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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Wed 22 Apr 2020

Getting a Grip on Waste

Taking a look back at one of my articles previously published in Earthmovers Magazine earlier this year and bringing it to life on the internet with alternative photos and video.

There is no doubt about it, waste and what is done with it going forward is big business these days. The impact waste can have on the environment if not disposed of correctly is massive as we have all seen in recent years, especially with plastics ending up in our seas and ocean’s.

Getting a Grip on Waste

In the South West of England one company, Westcountry Skip Hire, is achieving some fantastic results by diverting 98.5% of all the waste they handle away from the ever-dwindling landfill sites locally and as such, are continuing to invest in the best machinery to keep up with demand for their services.

The story started when Al Barnard, one of the current Directors, was working for another company doing similar work, that business unfortunately went under, but an entrepreneurial Al saw an opening and managed to salvage a truck and a handful of waste skips for himself. At the time he didn’t have a yard of his own, but picked up work moving other people’s skips around for them trading as Specialist Skip Hire. Having established himself in the area, in the late 1990’s he started up a waste transfer yard and in 2004 the business became Westcountry Skip Hire eventually gaining a permit for waste transfer at the current site close to Saltash in Cornwall.

Dave Honey one of the other Directors told us more about the facility and what goes on there, “We are averaging around 45,000 tonnes of waste processing a year at this facility, so its important for us to get the right machinery for the job, having said that, we still find the best way to sort builders waste is manually, so we employ a team of around 10 recycling operatives within the yard to hand pick the worst out and then our machines come in”.

Taking centre stage at the compact but efficient waste centre is the new Liebherr LH24M which has just recently replaced an outgoing LH22M model which they had run for 2 years, talking about the Liebherr dedicated waste machines Dave said, “So yeah, we previously ran the 22 tonne model and we have now upgraded to the 24 tonne version, if I’m totally honest when we first decided to go down this material handler route I wasn’t overly keen on the idea to start with mainly due to the compact nature of our yard, but I have to put my hands up and say, that the machines have certainly helped us to up our game significantly and transformed what we do and how we do it, especially in terms of loading out our bulk trailers, the amazing reach, capacity and visibility into the trailers thanks to the hydraulically elevating cab has really been game changing!”.

The company has a significant fleet of trucks in varying sizes and is also about to branch out into supplying a wide range of “wheelie bins” including two- and four-wheel versions of various capacities. They also run additional machines which support the big Liebherr in the yard, these include an 8 tonne Caterpillar 308E and a 14 tonne Hitachi Zaxis 135US which is used on the inert waste, a Manitou telehandler is also present.

Pictured Above: Luke Harris Yard Manager.

Managing the yard these days is well-known and respected South West plant man Luke Harris, himself a former plant operator with many years’ experience before he went into sales working for the local CASE dealer M&M Plant Sales. Luke fancied a change and joined Westcountry Skip Hire a couple of years ago and was instrumental in bringing in the material handler to the yard, Luke said, “I have always been a fan of Liebherr, its good quality kit, that is well engineered and well thought out and that’s why we decided to go with them. I’m not going to lie, when we started looking to replace the LH22 we did have a close look at some other German brands, in particular Sennebogen and Fuchs, but the service we had received from Liebherr with the first machine was top drawer so we decided to stick with them”.

Pictured Above: Regular Operator Simon Hall.

Luke occasionally gets back in the seat on the Liebherr from time to time covering for holidays and illness, but the machines regular operator is another well known name in the South West plant community, Simon Hall. Simon was keen to tell me about his career in the plant game, “I’m in my 50’s now and have been on the machines since I was 15 years old, starting out like so many on a JCB 3C with Ken Moore, I quickly progressed onto a JCB 5C tracked machine doing land drainage contracting, this was followed by a couple of Liebherr’s, 911 and 912 models, then onto a new JCB 814 Super working on the Roadford Dam project with McAlpines, I worked for some other big names down here including Alex Sim Plant Hire on a variety of machines eventually ending up on a Cat 320, before moving on to Steve Ashcroft Demolition where my mount was a Doosan DX300, after that I went self-employed working for Aggregate Industries on a Liebherr 586 wheeled loader”.

