Ken Hatcher Takes on the #TakeuchiTime Challenge

The Takeuchi stand at Plantworx 2023 must have been one of the busiest of all exhibitors, whenever I was there it was always packed out, and in particular over at the Takeuchi Time challenge area.

Our good friend and industry legend Dave Vickers is the driving force behind the Takeuchi Time competition, and I believe, if memory serves me right, that he originally came up with the idea for a local event where he lives as a bit of fun for visitors.

This idea has now expanded to become a focal point on the Takeuchi stand at the large shows, and full credit must go to Dave and the team at Takeuchi for making it such a well-known competition.

Dave has certainly made it his own thing, and he is a totally natural presenter of the challenge. His enthusiasm for it is infectious as he walks around encouraging the competitors to do well, “red grey, red grey” he shouts, so much so that by the end of the last day his voice had nearly gone.

Anyway, on the middle day I took over our resident “Sprocket Man” Kenneth Hatcher, to have a shot at it, on this occasion using the new TB20e electric mini excavator. After a stuttering start and some colour confusion Ken picked up the pace to complete the challenge in just over a minute.

Checkout how Ken gets on in the video below.