Farbu & Gausen, which specialises in road and railway construction projects. The new ZW220-5 has already been dispatched to a limestone quarry that its owner rents from Hall Farm, close to its base at Kjerknesvågen, located along the Trondheimsfjord on the Inderøy peninsula.

Farbu & Gausen has had a licence from the local government to extract 400,000m³ of materials from the site since 2003. The limestone is blasted periodically and then the company’s Hitachi ZX225USRLC-3 is used to break up larger rocks before the materials are further reduced by a mobile crusher.

Three different grades of materials are produced on the site: 0/20mm for the top layer on road construction projects; 20/50mm for drainage work in house construction; and 50/120mm for the base layer on new roads. However, the size of the materials can also be prepared to order.

The new Hitachi ZW220-5 wheel loader is the only machine based at this site, with support from the company’s fleet of Hitachi Zaxis excavators as and when required. It is used to load trucks for the delivery of the finished materials, 90% of which are produced for the company’s private road and general construction contracts.

“The reliability of the ZW220-5 will help us to maintain our reasonable running costs,” says Managing Director Even Gausen. “It is not only user friendly and comfortable to operate, but it also has a better loading capacity than the previous machine. With increased efficiency, it is more economical and already making a positive impact on our business.”

The machine’s operator, Anders Fossum, has worked for the company since 2003 and says, “I’ve only got positive feedback on the new Hitachi wheel loader. It is powerful, fills the bucket well and is very stable when moving with a full load. Overall, I find the cab to be extremely comfortable and this also helps to make it easy to drive.”