by Nick Drew | Tue 21 May 2013
More Of Digger Mans Plantworx highlights (Part One)
With Plantworx now a fading but very memorable memory, I present some more highlights from the blog photo collection. There was so much to see and so many photos were taken, sadly I cannot bring them all to the pages of the blog, but in the next couple of posts I will bring a good selection of them.
Komatsu’s main attraction, was its much talked about HB215 Hybrid excavator, but another model that really caught my eye was the excellent PC138-10 model, which was equipped with a rare in the UK, Indexator RT40B tiltorotator. I thought this was a really smart looking piece of kit, and with this combination, a real game changer on today’s tight and congested sites. Tiltrotators of all makes, were in abundance all around the showground, clearly showing a growing acceptance of these awesome work tools in the UK.
Over at the site clearance zone, Worsley Plant were demonstrating the MB-L160 crushing bucket, designed to work on skid steer loaders, in this instance it was mounted on a Bobcat T650 tracked skid steer loader. Crushing buckets, in their various guises, are gaining a lot followers around the UK, as people see the value in investing in a product that will turn waste material into a valuable commodity, which in turn saves them money.
Hydrema bought a couple of new products to the Plantworx party, both of which were getting their UK debuts at the show, with the MX18 wheeled excavator, coming direct to the Stoneleigh from its recent launch platform at Bauma in Munich. And also on stand was the new 912D MultiChassis which can be fitted with different demountable bodies, which can include a 180o slew tipping body, concrete mixer, fuel or water bowsers, aerial platform, and virtually anything else you could possibly think of mounting on a truck!
On the Takeuchi digging plot, there was a wide variety of machines for customers to try out, but the two most popular models proved to be the new TB285 and the awesome TB1140 14 ton class machine, which in all fairness has been around a while now, but sadly we don’t see that many on UK sites. I had one on demo some years ago and thought it was a great machine for the groundwork’s industry, with its offset boom and dozer blade, if it had a tiltrotator on board as well it would be some piece of kit!
Bobcat chose Plantworx to launch its new E25 mini excavator into the UK market, one of a current raft of machines in this weight bracket, that facilitate towing behind 4x4’s and light commercial vehicles.
Also in the 2.5 ton class is Volvo’s new ECR25D compact radius mini excavator, which was launched at last month’s Bauma exhibition. The ECR25D, short swing radius compact machine is ideal when working in tight and congested jobsites. Once again the ECR25D has the added feature of high mobility, which will be of particular interest to UK end users. The machine can be transported with up to three buckets and a hydraulic breaker on a small trailer and still weigh less than 3.5 tonnes, including the trailer.
Attracting a lot of interest on the JCB digging plot, was the new JS130LC, which now features the company’s new Ecomax engines. These engines have been designed to achieve stage IIIB emissions compliance without the need to resort to using any external exhaust after treatment or DPF systems, these new engines save you fuel, but still offer an increase in power too.
On the Terex stand the latest backhoe loader from the company was being put through its paces, the TLB890 features a Perkins stage IIIB compliant engine and a whole host of upgrades from the previous model.
I will round off my highlights from Plantworx in part two and also take a look at the many attachments that were on offer at the show in an attachments special blog post.