Digger’s Plantworx 2017 highlights (Part One)

Sun 11 Jun 2017

Digger’s Plantworx 2017 highlights (Part One)

Torrential rain on the opening day of the biennial event nearly turned Plantworx into Wetworx, but the hardy construction industry men and women & numerous overseas visitors were not going to be put off by the famous British weather and turned out in their droves for what was the biggest Plantworx event ever.

Safer site dumpers featuring fully fitted cabs were one of the hottest topics at this year’s event, with a host of manufacturers showcasing their solutions to the assembled industry professionals. Already featured in Earthmovers Magazine was Wacker Neuson’s DW90 which have been designed in conjunction with Tonic Construction and plant hire company Rocket Rentals.

Long established British dumper manufacturer Thwaites, revealed a new cabbed machine based on its standard 9 tonne model. The fully heated cab features forward facing and side cameras and a reverse camera with integrated distance guide on the screen. A variety of panels built into the design offer access to the engine components for ease of servicing and daily checks.

A slightly different offering came from Italian manufacturer Fiori who displayed their typically Italian "off the wall" designed DW 100 SW model. Featuring a swivel dump skip the cabbed dumper can be operated with the driver either facing to the rear or forward.

The biggest surprise of all was JCB’s brand new 7 tonne class prototype Hi-Viz 7FT dumper, which the manufacturer says offers the operator vastly improved visibility of up to 85%, improved safety in the cab and safer stability due to a lower centre of gravity. This machine is the first of an entirely new range of site dumpers that will be built in the UK by the Staffordshire based manufacturer.

On the excavator front the Chinese brands were well represented and on the CPMS LiuGong stand we saw an example of their 22 tonne class machine the 922E which was just one of an initial batch of 50 machines ordered by national plant hire company HE Services.

Also on the demonstration plot was one of the latest 50 tonne class 950E models ordered by London based J. Ffrench Ltd, which was being put through its paces by the company’s own Albanian operator.

Sany represented in the UK by TDL Equipment were offering test drives in examples of their 21 tonne and 13 tonne models. I took a spin in the 21 tonne SY215C model and was pleasantly surprised by the machines performance, only issue for me was the seat would not go down enough to offer me a comfortable operating position but I’m confident that could be sorted very easily.

Takeuchi had a busy stand with a number of examples from its range of excavators on offer to try out. Leading by example on the demo plot was well known Takeuchi customer and Digger Man Blog contributor Owen Mays who is currently running 3 Takeuchi machines. During our visit to the stand Owen was putting the popular TB290 through its paces.

Turkish manufacturer Hidromek was well represented at Plantworx this year with both Bunton’s who are the dealers for the North of England and TJC Plant Sales who are the dealers for the South of England displaying models from the company’s range of backhoe loaders and excavators. Both dealers reported high interest in the products with significant leads to follow up post show.

The Turkish built machines appear to have surprised many who took the time to try them out, with the vast majority offering excellent feedback and further confirming my thoughts on the quality of the brand, which I have been following for many years.

Finally in this first round up post, the backhoe loader is still alive and kicking in the UK although not in the sort of numbers we have seen in the past. On the Case stand visitors were invited to take to the controls of the latest 590ST model on a sticky demo plot, one operator who stepped out and passed me said, “cracking piece of kit that!”.

Check out this video from our friends over at Diggers and Dozers for a flavour of the show.

Look out for part two of our highlight look back later this week.

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