Spreading the Sunward Gospel

SSW Equipment, who are based in Bow, near Crediton in Devon, held their latest event, which was renamed the Drive & Dine Open Days, in the run up to the bank holiday last Friday and Saturday, we popped along on the first day for a taste of the action.

I arrived slightly early not realising that the event was scheduled to kick off at midday, but it gave me a good opportunity to take a good look around, before any other visitors arrived.

SSW Equipment are the officially appointed Sunward dealers for Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset, so they have quite a large area to cover. So far, the products have been well received by customers and SSW Equipment spokesman Andrew Venton reports that they have hardly had to put a spanner to any of them except for regular servicing.

For the open day the company assembled a decent number of mini and midi excavators ranging from the sub-1-tonne SWE08B up to the zero tailswing SWE90UF. We also spotted a couple of the older series machines so it was nice to compare just how far these machines have moved on in terms of design styling and specification.

Powered by a Yanmar EU Stage V 14.6 kW diesel engine, the 2.5-tonne class zero tailswing SWE25UF is one of the manufacturers best selling mini excavators in the UK market and was gaining plenty of attention during the day. A pile of stone was presented in the yard for customers to try out the machines on, to give them a feel for how they operate.

Most visitors we spoke too said they were impressed with not only how they operate, but by the styling and the high quality of manufacturing, the only negative narrative I heard was the fitment of PVC seats in the fully cabbed machines, which is fair comment, but my understanding is that cloth seating can be specified at time of order, lets be honest, nobody wants to sit on a PVC seat during a hot summers day for 9 or 10 hours.

Another machine attracting a lot of attention was the SWTL4538 compact tracked skid steer loader which is an impressive beast to see in operation. This machine like all the others in the Sunward range feature blue chip components from the likes of Kubota and Rexroth. The SWTL4538 is powered by an EU Stage V emissions compliant Kubota engine diesel engine which offers a power output rating of 55.4kW.

The dealer also had numerous examples of other products from their portfolio from the likes of Mechbadger, Dragon Equipment and Brian James Trailers, plus kit from their agricultural range.

The day was made complete with a complimentary freshly cooked bacon roll and a tea or coffee, with seating where we were able to enjoy the craic with local visitors. I was also delighted to meet up with Digger Man Blog Facebook group member Trevor Wonnacott who was attending with his daughter Jessie.

All in all, it was a great day out, and I would personally like to thank the team at SSW Equipment for the kind hospitality on the day of my visit.