Digger

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!

Henrik Fredriksson, a keen plant and machinery enthusiast, from Sweden is 20 years old and has faced many challenges in his life.

Henrik was born with a handicap which affected his legs and as such he has been confined to a wheelchair for most of his life. They lived in the countryside and his father worked at the local sawmill where wheeled loaders and excavators were, and indeed still are, used exstensively. Like so many of us it was natural that Henrik would want to follow his father into the industry if at all possible and so after many operations and pain to gain some movement in his legs he went to a college to learn to operate machines.

Henrik at the controls of a Huddig 1060B backhoe loader.

Continue reading "Young Swede looks for excavator and loader work" »

Here is an interesting story from Tim MacEwan who lives in Central British Columbia in Canada.

While working as a salesman for Douglas Lake Equipment in 2002 Tim was asked by a customer if he could supply a New Holland EC215 machine for use in the forestry industry that was going to need some major modifications doing to it. "Not a problem" said Tim and he and his team set out to complete the work in time for delivery.

Continue reading "New Holland salesman buys back one of his machines" »

Here is a rare old machine spotted in Australia by one of our regular contributors Shaun Hall.

This machine is a Terex TS32 and is one of only four in Australia. The front engine was removed and fitted to another TS32 on the fleet. With a bit of tender loving care this machine could soon be up and running again pretty soon. It is in need of a front engine, front transmission, a bowl lift cylinder, a few minor items in the operators cab and it could be back to work in no time.

Continue reading "Old Terex TS32 at rest down under " »

Often described as "the greatest show on earth", the 29th international trade fair for construction machinery, Bauma 2010, will take place in Munich from 19th - 25th April.

Bauma features more than a half million square meters (5,382,131 sq ft) of exhibition space, making it by far the largest and certainly the most impressive exhibition ever. No other industry event features a wider range of products and services.

It is a show I have never been lucky enough to attend but would love to one day as there really is nothing that compares to this amazing event. Finnish plant and machinery journalist Olli Paivio has sent me some great photos from the last event Bauma 2007 to share with readers of the digger blog to give you a taste of what you can expect if you are fortunate enough to visit the show.

This Hitachi EX5500 excavator was one of the star attractions of the 2007 event

Continue reading "Bauma time is here again! " »

As the UK grinds to a halt on the work front we can see here how in Sweden for instance snow is not such a problem and everyday work carries on unabated.

Robban C from Sweden sent in some superb photos taken on one of his jobs last winter which involved taking down trees which were to be used for firewood

In this first photo Robban is using his Volvo EC35 mini excavator to make sure the tree falls in the right direction. This stunning photo shows the light of an early winters morning in Sweden.

Continue reading "Volvo mini digger takes down trees for firewood " »

Here is a heart warming story in today's troubled times about two of our boys whose lives have been saved by armoured equipment supplied to the MOD by UK Caterpillar dealer Finning.

Continue reading "Sapper gets blown up in a CAT and lives to tell the tale" »

Here at Digger we have been inundated with snow related stories this week. I thank you all for sending them in but here is one of the best!

Like many other excavator operators in the UK this week myself included, the guys at SJH Groundworks are out of work due to the snow. They just can't start new jobs because of the heavy ground frost and 8'' of the white stuff.

Continue reading "JCB's used to make large snowman!" »

Well we are currently in the grip of the big freeze here in the UK and it just got me thinking why don't we utilise more of our construction machines on this type of work anymore?

I can remember a time when you would often see JCB's out performing snow clearance here but for some reason they are not often used anymore.

Here is a great promotional video from Volvo which shows how a Volvo G900 motor grader could help in the current situation.

Stay safe and stay warm readers!

We have received these great photos of an old 22 ton Hymac 880 that has recently been brought back to this country by Hymac enthusiast and businessman Paul McGuigan who is restoring the machine to its former glory.

This machine was owned by Conny Kolsjo, who is a member of the highly successful Swedish machinery forum Maskinisten. It had been a long time wish of Pauls to own one of these machines, as his father had once owned and operated one and when this one became available Paul didn't hesitate in bringing her home. It is thought that this model is one of only two working models left.

Continue reading "Old Hymac 880 back in the UK" »

This series of photos comes to us courtesy of Gary Steen and shows the devastating results of a collision between a Mack "road train" truck and a Caterpillar 988H wheeled loader in Australia.

Not sure exactly what happened here but it's very easy to see who came off worse!

Continue reading "Cat Loader V Mack truck!" »