by Jon M. Casey

For Ed’s Equipment, Inc. of Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio, quality equipment sales and customer service has been a hallmark of excellence since the company’s beginning. Ed Urbanek, owner of Ed’s Equipment, began in the heavy equipment repair business in 2003. He entered equipment sales in 2013 with the addition of the Diamond Z brand of wood grinding equipment.Since then, Ed has considered how to expand his line to include a high quality brand of crushing, screening and conveying equipment and still offer the kind of high quality equipment his customers have come to expect.

With that in mind, Ed began doing research as to which line of crushers and screen plants to compliment his wood recycling line. As a conscientious businessman, he was looking to serve concrete and asphalt recyclers and quarries while at the same time, meeting the needs of his existing base of grinding customers.

That’s when Ed decided to become a Keestrack equipment dealer. Ed had seen this equipment in operation throughout his travels, and because he services all brands of grinders, he had serviced some Keestrack equipment at customer locations when doing grinding repair and maintenance. Because of this history, he knew how well built Keestrack units were and how reliably they performed.

Knowing that Keestrack met his standards of quality, service and corporate support from the manufacturer, Urbanek attended CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2017 where he met Peter McGeary, sales manager for Keestrack America. After considerable discussion, the two agreed that Ed’s Equipment would make an ideal dealer for Ohio and the Midwest.

“I had seen this equipment in operation for several years,” said Urbanek during a recent interview. For example, I have a customer in Cincinnati who has several Keestrack machines at his jobsites, I saw how well they perform.”

“There was a dealer presence in Ohio some years ago, but they went out of business. I could see that those customers needed someone like us to be there for them now. That’s when I took a closer look at the Keestrack line.”

“I had wanted to add a crushing and screening line for several years,” he added. “I was never really comfortable with taking one on without knowing that the quality was going to be there. It’s very important to me as to what I sell. So, once I was confident that this was the best product for crushing and screening, we took on the Keestrack dealership in September.”

Urbanek said that with the addition of his new Keestrack product line, he plans to stock several pieces of equipment at his Ohio location. “I’m planning to initially stock three machines,” he said. “We’ll have an R5 Destroyer. The R5, one of three in the tracked impactor line is an impact crusher, outfitted with an onboard screener and recirculating conveyor. With that machine, recyclers can make two quality products in one pass.”

“I also plan to have a K6 Frontier Scalping Screen and one of their conveyors on hand,” he added. “That gives us an excellent start. I have some prospective users in mind for these units, once we have them in stock. We plan to serve both recyclers and quarry operations as well.”

Keestrack offers three crusher lines, two screening lines and a stacker line. The crushers include four “B-series” jaw crushers, two “H-series” cone crushers, and three “R-series” tracked impactors. Keestrack’s screening line-up includes seven “K-series” scalper screens and four “C-series” classifier screens. The Stacker series includes S3 and S5 conveyors. The S3 and S5 can be ordered with Diesel/Hydraulic drive or Diesel/Electric drive.

Any machine can come equipped with drive systems to meet the customer needs. As with the stacker series, crushers and screeners can be powered with diesel and/or electric power, however with the R5 and R6 impactors, these two come with a diesel direct driven rotor with electricity powering the remainder of the unit components. Keestrack’s fuel-saving, load-sensing technology, features a low emission diesel engine with a load sensing hydraulic system which can save a gallon of fuel or more, per hour of operation.

Ed’s Equipment will also maintain a parts inventory to serve customers, some of whose operations range from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania. He added that many of these contractors travel long distances to fulfill grinding contracts out of their home states. For the past few months, Urbanek has been travelling the southern U.S. servicing and repairing his customer’s equipment at sites where they are helping with the Gulf Coast recovery efforts following recent hurricanes.

Urbanek said that Ed’s Equipment specializes in customized service plans that include 24-7 service and support. He also provides in-stock parts availability. Ed’s has customers all over the U.S. that rely on them for service and support like the contractors working in Florida and Texas as part of the hurricane cleanup efforts.

“We travel any distance to service our customers,” he said. “I have the best employees. They are willing to do whatever it takes to insure that our high-level service is always our standard.”

“We also do a lot of service work in our shop. We offer everything from regular service to complete and total rebuild of grinders. We do all our own engine and fabrication work in house as well,” he said.

For more information, contact Ed at Ed’s Equipment Inc., 4567 East 71st Street, Cuyahoga Heights Ohio, 44105. Email ed@edsequipmentinc.com, or give Ed a call at 330-620-9993.

Ed’s Equipment: the ideal choice

McGeary noted that there is a large Keestrack customer base in Ohio stretching back to 2005. With increased sales in the Midwest area, he said he needed to find someone in sales and service to support the customers in those aggregate and recycling markets. Ed’s Equipment was the ideal choice.

McGeary learned that Urbanek had made contact with a successful equipment dealer in Vancouver, BC who has been a dual dealership for Keestrack and for Diamond Z for a number of years. As Ed and that dealer discussed how these product lines complemented one another in the marketplace and how together, they allow a dealer to diversify to meet the needs of recyclers and quarry operators, he and Ed made it a point to get together at ConExpo.

“We’ve been working with Ed to help make this all happen,” said McGeary. “With Ed being so busy helping out with customers in the hurricane clean-up across the south, it has been an exciting process. We are confident that Ed is going to make a great dealer for us because of his reputation for quality service to his customers. Ed visited our USA headquarters in Texas last week (early October) were he was able to tour the parts warehouse and the different machine models in stock.”

For Keestrack spare parts or equipment sales please call Keestrack America at 940-482 4004 or email them at keestrackamericaspares@keestrack.com.