Ben Miller puts Liebherr’s 914 Compact to the test

by Nick Drew | Tue 21 Jul 2015

Ben Miller puts Liebherr’s 914 Compact to the test

Well known plant man & contractor Ben Miller recently parked up his current mount the Cat 312D for a few days as he test drove Liebherr’s new compact baby the 914, in this blog Ben tells us about the experience.

Ben who is well known for his Steelwrist tiltrotator demonstrations takes up the story, “I was attending the Liebherr Demo Day at Reigart’s recycling yard when it suddenly dawned on me that I better have a demo of one of these new machines in the woods where I could see what it was made of. My local Liebherr salesman Derek Davis was extremely helpful and between him and Carl Longhorn, they organised the exact spec of machine that I was looking to try which I thought was spot on!”

With Ben in the market for an upgrade in the not too distant future it was great that he was able to try the machine out in his natural working environment and the fact that the machine came complete with the two-piece boom as he requested was a massive bonus.

Talking about the performance of the 14 tonne class compact radius machine Ben said, “I was totally blown away with just how smooth the hydraulics are on this machine and its overall power. However it’s like all these new machines these days, you need 10 minutes in the seat to realise that it doesn’t have to be revving its head off to get the required grunt”.

Ben continued, “The two-piece boom is awesome and it’s an extra that I can’t understand why there are not more users of in the UK, it offers a far wider work envelope than a conventional mono boom set up. I just loved the compact dimensions when I was in amongst the trees creating access tracks for a gamekeeper on an East Lothian estate. You just forget about the back end!”

Ben said that the blade was great, but it’s not an option he would consider for his forestry type of work, suggesting that it might just cause problems when working on soft ground and on brash. Ben was also impressed with the decent sized cab which for a compact radius machine was pretty substantial and well appointed.

Ben was also impressed with the access for working on the machine saying, “Given the fact that I do all my own servicing/maintenance, I think it looks easier to work on than a conventional machine. Gathering from his chat with us here on the Digger Man Blog I think it’s fair to say that Ben was more than impressed with the 14 tonne class, French built, German contender.

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