Taylor Build Turns to Revotruck for Material Movement Solution

Incredibly, it’s been 5 years since we last paid a visit to Penzance based Taylor Building and Groundworks Ltd, and in this post we are taking a look back at one of my recent articles published in Earthmovers Magazine, un-edited with some alternative images.

The company was formed, initially as Taylor Build, a sole trader business by Simon Taylor (45), back in 2004 and has grown steadily ever since, in 2016 the company became a Ltd business trading as Taylor Building and Groundworks Ltd.

Simon himself is a fully trained stonemason, bricklayer and plasterer by trade and is still pretty much a ‘hands on’ type of guy out on the sites leading a dedicated and trusted team of around 18 members of staff, which includes general builders, masons, carpenters, machine operators, groundworkers, skilled and unskilled labourers, with such skill levels on hand, the company has become a bit of a one contractor solution on prestigious projects.

The company continues to engage in building work for private clients and specialist property developers around Cornwall, with work involving, groundworks, earthworks, retaining wall construction, and building. Taylor Build has gained an enviable reputation for tackling challenging coastal building projects often on steep hillsides, and it was on one of these sites that we caught up with Simon and the team again on this occasion.

This project is taking place in a glorious location in St Ives, which overlooks Carbis Bay, a destination very popular with holiday makers who flock to Cornwall every summer. The team have been on site at this existing luxury property called Dabbers Den for 18 months. The property itself is being renovated and significantly extended, with vast landscaping and an underground car park.

The project started with some site clearance work and small demolition of old extensions and out buildings, this then led onto large excavation work which in itself was a challenge, as much of the ground conditions were heavy rock including the notorious blue elvin, an igneous rock specific to Cornwall and as hard as it comes! As such a lot of breaker work has been involved with both 9-tonne class Caterpillar 309 CR High Flow hydraulic excavators, both of which are fitted with Engcon EC209 tiltrotators, and in the hard to access areas Simon deployed his Kubota U27-4 fitted with a Prodem breaker.

At the rear of the property a dedicated gymnasium has been built and in front of that and at the rear of the main building the team have excavated for a large 12m x 5m swimming pool which was surrounded with 40mm clean stone to help with site drainage, supplied by locally based family business Harts Haulage.

Talking about this exclusive project Simon Taylor said, “We are basically completing all the external work from excavation, muckaway, backfill, drainage, the swimming pool and external gym as I mentioned previously, large cavity block extensions, waterproofing, concrete poured vertical RC walls, underground double garage with a new access driveway over the top to a parking area and building up levels with soil ready for the landscaping company to install all the planting, so as you can imagine, there is an awful lot of work going into this one, it’s definitely been a challenge, but that’s just how we like it, and what we have become well known for in this neck of the woods!”. 

The site can only be accessed via a narrow single-track road just off the main road down into St Ives, and in places it is extremely tight, so all materials either going out or coming in, has to be moved by site dumpers. To enable this Simon secured the use of a compound area up at the rugby club in St Ives.

The compound is used to store the muckaway risings, and quarried materials for the site. When the muckaway pile is large enough they bring in their 16-tonne class Caterpillar 315 CR to load 8-wheeler tipper lorries, which once again are supplied by Hart’s Haulage working on turnaround.

The Cat 315 CR could be described as the jewel in the crown of the Taylor Build excavator fleet, fitted with an Engcon EC219 tiltrotator, the machine is also brimming with the latest technology, including Cat Grade Assist, Cat Payload, and a full Trimble Earthworks package.

General loading of materials at the club compound to go back down to the jobsite is done with their Kubota KX-060-5 mini excavator. Other machines of note on the fleet include a Cat 306, which will be having a tiltrotator fitted in the coming months, Kubota KX019 and U010 mini excavators, Merlo 11m telehandler, Ausa 4m telehandler and 120mm double drum vibrator roller.

They have been using two of their Mecalac 6DMX site dumpers, but most recently they have taken delivery of a new 9-tonne class Mecalac Revotruck, which is the first of its kind to be delivered into the West Country. 

Talking about his decision to invest in the new Revotruck Simon said, “Having run our two 6-tonne class Mecalac 6DMX’s for 5 years, I had seen that the Revotruck was coming, and I really liked the idea of the chassis technology with options of 2, 4, wheel-drive and crab steer and figured on the tight sites we work on it would really be a beneficial piece of kit for us, but I wanted to see one in the metal before I committed.

This led to me taking a trip up to the Mecalac factory with Dexter Ball our regional sales manager at local dealership Vincents Machinery, for a factory tour and a test drive on the Revotruck. My initial idea was to trade-in my 2 x 6-tonners for 2 x 6-tonne Revotruck’s as I thought the 9-tonner would be too large, however this proved that the trip to try one out was so worthwhile, as I was able to compare it size wise to the 6-tonne conventional dumpers.

The 9-tonne Revotruck is so cleverly designed that it is very compact, in fact its only about a foot longer and wider than our 6DMX’s, so the choice was obvious, the 9-tonne Revo was the truck for us.

Having this size also meant that we are not far off carrying the same amount of material on our travels daily but with only one operator and one fuel tank to fill. Our 6DMX dumpers would run on around 50 litres of fuel per day x 2, but now we are running the one 9-tonne Revotruck, which also burns around 50 litres per day, saving us not only fuel, but staffing costs, insurance, road tax and maintenance, it really is a no brainer in my opinion”.

Operating the new dumper is Andy Shaw, who had only been on it for a day or two, straight after delivery, when we arrived on site, but he was quite clearly impressed with it, commenting on it he said, “It’s a fantastic piece of kit, and having the ability to be able to rotate the entire cabin with the flick of a switch, ensures you have the best available visibility at all times, which means it’s safer for me and anyone around me in close proximity to the machine, its early days on it so I’m still getting used to it at the moment”.

Having witnessed the machine working on site and then navigating the narrow streets of St Ives on route to the compound, one would have to say the Revotruck looks set to be another game changer for this forward-thinking business, Simon certainly has his eye on the ball when it comes to adopting new items of kit that will benefit the company and give increased value for money for his clients.

REVOTRUCK

First seen as far back as 2022 when it was revealed to the public during the Bauma Trade Fair in Munich, it does feel like the Revotruck concept has been around for a long time now, but it’s only just recently that they have started to appear on sites.

The prestigious Red Dot Award winning dumper is pretty unique with its two-piece rigid chassis and all wheel steering design. The central linkage between the two parts of the chassis offers up to 20^o of oscillation which facilitates a more comfortable ride over rough terrain, and ensures stability and traction across the toughest of terrains.

Power comes from a well-proven EU Stage V emissions compliant Perkins 4-cylinder, turbocharged, electronic high pressure common rail diesel engine, which offers a power output rating of 55kw (74hp), and features a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) and Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) to meet emissions regulations.

The machine which has a payload of 9000kg (19,842lbs) and a maximum heaped swivel skip capacity of 4.5m³ (5.9yd³) features a hydrostatic transmission and a top travel speed of 25 km/h (15.5 mph).

Two of the standout features for me were the ease of access to the cab, which is easily accessible which ever way the cab is facing thanks to the large steps on all four corners of the front chassis frame.

And secondly, the superb all-round 360-deg visibility from within the rotating cab which is capable of revolving 225-degrees, to provide the operator with the best visibility of both the truck, its load and the working space around the truck, enabling him to focus on the job in hand at all times, it really does offer the best of both worlds as a rear dump truck, and forward facing site dumper combination. 

Checkout our You Tube Short video from this site visit.