Simon Tomblin, Managing Director of Rocket Rentals, said: “To increase safety and convenience for our customers, we are committed to supplying zero tail swing machines throughout the fleet from 1 to 22 tonne and all the Doosan excavators meet this specification.  Kellands is one of the longest standing Doosan dealers in the UK with an excellent relationship and we have found them a very easy company to do business with.

“As they’re always working hard, it is unusual for customers to take the trouble to give us feedback on machines, but they have told us how pleased they are with the Doosan excavators and this has led to substantial repeat business for Rocket.  We have been delighted with the care shown by our customers when they use our machines which matches the attention to detail we like to offer.  This allows us to get an excellent return on investment on the Doosan machines as we like to rotate them every three years whenever possible.”  

As well as three year warranty cover, all the Doosan machines have been supplied by Kellands in accordance with the exacting specification set by Rocket.  They are all equipped with check valves, Geith automatic hydraulic hitches, four sizes of bucket, vandal guards and electronic immobilisers. 

In a seven year deal worth £60m with Finning Equipment Solutions, mining specialist Hargreaves has invested in a totally new fleet of Caterpillar equipment, which will include four new Caterpillar 6030’s, one of which is already in place, and nineteen Caterpillar 777 Off Highway trucks, which will be delivered for use at the Tower Colliery open cast mine site in Hirwaun, Rhondda Cynon Taff, South Wales, during 2012.

These giant mining machines will be used to extract around six million tonnes of coal from the 615-acre site over the next seven years.

Here is a short video clip of the initial 6030 backhoe machine in action during the first weeks muck shift.

Here is a rather poor quality photo that I did consider using for the annual day of fun & frivolities, but on reflection I am pleased I went for the airbag story. Don’t quite know what is going on here, but let’s just say the guy in the Hitachi Zaxis 16 is being a tad optimistic if he is genuinely trying to pick up this large bucket with his 1.5 ton machine! 

Allistair stumbled upon this 1971 vintage JCB 8C, on a dairy farm around the outskirts of Bussleton, one of South Western Austalia’s top towns for tourism. This particular old beast has had some major alterations done to it over the years, including the replacement of the original 6 cylinder 135 hp Perkins engine, with what looks like an early Detriot Diesel engine complete with twin exhaust stacks!

I have not been able to find out the actual production figures for this particular model, but I believe that not many were built, and this is what I find so interesting about this find. Just how did such a rare model find its way down under to Australia?

Introduced in 1971 the 8C/8D was the largest excavator in the 4 model JCB range, which had evolved from the American Warner and Swasey Hopto designed machines. In its heaviest guise when fitted with 762mm track plates it weighed in around 23,513kg (51,836lbs) with a dig depth of 6.73m (22ft 1in) reach of 9.73m (31ft 11in) and a load over height of 6.10m (20ft). The 8D was identical to the 8C except for being fitted with an extra wide undercarriage for more stability.

Operator safety is high on the agenda for many manufacturers these days, and a worrying trend has arisen over recent years, which has seen operators being thrown out of their seats, as a result of the higher slew speeds that are often attained with modern day machines. The new restraint system can be seen during testing, in this world exclusive Digger Blog photo.

Speaking about the new restraint system, Mr Isawju Kumin, head of technology with the much respected Japanese Excavator Safety Testing Authority said, “Over recent years we have noticed that many operators are feeling the need for more and more slew speed, and in some cases they are actually tweaking the control valves themselves to obtain even faster slew cycles.”

Mr Kumin continued, “This boy racer mentality is resulting in a very dangerous operating environment, and as such we have developed this new airbag system to retain the operator in his cab if the machines slew speed becomes too fast”