Constructive criticism

Chris Hall may have been the youngest tester we have had for some time on a First Impressions, but 12 years in the industry, an inquiring mind and good memory meant that he was well up with the older gang when it came to experience.

Hall started out with a civil engineering company, then moved into the plant hire sector and now works for HT Hughes at Watford with a mixed fleet of FAI backhoes, Komatsu excavators and Cat dozers. To my mind he provided an excellent balance to our panel of three judges. His feet are well and truly anchored to the ground and now he has the admin experience to understand that paperwork is a very necessary part of site procedures.

Hall homed in on the Case 580SK for his first machine. 'I know them from way back and have watched them progress over the years. The layout is much better and accessibility to all the daily service points is a huge improvement, but the propshaft to the front axle reduces ground clearance and could be prone to damage, even though it has a heavy guard,' he said.

'I like the control layout, the noise levels are nice and low and the machine handles well both on the road and has good manoeuvrability on site,' reported Hall at the end of the road test. After five minutes on the backhoe, Hall called the Case representative to the machine to complain that he could not get along with the backhoe controls and wanted to know why they had been swapped around.

The simple answer is that Case has gone out on a limb and followed to the letter the latest European Standard EN 474-4 of which para 4.6 Operator's controls states: Operator's controls shall comply with ISO/DIS 10968. That means on the right hand lever, north and south is booms down and up, east-west controls crowd and dump. North and south on the left lever is dipper out and in and east-west controls slew left and right.

Hall then moved on to the Ford 655D Turbo which he marked up fairly high for good design and quality of finish. 'From experience, I can tell you that the ground clearance is a bit low for really rough ground conditions, but the balance is good when it comes to road work.

'Although the unit looks lighter than most, stability when digging is top class. Ford has really put a lot of effort into coming up with a good machine and I think they have now succeeded, its just a pity that we never hear of them.

'The two points that get negative marks are the seat which is just too sloppy, and that's on a nearly new machine and secondly, the hose runs through the boom foot which is a real pain if one needs replacing.'

Next on our list was the JCB 3CX Sitemaster Plus, but Hall could not find exactly what the Plus gave in terms of performance. 'It is almost impossible to fault this machine, but there are still a couple of niggles that have been carried over.

'I am not that short and for me, the control levers are set too high to be really comfortable. It is obvious that not too many machine designers think about night working and JCB, like others, fit fixed working lights which don't point where they are needed.

'By the same token, when it comes to overall comfort, this one has the rest beaten. The seat and arm rests get mine, and most other operators, top marks, and the same goes for on road, cross country, digging stability and ability,' said Hall.

The MF 750 Turbo immediately received equal criticism for having fixed lights, and in Hall's own words: 'The backhoe seemed to be down on digging power to the last one I tried.' The rest of the machine gained high marks for design, quality of build and finish. 'I rate this equal to the JCB in many respects, the digging stability is excellent, the control layout is good and, from experience, I know the machine is suitably unstoppable on rough terrain.'

Hall professed he knew little about the Cat 428B, apart from what he had read in the trade press and heard from other operators on site. 'A number of operators say it has a good reputation for reliability and service, but it feels old fashioned compared to most machines.

'They are mostly right,' reported Hall after trying the Cat. 'There is a good machine in there trying to get out. In relation to the seat, the bonnet is very high, so forward visibility is compromised. It is the only machine with the gear lever in the centre and that means restricted leg room getting in and out and swivelling from loader to backhoe and finally, on this particular machine, the backhoe bucket unwinds because of crowd ram leakage.

'Those are facts and there are some subjective points as well to be made. This was obviously a near new demo machine, but the whole unit felt loose as though all the build tolerances were at maximum rather than minimum and I thought the backhoe was well down on power.

'There will be one or two manufacturers that think I am over critical about their machines,' added Hall. 'I make no apologies becaue I actually earn my living by driving these and other machines day in, day out and I can assure you after just one long shift, the strengths and weaknesses of each machine become very apparent.'