JOB RELATED

In the spring of 2009, Bill Hodge bought out an electrician who was going out of business. An old Ditch Witch^® C99 trencher was thrown in as a bonus. At the time, though, it wasn't perceived as a bonus.

"[The C99] was not part of the original deal," recalls Hodge, owner of Bill Hodge Electric of Washington, New Jersey. "But [the electrician whose business I bought] remembered that it was out in the shed and told me I could have it. To my dismay, the C99 was not in the shed but out in the weather and overgrown with weeds, sitting there with two flat tires and a tank of stale gas.

"Being a fanatic about taking care of equipment, I almost didn't have interest in this old dog at first."

But on his next trip to visit the site, Hodge brought a trailer and hauled the C99 back to his shop. He wasn't optimistic about seeing the machine ever work again, but the self-described "fanatic" of equipment care couldn't resist the challenge.

Hodge spent hours cleaning up the old C99. He discarded the old fuel and replaced it with new, repaired the tires, replaced some missing bolts, cleaned the carburetor and adjusted the points. Then he fired it up.

"The C99 came to life," says Hodge. "To date, we have used it for two trench jobs totaling about 160 feet. This is a keeper."

Manufactured from 1957 to 1992, Ditch Witch C-series trenchers were the models that built the company's reputation for rugged and reliable compact trenchers. C-series trenchers went through several iterations over the years, and became the Ditch Witch organization's longest-running trencher model.