Excel Excavations was founded in 2012 by Allan Sice and now has a fleet of 13 Scania trucks and four Hyundai excavators. As well as the new 30-tonne Hyundai it has a little 3.5-tonne R35Z-9 zero tailswing excavator, a 14-tonne R140LC-9A excavator and a 22-tonne R220LC-9A.
Until this year it relied on hiring in machinery, but it started buying its own equipment on the back of a good relationship with the local dealer HES Enterprise.
Excel’s Ray Ainscough says: “We needed a 30-tonner to cope with the workload – the new machine can load a wagon in four and a half buckets and can do it in a minute safely. Other machines in its class can take up to two and a half minutes. The machine is currently working on a site where we are moving 24,000 cubic metres of earth – time is of the essence as well as safety and efficiency.”
Allan first saw the new HX300L in HES Enterprise’s yard following discussions with one of his operators, Vic Morris. Vic Morris has been operating excavators for more than 40 years and persuaded the boss that it was time to get a bigger machine in.
Vic says: “Over the years I have operated many machines in this weight class – all of the big names – and the Hyundai is a great machine. I tried out another well-known brand recently and it was flimsy and the door was rattling. You get none of that with the Hyundai. Another very important thing about this machine is that when it slews it’s smooth – other machines ‘groan’ as they slew – and when you are in your machine all day the groaning gets to you.”
The new HX300 L arrived on 1st September and is already booked out for the foreseeable future.
The HX series of excavators is manufactured in Hyundai’s Ulsan factory in South Korea. The HX300 L has a Stage IV 180 kW Cummins engine, which has 90% less NOx emissions than the previous 9A series of machines. The Hyundai approach is a combination of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology.
The HX300 L is fitted with an ECO Gauge which displays engine torque and fuel efficiency level. It also shows the status of fuel consumption such as average rate and total amount of fuel consumed.
With the new engine technology, the side vent openings have been made bigger to improve air flow to the engine. The rear working lights have also been repositioned for a better view which is safer for the operator. A new machine guard has been installed and the air filters are now more accessible for maintenance.
As well as the Hyundai Hi-Mate satellite remote management system, there is also a 360° camera system called ‘Advanced Around View Monitoring’ (AAVM) with four cameras. An Intelligent Moving Object Detection (IMOD) system detects and flags up any movement around the machine. Movement is shown on the monitor by putting a rectangle around the moving object or by indicating the side at which there is movement by arrows.
