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New Bobcat minis for Hirst Brothers

by Kyle Molyneux  |  Tue 23 Mar 2021

New Bobcat minis for Hirst Brothers

Hirst Brothers Contractors Ltd of York has taken delivery of new Bobcat E27 and E85 mini-excavators. Jointly run by Directors, Edd and Tom Hirst, Hirst Brothers provides a range of services, including site clearance, tree surgery, estate management, forestry, fencing and excavation. The company works nationwide and has a growing list of prestigious clients including Network Rail, which owns, operates and develops Britain’s railway infrastructure.

Edd Hirst commented, “The new E27 and E85 are not only providing us with the muscle we need for our work but also the additional flexibility required in the areas in which we operate. The new machines allow us to gain access to and from and to work in the tight confines of many of our worksites, including the trackside contracts for Network Rail. They can also be combined with different attachments to widen the range of applications we can carry out.”

Supplied by Grays Machinery Ltd, based in Bedale, the new 8.5-tonne E85 is specced with an articulated boom, an unusual feature for the UK market, where the preference is for straight boom models. The articulated boom allows us to bring the arm on the E85 closer to the machine and to reach a lot higher. With its bigger engine and oil pump, the 2.7-tonne E27 excavator gives Hirst Brothers extra power for the difficult jobs, such as working with a flail mower attachment in thick brambles.

The Bobcat E85 is a reduced tail swing (RTS) mini-excavator powered by the Yanmar 4TNV98C-VDB8 diesel engine providing 44.3kW of power at 2,100rpm. Complementing the 10% increase in power over the previous E80 model, the E85 excavator offers a much higher fuel efficiency, which is among the best on the market. The bucket digging force in the E85 has also been significantly increased to 61.8kN, a 13% increase over the E80.

The E85 is standard equipped with primary and secondary auxiliary hydraulic lines offering both dual directional and proportional flow for increased versatility when using the 5-fingered grapple attachments favoured by Hirst Brothers.

Like the E85, primary and secondary auxiliary hydraulic lines are a standard feature of the conventional swing E27 R-series model, which introduces an in-class unique combination of superior stability, class leading digging performance and breakout forces, together with a transport weight that is still below the weight limits for appropriate trailers. The E27 offers just 280 mm of tail overhang which allows the machine to be operated easily in confined spaces.

“We used to run the previous E26 mini-excavator from Bobcat which was a good machine for us,” Edd continued. “The new E27 has taken things up a notch with its additional power and more space inside the cab and the increased comfort and convenience offered by the minimal effort joysticks and optimised metal travel pedals. The E27 also features a bespoke hitch to help in removing timber from restricted access areas.”

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