It quit where it quit. That is the whole problem.
Machines do not break down in the parking area with good light and a level pad. They stop in a trench, on a slope, in mud, with two other trades working around them and a general contractor who has no intention of moving his schedule. We work in that.
- Open 24 hours, seven days
- No hourly minimum
- What it’ll cost before the truck leaves
- Active sites, tight access, no power
The site decides more about the repair than the fault does
Two machines can have identical failures and turn into completely different jobs. A skid steer with a dead drive motor sitting on a firm compacted pad with room to swing a door open is a straightforward day. The same machine, same motor, wedged against a retaining wall on a grade with fresh fill underneath and a concrete pour happening twenty feet away, is a different proposition entirely. The part number has not changed. Everything else has.
So the first questions on the phone are rarely about the fault. Where exactly is it. What is under it. Can a service truck get within working distance or does the gear have to be carried in. Is the machine on a slope, and which way. Is there anything above it. Who else is working in that area today, and who runs the site. The answers to those decide what comes off the truck, how long the job realistically takes, and occasionally whether the honest recommendation is to move the machine first before anybody starts turning wrenches on it.
Sites we workActive construction, grading and utility jobs, quarries and yards, vineyard and ranch access roads, and the tight residential lots where a mini excavator is the only machine that fits.
The numberWhat it’ll cost before the truck leaves, travel and work together. No hourly minimum, so a short job stays a short job on the invoice.
Getting to youNapa and Solano first, then out along I-80 and Highway 12 into Sonoma, Contra Costa and Alameda. Where we work.
Mud, slope and no power at the pole
Ground condition is the single biggest variable. Soft fill, a rutted haul road after rain or saturated clay all mean that jack stands settle while you are underneath, and cribbing that was solid at eight in the morning may not be at noon. Anything that involves getting under a machine gets blocked properly on timber rather than on whatever was lying nearby, and if the ground genuinely will not support it, the machine gets moved to somewhere it can be supported or the job waits. There is no version of this where the repair is worth the risk.
Slope is the constraint people take least seriously. A machine on a grade wants to move, stored hydraulic pressure can drop a boom or an attachment when a line is opened, and a track that gets released on a hill goes somewhere. Attachments come down to the ground first, pressure gets bled deliberately, and travel gets locked out before anybody commits to a position they cannot leave quickly.
Then there is the plain absence of infrastructure. No shore power, no compressed air, no lighting once the sun drops behind a hill, frequently no clean water and no flat surface to lay parts on. Every service truck that does this work carries its own power, its own light and its own air, because a job site provides none of it and borrowing from whoever does have a generator running is a good way to become somebody else’s problem.
I would rather spend thirty minutes getting a machine somewhere it can be worked on safely than save the thirty minutes and do the job badly under a load nobody trusts.
Patrick Freeman, owner
What gets fixed where it stands
Most of what stops a machine mid-shift is field work. These are the calls that come in from active sites most often.
Blown hydraulic hoses
Made up on site from hose stock and fittings. The most common mid-shift stoppage and the quickest to put right.
Electrical and no-start faults
Batteries, cables, grounds and harness damage, which is what a machine working in mud eventually does to itself.
Skid steer and compact machine work
Couplers, drive motors and linkage on the machines that do the most work in the tightest spaces.
Excavator repairs on site
Tracks refitted, hydraulic circuits tested under load, and the boom work that keeps a machine digging.
Diagnosis before parts
When the failure is not obvious, it gets measured on site rather than guessed at from the seat.
Service while it is parked
If a machine is down anyway, due interval work often gets folded into the same visit.
Working around trades who will not be stopping
A job site is somebody else’s operation and a mobile repair is a guest in it. That means signing in where there is a sign-in, working to the site’s protective equipment requirements, and fitting into the traffic plan rather than parking a service truck across the route the concrete trucks need at eleven. If the machine sits somewhere that would block a delivery or a pour, that gets sorted out with the superintendent before the job starts rather than during it.
The schedule pressure is real and worth naming. Superintendents are managing sequences where one machine going down pushes several trades into next week, and they are entitled to a straight answer about timing. What they get from us is a realistic figure rather than a hopeful one, plus an early call if the repair turns out to be larger than the first look suggested. A general contractor can plan around bad news delivered at nine. He cannot plan around good news that turns out to be wrong at four.
What can be done here, and what cannot
Honesty about this is worth more than optimism. Some repairs belong on site and some belong somewhere with a hoist and a clean floor.
- Nearly always on siteHoses, fittings, batteries, cables, sensors, filters, belts, coolers, coupler work and most electrical faults. These finish in one visit.
- Usually on site, access permittingDrive motors, cylinders, track work and pump replacement, as long as the footing will take cribbing and a door will open.
- Depends entirely on the groundAnything requiring the machine lifted or a component supported. Firm level footing turns a maybe into a yes.
- Belongs in a shopPulled engines, transmission splits and full rebuilds. We say so before starting, not after opening the machine up.
- Either way, you get the answerIf it has to move, you will know what failed and why, so the transport decision is made with real information.
What superintendents and owners ask about site calls
Most of these get settled faster over the phone, especially while a crew is standing still.
The machine is in mud and cannot be moved. Can you still work on it?
Often yes, and it depends on what the repair requires. Work that can be done from the side or from above, such as hoses, electrical faults, filters and many coupler problems, is usually fine regardless of what is underfoot. Anything that means lifting the machine or getting a person underneath needs ground that will hold blocking, and saturated fill frequently will not. In that case the practical answer is usually to move the machine a short distance onto something solid, and we will tell you that on the phone rather than after arriving.
There is no power or air anywhere near where it stopped. Is that a problem?
No, because we do not rely on the site for any of it. The truck carries its own power, lighting and compressed air, along with hose stock, fittings, fluids, filters and common electrical parts. That is the basic requirement for doing this work properly. Sites that do have a generator running usually need it for something else, and a repair that depends on borrowing it is a repair that stops when somebody else needs the machine it is powering.
Our general contractor requires sign-in and specific protective equipment. Fine?
Completely standard and expected. We sign in where sign-in exists, wear what the site requires, work inside the traffic plan and stay out of exclusion zones. If there is a site-specific induction, tell us when you call so it can be built into the arrival window. Being an easy contractor to have on site is part of the job, not an extra.
How quickly can you get to an active site?
Traffic and whatever is already in progress decide it, and the window you get will be the real one rather than the one you want to hear. Crossing a bridge at the wrong hour can add more time than the distance suggests, so an afternoon call into the East Bay is a different answer from the same call at six in the morning. Tell us the site address when you ring and the timing comes back with the figure attached.
Can you work after the site closes so we do not lose a shift?
Yes, and for a machine that is needed first thing it is often the better plan. Evening and overnight work means the repair happens while nobody is trying to build around us, access is usually easier with the site quiet, and the crew arrives to a working machine. It needs arranging with whoever controls site access, so mention it when you call.
Two trades are working right next to the machine. Does that stop the job?
Not usually, but it changes how the area gets set up. The repair zone is marked off and the people working around it are told what is happening, because a machine that looks parked reads as available to an operator who has not been informed. If the only safe way to do the work is with a short pause in the immediate area, that is a conversation with the superintendent rather than something we decide unilaterally.
Machine down on an active site?
Call with the make, what it did when it stopped, and exactly where it is sitting. You will get an arrival window and a number in the same conversation, at any hour.
HoursMonday to Sunday, 24 hours
Based inAmerican Canyon, CA
Nearby workField equipment repair · Hose replacement · Gallery