Digger

After being made redundant from Wimpeys around 1982-83 I became a bit like a fish out of water for a while as I had like so many people become stuck in a rut with what I thought was the security of a big company.

But I set off in earnest to find a new job which I found the very next day for a company called Alan Hunt Equipment who operated out of a portacabin in the Northam docks area of Southampton, I knew very little about this firm but they offered me a start on an O&K RH4 excavator rather ironically on a Wimpey site in Christchurch.

The machine was similar to the one in this old scan of an O&K sales brochure .

Continue reading "Nick Drew my life in plant part three " »

At a prestigious press event last week Caterpillar launched its latest upgrade to the E-series backhoe loader range with the introduction of the E2 models, the Digger blog was lucky enough to be invited along to take a look and get up close and personal with these new machines.

The first new model to be presented to us was the 428E which was impressively displayed in front of the new Caterpillar stand at Leicester Tigers rugby ground of whom Caterpillar are major sponsors after signing up a 5 year deal with the highly successful club.

Continue reading "Caterpillar launch new E2 series backhoe loaders" »

Following our post last month on the British army sappers who escaped death in an armoured Cat backhoe loader we have been inundated with requests for more military posts.

So here is an excellent video presentation from JCB which showcases it's revolutionary HMEE (High Mobility Engineer Excavator) which is used by the US military in action.

The JCB HMEE is the world's fastest backhoe loader, traveling at speeds up to 60 mph
on both paved road and cross country surfaces, comes complete with full suspension and ABS braking technology, sophisticated computer diagnostics, run-flat tires,
roll-over protection and a two-man, air-conditioned cab.

The HMEE provides strategicengineering capabilities increasing: mobility - opening up roads, counter-mobility -creating obstacles for the enemy, and, survivability - providing water and supplies, building burms, and laying electrical lines.

Continue reading "JCB HMEE in action " »

This year Caterpillar are going to be celebrating 25 years of producing backhoes at its Leicester factory. There are various exciting events planned and Digger blog will be going along to record the action for you.

As a preview to this event here are some Caterpillar Backhoe loaders from my photo collection.

I spotted this early well looked after Caterpillar 428 whilst on holiday in Fuerteventura in December 2003 and have seen it working on numerous holidays on the island ever since, I believe it is owned and operated by the local authorities.

Continue reading "Caterpillar to celebrate 25 yrs of backhoe loaders" »

These ever popular "bogged in" photos have been sent into us by Tom Jones.

The first picture shows a 105 ton O&K RH40 excavator in a spot of bother on a washed shale tip.

Continue reading "I think I'm bogged in (excavators in trouble)" »

In the last quarter, Hewden has invested in excess of £1.5 million to increase the size and availability of its plant equipment portfolio. This new investment reflects the significant increase in demand for Hewden's products and services, as the company now boasts one of the most reliable fleets in the industry.

Included in the new fleet are seven 14m TH414 telehandlers, six 8-tonne compact 308 excavators and four 22-tonne 320 excavators, all from Caterpillar.

In addition, Hewden has invested in 10 x 9-tonne dumpers from Thwaites, 20 x 500-gallon fuel bowsers from Western Environmental and nine 17m JCB telehandlers.

Continue reading "Hewden invests in new products for hire" »

Regular reader of the Digger blog Tom Jones sent in these shocking photos of a new 40 ton ADT that came to an unfortunate end after the driver managed to flip the cab whilst tipping back down a slope which sometimes happens if the driver is inexperienced as the front axle lifts off the ground leaving it free to rotate.

Continue reading "40 ton ADT gets toasted !" »

Relatively unheard of in the UK Madill forestry equipment was a company that went bankrupt in 2008 after sadly getting caught up in the recession.

The company started in 1911 specialized in log loaders, feller bunchers and cable hi lead yarders, at its peak it employed 190 people and produced 15 units per month.

Due to the struggling coastal forest industry they were eventually down to 2 units per month.

Continue reading "Rare Madill forestry equipment" »

I guess many of us in the plant industry have met owner operators who run their own excavators and backhoe loaders but one piece of kit that you don't find that many owner operators running are ADT's.

