From Tractors to Tracked Excavators

Taking a look back at one of my articles previously published in Earthmovers Magazine, bringing it to life on the internet, unedited and with alternative photos and video footage.

Based in Lifton, Devon, Eric Gilbert (57) “Gilby” to his friends, has like many others before him, trodden the path from agricultural worker to heavy plant operator.

Eric left school in 1978 and naturally, in the rural setting of the West Country, started working on a local farm doing a wide variety of manual jobs and gaining a lot of experience along the way. Around 1983/4 Eric was offered a job as a tractor driver, with long established agricultural business F.J. Yeo Ltd from Okehampton.

It was while working for Yeo’s that Eric got his first shot at operating a backhoe loader. At the time the business was running 3 x JCB 3CX 4x4 Turbo wheeled diggers, with at least one of them out on a long-term hire on the A30 Okehampton bypass project. At a cost of £16.6 million the 8.5km (5.3mile) scheme to remove congestion in the market town of Okehampton provided local plant hirers with a great opportunity for a long run of work.

As it happened one of Yeo’s digger drivers working on the project decided to leave and so Eric was literally chucked in at the deep end on a major project, to operate the machine, and so began a 12-year period of sitting behind the wheel of a backhoe loader.

Following an all too familiar tale, after the lengthy period on the backhoe loader, Eric was offered the drive on a “swing shovel” (the local term for a 360^o excavator) the machine in question was a German built O&K (Orenstein & Koppel) RH4 which weighed in around the 11-12 tonne mark, and was in top class condition, having only had one previous operator on it, talking about the machine Eric said, “The RH4 was an absolutely brilliant machine with plenty of speed and grunt from the Deutz air cooled engine, and I must add, that if anyone knows about these machines, they would know about the dipper arm movements and what you needed to be doing with the control lever!”

Photo courtesy of Digger Man Blog archives: German built O&K excavators were much loved by Eric. 

A reference to the fact that back in those days control lever patterns varied quite a bit from manufacturer to manufacturer and in the case of O&K, the left hand joystick worked in reverse to say an ISO pattern, which saw the operator push the lever forwards to bring the dipper in and you pulled it back towards you to send the dipper out again, all rather confusing for the first few hours on the machine until it became natural.

Sometime later JCB had launched the 814 Super hydraulic excavators, which featured the Powerslide boom, F.J. Yeo Ltd bought two of them and as it happened one of them was earmarked for Eric, “What a jump!” He exclaimed, “Some of the earlier 800 series JCB’s had not been so good, but the 814 Super was a fantastic machine, and they just went on and on and on, in fact one of these machines is still going to this day working on the farm”.

An opportunity then arose for Eric to operate a machine for famous South West comedian Jethro who was running a side line agricultural contracting business, Ardoch Plant. It was while working for Jethro that Eric developed a love for machines from the Hitachi stable as he spent time on his Fiat-Hitachi FH130-3, Eric said, “I was really impressed with the FH130, the combination of Japanese hydraulics and the Iveco engine was brilliant in my opinion and it gave us very little trouble overall, apart from the odd diesel issue with the lift pump, but that was it really”.

In 2002 and with many years of experience under his belt, Eric took the decision to start up his own business D & E Plant Hire, and it will come as no surprise to learn that his first machine was a Fiat-Hitachi FH130-3 model, this machine was purchased from Chris Luscombe’s Devon Plant sales and served him very well.

When it came to the time to change again the search was on for another Hitachi, on this occasion Eric turned to main dealer at the time HM Plant who had a very tidy Fiat-Hitachi EX135 available, which after viewing he decided to purchase, Eric still maintains to this day that it was his best machine ever! This machine was eventually replaced by yet another Hitachi, this time a Zaxis ZX130 model.

Somewhat surprisingly, there was then a brief departure from the Hitachi brand as Eric purchased a Caterpillar 311C which had been traded in at the local Case dealers M & M Plant Sales. This machine was a tidy example and had previously been sold by Finning under their Certified Used scheme. This compact radius machine was slightly lighter than the previous Hitachi’s he ran, weighing in at 11,980kgs, but once again it served him well over the next 4 years that he owned it.

However, the lure of the orange paintwork was still present as just recently Eric has traded in the Cat in favour of a low houred, 2014 model Hitachi Zaxis ZX130LCN-5B which he purchased from Wirral based MJ Lavin Plant.

Weighing in between 12,000kgs to 14,000kgs depending on specification, the ZX130LCN-5B is a fine example of why Hitachi have led the way in hydraulic excavators for decades, brimming with top quality Japanese components and powered by the ever reliable Stage 3B emissions compliant 4-cylinder Isuzu AM-4JJ1X which produces a power output rating of 73.4kw (98hp) it, and the later dash-6 models continue to be big favourites with groundworks contractors across the UK.

Further enthusing about his Hitachi excavators Eric said, “There’s no doubt in my mind, they are the best in the business, the silky smooth hydraulics, loads of power when needed and the comfort for the operators is second to none, I’ve tried them all over the years, but I always prefer the Hitachi. I must admit though, I did try out a Case CX130 back along and it was pretty good to be fair, but I reckon I must have orange in my blood as I keep coming back to Hitachi!”

Most of Eric’s work is done on local farms and country estates and he has good regular customers who keep him busy most of the year. Most of his excavator work takes place during the winter months, in summer the Hitachi tends to be parked up as Eric takes on more work with his Valtra tractor and various implements including a McConnell hedge trimmer.

We caught up with Eric on a local farm near Lewdown, Devon where he had been digging out shale for hard standings and tracks and was in the process of backfilling the excavation with soil, asked why he doesn’t have his business name on the kit Eric said, “To be honest I’m in a nice position where I don’t feel I need to advertise, I have a close circle of very good customers and that keeps me busy enough. Working on these farms and estates suits me down to the ground, I have no desire to go out working on construction sites anymore with all the red tape associated with that environment, I don’t even need to have a ticket for this line of work, so its all good”.  

Eric’s work with the excavator involves general digging, ditch cleaning, hedge building, laying water pipes, land drainage, tree shearing, and working on equestrian projects like sand schools and the construction of all-weather gallops for local horse trainers. Like many in the agricultural sector Eric is very self-sufficient, with the ability to shift himself and his machine around locally with his Valtra tractor and trailer combo, keeping transport costs down to a minimum for customers.

As is so often the case with these family businesses, there is always a good woman working behind the scenes, in this case it is Eric’s daughter Heidi Baber, who does all the paperwork and man’s the phones when needed, Heidi said, “I’m very proud of what dad has achieved, over his 37-years of operating machines, that’s a lot of an awful lot of sandwiches too!” she joked.

Talking of family Eric has long term plans for his grandson Oliver who at 11 years old is really keen on the diggers, Eric said, “I think after this machine has served its time, I will invest in one more, so I have something decent to pass on to young Oliver, who I’m sure will be keen to join and eventually take on the family business”.

From what I saw on the day of my visit, Eric certainly has the best of both worlds for those of us who love operating machines, the ability to be able to work on his own in the glorious surroundings of the Devon countryside, where he can just crack on and get the job done.