Family Values

A lookback at another of my articles previously published in Earthmovers and brought to life on the internet with alternative photos and video footage.

Located in Crediton in Devon, family based civil engineering and plant hire business, R.J. Brooks & Son was established in 1994 by current Managing Director Robert Brooks and his wife Anne and will be celebrating 30 years in business next year.

With Robert focusing more of his time these days on pricing work and Anne running the day-to-day secretarial work in the office. Robert and Anne’s son Simon Brooks (41), who is also a director, spends most of his days running the jobs out on site from the seat of the cab, and is also largely responsible for all the plant.  

In the early days of the business machines were hired in as an when needed, but as the business and workload grew, in 1999 they decided to invest in their very first owned machine which was a 6-tonne class Hitachi EX60-2 which was a phenomenal machine for them and gave exceptional service throughout its time with them.

Photo Credit: RJ Brooks Facebook page.

The EX 60-2 was traded in for a larger 13.5-tonne Fiat-Hitachi EX135 in 2003, and in 2005 they started to look at other brands as they looked to add more machines to the portfolio. First to be added, and a change of colour somewhat surprisingly, was a German built, Schaeff derived Terex HR18 which was essentially a 6-tonne class machine.

It’s probably fair comment to say that the firm have not remained dedicated to any one brand or another, instead they have tried out many different manufacturers over the years, having said that Volvo seem to have been a preferred brand during that time, having invested in their first model, a Volvo ECR58 in 2006.

That machine was later traded in for a Terex 970, the large 4CX style machine in the range that they ran for 18 months before trading it in for a JCB 3CX Contractor Pro model which was supplied by Holt JCB in Exeter.

Photo Credit: RJ Brooks Facebook page.

Simon is clearly a man who is passionate about the plant and machinery, and he gave us a bit of background on how he got started with the machines, “Basically from a young age, I would say around 9 years old, I have been driving diggers, in the time old manner sat on various operators laps, watching, learning, taking it all in and picking up a few tips along the way, and from then on, every birthday I had, dad used to hire in a mini digger in at our old yard purely for me to have a play on and practice the skills, just great days and the best way to learn!”.

Simon has always been one to lookout for new machines and attachments that will benefit the business, and in 2010 he and his father decided to return to the Volvo brand, with the purchase of a 1.8-tonne EC18C mini excavator, which served them well for a 7-year stretch, before chopping it in for another identical model, which is still on the fleet to this day after 8 years in service.

Photo Credit: RJ Brooks Facebook page.

“On the compact machine side of things we have developed a great working relationship with PES (Plant & Engineering Services) who are our local Volvo compact equipment dealer, and those EC18’s are just cracking machines, can’t fault them in any way” said Simon.

Other machines of note that have been on the fleet over the years include a Kubota U36-4 mini excavator and a Volvo EW60E compact wheeled rubber duck which was also fitted with a Steelwrist X06 tiltrotator. The duck has since been sold but the tiltrotator was taken off to be fitted to another machine but more on that later.

Photo Credit: RJ Brooks Facebook page.

Some 18 months ago Simon was looking for some larger machines again, and approached the local Doosan dealer Kellands Plant Sales Ltd, through area Sales Manager Richard Davis, with whom they have had a long-standing good relationship with. Richard supplied them with some good quality used machines, namely a 6-tonne class DX63R and 14-tonne DX140LCR.

As previously mentioned Simon had saved the tiltrotator from the departed Volvo duck which he was going to fit onto the DX63R, but after careful consideration he didn’t think it was worthwhile as the machine was a few years old and did have some wear on the kingpost so he held back.

Both second hand Doosan’s have recently been replaced by a significant investment in two brand new models namely the latest generation DX55R midi excavator and a DX140LCR-7 complete with dozer blade and Earthmovers caught up with both of them on a site in Ashburton, on the edge of Dartmoor in South Devon, where they are engaged in installing a new access road route, including bulk excavation, drainage works, forming hedge banks, ditch forming and finishing works, so a good variety of work ongoing on the site. 

Mitchell Speakman (21) has been rewarded with the new DX55R having previously been running the DX63R, and has been brought on by Simon to become a very good all round plant operator. Simon said “Mitch” is a young chap and I cannot speak highly enough of him, he really is a keen and enthusiastic lad, who has been with us just over 4 years now”.

Its been something of a baptism of fire for Mitch with the new machine, as it has had the Steelwrist X06 tiltrotator fitted to it, so he’s having to learn all about that now too, as its his first time running a “tilty”, on the day of our visit Simon reckoned he had only had about 10 hours on the machine in total, so its still very early days, but in a familiar tale, he is learning new tricks with the tilty everyday that passes, and we witnessed him not only finishing off some soil, but also using the gripper to full effect pulling out fence posts on the job.

Talking about the DX140LCR-7 Simon said, “Its very early days but we are very impressed with it, we have also opted for the Hi-Viz boxing ring, fall from height protection set up, mainly because a lot of our clients are asking for it to comply with health & safety regulations, so we want to be on the top of the game and look right, which is better for everyone”.

Simon continued, “We have known Richard at Kellands for a very long time, at various other dealers previously and get on well. Originally all we were looking to buy was the DX55R, so we whipped up to their yard in Bridgwater a week before Christmas to take a look at a DX50, but because we found the DX63R so good we decided to go with the slightly larger and heavier model this time around.

I did price up an equivalent Volvo because, as you know, we do love our Volvo’s but they were significantly more money, and obviously I was going to have to pay someone to install the Steelwrist on it, so by going with the Doosan, it gave me the money in the pot to do that, and still have some change so a no brainer really.

At the end of the day this Doosan ticks all the boxes, it’s got everything we need on it and more, when you jump in it, it’s got great visibility, and a nice big glass door, which folds back in towards the machine for protection, it’s got all the latest touch screen monitor, and nicely located lever for the blade, and in terms of residual values I’ve got no issues at all with them. Richard has looked after us well and has delivered all his promises, so you can’t be fairer than that at the end of the day.

Anyway, while we were up at the yard we saw the DX140LCR-7, and Richard joked, ‘While the lorries coming shall we chuck this 140 on it too’ well I chewed it over for a while and I thought, well you know what, I drive the 140’s all the time so why not treat myself. As it happened they had one with a dozer blade in stock, which had long been on my wish list, so I decided to bite the bullet and go for both of them!”.

Asked for his overall thoughts on the new Doosan Dash-7 models Simon said, “When you look back at the DX63, it was a great machine, but it was starting to looked very dated in design externally and in terms of features in the cab, in comparison, when you jump in this new stuff now you think wow, this is proper next gen level stuff, right up there with the best of them in my opinion”.  

With a wide range of work always coming in from both the commercial and private sectors the team at R. J. Brook & Sons are always kept busy and its quite clear that customers enjoy the family feel of the long established business.

That looks set to continue with a 3^rd generation member of the family showing great interest in the diggers, with Simon’s 8-year-old daughter Mia already getting very hands on with the machines, even cleaning out the cabs and moving them around the yard, a real case of keeping it in the family.

Photo Credit: RJ Brooks Facebook page.

Checkout our video from the site visit.