Steelwrist equipped Volvo ECR145DL lands in the Westcountry

Wed 14 May 2014

Steelwrist equipped Volvo ECR145DL lands in the Westcountry

Castleford Engineering is a specialist contracting company working on a nationwide basis in the water based engineering sector. As one can imagine this can often be challenging work, so it’s essential to have top class kit, fitted with a whole host of attachments offering flexibility on the job site. Steve Rule has been a long term user of Cat equipment, but more recently he had been impressed with the quality of the Volvo products, having done his research he was confident this was the route to take and a deal was done with local sales representative Richard Shelbourne, for the ECR145DL, with an EC300DL to follow later this year.

Steve has also become one of the ever growing number of tiltrotator users in the UK. Having seen the benefits that these systems can offer, Steve specified a Steelwrist X18 complete with a S-type S60 FPL (Front Pin Lock) hydraulic quick coupler and integrated four finger gripper and another S60 (FPL) fitted above. The tiltrotator is controlled by Steelwrist’s Generation 2 XControl system, featuring Steelwrist’s XControl joysticks.

According to Steelwrist UK’s managing director Pat Bulcock, the Steelwrist S-type hitch is the only one on the market that meets all ISO and local UK regulations.

The delight on Steve’s face during the Digger Man Blog’s visit was a joy to behold, as he took to the seat of his latest addition at his yard. On a walk-around Steve was keen to point out the superb build quality on the ECR145DL, pointing out the strength in the panels, track frame and dozer blade assembly.

Back in the cab Steve was at first a little worried about comments he had read suggesting the interior space is too small on the compact radius machine, having adjusted the seat to suit Steve said, “Look I’m 6ft tall and I have no problem sitting in here comfortably, I can’t see any problems myself!”

I was then invited to take to the controls of the ECR145DL myself, the machine was a dream to operate, even if I was just going through the motions and not actually digging with it. I would love to spend some serious time on site in this machine, as it felt awesome to me during my brief spell on the sticks. It took me a while to get back into the tiltrotator again, but I’m sure it’s just like riding a bike, you never forget and one would soon be back in the swing of things on a real jobsite location.

This machine is a seriously good piece of high tech kit, and looks set to be a welcome addition to Steve’s fleet. There is even talk of me joining the operating team on a part-time basis in the future, so all exciting stuff. I will be covering this machine in more depth in a future article in Earthmovers Magazine, definitely one to look out for!

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