# Anyone here use GPS for grading?



## Hairy Cat (Aug 6, 2015)

Just out of curiosity. We were somewhat early adopters after we got screwed by a developer. We got a job and it turns out the developer was importing soils way after the topo was done. So his site was super long on yardage and there was no way to prove how much excess we hauled off at the end of the job. So we got into GPS and grade control after that. That was in 2001 or 2002.


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## hdavis (Feb 14, 2012)

Good idea, I'll file it away. It hasn't been a problem around here that I've heard of.


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## EarthworkBlog (Sep 2, 2015)

*Trimble vs. Topcon GPS Equipment*

We were considering buying our first GPS grading doser a few months ago but we were new to the market. I was able to convince the two competing dealers to let us do a 2 week demo of both systems. 

The Trimble system is sold through Caterpillar so we put it on a D6K2 they let us demo. 

TopCon is sold through Komatsu so we tried that system on a D51exi the dealer set us up with.

In the end we decided on the Caterpillar with the Trimble mostly because we were in the market for new estimating software and Trimble Business Center Heavy Construction Edition was available. It allows us to do the initial jobsite take-off for bidding, but all that work is then used to create a 3d model and lines used by the GPS equipment. 

Making and editing our own models is important to me because I don't like the cost of waiting for a third party to make changes or corrections as the job progresses.

In just 2 month, we were able to perform around $30,000 worth of surveying and we are still calculating the savings on grading work. So far, we are seeing projections of doing grading and shaping of a project in 2/3 of the time it used to require.


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## Civil Headache (Mar 11, 2013)

We use Trimble GCS/GPS and have a wired Dozer and excavator. We always do a pre-construction topo to verify the existing grades from the owner/engineer's survey. More than once we have landed a change order before touching an ounce of dirt because the existing conditions topo was off, and I'm talking a few thousand yards off. Also has saved our ass on topsoil depth differing site conditions - we were able to topo our topsoil pile and depth striped as backup for our change order proposal. 

I like the trimble systems, although that's what I've used primarily. The Trimble software (HCE Business Center & SCS900) is superior to Topon - Topon has an Autocad plugin and/or Agtek plugin. 

I've demoed a Topcon unit/rover and it was nice though, not as many features as the trimble SCS900 software has but was a little simpler to use (kind of a dumbed down version of trimble, which can be good sometimes). They are both about the same price, so I'd rather go with the Trimble units as I like the added features for doing more advanced on the fly field surveying.


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