel. He also added stake racks to the cargo box for extra hauling capacity.
“All-wheel steering allows you to easily make tight turns,” he notes. “That’s important in working around an airport where you need an airplane-friendly vehicle.”
Ease of operation and plenty of comfort add to the 5600’s performance. “Learning how to operate the machine is easy and I’m impressed with its very smooth ride,” he says. “We’re very satisfied with it. It offers a lot of uses for a smaller airport like ours.”
Perfect fit
The Fargo (N.D.) Jet Center, a fixed base operator which serves private and corporate aircraft at Hector International Airport, bought its Toolcat 5600 primarily for snow removal. The line crew has since found many other jobs for it.
In winter, the machine is used with a Bobcat 8-ft. snow blade that angles hydraulically right and left to clear snow from parking lots. It works quickly in places where a pickup truck and plow can’t operate, reports Dan Parker, line services manager. It also saves time removing snow from in front of the hangars where the airport’s larger front-end loader can’t work.
“The first month we had the Toolcat machine we put almost 300 hours on it clearing snow,” says Parker. “It starts right up and is ready to go whenever we need it.”
Equipped with Bobcat pallet forks, the machine has also replaced a large forklift for handling aircraft engines, propellers, maintenance parts and pallets of fuel additives, among other items. “The Toolcat machine has all the lifting power we need and it’s much more maneuverable,” he says. “We can also use it inside buildings where the forklift can’t fit.”
Parker continues: “One of the things we like about the 5600 is the ability to use it with many other attachments such as a mower.”
The cargo box is used to move material ranging from dirt to refuse. The tow hitch comes in handy for towing aircraft engine pre-heaters and even smaller aircraft.
“The Toolcat machine fits our needs perfectly,” says Parker. “All of our employees want to use it because it’s so easy to operate—a steering wheel, one joystick and that’s it. It makes work almost fun.”