Lubbock Company’s New Scraper a Real Humdinger

Thu June 01, 2006
Aggregate Equipment Guide

Formed in October 2004, Humdinger Equipment Ltd. continued a rich history of scraper manufacturers that call Lubbock, TX, home. Five industry experts founded the company with the main purpose of producing a world-class pull scraper, a goal achieved when the Humdinger H619 arrived in September 2005.

“The Humdinger H619 has been designed to perform in ’gumbo’ material that no machine has ever been able to do at a level acceptable in the market,” said Donnie Hicks, co-founder. “By working with our customers, we developed a ’gumbo’ solution that reaches the market’s needs. That is what Humdinger is about, finding our customers’ earth moving needs and solving them.”

Hicks, Randy Holloway and Chad Phares, ex-employees of the closed, Lubbock-based Noble Construction Company, joined Aubrey Rawls and Randy Rawls, both established agriculture implement distributors, to develop the new business.

Holloway, Hicks and Phares gained their experience while working for Eagle Picher, a descendant of Johnson Manufacturing Inc., which, in 1949, was the first manufacturer to base itself in Lubbock. Holloway spent 24 years working for Eagle Picher, which became Noble, holding positions as a design engineer, scraper engineering manager and president.

Hicks spent 18 years with Eagle Picher/Noble as a design engineer, scraper engineering manager, vice president of manufacturing and senior vice president of U.S. and Mexico operations, while Phares worked as a controller, materials manager and business unit manager during his nine-year tenure.

“Our equipment is designed by scraper people, for scraper people,” stated Holloway. “We designed Caterpillar elevating scrapers for more than 24 years, including the 613, 615, 623, 633 and 611 open bowl models, and designed and manufactured the first construction grade pull scraper to reach the market. The design and manufacturing processes used at Humdinger will follow the same guidelines and processes used to make the Caterpillar and Noble equipment.”

Aubrey and Randy Rawls add years of sales and marketing expertise to the mix. Aubrey brings more than 40 years of experience working directly for John Deere Corporation and as an independent dealer for John Deere and other agriculture implement equipment.

Randy has an extensive 20-year marketing and sales background with Fortune 500 companies and agriculture implement distributors.

“After analyzing the pull scraper market and realizing no one was providing a construction grade pull scraper that would last for years,” said Aubrey, “we asked ourselves what would be the best possible way to meet this need. There wasn’t a better way than forming Humdinger. There are probably only a handfull of scraper engineers in the world with the capabilities and experience of Holloway and Hicks. They were the ’A’ team for Caterpillar’s elevating scrapers and Noble’s pull scrapers.”

“Most of our customers already have large investments in scraper fleets made up of our competitor’s machines and they need to realize a good return on their investments,” added Phares. “[Humdinger] can help them realize a greater return on their investment by helping them solve issues with their current equipment. Many of the parts required to maintain not only our equipment, but our competitors’ equipment, such as Noble/Terex 417, Reynolds, and others are available through us.

“We also have the capability to do in-house design and manufacturing for custom solutions to improve our customers’ existing equipment. When it’s in the best interest of our customer to buy new equipment, we ask for the opportunity to sell them our H619 or other appropriate equipment. When you can move earth for 25 to 50 percent less cost than other applications, you don’t have to be a finance person to make that choice. A pull scraper application gives that opportunity to all earth moving companies.”

Allen Butler Construction’s fleet based in Lubbock spent years searching for a machine to match and surpass its Noble 417 scrapers in quality and performance.

“Running tandem scrapers behind the same tractor, we moved 3,000 yards of dirt with the H619 versus 2,200 yards of dirt with the Noble 417,” stated one of the company’s field supervisors.

For more information, call 888/999-4909, or visit www.scraperparts.com

This story also appears on Construction Equipment Guide.