Jefferson City, Montana is not a place you would expect to
see a lot of construction equipment or activity. Located in
western Montana about 20 miles south and west of Helena,
it’s an unincorporated town featuring beautiful views typical of
western Montana, lots of wildlife, and a lot of Case Construction
equipment. “Jefferson City has a total population of fewer than
500 if you count everybody, and with 2 of our larger customers in
town, we have over a dozen pieces of equipment based out of that
small community with them alone,” said Mick Myskewitz, General
Manager for Titan Machinery – Great Falls, the Titan Machinery
dealership that services that area.
The two contractors have built successful contracting businesses
by working hard, being self-reliant, and making good business
decisions according to Myskewitz. “Both customers run really
good operations. They have good reputations and are known in
the area for doing solid work. From an equipment standpoint, they
do a good job of taking care of what we sell them. And they are
good operators – which you have to be considering some of the
terrain and conditions that they work in. If you make a mistake on
some of the slopes that they work on, it could easily be the last
one you ever make.”
Lance Vossler, owner of Vossler Excavating, started out operating
an old Case 580 backhoe in his uncle’s business and worked
under an agreement where he earned a portion of the business.
Twenty years ago he bought out his uncle’s portion and took over
the business. “When I started, I was doing underground work and
my uncle handled all the road work,” explained Vossler. “Today
we’re an excavating and dirt moving company. We do everything
from septic systems to basements to roads – basically anything to
do with digging. In the winter we also do snow removal.”
Vossler’s fleet includes several Case excavators, a Case 650K
finish dozer, a Case 821F loader, a Case 580SN backhoe and a
Case SV208 single-drum roller. “We’ve also recently purchased
a Trail-King trailer, a Case IH tractor and a Leica machine control
system from Titan,” said Vossler. “When we find a dealer and
equipment that we like, we like to stick with it. We’ve run just
about every kind of major-brand construction equipment in our
operation over the years and our Case equipment has proven to
be a great value. We’ve had very little downtime and the quality
and the power have been as good as anything else we’ve run.”
Vossler continued, “We work hard and like to stay busy. There’s no
time for equipment breakdowns. Titan Machinery has been great
with their product support and they keep us running so we can do
what we do best.”
At this point in his career Volssler has handed-off much of the
actual equipment operation to his two sons, who have been active
in the business since they were old enough to reach the controls
on a skid steer. “We run on some pretty interesting terrain, so you
need good reliable equipment operated by people who are skilled
and pay attention. It’s hard to find that kind of help so I raised my
own operators. My sons are 21 and 20 and they’ve been running
equipment for over half their lives. They are as good as it comes
operating equipment. I just keep putting work in front of them and
buying equipment. They do the rest.”
The story of MDM Property Development is a little different, but
has many of the same themes of hard work, self-reliance and
doing things right. Business owner Mike McGady didn’t grow up
running equipment and doing dirt work. “Mike started out buying
a lot and developing it to sell,” said Myskewitz. “It was strictly an
investment at a time when it was hard to get a decent return on
anything else. It’s just grown from there. We’ve been fortunate
to be the preferred partner for his equipment purchases as he’s
grown the business to what it is today.”
“I wasn’t really looking to get into the business when we started
out,” explained McGady. “But things kind of snowballed when we
started developing properties. It just turned out to be easier, more convenient and more reliable to do our own work. And when we run
the numbers, it turns out to be a really good investment to own the
equipment and do our own work ourselves.”
MDM purchases development property in west-central Montana and
builds spec homes on them. With their fleet of equipment, they do
all the excavation and dirt work themselves while tradesmen build
the homes.
“I’m self-taught on the equipment,” said McGady. “And working in
western Montana, typically it’s not a real flat building site that we’re
working with. So you have to be a good operator, or learn to be one
in a hurry, to avoid a serious problem. And you want equipment you
can count on as we’re working much of the time in remote areas far
away from support on slopes that are rather unforgiving. The Case
equipment we’re running is dependable and easy to operate and
gives you confidence operating on some of the difficult jobsites we
routinely work with. And we get great service from Titan.”
McGady’s fleet is primarily comprised of track skid steers and
small or mini-excavators. “We’ve sold them a number of compact
track loaders (CTLs), a couple of smaller excavators or minis, and a
compact wheel loader recently,” said Myskewitz. “They like to keep
the equipment small enough that you can get around on some of
the challenging jobsites they work on. Plus it makes transportation
a lot easier in and out of some of the hillsides they work on.”
“Before you start digging on some of the places we work, you have
to cut yourself a spot to sit with the excavator so you can hold to
the slope,” said McGady. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s not a big
deal. But you do have to stay focused on the job. It only really gets
dicey when it’s icy out. Then you have to watch even when you’re
in a track skid steer, because you can start sliding downslope
where normally
those machines
just stick to the terrain like glue. The Case track skid steers are really the work horse
of our jobsites. They are so powerful and versatile. You can rough-grade,
fine-grade, backfill, load trucks, build roads, do landscaping
– they are phenomenal machines.”
To summarize, Myskewitz emphasized the
importance of both the dealership support and the quality of
the equipment in developing the kind of long-term customer
relationships on display in Jefferson City. “If you look at the reason
we’ve had the success we’ve had in a small town like Jefferson
City, it’s actually a simple formula – work hard as the dealer, make
sure you take care of the customer, and provide the right equipment
solutions for their business. Both these customers work hard and
demand the same level of effort and commitment from their dealer
and the equipment they operate. We strive hard to deliver that level
of service each and every day.”