New Volvo's go to church, M J Church

Tue 26 Mar 2019

New Volvo's go to church, M J Church

In total, M J Church Ltd has taken delivery of five A30G articulated haulers, a forty-tonne EC380E and the larger fifty-tonne EC480E excavators as the company puts a greater focus on its bulk earthworks contracting division. “Basically machine availability was a driving factor which coincided with the size of machines we required to reinvigorate and put more emphasis on this important and more traditional part of our business,” explains Plant & Transport Director Tom Church. “We’ve already had positive experiences operating an EC380E on cross hire so we felt this was also a good opportunity to opt for Volvo branded equipment.”

The A30G hauler from Volvo meets the requirements of Stage-IV final emissions legislation being powered by an electronically controlled, six-cylinder 318 hp turbo charged Volvo V-ACT diesel engine. This features high torque at low engine speeds, resulting in good fuel efficiency, high performance, quicker engine response and less wear, i.e. long service life. Purpose built by Volvo, the engine is designed to exactly match the Volvo drive train, ensuring the best use of power and torque, even in tough working conditions. Delivering exceptional fuel efficiency, it is matched to a torque converter with built-in lock-up function and fitted with a fully automatic fast adaptive transmission. The rest of the Volvo designed and built powertrain has been reinforced to cope with the higher torque output of the engine. With a carrying capacity of 29 tonnes and heaped capacity of 18.4m³ equipped with the optional cantilever tailgate, the Volvo A30G has a maximum speed of 53kph. Fitted with Bridgestone 750/65R25 wide profile wheel and tyre assemblies, the A30G offers exceptionally low ground pressure which greatly reduces rutting on haul roads. The EC380E and EC480E are powered by a Volvo, Stage-IV compliant 13-litre engine developing 311 and 385 net horsepower respectively offering the latest in engine technology and operating sophistication. The Volvo Care Cab offers a large roomy interior with plenty of leg room and foot space. The excellent, all round visibility is enhanced by pressurized and filtered cab air supplied by a 14-vent, climate control system. An adjustable, easy-to-read LCD colour monitor provides real time information of the machine functions, important diagnostic information and a wide variety of work tool settings besides providing visibility to the operator from the rear and side view cameras. Whilst the EC380E has been specified with heavy-duty 6.45m boom and 3.2m dipper arm for optimum reach and dig depth, the larger EC480E has been equipped in mass excavation configuration with a 6.5m boom and 2.55m arm. Both excavators are equipped with hammer / shear, hose rupture valves and quick fit hydraulics as standard and M J Church has added the optional X3 rotation circuit to enhance the machines’ operating characteristics.

Both the haulers and excavators are fitted with CareTrack as standard, which is Volvo’s telematics system that enables remote monitoring of a wide range of machine functions (e.g. location, fuel consumption, service reminders etc.) thus optimizing customer operations. They are also covered by a Volvo Blue service agreement which will ensure they are serviced at the correct intervals by Volvo trained service engineers using genuine Volvo parts, underpinned by a three-year 6,000-hour full warranty package. “I believe we’ve made a good decision to opt for Volvos this time around as the product speaks for itself and has a good reputation in the market place,” says Tom Church. “We’re looking forward to positive results in terms of productivity and reliability and not least, sound residual values further down the line.” The new machines join and extensive mobile plant fleet of some 170 items of equipment which includes excavators ranging from 3 to 50 tonnes in operating weight, loading shovels, dozers, articulated haulers and associated plant. The fleet is deployed on all sectors covered by M J Church such as waste handling which has grown significantly over the last seven years, bulk earthmoving, extraction and civil engineering projects with the latter accounting for 50% of the company’s turnover. The addition of the new Volvo machines now demonstrates a drive to put equal focus on bulk earthmoving and civils projects across the south west of the country. M J Church is one of the largest Civil Engineering, Earthworks and Waste Management Contractors in the South West of England. Established in 1975, the company is a leading performer within the sector and specializes in civil engineering, groundworks and bulk excavation work, operated and non-operated plant hire, skip hire and waste recycling, recycled materials including soils and aggregates as well as a comprehensive fleet of tippers and low loaders for hire.

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