Plant is the name of the game for ABBA

by Nick Drew | Thu 10 Aug 2017

Plant is the name of the game for ABBA

Taking a look back at one of my articles which first appeared in Earthmovers Magazine and bringing it to life on the internet.

One normally associates the name ABBA with the Swedish pop group from Stockholm who rose to superstardom after winning the Eurovision song contest in 1974. It’s unclear whether the founder of ABBA Plant Hire was a fan, but having met the man in person, I suspect it was more of a clever marketing strategy, which would ensure the company would be listed at the front of the phone book alphabetically, a stroke of genius that would always ensure the best exposure for the business for many years to come. The man behind this hugely successful multi-faceted Lincolnshire based business is John Martin Hoyes. John is one of those inspiring self-made men who having left school at the age of 14 started his working life as an apprentice joiner working for a local company called Burnett’s of Reepham; this was followed by a 12 year period working for another local contractor in the area. Having spotted the potential to make some serious money John decided to form his own company and on 13^th February 1978, John Martin Hoyes founded himself as a sole trader and became incorporated in 1986, as John Martin Hoyes Ltd Building and Civil Engineering Contractor.

Today John runs an additional 5 companies, including JMH Directional Drilling, ABBA Plant Hire Ltd, APH Cranes & Access Hire, Truck Link tractor unit hire and JMH Environmental Construction Ltd.

John’s first ever machine purchase was a used JCB 3CX, which he bought from Mike Ingamells of Navenby Lincolnshire. It was this first JCB that was to be the catalyst for a long standing association with the famous British brand through his main dealer, TC Harrison JCB, which has seen John purchasing new JCB’s for over 30 years, with machines ranging from 0.8 tonne micro excavators to 45 tonne class JS460’s, backhoe loaders including 2CX and 3CX models, loading shovels, dumptrucks, telescopic handlers, Fastracs, skid steers, in fact virtually anything that JCB has ever made can be found in ABBA’s heavily JCB dominated yard. The company run an extensive fleet, consisting in excess of 600 items, with over 350 of them coming from the JCB stable, along with machines from a number of other major manufacturers too, including Bomag, Thwaites and Volvo. In a similar scenario, the company’s crane fleet is dominated by one brand, that of German manufacturer Liebherr, with telescopic cranes ranging in size from 35 tonne to the flagship of the fleet, which is a 200 tonne capacity model.

John and his businesses are well known in the Lincoln area and he is a regular exhibitor at the Lincolnshire County Show, where the company’s stand has won many awards over the years. This year’s show will be held on the 22^nd-23^rd June and the company is planning a special treat for visitors. John has recently invested in one of the 70 special retro styled JCB 3CX’s that have been produced to celebrate JCB’s 70^th anniversary. The machine, which features the iconic yellow, red and white paintwork, last seen on the 3CIII models, is designated number 10 of the limited edition batch and will be the focal point of the JCB dancing digger display team demonstration at the Lincolnshire showground in June, where it will make its first public appearance. The machine is likely to be preserved in the future and used for official occasions such as sod cutting ceremonies and the like. A loyal, dedicated and longstanding JCB customer, John was presented with the keys to the 70^th anniversary machine by Sir Anthony Bamford himself when he visited JCB’s World Headquarters in Staffordshire earlier this year with his daughter Tracy Bourne. During Earthmovers visit to TC Harrison JCB, we were shown around the 70^th anniversary machine, which was displayed flanked by a trio of new Loadall’s, which were set to join the ABBA Plant Hire fleet, but my host’s for the day, Rob Wilson Managing Director of TCH and Karl Charlton Used Equipment Manager, were keen to show me another new and not so mainline product that ABBA Plant Hire were taking delivery of, so with that in mind we headed off to a local quarry to see the machine in action on its first day at work.

The machine in question is a specially converted LGP version of JCB’s JS145LC hydraulic excavators, which had gone to work at Breedon Aggregates, Norton Bottoms Quarry, which is situated at Norton Disney in Lincoln, where it is expected to serve a vast majority of its working life maintaining existing lagoons and the excavation and shaping of new ones in the quarry.

The “Bogmaster” JS145LC is a genuine JCB factory fit option, which can also be offered on the 16 tonne class JS160 model. This JS145LC was also fitted with an impressive looking dipper arm extension, which can also be removed quickly to enable the machine to be used in its original geometry. With the extension dipper in place, reach at ground level is 9.5 metres from slew centre to end of dipper and slightly more with the bucket in place. Dedicated long reach work equipment can also be supplied from the factory if requested, but this version was considered to offer ABBA and its customers more flexibility in the long term. Tipping the scales at 17,085kgs, some 2,824kgs heavier than a standard JS145LC, this machine has a footprint of 4.2 metres and running on 1500mm wide centrally mounted track pads the machine offers a ground bearing pressure of just 0.167kg/cm². Other alterations to this machine include raising the slew ring height by 75mm and the addition of extended steps and hand rails to facilitate access and egress to the cab and upper-structure.

The machine also features a fall from height boxing ring set up from Cab Care, who have also supplied a set of vandal screens complete with rooftop holding basket and perhaps unusually for this day and age no rear view camera is fitted, instead we see a return to the “fish eye” rear view mirror arrangement. Twin orange flashing beacons are roof mounted as is the green operator’s seat belt warning light a minimum requirement in most quarrying operations these days.

The actual base machine features the standard JS145 model taking its power from JCB’s fuel efficient Stage 3B/Tier 4i emissions compliant Eco Max engine, with a power output rating of 81kw, which just purrs away while sipping diesel and is relatively quiet too. At the heart of the hydraulic system are well proven Japanese Kawasaki pumps and Kayaba hand control valves for smoothness of operation. The machines running gear comes from another well-known brand, Berco. On the day of our visit it was the operators first day on this machine, dealing with such a unique machine might have been daunting for some, but it was no problem for such an experienced hand on the excavators. I never tried the machine out personally, but I could imagine the operation of the secondary dipper would take a bit of getting used too. It was explained to me that it works off the hammer circuit using one of the buttons on the left hand lever, which I would suspect would get the old “grey matter” going for a bit until you became used to the operation, for me it would be far more logical to have it working off a button on the right hand lever, which in normal function operates the bucket in an excavators standard configuration, but I am sure that could be easily rectified in the future.

This machine faces a challenging time ahead of it when it actually starts working on the lagoons in anger and it will be interesting to see how it fares in the expected soft ground conditions which it has been brought in to deal with. General consensus is that it’s been designed for that very purpose and going by first impressions it’s an impressive bit of kit and certainly looks up for the task ahead of it, let’s hope it doesn’t meet its “Waterloo”!

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