Eye for a niche with a Kubota

Thu 02 Nov 2017

Eye for a niche with a Kubota

Dorset based crushing and recycling specialist Keith Maiden does not come across as your average plant and groundworks contractor, not only is he very well spoken, but he clearly has an eye for detail and especially for niche products that will give him the edge over his competitors. Keith’s journey into business started out in 1978, when at the tender age of 18 he set himself up as a self-taught general builder, engaging in basic extension and porch building work. He later branched out into industrial building, roofing work and house conversions. However Keith was quick to realise that he wasn’t overly keen on being stuck indoors as he was much more of an outdoor type of guy, so he started to take on more of the groundworks side of things and set out to purchase his very first machine. This machine, somewhat surprisingly was a second hand Gehl 3610 skid steer loader which came fully loaded with a host of attachments including bucket, grapple and pallet forks. Although Keith could see the potential of these versatile machines which were and still are hugely popular in the North American market, he struggled to find work for it with many customers locally back then not being convinced of the merits of skid steer loaders, but Keith was not giving up on this his first venture into a niche market and he continued to plug away promoting the concept until eventually it clicked. Keith had found a great market for the fledgling skid steer fleet by hiring them out to crash barrier contractors on a nationwide basis and the fleet quickly increased to around 10 machines with 40 to 50 various attachments to fit them.

With the skid steers all out earning their keep Keith started to look at mini excavators purchasing his first model which was a 1.5 tonne class JCB 801. Having run the JCB for a year Keith then decided to purchase his very first Kubota which was to become his preferred mini excavator brand and still is to this day. That first machine was a KX36, which was followed a year later by a zero tailswing U17 with Klac quick hitch, this was followed by larger zero tail swing excavators including U45 and U50 models and eventually he purchased his first 8 tonne class KX080-3 model. Always looking for a new opening, around 10 years ago Keith spotted another niche market for compact crushing and recycling and invested in his first Red Rhino mini crusher. This was Keith’s first stand-alone crusher, but he had dabbled with a dipper mounted version in the form of a Bav 3 model which he purchased from Rugeley based manufacturer Digbits for the princely sum of £3.5k and which he described as a “Great piece of kit!”. Keith then started to buy more crushers, mainly 3 tonne class machines and is currently running 7 of them , including Red Rhino 4000 and 5000’s which are capable of churning out around 6 to 8 tonnes per hour and 15 to 20 tonnes per hour respectively.

Last year Keith upgraded his old Kubota 8 tonne class machine for a new KX080-4 which is powered by a Tier 4 Final emissions compliant Kubota V3307 Di-T4 engine offering a power output rating of 62.3hp (46.5kw) and after much research he specified the TAB (Triple Articulating Boom) configuration which continues to gain popularity in the UK. Talking about the purchase and his decision behind it Keith said, “I really opted for the TAB boom arrangement because I wanted more reach and flexibility for working in close too, it’s especially beneficial when I have the rotational selector grab on for doing demolition work and when processing materials on site, the two piece set up just makes life so much easier, I often think of it as having three machines in one as depending on where you have the boom positioned it’s like having a 5 tonner, an 8 tonner and a 13 tonner all in one”. Keith continued, “It’s also extremely handy for when I’m using a hydraulic breaker attachment, especially when using it in close quarters work like down in an old swimming pool and the like where there is not much room, once again it’s all about improving the machines flexibility and manoeuvrability”. Attachment wise on the KX080-4 Keith is currently running a standard full range of buckets which are of heavy duty construction and supplied by Keith’s preferred supplier Whites, which he describes as “cracking buckets”, he also has pallet forks, flail mower, Rammer pulveriser, Rammer City breaker, crushing bucket, an Italian built 3M concrete mixing bucket and an auger with flights ranging from 100mm to 1m diameter.

