Toolcat 5600 Buzzes Through Snow Removal at Canadian Airport

Airport manager Steve Wilcox says the Toolcat 5600 is a cost-effective solution to quickly remove snow at the Oshawa Municipal Airport.

“It maneuvers so quickly; it is like a little bumblebee running around the airport versus a big machine lumbering along.” That is how Steve Wilcox describes his company’s Toolcat™ 5600 utility work machine at the Oshawa Municipal Airport in Ontario, Canada.

Wilcox, who is the airport manager for Total Aviation and Airport Solutions, supervises year-round grounds maintenance responsibilities at the Oshawa airport. While he initially purchased the utility work machine from Evergreen Farm and Garden for mowing and sweeping, snow removal is the most popular application.

It didn’t take long for Wilcox to realize its versatility in performing snow removal projects. “The Toolcat 5600 has been very effective for us,” he says. “Coupled with an angle broom attachment, the 5600 can clear 50 feet of snow faster than a big, high-speed airport broom.”

According to Wilcox, the 5600 provides a cost-effective process for clearing snow from runways and taxiways without pricey chemicals or corrosive salt. “We always want to return the pavement to bare and dry as quickly as possible,” Wilcox says. “We prefer to remove the snow with a broom because salt is corrosive to aluminum and chemicals are very expensive.”

By quickly moving snow off the edge of the runways and taxiways with a Bobcat® snowblower attachment, the Toolcat 5600 helps Wilcox follow strict airport guidelines to prevent snowbanks. “It moves snow like nobody’s business,” he says. “It’s far more efficient than we are used to seeing. We use the Toolcat 5600 and snowblower to throw the snow in the air, and it eventually settles across the ground as opposed to making a snowbank that we have to move,” he says.

“The first 25 feet outside the runway must be cleared to the grass, and the next 50 feet cannot be more than 2 inches high. “Another reason we selected the Toolcat 5600 is because of the versatility of moving snow in front of hangars with the all-wheel steering feature and the V-blade attachment,” he says. “We can operate along the hangars nicely with the V-blade. We couldn’t get that close with a large machine.”

Enhanced visibility from the 5600 to the attachment saves Wilcox money and headaches. “The attachment visibility is great,” Wilcox says. “My operators have everything out front and are not running over the airport’s $500 lights.”

Wilcox says performing regularly scheduled inspections is an important part of the airport’s daily operations. He says his crews will inspect the runways whenever the conditions change, and the 5600 has become the primary inspection vehicle. “We send an operator in the Toolcat 5600 to inspect the area and then report any issues to the pilots,” he says.

Working circles around larger, more expensive equipment, the Toolcat 5600 and Bobcat attachments are instrumental in the ongoing success of Total Aviation and Airport Solutions in the heart of winter.