When Wilco Contractors Northwest Inc. was looking for a utility vehicle (UTV) to mount their world class LiDAR mobile mapping and survey equipment used for topographical surveys on their job sites, the gas-powered Cat® CUV82 fit the bill. The LiDAR unit, which costs about the same as a four bedroom house, can be mounted on a truck or UTV. “When we were testing the Cat UTV against other brands, we found it had a better ride, which was ideal for the equipment we were mounting on it,” said Art Maat, president and owner of Wilco Northwest. “Our operators actually prefer the Cat UTV because of its smooth ride, and they can get into the nooks and crannies of the job site easier.”
The Wilco Group of Companies are open space, civil site development contractors that originated in the landscaping business in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in the early 50s. “In the early 80s we moved west to Alberta and currently are solidly embedded throughout central and Western Canada,” says Art. Art owns Wilco Contractors Northwest that covers Edmonton, Northern Alberta and the Okanagan, while his brother Peter, the president of Wilco Contractors Southwest, spans Calgary south and into Saskatchewan. The company also has civil operations in Thunder Bay and Vancouver.
“We’re a big Cat owner,” says Art. “Almost 100 per cent of our equipment is Cat.” The company owns an extensive fleet of over 200 Cat excavators, dozers, graders and other earth moving equipment. Wilco Northwest is also a huge proponent of technology and is on the cutting-edge in the industry. “We have Trimble 3D grade control on all of our graders and dozers,” said Art. “The grade control and the LiDAR unit, our latest venture into technology, work quite well together. They complement one another and give us the insurance that the grades on all of our projects are what they’re supposed to be.”
“This is a very expensive unit and it took a lot of time and effort mounting it on the UTV so we wanted a high-quality machine as we’ll be using it for a very long time,” said Art. The Cat UTV has only been put to work on a handful of sites so far but it’s proven worthy of the job. “It’s a Cat product, so it’s built really well,” says Art. “It’s a more rugged machine, has a smoother ride, the shifting pattern is good, and the box mounted on the back holds a good volume of material. It’s built for durability and function which is really good for us. We have a half a dozen UTVs for maintenance and site access, and over time, we will be switching them to Cat UTVs.”
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