Simon continued, “I joined up with Luke at Westcountry Skip Hire towards the end of 2018 on the LH22, this was my first time on a dedicated materials handler and although the geometry is completely different you soon get the hang of it. My initial thoughts were that I was surprised at how responsive and smooth it was”.

“We took delivery of the LH24M in December 2019 and I must say it’s a massive improvement over our old LH22, it’s got a lot more reach, a full 13 metres in fact including the grab, and impressive power too, but it still retains that quick response and smoothness of operation in an extremely well-balanced machine”.

“The cab has been greatly improved, by removing the steering wheel and opting for joystick steering and with the fitment of a full one piece windscreen, the forward vision has been vastly improved, this in turn makes the seating position much more comfortable, for instance you don’t have to lean forward to use a steering wheel or be peering through the wheel or around the steering column to see what you’re doing”.

“The LH24 stands a bit higher than the LH22, but you don’t really notice it once your mobile. Over all with the extra reach I’m able to load our artic lorries in one hit without having to move once I’ve set up, making the upgrade well worth doing and as our yard expands the new machine will be a great asset to our business”. 

Luke Harris gave me a walkaround pointing out some of the finer points on the LH24M. First up the access to the cab, is easily facilitated by the fitment of two 3 step options, one to the front of the frame and one to the side just in front of the wheel. Behind the cab elevating structure, a panel door opens to reveal a fully automatic greasing system and the air filter housing, there are also integrated steps should the need arise to work up on top of the machine.

Access to the engine housing is now via a large one-piece gull wing style lift up panel, this is home to an in-house built 4.5 litre Liebherr D924 engine which is Stage IV emissions compliant and offers a power output rating of 110kw (150hp) @1,800rpm. This side panel design ensures all daily checks can be performed from ground level so there is no need for any unsightly boxing ring assemblies on top of the structure, this is also home to a huge reversible cooling fan, an important element when working in dusty yard conditions.

The 0.75cu.m rotary selector grab is also an in-house built Liebherr design a big plus point as far as Luke is concerned as you don’t have to deal with an independent dealer if there happened to be a problem at any time, it’s all sorted by Liebherr, and of course like all of their kit, it’s a high quality attachment, well designed and well-built for enduring strength.

At this point I was invited to spend some time in the seat of the LH24M during a nice quiet Saturday morning in the yard. Now bearing in mind I had spent most of my operating life on house bashing sites, small civils and the odd road job, this was going to be something completely different, but I enjoy a challenge.

I was given a brief rundown of the controls which I won’t bore you with, and was let loose, my first task was relocating a pile of old mattresses into another section of the yard. Once I got used to the controls and which thumb did rotation and which one did the grabbing, I was away, albeit a lot slower than when Luke was throwing her around!

I echo Simon’s comments about the smoothness of the controls which are incredibly light to the touch, and which I found could catch you out if you slewed too fast and hesitated when stopping, which could prompt a bit of juddering of the upper-structure, but I think with practice that would not be an issue.

I was then asked to load the bulk trailer with waste ready for the Monday morning, for this task its essential to elevate the cab, which raises your work platform to nearly 6m. It really is the strangest feeling initially but with the 4 jacklegs down you are rest assured that machine is safe as houses. Fitted with 6.60m boom and a 4.50m stick the reach you can achieve from one spot is incredible.  Visibility all around is very good not only through the extensive cab glazing but also via the cameras which can be viewed on the monitor.

I was enjoying the experience so much I could have happily stayed in there all day, but for the lads in the yard I think the Saturday lunch time pub date was calling so I decided I best come down, get out and leave it to the professionals.

It was clear to see that this machine built in Liebherr’s French Colmar facility has made a big impact on Westcountry Skip Hires operation and with more expansion of the company’s waste operations predicted this year, its going to be kept extremely busy.   

Checkout our video taken on the day of the site visit. 

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