Changing Times, & Upgrades

It had been two years since we last visited Simon Brooks of, Crediton, Devon, based civil engineering and contracting business R.J. Brooks & Son, and since our last visit, there have been some changes to the business structure and replacement equipment added to the fleet, we travelled to a long-term infrastructure project they have been working on near Ashburton to catch up with Simon and to find out the latest news.

R.J. Brooks & Son Ltd was originally established back in 1994 by Simon’s father Robert Brooks and his wife Anne and they celebrated 30 years in business last year. Having reached such a significant milestone both Robert and his wife have decided to step away from the business and enjoy their retirement, which now sees Simon takeover full control of the business going forward.

In a familiar scenario, behind every successful man is an even more successful woman, and in Simon’s case that is his wife Michelle who has now stepped up to a full time position in the office, doing all the essential stuff like manning the phones and dealing with all the clerical side of things, that keep these type of businesses rolling along, “Its great to have Michelle’s full support behind me as we move forward with the business which is all good” said Simon.

The workload continues to be busy for the small but highly efficient team, with work continuing on the site we were visiting. They have also been of working on a small site in Yeoford, Devon, where they undertook all the groundworks for six houses including the roads and drainage, in addition to some other bits and pieces for local authorities, as and when the jobs came along. In the meantime, work continues on this same infrastructure project that we visited two years ago on what is a massive site.

On our last visit Simon had taken delivery of two new Doosan (now Develon) machines, namely the 14/15-tonne class DX140LCR-7 and the 6-tonne class DX55R-7 reduced radius mini excavator. Simon reports that the DX140LCR-7 has racked up around 1600 hours on the meter and has performed really well with great support from local dealer Kellands Plant Sales.

However there has been a significant change on the smaller machine front, the relatively low houred DX55R-7 which was fitted with a Steelwrist tiltrotator has been traded-in for a new Kubota KX060-5 fitted with an Engcon tiltrotator.

Simon explained his reasoning behind this move, “The main thing for us was overall support and a complete package, now Steelwrist have been great all the way through as have Kellands, but we found we are having to deal with two companies to cover the individual machine elements. What we have been looking for is one key supplier that will provide sales, service and back-up for both items and with CCE (Chepstow Construction Equipment) we believe we have found the perfect solution”.

Chepstow Construction Equipment who are headquartered in Monmouthshire, but with a depot in Tiverton covering the Devon and Somerset areas, are the main Kubota dealers, but in addition are also the authorised Engcon dealers, so can install the tiltrotator in-house and provide that much needed service back-up for both products, as a one-stop shop solution.

Simon said, “The whole process has been top drawer from start to finish, Jamie who installed the tiltrotator, was very helpful and kept me in the loop all the way through the installation procedure, he was very precise, sending me photos and asking me how we wanted the pipework routing which was great, the unit is all EC-Oil too which was new for us, but we feel we now have great peace of mind in the fact that if anything goes wrong, its just one phone call to be made”.

The new KX060-5 will be operated by Mitchell Speakman (22) who was previously operating the Doosan. He had just returned from a six-month period of travelling to Thailand and Australia with his girlfriend, where he had hoped to find an opportunity to get some casual work on big machinery, especially in Australia, but that proved to be rather difficult due to regional regulations, but an amazing life experience nonetheless.

As one can imagine Mitch was delighted to return to another brand-new machine to operate and on the day of our visit, he was still getting used to how it and the Engcon functioned, having previously been used to running the Doosan and Steelwrist combo.

Simon himself was engaged on a large topsoil strip, for which he was getting some much-needed help courtesy of an old but very capable Volvo EC460, and an equally venerable Cat D6 which was trimming up, with both machines being operated by long term local operator Steve Miles.

Mitch on the new Kubota was engaged on some drainage work, and with a significant bit of V-ditching work to be done in the future, the machine has been supplied with a full range of digging buckets and an additional V-bucket, all of which can be carried around in the multi-functional blade runner style bucket that can be mounted on the dozer blade, “We had seen this bucket system around and thought it would be a great idea for the new machine, we can be working long distances across fields on this job, and this enables Mitch to carry all his buckets and attachments easily and most importantly, safely, it’s a very useful all-round piece of kit too!”.

The Kubota KX060-5 has been around for a few years now, first being launched in 2020, as part of the new Dash-5 mid-range line up which also featured the U50-5 and U56-5 models, and was reviewed in the October 2020 edition of Earthmovers.

These Japanese designed and German built six-tonne class machines are in many ways the new 8-tonners on sites, especially on the increasingly tight and congested housing developments. Very capable diggers, with much more versatility around the jobsite.

Power comes from an EU Stage 5 emissions compliant Kubota engine, which uses a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) to meet those emissions requirements. As we have come to expect, access to all major servicing points is well thought out and falls easily to hand. This unit produces a power output rating of 35kw @2200rpm.

At the business end the machine is fitted with Encgon’s latest EC206 tiltrotator on S45 top and bottom fully automatic quick hitches with EC-Oil which enables automatic changing of hydraulic attachments without leaving the cab, and integrated gripper is also fitted and, in addition, they have invested in an Engcon SG06 hydraulic sorting grab, all of which makes this machine very well specced and an operators dream!

Talking about his fantastic new mount Mitch said, “Well compared to my previous machine, this one feels a lot more refined, and I’d say a lot smoother on the controls, as for the cab, although it’s a similar sized machine, in this one it just feels a lot more spacious inside, and better on the visibility side of things too.

On the tiltrotator side of things, once again, I feel that compared to our previous brand, the Engcon feels a lot smoother and precise, at this moment in time I have not tried any of the attachments so far, but we have the selector grab which I can use with the EC-Oil so I’m really looking forward to spending time using that, it really is a ‘Full Monty’ piece of kit this one”.

Asked about his plans for the business going forward Simon said, “We are keeping busy enough right now and we have all the kit we need for the moment at least, maybe another dumper in due course, but for now, its funny old times in the world, and we plan to keep our heads down, and keep working, we have plenty to go on with for the foreseeable future which is good”. 

With the family business now moving into its next era Simon and Michelle’s 10-year-old daughter Mia is also waiting in the wings to carry on the Brooks family legacy.