The Darling Diggers of Mays

by Nick Drew | Tue 11 Apr 2017

The Darling Diggers of Mays

Bringing another one of my Earthmovers Articles to life on the internet now with this feature on Owen Mays and his Takeuchi excavators, with my full text and different photos.

Owen Mays has always had an interest in plant and machinery, this interest was ignited by the fact that his father Brian Mays used to have his own building company and used to hire in diggers while doing all the groundworks, this meant that Owen was exposed to diggers and dumpers from a very young age, then like so many before him, after leaving school he went on to work for his father on the groundworks side of things. Owen recalled those early days saying, “I can still vividly remember sitting on dad’s knee on both diggers and dumpers. I can also remember my very first time trying to hand crank start one of the dumpers for the very first time. There was a real knack to this procedure and if you got it wrong you could end up with a broken wrist from the kick back! Anyway on this occasion I got my timing right and did manage to start the dumper, but unfortunately the handle didn’t come off as it should have and continued to spin wildly around until it flew off and slammed into the side of dad’s van, which earned me the then customary clip round the ear for my troubles!”.

Pictured above: A young Owen Mays at the controls of a Komatsu mini excavator, learning the ropes in the time honoured way. Sadly Owen’s dad passed away in 2011 and following on from that Owen tried to pick up the reins and carry on with his dad’s business, but it was a struggle on many levels, mainly due to the fact that a lot of the jobs Mr Mays senior used to do were more building related than groundworks the latter of which was much more Owen’s bag. Aiming to focus more on the landscaping and digger hire side of things in 2013 Owen formed a new company, Mays Landscaping Digger Hire & Groundworks. Owen was helped as a fledgling business by having a couple of good contacts who were small builders, whom used to work with his dad during all his years in the industry.

For the first two or three months of trading Owen hired in a mini digger as and when he needed one so as to keep overheads down, but then he was approached by a friend who asked him if he could possibly help him with a timber extraction job which would involve working on some challenging soft ground. With the prospect of a decent run of work ahead of him and the fact that he could not find a small machine to hire with a grab attachment, he decided that the time was right to invest in his own machine. Prior to this point Owen had always hired in Takeuchi mini diggers from a local hire company. Like many other end users Owen had always found them to be the best on the market and as such his mind was made up to opt for a Takeuchi model. A decent second hand 2006 model Takeuchi TB016 with just 1500 hours on the meter was located and a deal was done to purchase the machine.

Talking about the popular 1.6 tonne class model Owen said, “Having always enjoyed operating the Takeuchi’s it was a no brainer really, for a small machine they have loads of power, so smooth on the controls, the reliability of these things is the stuff of legends and the ability to get in the machine from both sides was a real bonus in some of the tight spots I end up working in. If I had to be picky and find fault with the machine it would have to be the lack of a visible fuel gauge, which I must admit did catch me out a few times and the fact that a canopy machine is not really conducive to the weather conditions we get in the UK, it can be grim sat on one for 10 hours a day in the freezing cold or rain or more often than not both!” Owen’s venerable TB016 was replaced in February this year for a brand new TB216 which he purchased from his local main dealer CBL Plant Sales in Southampton, Owen said “I decided to upgrade to the TB216 as I had gained some work working alongside river banks and I was worried that the older machine might blow a hose and the repercussions that could cause was bothering me. The new machine was supplied with Bio Oil which gives me a lot of peace of mind when working in any environmentally sensitive area”.

Owen continued, “Overall the TB216 is a lovely machine but in my eyes it falls slightly short of the legendary TB016 when it comes to build quality. The blade can clash with the boom when it’s at full reach at ground level, I guess this is due to the revised geometry with the boom lift ram now mounted to the rear of the boom, the wiper only has one speed, on or off with no intermittent, the heater is the same with no cold blow option, but for me the biggest problem is the position of the fuel filler cap with its location making it very difficult to fill using a jerry can.”

“Having said that, for a 1.6 tonne class machine the cab on the TB216 is lovely and surprisingly spacious inside, they have clearly put a lot of thought into the cab design providing a place to store the lower front foot plate glass and included a nice operator friendly console with easier to read instruments, including the much needed fuel gauge”. In June last year Owen purchased the first TB240’s to be supplied in Hampshire once again supplied by CBL Plant Sales. This machine was acquired due to upcoming work which would require a larger machine and Owen had decided he did not want to go down the hire route again.

We first caught sight of the stylish new TB240 when it along with its new sister machine the TB230, were unveiled at Intermat in Paris last year. The addition of these two machines now brings the Takeuchi range of conventional tailswing excavators to 12 models ranging from the 1 tonne class TB210R up to the 15 tonne class TB1140-2. Tipping the scales at 4000kgs the TB240 slots into the range between the 3.5 tonne TB235 and the 5 tonne TB250 and features more curvaceous and compact styling. Power comes from the well proven Yanmar 4 cylinder engine which offers a power output rating of 27.2kw and the machine has a maximum dig depth of 3465mm. Talking about his TB240 Owen said, “I feel this is one of the best machines I have ever had the pleasure of operating, it really is smooth and powerful, to be perfectly honest you would think it was a TB250 that you are using when you are using it as it performs like a 5 tonner!”

“The refuelling pump that’s a standard fitting on these is a god send. I personally think all machines should be fitted with them. The cab is a really good size inside with loads of leg room even for me at 6ft 1in and full size track foot pedals are a bonus as is the air conditioning unit which once again is a standard fitting on these machines, a real pleasure when we do get the occasional hot day in Hampshire!” On the TB240 Owen specified a Hill Tefra quick coupler and is in the process of having another auxiliary line put on to allow for a rotating selector/timber grab and an auger attachment. The machine has a full set of buckets and a riddling version and on the wish list for the future is a flai/mulcher.

The TB216 features a manual quick hitch from Keen Attachments with work tools including a 5 finger grab, land rake and a tilting hitch all of which were supplied by RSL Engineering. In addition they also have an Atlas Copco X70 hydraulic hammer and a cup attachment for driving fence posts in with. On the transport side of things Owen runs a MAN TGL 10 tonne hook loader which is capable of carrying 5 tonne when set up with its flat-bed plant deck. For day to day use Owen uses the lorry equipped with what he describes as a “drop side bin” that is capable of carrying 4.7 tonnes and is ideal for smaller jobs like driveways when it is handy for muck away and bringing aggregates, Owen describes it as “A great little lorry which can get in lots of places where big wagons can’t”

Earthmovers caught up with Owen and his mini diggers on a job in North Baddesley between Southampton and Romsey, Owen told us more about the job, “This job came about from a one day hire to dig some test holes which I very nearly turned down as I was so busy, they had been let down by another contractor and fortunately I was able to pull off a job and get there the same day, from that I was offered to quote for the whole job which involved demolition of an old bungalow that was on the site and all the groundworks for this modern new building” “There was a fair amount of reduce digging to be done as the roof height had to stay the same as the adjacent properties to meet planning regulations. We shifted around 600 tonnes of material to level out the back garden with gabion baskets as a retaining wall feature at the bottom of the garden, which at the moment is all overgrown again with the housebuilding work going on. The foundations here took 80m³ which had to be pumped in due to the challenges of the site access. The foundation dig was one of the most challenging I have ever done with 5 different trench widths and a maze of internal walls that made the finished article look more like a Pac Man course than a footing!” What this visit demonstrated is just how much work mini excavators can turn out when in the right hands and to think in the late 1970’s when they first started coming over from Japan, people said they would never last!

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