The UK’s market for crawler excavators has expanded significantly over the last few years with a whole host of brands entering the ring.
Whilst this gives prospective purchasers a bigger choice, do these machines offer everything a company requires? We travelled to Scotland’s Central Belt to meet one customer who isn’t a brand snob and buys for the back up they get from the dealer.
We met up with Tom Taylor, Plant Director at Falkirk based George Burns Plant Hire and sister company GBSS Civil Engineering. ‘We recently split the two companies to allow them to grow further at a rate they needed to.’ Tom commented. ‘We have been steadily expanding the civils side of the company and with an influx of contracts over the past year, we decided it was time to go our separate ways.’ Whilst the companies are now separated, GBSS still rely heavily on taking the majority of plant from George Burns. ‘Whilst much of the kit is still sourced from our sister company, we will take plant from other hire companies should we need to.’
The company runs over 80 machines ranging from 1.5 to 35 tonnes, and unlike many hire companies in the UK, looks at keeping their kit for up to 10,000 hours and has a regime of ensuring their fleet is well maintained and looking immaculate every time it leaves for a hire. ‘We’ve changed the way we do things over the past few years.’ George Burns explains. ‘With hire rates staying relatively stagnant and machine prices and wages rising, we’ve looked at other ways of maintaining profit margins. We do this by keeping the machines looking fresh. Any damage to the paintwork is addressed as soon as it gets back in, and repairs are undertaken immediately to ensure the continued reliability and longevity of the machines. We don’t chop them in after three years hoping to make a profit as that method seems to be disappearing very quickly as it doesn’t stack up financially.’
‘We look at a variety of factors when we look at purchasing any machine and take every machine on its own merits.’ Tom comments. ‘We always want a good price, that goes without saying, but more importantly for us is knowing we have the back up to call on if, and when we need it and more importantly, when our customers need it. Our excavator fleet contains a range of brands up to 35 tonnes which now includes the first XCMG excavator in Scotland.’
Molson Scotland have recently been awarded the Scottish market for the latest Chinese brand to enter the UK. Already one of the bigger brands around the globe, XCMG have been steadily setting up a network of dealers around the UK and with Molson Scotland looking for an alternative brand for their Kobelco excavator range in Scotland, the Chinese manufacturer was quick to snap them up to exploit their phenomenal service and back up and expanded depot network. Initially, Molson Scotland will be looking after the sales of the comprehensive range of excavators and wheeled loaders produced by the company.
The initial batch of excavators will range from 1.5t up to the 21t class with GBSS taking what Molson Scotland believes to be one of the popular sizes, an XE135E excavator with an operating weight just shy of 15 tonnes. ‘The only dealings we have had with the Molson Scotland team have been for a variety of spare parts for some of our fleet.’ Tom comments. “They have been very good and seemed to have everything in stock when we’ve asked for it. When the Molson Scotland Sales Manager called to see if we’d be interested, we thought we would take a look. What met us was a surprise for us. The build quality is excellent, the component quality is very good with well-known and respected brands being used and the package we were offered by Molson Scotland was very good. In fact, when we looked into XCMG excavators further, we found that the factory actually built CAT’s GC series of machines before developing their own range of excavators. If that doesn’t convince you the quality is there, there’s something wrong.’
The XCMG excavators are manufactured in a state of the art factory in Xozhou, China before being shipped to their European HQ in Germany. From there, they are distributed across the continent including the UK. The XE135E excavator is built around a robust undercarriage which is available with or without an optional blade. Like many machines in this category, the XE135E excavator’s weight doesn’t represent its badging with it tipping the scales at a shade under 15 tonnes. For an excavator with a standard rear-end, the upper structure is compact and dominated by the huge cab. Opening the panels on either side of the body reveals the cooling pack behind the cab and the pump on the opposite side, all of which are within easy access from ground level. Nestling inside the excavator’s bodywork lies the Cummins F3.8 powerplant which develops a healthy 121hp. The inline 4-cylinder delivers 10 percent more power and almost 20 percent more torque across the entire RPM range compared to previous incarnations and its EGR-free architecture reduces complexity and improves reliability. The Single Module aftertreatment system combines DPF, SCR and AdBlue dosing in one unit which takes up 50 percent less space and weighs 30 percent less than a typical system. This new technology is virtually “fit and forget” as it operates almost entirely through passive regeneration and extends the service cleaning interval significantly beyond the 5000 hours of other systems.
The XE135E excavator has been handed to one of GBSS’s most experienced operators, Jamie Hopkins. ‘I’ve come off a 20t excavator and have found this machine to be a very competent and responsive machine. There’s plenty of feel in the levers and whilst it is quick, it’s very controllable.’ He comments. ‘There is masses of space behind the seat and plenty of movement in the seat to let you get comfortable. I’m so happy with the XCMG excavator that I’ve told Tom that I want to stay on it permanently.’
The stereotypical groundwork spec includes 4.65m boom married to a 3m stick with Molson Scotland fitting a Hill hitch and a range of Strickland buckets. Standard equipment includes hammer pipework and a sturdy boxing ring around the upper structure.
‘We liked the simplicity of the machine.’ Tom explains. ‘Everything is of a robust quality, it’s easy to work on and the initial dealings we have had with Molson have impressed us.’ Tom’s comments are echoed by George who says that manufacturers are making their equipment far too complicated for the industry they are used in.
As GBSS move forwards with their expansion plans, they are also looking at any future additions to the fleet incorporating pre-wired machine control systems. The XCMG excavator is no exception as it has been fitted with Leica’s MC1 machine control system, something Jamie has relished. ‘I’ve been using Leica for a few years now and find it a very good and highly accurate system to work with.’
To ensure customers have an available source of spare parts, Molson Scotland have invested heavily in stocking a range of service items and consumables and will support the brand from their depots across Scotland and the North East of England.
We caught up with the GBBS team at a project on the outskirts of Edinburgh where they were in the first phase of construction for a new primary school. As is typical with many construction projects of this type, the foundations presented the team with a complicated series of short digs. Whilst traditional setting out would have involved masses of lines, pegs and spray paint, using the Leica MC1 has been so much more productive Site Engineer Steven Haldane commented. Whilst Steven still checks every dig, Jamie is left with the model to cut each trench out as he sees right. Quickly changing buckets to increase the width of footing where required, Jamie has the site’s 9t capacity dumper constantly running back and forth to the tip area. As Jamie alluded to, the speed of the excavator is very impressive, quickly slewing 180° to drop another load of soil into the dumper. As he gets to the required depth of the cut, Jamie is able to remove millimetres of material, such is the precision control available.
While this maybe the first XCMG excavator to be sold by Molson Scotland, it definitely won’t be the last as Davie is already quoting other customers following the first public showing of the machines at the recent Scotplant event.