One such operator is Jamie O' Hanlon who is based in the Midlands and I was delighted when he recently made contact with us here at the Digger blog.

Continue reading "Jamie O' Hanlon and his Volvo A25D" »

Scottish Coal has just signed a record breaking deal with UK Caterpillar dealer Finning by adding 10 new Cat 785D trucks to their fleet modernisation program.

The CAT 785D off highway truck deal for 10 units and a 7 year/ 36,000 hour equipment support package represents a total deal value of £23 million. This deal takes Scottish Coal's investment with Finning on new equipment alone to over £45 million for over 125 pieces of Caterpillar mining equipment since the beginning of 2008.

With the first of the 10 CAT 785D off highway trucks set to be delivered by Finning to the Broken Cross Surface Mine in Ayrshire, Scottish Coal will be the first company in the UK to operate the new D-Series version of the very successful Cat off-highway truck. With a major increase in their current hauling capacity to 136 tonnes per load, Scottish Coal will be able to make significant efficiency gains throughout its operations and thanks to a 7 year support deal with Finning they will be confident of running the equipment for the next 36,000 hours to deliver their required production output.

Commenting on the deal with Finning, Andrew Foster, Scottish Coal Managing Director said: "With the introduction of the new CAT 785D's, we are now well on the way to completing what is probably the most comprehensive fleet renewal programme the mining industry in the UK has ever seen."

Last week saw the crowds turning out in droves to the Doe Show held at the company's headquarters in Ulting in Essex and which was this year celebrating its 50th anniversary as an annual dealer event. According to our inside man the first two days of the show attracted a record number of visitors and hopes were high that the all time record of 12,000 guests would be beaten this year.

Managing director of Ernest Doe, Mr Colin Doe had said that they wanted to make this years event a really special one so as to mark this 50 year milestone in the company's history and they certainly did not disappoint.

This restored Fordson Classic tractor was on display at the showground entrance.

Continue reading "Ernest Doe Show.. 50 not out " »

Mike Murphy of Plant & Engineering Services Limited from Beare in Devon have recently sold a good quality used Krupp hydraulic hammer to Mark Richards Plant Hire to run on his Volvo ECR48C mini excavator.

Mike told us here at Digger that the machine was breaking and excavating in a very tight spot high on a cliff in Fowey in Cornwall against a backdrop of stunning scenery and invited us to take a look.

Continue reading "Volvo ECR48C takes on a challenging job" »

This video has been highlighted to us by Chris Beckingsale who works for Ammann UK and shows one of the latest remote control offerings from Italian compact equipment manufacturer Cormidi.

The C13.80 model seen in the video being demonstrated at the factory in Italy has a capacity of 800KG and new 80 models are now powered by the very latest Yanmar 10 HPLN100 electric start diesel engine with axial fan cooled cover.

These Italian built machines feature high tip and self loading with its own hydraulic tipping bucket as standard, 850 mm maximum width, very low ground pressure for minimum ground damage, excellent gradability and cross- carriage stability,excellent tipping height of 1350 mm and can easily tip over 1200 mm high sides of standard 8 cu.yd waste skips.

These small but powerful machines also feature a fully hydrostatic transmission with maximum speed of .6 Kms/h.

We hope to do a field trial and full report on one of these amazing little dumpers over the coming months.

We have seen a massive rise in readers from Finland following the publication of Olli Paivio's excellent article on the Digger blog in the latest edition of Finnish magazine Koneporssi.

One such reader is Hannu Rinne-Laturi who works for the family business Rinne-Laturi, a company which was established in 1962 and has a very good reputation in and around the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

Hannu has sent in some impressive photos of a major job the company were involved in during 2007-2008 in which their Hitachi excavators were involved.

Continue reading "Hitachi excavators tackle underground job" »

Big dozer fan Bob Rocker from Florida has highlighted this video of a shiny new Caterpillar D9 which had got bogged in and was needing the assistance of a D8 to get out of a sticky situation in a gold mine in Selenge province Mongolia.

The boss man wearing a cowboy hat gets suitably upset and soon yanks the D9 out of that boggy hole!

Not sure if I would of had a lot of faith in those old looking wire ropes though!