Digger

Tiltrotator skills challenge

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:36:30 +0000

In response to the current ongoing debate over at Construction space about tiltrotators I thought I would post this video showing Swedish operators in action at a challenge event organised by one of the manufacturers. Well they all look pretty good to me !

Liebherr Wheeled Loader Handles Rock Salt

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:32:44 +0000

Cobra Middlesbrough Limited has been operating Liebherr wheeled loaders at their rock salt processing facilities in North Road for a number of years and these highly specialised materials handlers are fully equipped and protected for what is an extremely corrosive working environment. Proof of the success of these machines is that Cobra has taken another Liebherr loader on a three-year equipment supply and maintenance contract. A new generation L 5502plus2 ZK-HL wheeled loader joins an existing L 566, replacing an L 544 which has come to the end of its long, productive and trouble-free working life.

Cat "rubber duck" shoots and scores!

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:55:59 +0000

Check out this amazing video which has been highlighted to me by friend of the Digger blog Guillaume Poitras from Canada. It features some outstanding machine operating skills and co-ordination as the operator of the Caterpillar M315C picks up basketballs in a clamshell grab and shoots to score 5 baskets in 4 minutes on the German tv show Wetten Dass. We need more tv like this in the UK maybe we could call it the X-cavator factor! Enjoy.

Takeuchi and the calf

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:02:38 +0000

Here's a mooo-ving tale from a friend of the Digger blog Jim Mudge. Earlier this year Jim hired a Takeuchi TB125 mini excavator from national plant hire company Morris Leslie's to do a job for his Father on their farm in Devon. The job involved excavating a 600m long trench to a depth of around 1m to take water pipe that would eventually supply a water trough for cattle and sheep.

Dumptrucks upside down - down under!

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:17:18 +0000

Here we go with some more fantastic photos from our resident man down under Gary Steen. Details about how this incident happned are sketchy but it looks like the Caterpillar 785B dumptruck has mounted the bank with a full load on and that has caused it to flip over! Bearing in mind that a Cat 785B is in the 150 ton weight bracket and has a top speed in the region of 34 mph it must of been a very scary moment for the operator!

Sad news for Digger blog fans

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:50:56 +0000

I start this week with some really sad news which certainly came as a shock to me when I was told last Thursday. Contract Journal a magazine that I have read all of my working life is to close at the end of November after 130 years in business along with ContractJournal.com. RBI's Construction Group will continue to organise the SED exhibition, and will continue to run the SED365 website. It will also continue to publish the magazine Plant Managers' Journal, which will be renamed SED - the magazine. This sad news will probably spell the end of my Digger blog in its present format although talks are still ongoing to see if it can be saved. Dear readers please be rest assured that I will do my best to continue the blog in some format and will keep you informed over the next couple of weeks. I owe it to you all for making the Digger blog the success it has become over the last 12 months and would like to personally thank you all for the hundreds of emails of encouragement and great material that I have received during that time. I would also like to thank Will Mann for giving me the opportunity to do this and for having the faith to let a machine operator with a crazy passion for earthmoving machinery to fulfil a dream. So for now we will continue as we were and lets enjoy our time here while we can!

Fancy a machinery calendar for Xmas

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:25:03 +0000

With Christmas fast approaching here is an excellent gift idea for anyone with an interest in heavy plant & machinery. This first class calendar has been produced by our good friends at the German machinery website Bauforum24 After four months of production work this amazing calendar is now ready for sale. It was well worth all the work says Bauforums Christian Kock "since June we´ve been all through Europe to catch spectacular machines in equally sensational locations. From Italy to Finland, from England to Poland - round about 14.000 kilometres for 12 sensationally staged motifs". Check out this superb video and buy using the link

Bauforum24 - Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010 from Bauforum24 on Vimeo.

This calendar will definitely be on my Christmas list !

Hyundai R210LC-9 first action video

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:41:06 +0000

Our good friends at Hyundai have highlighted this video of one of the latest dash 9 series excavators in action in New Zealand. This fine looking machine which appears to be sporting rubber track pads is in action Installing the second of two new tracks at the Chalmers St level crossing in Avondale, Auckland, New Zealand replacing the old single track railway. That's certainly a fair bit of weight to be lifting over the side, and if my memory serves me right when I was operating road railers here in the UK for Hydrex 5 or 6 years ago that would have been done as a tandem lift. In Europe we are eagerly awaiting the launch of the Hyundai Dash 9 models and rumour has it that they could be appearing at next years Bauma trade fair in Munich...rest assured here at Digger we will be keeping our eyes peeled! .

Steelwrist launch in the UK

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:47:59 +0000

Digger got into tiltrotator mode last week at the UK launch of Swedish manufacturer Steelwrist. Despite the good old English weather doing it's upmost to put a dampener on the event, a wide variety of journalists, machinery owners & operators, salesman and other industry professionals enjoyed the presentation and product demonstration which was held close to the company's new UK base in Warwickshire.

It just slipped off boss!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:36:11 +0000

How many of us operators have had that sliding feeling when you are loading a tracked excavator onto a low loader/lowboy trailer. Picture the scene, its cold, muddy and wet the trailer bed is all metal and it is parked on a slight camber, you make it up the ramps and then she just starts sliding off the side! This happened to me once on an old Hymac 580D and I must say it was a very frightening experience indeed. So just imagine if it was to happen with a massive mining sized excavator like a Komatsu PC5500 for instance? Well we have received this batch of photos from two of our friends down under which show a machine slip which happened recently.

Italian fire service choose New Holland excavators

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:48:39 +0000

Also on static display at the recent New Holland Grand Prix was one of a number of New Holland E215B excavators that the Italian fire service has recently taken delivery of following a series of tenders won by the Fiat Group's yellow brand. This machine looked superb in its red fire service livery and certainly attracted a lot of attention from operators and the public who were attending the grand prix.

New Holland Grand Prix 2009 (Turin)

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:02:32 +0000

The latest round of New Hollands Grand Prix event took place last weekend in the beautiful city of Turin in Italy and Digger was there to capture the competition. The tests were held in front of the Torino Esposizioni building which is on the margins of Parco del Valentino, near the Polytechnic's School of Architecture - an evocative location for an event that has garnered increasing success year after year. Five teams of operators took part this year representing Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

American legend and an Italian classic

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:38:05 +0000

This big dozer video is currently doing the rounds on the machinery forum circuit and features a Caterpillar D11R and an ageing Fiat-Allis FD50 that are working together in a coal mine in America. The Fiat-Allis FD50 is quite a rare beast these days having been introduced in the early 1980's as a replacement for the 70 ton, 524hp 41B. It's great to see old dozers like this still hard at work earning their keep alongside the more modern kit. Talking of machinery from Italy look out for my review of the New Holland Grand Prix 2009 (Turin) coming to the pages of Digger this weekend!

More big dozer action shots

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:50:29 +0000

In further response to Bob Rockers request for more big dozer shots here at Digger regular Construction Space forum contributor David Wylie has sent in some impressive shots he took during a recent visit to the Scottish coal mine operation at Broken Cross in South Lanarkshire in the UK. The Caterpillar D9T dozers are generally used for tip & haul road formation and maintenance, however this photo captures one of 4 Cat D9's on site performing coal stockpiling duties.

New Komatsu 830E's down under

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:13:29 +0000

A fleet of these big trucks are in the process of being assembled & delivered to a new mine near Ulan in NSW. These large trucks from Komatsu are powered by komatsu's own SDA16V160 engine which develops 1865kw @1900rpm. The 830E's unladen weight is 164,200kg and has a payload capacity of 221,648kg; They have a heaped capacity of 147 cubic metres.