The company bought its first Volvo five years ago and its portfolio of Volvo equipment now includes seven articulated haulers, an L120C loading shovel, a compact EC55B, two EC210Cs as well as the latest purchases. “We continue to have an excellent relationship with team from Volvo and the machines have been reliable and productive as well,” said proprietor David Smith. “The opinion of my operators is equally important and they appreciate the high standard of operator comfort and overall performance we’ve found with the machines.”
David Smith Contractors is entering into new areas such as demolition contracts, crushing and quarrying contracts as well as a piling division. “Moving into these areas and to be able to offer our client base a complete package of services is vital for the long term,” said Smith. “And to carry out the work in a cost effective manner means increasing the size of the machines and their capacities in terms of lifting and hydraulic capacity to suit the applications.”
One of the new EC240C’s has been modified by the customer to accept a bespoke piling rig which includes the fitting of an Indexator rototilt hitch and a hydraulically driven sheet piling head of the company’s own design and manufacture. The two tonne head runs off the EC240C’s hammer shear circuit and can handle sheet pile sections up to 14 metres in length at a reach of 7 metres. The selector block and solenoids for the rototilt have been repositioned and located within the superstructure of the machine to allow piling operations below or close to water. All the hose connections to the piling head and rototilt are fitted with quick release couplings.
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