When talking about heavy equipment, whether it be a skid steer or an excavator, most people correlate those machines with digging or moving earth. Most do not understand that a skid steer, backhoe, or excavator can be used to install helical piles. As a new engineer with Hubbell, I was one of those people when I first started. Four months later, I was installing flag foundations for the local cemetery, installing reactions for tests, and removing piles that had been used in previous tests or demonstrations.
A little bit of background information, I have been working full time for Hubbell since January of 2026. That said, I had a high school internship with Hubbell back in 2014, a co-op with Hubbell in 2018, and worked part-time co-op between classes for Hubbell in 2019. As a citizen of Centralia for most of my life, I knew a thing or two regarding Hubbell and their helical anchors.
Hooking up tooling as a Chance Co-op in 2018
After my part-time/co-op experience with Hubbell in 2019, I took a different route and wanted to get into learning how to operate heavy equipment. I worked part-time through the school year, and full-time through the summer, with an excavation company that would install utilities and complete large scale mass grading. I started off in the bottom of a trench installing water, sewer, or wastewater pipe. After roughly a year of laboring, the company trained me on how to operate a skid steer. Finally, I got to do what I was aiming to learn, operating equipment. I jumped on every opportunity that arose. I got to operate all kinds of equipment such as compactors, excavators, dozers, high lifts, tractors with pans, and heavy haul trucks. At that time, I associated all of these with moving earth.
After graduating from college, my interests changed which led me away from operating equipment, allowing me to focus on engineering. During January of 2026 I accepted an offer from Hubbell as a full-time application engineer. I was told I would get to operate equipment to install helical piles.
My first time operating Hubbell’s mini excavator was a learning experience to say the least. When I climbed into the machine, the basic controls felt familiar: movement of tracks, raising and lowering of the boom, extension and retraction of the boom, and the extension and retraction of the arm. There was only one difference: instead of a bucket, there was a hydraulic drive head at the end of the arm. Then one difference turned into multiple differences. When operating with a bucket, you use your right joystick by rotating it to the right or left. When operating with a hydraulic drive head, you control it with your left joystick, and by left joystick I mean the switch on the left joystick. Depending on whether you are installing or uninstalling, you move the switch to the right or left causing the drive head to spin counterclockwise or clockwise.
When installing or uninstalling, you not only need to spin the drive head in the appropriate direction but also continuously adjust the boom and arm to maintain alignment between the machine and the pile as it advances into or is removed from the ground. Proper alignment ensures torque is transferred efficiently without binding and minimizes unnecessary bending and side loading on the pile and equipment. Whether installing or removing a pile, maintaining that alignment is important to ensure the pile performs as intended, minimize disturbance to the surrounding soil, and avoid introducing unnecessary stresses into either the pile or the machine.
My first experience with axial pile alignment was amusing. We were uninstalling piles to use for reactions in testing we had planned to complete in the near future. I had found that the odds of getting the hydraulic head to spin in the correct direction were like plugging in a USB, you have a 50/50 shot of getting it right on the first try then a 100% chance of getting it wrong on the second try. Perhaps that was the nerves of operating that equipment for the first time, coworkers watching and directing me from the angle of the pile that I could not see, or I was full, and tired, from lunch. I quickly discovered that my weakness was not being able to pull the arm and boom up and back at the appropriate speed while backing the pile out of the ground. I kept applying pressure to the left joystick. This happened so often that a coworker giving me directions asked if he needed to stand by me to keep me from doing it. We all got a chuckle out of that question. From then on, I was very cognizant of my left hand and whether it was applying unnecessary pressure to the joystick.
Additionally, when uninstalling or installing, tension can build up in the pile, drive tool, and excavator boom. This tension can cause the excavator to rock forward or backward depending on whether you are behind or in front of it. When getting to the coupling it is necessary to reduce that tension prior to someone removing the bolt because it simply would not come apart, but more importantly the safety of the person removing the bolt. To reduce the tension, the operator must rotate the pile slightly in the opposite direction from which the drive head was being applied. Moving the arm and boom up may be needed as well.
We removed all the helical piles we needed, each consisting of a lead section and multiple extensions. I learned several important lessons from those few hours we spent removing the piles. First and foremost, operators who have done this before, or even have done it in the past, make it look significantly easier than it is. Installing, or uninstalling, helical piles takes a lot of multitasking and thinking both by the operator and ground crew. Installing helical piles is a skill that takes time and experience to master. As a new installer, I still have plenty to learn, but I look forward to gaining more experience whenever I can.
For more than 100 years, Chance has helped train the helical pile industry through research, field experience, and installer education. It would be difficult to learn about helical piles without benefiting from the resources Chance has provided along the way. If you are interested in becoming a Chance Certified Installer, our training program is designed to help installers build the knowledge and confidence needed in the field. Learn more and fill out the form to get started.