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The Daily Grind

Florida-based land clearing and recycling company with two decades of organic material processing experience purchases two Tigercat 6900 grinders.

Keith and Glen Jung on a work site in Orlando, Florida.
Keith and Glen Jung on a work site in Orlando, Florida.
Keith and Glen Jung are brothers and owners of 4 Jays Recycling C&D Landfill and 4 Jays Land Services. They are based in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Their parents, Ed and Marion started the land clearing business in 1983 and the two brothers purchased the company in 2004, having worked alongside their father since they were teenagers.

Keith explains that prior to 1983 Ed was a homebuilder. High interest rates and a severe recession in 1982 disabled the Florida housing market. In parallel, an especially brutal winter wreaked havoc on the Florida citrus industry. Countless acres of orange groves were destroyed by sustained freezing temperatures. In the midst of the economic and weather carnage, Ed saw an opportunity. As Keith recalls, “Dad saw all these frozen orange groves and he decided to buy this old loader. I think it was seven thousand dollars. We fixed it up and he started clearing orange groves. When I turned sixteen, I’d run it after school. We worked that loader six to seven days a week clearing and burning citrus groves.”

4 Jays established itself as a land clearing company and recycling landfill facility, operating in that space since 1994. In 2004 when Glen and Keith bought the company from their parents, they were excited and highly motivated to grow the business. “We were already well experienced at land clearing, maximizing the loads, and taking them to our landfill,” says Glen. “Adding the grinding just fell into place.” Grinding may have fallen into place, but it came with a steep learning curve with respect to both the markets and the operational aspects.

Glen and Keith purchased their first grinder that same year and put it to work on a storm clean-up contract at the Orlando airport and the city of Deltona. “When we bought the first one, we didn’t even know what we would do with the material,” says Keith. They managed to find an outlet, distributing the mulched material around municipal parks in Deltona.
Tigercat grinder discharge area
The tilting frame allows the operator to build higher piles and adds versatility to change the infeed angle if required.
As Glen and Keith started to gain an understanding of the mulch market, they leveraged the yard space at the landfill facility and expanded into coloured mulch production, investing in screening and colouring machinery. Today, 4 Jays has two main material outlets. About 20% of the first grind material is hauled to the company's own yard. Along with material brought to the recycling facility by outside customers, it goes through a secondary grind process, then is screened, coloured, and marketed in bulk. The other 80% is hauled directly from land clearing worksites to large-scale mulch production plants and bagging facilities, ultimately supplying the retail market.

4 Jays takes on new development land clearing contracts within a 50-mile (80 km) radius of New Smyrna Beach. The working range optimizes hauling, allowing 4 Jays’ trucks to run at least two trips per day between the job site and the processing facilities. Responsibilities are divided up by function. Glen manages land clearing and hauling; Keith oversees grinding and recycling operations. The truck payload is 100 yards and the trucking side can haul anywhere from 15-24 loads per day. Glen explains that working outside of the radius is challenging – too far to economically haul to their yard and difficult to find additional outlets for the material. “Normally each yard already has enough product for their own mulch production,” says Glen.
Tigercat grinder infeed
Typical feedstock includes hardwood and softwood timber, root mass, stumps, brush and palm.
The two brothers continued to innovate, always on the lookout for operational efficiencies as well as seeking out new products to produce and new markets to supply. Without getting in way over my head on the technical aspects of operating a landfill, airspace is the volume of space on a landfill site permitted for disposal of solid waste. There are a few ways to maximize airspace. Glen and Keith first focused on mining the wood and soil waste portion. “We mined the landfill and recycled a lot of the material. We processed whatever we could,” says Keith. They produced topsoil, creating a new product and market while increasing the airspace, and doubling the lifespan of the landfill.

A second common strategy is to divert all recyclables. “Our goal is to extend the life of the recycling landfill as long as possible,” says Keith. “We are trying to process everything and now we are looking forward to composting and processing other sustainable materials.”

Challenges

There are three distinct mulch seasons that the company must work around. The outlet for the material is not constant or consistent. In fact, in talking to Glen and Keith, the issue of outlets for the ground material comes up again and again. The material can only be stockpiled for a maximum of four months before it loses its value as a raw material for mulch production. There are also space constraints at 4 Jays’ landfill and recycling yard that limit how much material can be stockpiled between seasons.

Rainfall, soil types and ground conditions add constraints for the land clearing operations, and in Florida, palmetto is a particularly noteworthy challenge for the grinders. It is notoriously difficult to process and there isn't really a market for the material at this time.

While Glen maintains excellent relationships with the site development contractors and project managers, the vagaries of project permitting means that the land clearing phase of development site projects is rarely scheduled more than three to four months out. There is ongoing logistical manoeuvring related to scheduling land clearing jobs, ensuring consistent and reliable outlets for the ground material, and maintaining trucking efficiency. Because 4 Jays has control over the land clearing, grinding and hauling, the company is well-equipped to provide a seamless service to its clients.

New iron

Earlier this year 4 Jays decided to purchase two Tigercat 6900 grinders. With the company’s twenty years of grinding experience using many different brands, we were eager to understand the factors that went into the purchase decision and how the machines are performing so far.

