Diggers Executive Hire Show round up (Part One)

Thu 13 Feb 2014

Diggers Executive Hire Show round up (Part One)

The first day at the EHS in the Ricoh Arena was a busy affair with all avenues inside the venue brimming with industry professionals, looking to kit up as our economy pulls its way out of the recent elongated doldrums. In fact I think this year’s event was the busiest I have ever seen it, and with many stand staff reporting good deals completed and potential customer contacts made, I think there were some really positive vibes around the arena. Greeting visitors as they arrived was a display from UK dealers Finning, featuring Caterpillar mini excavators and compaction equipment and details on an offer to receive a free iPad with every machine sold at the show!

One of my first ports of call was to the Takeuchi stand where the company had two examples of the replacement for the hugely popular TB016. The new TB216’s were displayed in canopy variant and as a full cabbed version. These new models build upon the strengths of the old machine which was a best seller in the UK amongst tool hire, and utilities companies. The familiar expanding tracks are still included on these new machines, a new control panel that incorporates a fuel gauge; more dig depth, and the almost legendary Takeuchi smooth hydraulics.

Just around the corner and Volvo Construction Equipment GB were displaying the new ECR25D compact radius mini excavator, which we first encountered during our visit to Bauma in Munich last year when it was officially launched. It’s a cracking looking little machine which will appeal to users who are working on tight and congested sites and the fact that it can be transported on a trailer with three buckets and a breaker, yet still weigh less than 3.5 tonnes including the trailer. The machine was displayed with a rotary selector grab … oh I so want one of those for my digger!

Also on display on the Volvo stand was the DD25w tandem drum vibratory roller, one of the most popular size rollers for site work in the UK.

Talking of rollers, one of the most legendary names in the compaction industry has to be Bomag. Not long after I left school in 1977, I was given the task of operating a Bomag 90 pedestrian double drum roller on a Wimpey site in Southampton docks, essentially this was the first bit of kit I spent time on in the “real” world, but the lure of diggers was too strong in the end! Bomag’s have come a long way since those days of course and on display on stand at the EHS, was this latest BW80AD-5 model. The machine features a drum width of 800mm and is powered by a 15.1kw Kubota engine, its operating weight ranges from 1.6 – 2.0 tonnes.

During a brief visit to the press room for coffee in the lovely company of PR guru Louise Murphy, I received a shout out from Gemma Sharpe (Takeuchi) that somebody wanted to meet me on their stand. As ever it was an absolute delight to meet one of our friendly readers in the form of Mr Ken Handley of Dudley based Handley Plant Hire. Thanks to the lovely Japanese lady who offered to take our photo on the stand too.

Finally in part one of our round up a visit to the Kubota stand, which incidentally was an award winning display at the event. And stealing the limelight for all the right reasons was the KX080-4 model which as we thought was displayed as a triple boom version for the show. Launched last year at Bauma this machine is proving to be a big hit with customers who have been fortunate to get hold of one. I am hoping to test drive one of these models soon for a potential feature in the magazine or a blog post.

In part two we will continue our tour around show arena.

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