But it’s the rotational selector grab which receives the most praise from Keith, “The rotational grab has quite simply changed the way I work. When we do demolition work now we just don’t need any labour on the ground, which is not only safer but more efficient too, the grab on the machine just helps to pull the buildings apart so cleanly and processing as we go. Even in groundworks applications it’s so useful, grubbing out trees, bushes and green waste, just an incredible piece of kit and with the increased load over height of the TAB boom its amazing!”

Keith talked about a recent job they did where the TAB boom came into its own, “We were doing a big job in Cirencester recently, it involved the demolition of a big house and then we shifted 1,000’s of tonnes of earth in a reduced dig operation. Down in the ground about a metre, we had 8 wheel tippers for muck away parked on an “island” of crush concrete, there was no way I would have reached them in a conventional boom 8 tonner but with the TAB boom at maximum reach the load over height is phenomenal. It really is hard to believe what a difference a couple of rams and two pins can make to the geometry of a machine!”

Although the Kubota KX080-4 does appear to be an extremely popular machine, if you take any notice of commenters on various social media channels it’s often described as a bit of a “Marmite” machine, you either love it or hate it. As far as Keith is concerned though Kubota’s 8 tonner is a class act and he has nothing but praise for it and all his other Kubota models in the fleet. Keith said, “I really cannot fault the machine in any department, apart from the glorious TAB boom benefits and the peace of mind of the coded key security feature, this machine also has great oil flow for running all my attachments, to be honest I rarely need to run if flat out as I feel it just doesn’t need it, I just prefer to run it in its Eco mode as it makes such a big difference in terms of fuel consumption. I pretty often take my fuel to site for the week in the back of my Land Rover and now I know I can get 1 or even 2 days extra out of it compared to the old Dash-3 model”.

“In over 25 years of running Kubota’s I’ve only had the odd problem arise, I had a couple of hoses go on an undercarriage, which you have to expect in that area and the engines are bullet proof, never had one pack up on us yet! We had one problem on the KX080-3 with a spool valve on the main block, which happened close to the end of the warranty period, but fair play to Kubota they honoured it and it was replaced in record time. Apart from that it’s been a trouble free experience running Kubota, you simply buy them, put oil and fuel in it, service it, grease it and you know that when it comes to time to sell it, everyone wants it, you will even find people queuing up to buy it, especially well cared for owner operated machines”.

We caught up with man and machines on site in the glorious surroundings of the privately run Clayesmore School in Iwerne Minster, Dorset, which has been in existence for well over 100 years having been originally been founded in 1886. Set in acres and acres of land the school is currently having a new Bio-Mass boiler system installed and the old boilers removed. To feed the various out buildings new 300mm steel pipework was bring installed which is estimated to be around a mile long around the site. 2.5 thousand tonnes of excavated material has arisen out of the excavated trenches with a mixture of grit sand, scalpings, chalk soil and rubble being discovered. The estimated cost of removing this material in a conventional muckaway operation was estimated at around £30,000GBP, add on the cost of importing decent pipe bedding material and it was going to be a costly venture.

So as an alternative Keith was awarded the contract to screen and recycle the existing material on site using his latest piece of kit in the arsenal a new McCloskey Kompaq 3 way mini screener. This highly mobile Cat powered machine is capable of producing a wide variety of recycled product depending on the screen size fitted but on this project it was busy turning out a type 1 class material and clean soil with heavier lumps of rubble being cast aside for crushing at a later date. This recycling project has saved the client thousands of pounds while in addition drastically cut down on the amount of tipper lorry movements in what is a relatively rural area. The versatility of the Kubota’s TAB boom was further demonstrated as Keith displayed how he could clean up around the mini screener by tucking the boom right in and extending it out to full reach to deposit his bucketful into the hopper.

It was clear from our visit on the day that Keith is a man in demand. It did seem strange that none of his machines feature any business branding or sign writing but as he said, he simply doesn’t need it as his reputation, word of mouth and repeat business does it all for him, it was certainly any eye opener for me as to just what can be achieved with such compact recycling kit.

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