Also in line with the green theme, a new dot-com start-up, ZamRay.com, opened for business at the show. Kurt Fisher, founder of the Denver-based company, gives owners, suppliers and contractors a place to resell goods leftover when a construction project has finished.

“Every month, I would literally back the dumpster up to a truck and throw it all away,” says Fisher, 39, who previously worked in an electrical-supply warehouse in Denver.

The new site, which some are calling the Craigslist of construction, allows users to place a classified ad for a $25 fee for 90 days. The site is free through February as a promotion.

Backed by Westminster, Colo.-based National Energy Services and Investments LLC, a private-equity arm of contractor Northern Electric Inc., ZamRay so far has received more than 15,000 page views and 10,000 classified ads.

Fresh Iron

Not everyone is waiting for CONEXPO to roll out new iron. In one of the outdoor exhibit lots, Xtreme Manufacturing, an eight-year-old Las Vegas-based company headed by equipment-rental magnate Don Ahern, introduced its XR1270, a roller-boom telehandler with the world’s highest reach, at 70 ft. It has up to a 12,000-lb lift capacity and a forward reach of nearly 54 ft.

“We had our best year thus far [in 2010], with much of the work coming from the energy and industrial sectors in places like Texas and Oklahoma,” said Xtreme Vice President Randy Reeves. “We think that we will have our best year to date in 2011.”

Company optimism is partly fueled by larger-sized machines like the XR1270, which gives users more flexibility to tackle both large and small jobs, thereby reducing equipment needs and overhead expenses. It’s the type of budget-minded product that hard-hit contractors appreciate.

“Our machines have been holding their value on the secondary market quite well,” Reeves said. “We’re not building these to be in the parts business. They’re meant to last.”

Meanwhile, under the roof of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Case Construction Equipment showcased its solutions to the so-called Tier 4 emission regulations. The federal standard arrived on Jan. 1 for off-road machines rated at 175 horsepower and up.

Case showed two different tailpipe controls, one for its new C-Series excavators and another for its new F-series wheel loaders. The former uses cooled exhaust-gas recirculation and a diesel-particulate filter to cut down emissions.

Fuel efficiency is up as much as 10%, but the machine has a bigger rump than the outgoing model. Engineers had to add about 60 millimeters of space around the engine to accommodate the filter and other components, such as the larger radiators.

To alleviate visibility concerns, Case includes a rearview camera as standard equipment. “It’s a precautionary thing to make them safer,” said Ion Warner, Case’s senior director of marketing. A sideview camera is optional.

Case also showed what many visitors thought was the first off-road diesel to use on-road scrubber technology. The company’s new 721F wheel loader was sporting selective-catalytic reduction (SCR) under the hood. The system injects liquid urea into the tailpipe to neutralize nitrogen-oxides. Since 2010, SCR has become a common way for heavy diesel trucks to meet clean-air regulations.

Located in a 12.5-gallon tank, the urea is piped into the injector at a rate of about 7% relative to fuel burned. That means loader operators will have to fill up the urea tank about every other time they refuel, Case says.

Fuel economy is up as much as 17%, and the machine will cost, on average, 7% more to buy at retail. But unlike its excavators, Case was able to pack in the scrubber kit without redesigning the footprint of the outgoing model.

The federal clean-air Tier 4 schedule directs smaller machines—those rated at below 175 hp—to cut emissions starting in January 2012. Previews of those machines are likely to be shown at CONEXPO in March.

For more highlights of World of Concrete, see ENR’s exclusive video coverage at ENR.com/Video.