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Digger Man

Digger Man Blog

by Nick Drew  |  Thu 06 Jan 2022

More Adventures with the Partridge Family

In the current issue of Earthmovers Magazine, I reported on Fred Partridge and his conversion of a Caterpillar 963 tracked shovel into a high-powered mulcher, but there was a lot more to Fred’s business as I found out on the day and during another site visit more recently.

More Adventures with the Partridge Family

Fred’s North Devon based firm, F&S Tractors and Plant Hire is very much a family-based business and as you can imagine, situated in a very rural location their jobs are wide and varied which is always interesting, as the old saying goes, variety is the spice of life!

After spending the morning on site with the 963 Fred offered to take me on a tour to see some of his other jobs. The first stop off was at a nearby farm where Fred’s youngest son Robin (17) was digging out for a new farm building using a Hitachi Zaxis 130LCN which they had recently bought in cheap to fulfil the demand.

Also in support on this project was Fred’s Caterpillar D5M LGP that was cleaning and trimming up the excavation area. This machine was initially earmarked to be fitted out with the mulcher, but in the end, it was considered to be too light and also not powerful enough, and that’s why they brought in the 963.

On another project near Bideford, we saw Fred’s JCB 67 C-1 mini excavator, on this occasion operated by Fred’s eldest son Jake (21). On this job Jake was engaged in the groundworks and construction of a horse riding menage at a local property.

Over the festive break, I received a message from Fred to tell me about an interesting job he was working on in the famous North Devon coastal village of Clovelly, knowing the place well I could not resist jumping in the car and heading up to see what he was up to on the job.

Fred has a regular job at this location throwing back the pebble beach that often suffers during the ravages of the winter storms, with the waves crashing in from the Bristol Channel, and washing the stones out to sea.

These stones form a car parking area for visitors to the Red Lion Hotel, a popular venue with tourists during the summer months and even during winter time. Access to this beach is very restricted and tight down a steep tarmac lane, so Fred has to fit rubber pads onto his Hitachi Zaxis 135US when he goes to do this work, and its quite a job for a 13-tonne class machine, but Fred gets the job done every time.

It was a spectacular setting for a photo shoot and I’d like to thank Fred for inviting me out on the day.

Checkout my video from the day of our visit to Clovelly.

 

 

 


 

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