Small Town, Big Ambition
Starting with a worn-out Bobcat mini X in 2007, Tate Hyslop, owner-operator of Hyslop Excavating, built his business from the ground up to serve his local community of Bloomfield, Missouri. As a one-man operation, Tate’s vision centers on family involvement and steady, small-town growth.
Hyslop Excavating focuses on public utilities, digging, stormwater drainage, and any work that requires moving rock and dirt, using laser-equipped tractors and excavators. Most of Tate’s projects are within 10 miles of his home.
Attach2 met Tate onsite while he was digging house footings to learn about his business, future goals, and how he puts his equipment to work. Predominantly Tate operates as a one-man show, saying the Heli-Tilt helps him operate like a bigger crew.
“As owner‑operator, my primary responsibilities are just to keep jobs going. I’m really kind of the operator, the secretary, and the mechanic!”
From mini to massive
Starting with his Bobcat mini, Tate used excavator profits to buy a dump truck, then a tractor, expanding his equipment as his business grew.
“I've built up to all the equipment I can handle myself, with my son helping sparingly. We have 2 tractors, a mini excavator, a dump truck, and a truck to haul everything.”
He now runs a Kubota U55-5. Equipped like it is, it's around a 13,000-pound machine. It's the right size for him because, legally, he can haul it on his single-axle truck without being overloaded, while still being safe.
“If I went any bigger, I would need a heavier spec truck. The U-55 is ideal for basement digs and public utilities. My 50-horse and 85-horse tractors are used mainly for laser grading. My next purchase will likely be an upgrade for the oldest tractor," he explains.
A family affair
Tate has fond memories of working with his father, having worked together for several years as horseshoers. He is hoping to have the same experience with his own son and his excavating business, continuing that legacy – something which Attach2 prides itself on too.
“I'm looking forward to that, him helping, maybe adding more equipment to what we have now, and just adding his spin on things,” he smiles.
Last Summer, a tornado hit a nearby town, and Tate was enlisted to do a lot of the cleanup. Since he didn't have a dump truck driver, he needed to run the dump truck himself, with his son helping on the excavator.
“My son got a lot of seat time in the excavator, and that really helped things a lot and got him more excited about doing this business when he gets older.”
Digging and dexterity
Back to the job at hand, Tate tells us he has already levelled the pad for the house and is now using a laser system with a machine-mounted receiver that he can view from the cab to dig the house's footings. On this job, he has had to use multiple buckets and attachments. His excavator is fitted with an Attach2 Heli-Tilt, which features a hydraulic quick connect. We wanted to know how it performs in the wild.
“Having the hydraulic quick connect really helped on this job. It saved a lot of time, as it does on every job, but I had to use the skid steer adapter with the pallet forks to carry all my buckets. That saved trips and time. Then I had to switch from the root ripper to the two-foot bucket to pop the stump out, then the pallet forks were used to drop the culvert in the hole, and then the big, wide bucket, the four-foot bucket, was used to backfill around the culvert and make the road cross the ditch.”
Tate’s older machine was equipped with a tilt hitch but lacked the hydraulic quick attach. He explains how the Heli‑Tilt makes a one‑man show operate like a full crew and why this was such a gamechanger for him, sparking a new-found passion in his son, too.
“The Heli-Tilt is still 180 degrees of dexterity, and it has a hydraulic quick attach, and it has pin grabber style buckets, which allows all your buckets to be reversible. When I got my new machine home and unloaded it, my son got in it and played with it for a lot longer than I thought he would, because usually he just gets in the machine and does what he needs to do and he's done. I actually came inside that night and pulled up videos of tilt attachments and wanted to see what the things were capable of. It really sparked his interest. I think he enjoyed the thought of not having to get out of the machine and pull a pin every time you switch a bucket - being able to do everything from the seat, from inside the cab, especially when it's cold or really hot.”
Dig decisions
So, how did Tate decide on Attach2 for his fit-out? There aren’t too many brands in North America for tilt attachments, he tells us, and “Attach2 tilts just looked like the most robust quality piece of equipment that I could purchase.”
Another reason was the people.
“When I talked to Attach2 for the first time, I knew I had the right people. Adam answered all my questions - he knew without having to look anything up.”
He built a relationship with his sales rep, Adam, who checked in to ask how things were going.
“I told him how I like it and everything job-related. As soon as I unloaded it, my boy was in it, operating it, and he was actually really interested in it. In the past, he's just been kind of wishy-washy. I said, that's what I like about it, and that's what started the whole deal with having my son be involved in this.”
He also needed all buckets and tilt attachments to arrive together, so he could switch from his old excavator without losing workdays and Attach2 delivered.
Not only a fan of the dexterity and hydraulics of his hitch, “It really just works like your wrist,” Tate wanted something that would withstand the elements and that he would never have to take off his excavator, the ultimate in timesaving and efficiency.
“It can get sprayed by water if we're fixing water mains, it can be used for digging up stumps, working in rock - whatever I need to do. The tilt attachment makes every job you do go faster - it makes you more efficient - so much so that you almost have to start charging by the job instead of by the hour because it doesn't take very many hours to do the job.”
The sky is the limit
Tate couldn’t even imagine all of the ways he would use his hitch, and as it turns out, he has been able to get quite creative with it!
“I've used it in ways that I never expected to use it. I had an idea in my head of what I could do with it, digging V ditches and flat-bottom ditches, sloping the walls so we didn't have trench collapses. But I've found it useful in lots of other areas, like pouring concrete and sonotubes. You can get concrete in your bucket, turn it like a tea pitcher, and pour it into one focused area to keep it from getting everywhere. There are 100 different ways - I could talk all day about how much I use this thing on jobs in ways that I never expected,” he says.
“Just the other day, I found another use for the tilt attachment, specifically the reversible function of it. Being a pin grabber style, you can spin your buckets backwards. I was having to unload riprap, which is erosion-control rock, out of the bed of a dump truck, and the tailgate was off the truck. I was pulling the stuff out onto the street. So, I ended up reversing my bucket and shoveling the stuff out, and that probably cut the time in half on that job. It was so convenient. The guys were like, oh damn, yeah, that's nice.”
Having been in the industry for so long, we wanted to know if Tate had noticed any trends, and he tells us the importance of getting in your experience.
“I see young people buy equipment and get into it and think they're going to have the best jobs right off the bat. It really doesn't work that way unless you've already got a lot of experience and some seat time. Get some experience and have the right equipment for every job. That's what I've worked my way towards - having the best tools for the job and a tool that'll hold up under any conditions - that's what Attach2 brings. Once you use one of these tilt couplers, you'll never want to go back to a standard machine.”
Staying ahead
One of the challenges in the industry that Tate mentions is staying ahead of the competition. A way to do that, he explains, is to have tools that other people don’t have.
“Where I'm at in this small-town area of southern Missouri, nobody else yet has one of these tilt attachments, and I just try to stay ahead of the game and ahead of my competition. I feel like that keeps a guy like me busy.”
When asked why he recommends Attach2, Tate cites their tilt attachments as essential for staying competitive and future-proofing his business.
“I will always have the Attach2 tilt attachment on my machine from here on out. I recommend them to anybody as I think that's where the industry is headed. In the future, if you don't have the dexterity and the range of motion that a tilt attachment offers, then you're going to be behind everybody else.”
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