Keith says that Jake Desrosiers, industrial sales representative at Tidewater Equipment’s Tampa branch, was a great resource throughout the procurement process. He has a strong background and familiarity with grinders having worked with the machines for many years in a family business prior to joining the Tidewater team.

“Jake described the machine and answered the questions right,” says Keith. “He didn’t seem like a salesman but more of a resource. He gave me existing customer names for references and talked a lot about support and parts supply from Tidewater, which is critical for us. When I asked to see a machine, he took us to see the grinder with the most hours. The machine was holding up really well. It looked like it had 1,300 hours, not 3,500 hours.” Throughout this process, Keith admits that his goal was to use his own knowledge to prove Jake wrong. “But I couldn’t.”

We liked the structure of the mill, the top feed roller, the yoke construction, and the aggressiveness of the teeth on the top roller. The size of the mill shaft and bearings, and the support of the mill bearings are impressive. In our experience, mill bearings have been the biggest cause of downtime.


— Keith Jung

Keith also mentions that he gained a better appreciation for the people behind Tidewater and Tigercat while attending the Tidewater Demo Day in April. “Part of it was meeting people and just seeing how much fun everyone was having,” says Keith.

4 Jays’ initial growth spurt after Glen and Keith purchased the company resulted in a massive increase both in capital investment and the complexity of the operations. The employee count reached approximately 60. Then the Great Recession and the US real estate crash came along in 2008. Development projects in Florida hit a brick wall. The brothers were forced to reimagine a vastly different company during and after the recession. Keith says that it was during this period that he learned the most about the intricacies of grinding.

“At that point out of necessity, we were hands-on with the grinders and we realized there is a lot involved with a grinder," Keith explains. “We ran lots of different brands and I learned them all myself first.” Keith says that this direct experience running and maintaining the machines every day helped to shine a light and gain a perspective on operational issues. “To be able to figure out things like why we are not getting the production or performance. The experience also made it easier to train new operators. That’s why I like Jake, because he has that same level of experience.” The knowledge gained through that difficult economic period was invaluable. And when it came around to making the decision to purchase the Tigercat machines, “the whole equation came together. All the pieces – service, parts, personalities, and machine qualities,” says Keith.
Grinder head pulley
The large diameter head pulley allows use of a more durable three-ply discharge belt.
Currently, the company runs three grinders including the two new 6900 models. “The thickness in the steel plate in the infeed floor and the side walls of the infeed, and all the areas where the actual work is done is really important,” says Keith. “We liked the structure of the mill, the top feed roller, the yoke construction, and the aggressiveness of the teeth on the top roller. The size of the mill shaft and bearings, and the support of the mill bearings are impressive. In our experience, mill bearings have been the biggest cause of downtime.”

“I was also impressed with the drive sprocket. The idler end of the feed chain is a nice, simple design. It's not over-engineered. It is easy to look after, and we think it will last a long time. Another important feature is the three-ply belt along with the large diameter head pulley on the discharge. When the belt is not working around a tight diameter, it allows you to run three-ply instead of two-ply which is going to improve life. The computer control feed system is an intelligent design that contols all the set functions for maximizing production and efficiency. It takes all the guesswork away and the operator’s need to handle the remote, and leaves him hands-free in control of keeping the 6900 fed with materials to grind. It’s the first horizontal grinder I’ve ever used or seen that can grind palm trees as easily without getting clogged,” says Keith.

Keith also stresses the importance of layout and accessibility to facilitate efficient maintenance routines. How user-friendly it is to the operator? Does it have good, accessible cleanouts? “We aim for 30 hours of productive work per week. That is for a 40-hour work week and includes five to ten hours of maintenance for the grinder and the supporting equipment.”

One of 4 Jays grinder operator's comments, “There is a fine line between a compact design and an accessible layout.” He also mentions the service mode is a big advantage for him. The service mode allows all machine functions required for service to be actuated without the need to start the engine. An auxiliary electric pump powers the top feed roll, both the feed and discharge conveyors, grate frame extend and retract, and virtually every other function except for the track drives for safer, quieter maintenance routines, fuel savings and reduced engine hours.

Keith and Glen explain that land clearing sites rarely come with level ground. Good belt clearance and ground clearance are advantages in muddy conditions and uneven ground. The 6900 has a unique tilting frame that pivots on the undercarriage. It allows the operator to build higher piles and adds versatility to change the infeed angle if required. The operator can traverse over uneven ground and adjust the pivot to create additional ground clearance or heights to discharge products into trucks.

All in the family

Today, 4 Jays employs approximately 34 people. Keith’s wife Laura and Glen’s wife Jennifer both work in office roles. Very well organized and disciplined, they are critical to the ongoing success of the company. The strong business management frees up the guys to focus on operations. “We try to treat the company like a family team and use each other's strengths and weaknesses,” says Keith. 4 Jays has many employees that have been with the company for over ten years. These long-term employees are versatile, possessing a wide skillset that allows them to fill in and work in multiple areas of the operations. It makes for a more resilient and flexible company that can react to problems and opportunities quickly. “We don’t strive to be the biggest, we strive to be our best,” says Glen.

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