How to track generators, welders, and compactors across jobs
Engine-powered tools need PM like real assets but move between jobs like consumables. Here's how to track hours, location, and PM intervals when the tool is on a different job every week.
Generators, welders, plate compactors, water pumps. The between-category problem: too small to live in fleet tracking next to the excavator, too important (and too expensive) to treat as a shovel. They move between jobs every week, they burn hours, they need oil changes, and one of them is always the unit nobody can find.
Why this category gets dropped
Fleet software is built for trucks and yellow iron. The $1,200/yr/asset pricing model and the cab-mounted telematics assumptions don't fit a $4,500 inverter generator. The tool app is built for hand tools — a wrench gets a QR sticker and an assignment, not an hour meter. So the engine-powered tools land in a no-man's-land. Shops end up with a clipboard in the tool crib, a whiteboard in the trailer, and a guess about when the welder was last serviced.
The fix is to track them like assets but price them like tools. Same hour meter, same PM intervals, same anomaly detection — but no per-asset bill and no separate app.
The four categories worth tracking
Most construction shops have these four. Different units, same problem shape.
1. Portable generators
Towable diesel and gas inverters from 3kW to 70kW. Run hours depend entirely on the job — a finish-trim crew uses one for 45 minutes of saw cuts, a night-pour crew runs it 14 hours straight. Oil change at 100 hours, air filter at 250, spark plug at 500. Honda EU7000is and the towable Multiquip diesel sets are the two you'll see most.
2. Engine-drive welders
Miller Bobcat, Lincoln Ranger, Trailblazer 330. These are small generators with a welder bolted on. Track engine hours, oil change at 100, brushes inspected at 500, the duty-cycle history if you have a way to capture it. A welder that starts running rough at 800 hours and gets ignored becomes a seized rotor at 1,100.
3. Plate compactors and rollers
Wacker Neuson, Bomag, MBW. Heavily abused, dropped off loading ramps, often left out overnight. Oil change at 50 hours, exciter oil at 200. The PM interval is short because the duty is brutal — a compactor at 4 hours/day runs the annual interval in two months.
4. Trash and dewatering pumps
Honda WT30, Multiquip QP3TZ, the 4" trash pumps. Often run unattended for hours pulling water off a flooded excavation. Oil change at 100 hours, impeller inspection whenever flow rate drops. The unit nobody knows is broken until the hole fills back up overnight.
What each one needs tracked
- Engine hours. The single most important number. Without it, every PM decision is a guess.
- Fuel + oil consumption. Rising fuel burn per hour is the first sign of injector or compression trouble. Rising oil top-off rate is the first sign of ring wear.
- Job assignment. Where is it now, when does it go back, who has it.
- PM interval status. Hours until next oil change, days until next inspection. A simple chip on the tool tile.
- Breakdown / failure history. Date, hours, what failed, what part went in. The audit trail that tells you whether a brand is worth re-buying.
Typical hours per job and PM baselines
Numbers vary wildly with duty cycle. These are starting points — adjust to your actual usage pattern after 90 days of data.
| Tool type | Typical hrs/job | Oil change | Major service |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portable generator | 8–40 | 100 hrs | 500 hrs |
| Engine-drive welder | 12–60 | 100 hrs | 500 hrs |
| Plate compactor | 4–24 | 50 hrs | 200 hrs (exciter) |
| Trash pump | 6–40 | 100 hrs | Impeller as needed |
The job-to-job problem
The plate compactor was on the curb pour Tuesday. It rolled with Mike to the parking lot job Wednesday. By Friday, Mike is on a different crew and nobody knows whether the compactor is in his truck, at the yard, or sitting against the foreman's trailer at the Wednesday job. The mechanic needs it Monday for an oil change. Half the morning is gone before it's found.
Two pieces of information solve this: who has it now, and when did the assignment change. The QR/NFC scan workflow captures both at the moment of handoff — Mike scans the tag when he takes it, the new owner scans when they take it from Mike, the trail is automatic.
The QR/NFC tag workflow for engine-powered tools
The label goes on the tool, not the case. The case will get lost. A polyester thermal-transfer label inside the gas-cap recess (generators) or under the lid (welders) survives diesel soot, hot oil splash, and a winter under a tarp. NFC is optional and nice — a phone tap is faster than a camera scan in low light — but a 1.25" QR is the workhorse.
The scan opens a deep-link to the tool record. Three taps log a new hours reading and a job assignment; one tap opens a damage report if something broke. Same flow whether the tool is a generator or a torque wrench. See the sibling write-up on QR tool checkout for construction shops for the day-1 setup.
PM scheduling when the duty cycle is bursty
Calendar PM doesn't work here. A generator that runs 3 hours one week and 40 hours the next can't be on a 90-day oil-change cycle — sometimes it's overdue by 100 hours, sometimes it's changed early enough to waste oil. Hour-based intervals are the only thing that fits. See hour-based PM beats calendar PM for the underlying math.
The implementation is the same as for yellow iron: set the threshold, log hours as part of the normal end-of-job workflow, the system raises an AUTO_PM flag when the meter crosses. The dashboard tile shows hours-to-next on every tool. The mechanic plans the week around what's coming due, not what the calendar said.
When a tool goes “missing”
It's rarely theft. Three patterns cover 90% of cases:
- Sitting at a closed-out job. Crew demobbed on Friday, the compactor got left behind a dumpster. The last assignment record points to the job, the foreman walks back Monday, found.
- In the truck of someone on PTO. Mike took it Wednesday, took Thursday off, the welder is in his locked F-250 in the back yard. The assignment record points to Mike, the foreman texts him, done.
- Loaned to a sub without a record. The framing sub borrowed the generator over the weekend, never told anyone. The audit log shows no return scan; the foreman calls the sub.
Each of those has a one-text resolution if the assignment record exists. Without it, the resolution is a morning of phone calls. The cost of a QR tag is $0.30; the cost of a morning of phone calls is $400.
How DirtFleet handles it
The tool module treats engine-powered tools as tools with meter and PM fields populated. Same QR/NFC scan endpoint, same hours-log shape as the rest of the fleet, same anomaly detector — a generator that suddenly burns 4 gallons in two hours triggers the same YELLOW flag as an excavator that does. The mechanic queue surfaces everything coming due in the next 50 hours regardless of asset class. PM, checkout, and breakdown reports all live in the same flow you already use for the F-550 service truck.
Included in the standard plan — no separate tool-tracking add-on, no per-tool fee.
→ Tool tracking module · → Tool tracking without bloat · → Start free trial