It’s Just Cool: Ride-On Power Trowel
By Benjamen Johnson
How would you choose to finish a giant slab of concrete — by hand with conventional tools, or with Bartell Morrison’s ride-on power trowel? I think if you visit Toolmonger on a regular basis, you know which method we’d pick.
You pilot the ride-on trowels with a twin-stick, multi-directional steering system that lets you maneuver the machine precisely where you need it. Power trowels come standard with heavy-duty gearboxes, precision-machined spider plates, U-joint couplings, adjustable operators seat, and lights.
Bartell Morrison sells eight models of ride-on power trowels that vary in path width from 65″ to 97″. Some models feature overlapping trowels while others come with non-overlapping trowels. You’d use an overlapping machine for finishing and a non-overlapping machine for floating or panning.
From what we can find, prices run from $8,000 to $16,000 depending on the model you choose.
Ride-On Power Trowel [Bartell Morrison]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
September 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am
This is clearly a beast - that could tame a big deck or slab.
We have a lot smaller demand on our 2 Stone power trowels that use smallish Honda engines to power them.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
power trowel for floating concrete?!?! Run out of gas then you get to REALLY see if it floats.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Concrete crews love these things; but I hate cleaning after they use them!!! I am a tool repair mechanic and these things come back from job just destroyed. These trowels get set down hard by tower cranes/reach forks and cause the gear boxes to leak, and of course the are shrouded in concrete (weather the crew made an effort to wash them or not, 2-3 hours with a needle scaler is lots of fun.). Once you get these trowels back up to snuff riding around on them is kind of fun; doing donuts and trying to make the thing hover are my favorite maneuvers.
October 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 am
I filmed the construction guys riding these things outside our office building when they were constructing the parking lot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgrU9CVbq4
August 11th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I use these things for a living and if you ever want to do a large floor this thing can do the work of 4 or 5 walk behind trowels. They also have the weight to knock flat any humps in a floor. when you’re done a job with one of these it always looks so even and glossy. I wouldn’t trade mine for the world.