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Backing British in Cornwall

For Rundle Weldhen (61) Managing Director of Newquay based family business P.R. Weldhen Plant Hire & Agricultural Contractors, that journey started at the age of 15, when his father purchased 300 acres of land on and around the site of the current head offices in Cornwall.

A young Rundle would often come home from school and be looking for something to do, but like many farmers nobody wanted to pay him. It transpired that Rundle’s dad had a small JCB 2 backhoe loader kicking around the farm and it was suggested that he go out on hire with that machine to earn himself some money.

Rundle takes up the story, “I went out with the digger, and discovered that I really enjoyed the digger work, travelling around doing the jobs and meeting different people and ultimately earning a few quid. This led to me buying my first own JCB when I was about 20 years old, which was an early 3CX model and only two-wheel-drive, so that was the start of it really.

Then a good friend of mine, John Rawlings, at another long-established family business H. Rawlings Plant Hire who also ran a couple of JCB’s, retired and sold the business, and became my first ever employee at the age of 65. Hell of a driver and still going strong today at the age of 90!

Naturally John brought work with him which further helped to increase our customer base and we have just gone on from there really to where we are today with some 41 employees on the books”.

Today the fleet which is heavily dominated by JCB machines includes: 12 x mini excavators, 9 x midi excavators, 9 x 13/14-tonne class hydraulic excavators, 14 x backhoe loaders, 13 telehandlers, 11 x site dumpers, 4 x ride on rollers and 24 x agricultural tractors and associated attachments.

A look around the yard and its quite clear to see that Rundle is a big fan of JCB products, asked for his thoughts on them he said, “In all honesty with JCB we just don’t get any trouble with them, we are very fortunate to have operators who have been on for us over 20/25 years and they know how to look after the machines and do the job, I always say a good business will run itself.

My partner Jo takes care of things in the office and I run things outside the office, it works well for us. I do like to keep my hand-in too, only just recently I spent 5 months out on a 3CX myself on hire to Cormac the local council, its my belief that people still like to see the boss on site, and that way we tend to pick up more work along the way.

Rundle continued, “It’s getting increasingly harder to find them these days, but we do have a fantastic team of wheeled digger drivers, many of whom have been with me so long that they are like family. We do try to look after them, they get to choose their machine, with the specification they want and any other touches they would like on them, and they can also choose what van they want too”.

The company has something of a niche in Cornwall for the backhoe loader and are running the largest fleet of BHL’s in the County with many of them on permanent hire to Cornwall County Council (Cormac) in addition to working for utilities providers, for which they run a backhoe mounted auger attachment for drilling holes for telegraph poles and the like.

Rundles partner Jo Bryant said, “The council have their little gangs and we find that if they like the driver, they will often ring up and ask for them by name which is great, they go out and we don’t see them for months on end or until a particular hire has come to an end, so it just works so well”.

The company also have 4 backhoe loaders working full time with the blasting gangs in the Imerys China Clay pits in St Austell one of which is a 4CX (an additional 4CX is also on order) which is used to move the pumps for the water cannons that wash the clay, and for other heavy lifting work like moving pipes, one operator Dave Lobb has been in the pits with a JCB for over 25 years!

The company also have an additional selection of attachments for the backhoe loaders including road planers and front mounted road sweeping brushes.

On the day of Earthmovers visit to P.R. Weldhen’s yard, they had just taken delivery of their latest JCB 3CX Pro which was so fresh it was still waiting for the sign writing to be installed, talking about the new models Rundle said, “Our operators have been really impressed with the Pro because of the speed on the road, the 50 kph spec is a game changer especially for our game, where they are often shooting from one job to another, and I can’t emphasise enough, they are so reliable, we hardly ever see them in the yard!”.

Rundle describes his relationship with local dealer Holt JCB as excellent, with special praise going to Paul Butcher their Regional Sales Manager, who in his eyes is the best rep they have had in Cornwall for many years.

As a sign of the camaraderie among the backhoe loader operators, the team often get together to perform a dancing digger display at local shows and rallies throughout the summer. This is something the lads have done all off their own backs, and they organise it all with the full blessing of Rundle and Jo.

The dancing digger routine has long been a popular spectacle at local events in the South West and the team raise a lot of money for local charities too.

Rundle said, “Its great really, families and the kids all love to see the diggers performing and it really drawers in the crowds to these events. There is no doubt about it, the wheeled digger has always been the foundation stone of my business really, and will continue to be an important machine to us and our customers, they just bring us so much work, and we are fortunate enough to have good drivers who love the backhoe, in addition we also have some youngsters coming through and learning to operate them too”.

The company perform all their own servicing and employ two full time mechanics based at the yard running fully appointed mobile service vans, and one self-employed fitter keeping it all in-house, in addition they have recently taken on Paul Butchers son Charlie, as an apprentice in the yard who is proving to be a really good addition to the team, they are also in the process of setting up their own mobile hydraulic hose repair service.

The plant hire business also compliments the large 3000-acre family farm they run, something that they are all very passionate about. It works well because if someone gets off hired, or is rained off, they can always continue working on the farm, doing hedges, ditch cleaning or general cleaning up. In addition, they also do a lot of topsoil screening in an area of the farm with a 13-tonne excavator fitted with a screening bucket.

Some of the more unusual jobs that Weldhen’s 3CX’s get called out for, is the removal of dead whales, dolphins and seals that are often washed up on the beaches around the Cornish coastline, most notably a 40ft whale that they recently dealt with that required a tandem lift using two 13-tonne hydraulic excavators to remove and load onto a tipper body.

We took a short drive out towards Newquay to see one of the firms new 3CX Pro’s working for Cormac on a new roundabout and site entrance to a new housing development, where we met up with operator Simon Page, who was previously a 360-degree excavator driver, but has made the transition back to a backhoe loader and is loving it.

Since its launch in 2021 the 3CX Pro which is powered by JCB’s latest Stage 5 DieselMax 448 engine, producing a power output of 108hp (81kW) compared to 91hp on the previous model, has made a significant impact on the BHL market.

Asked for his thoughts on the machine Simon said, “It’s nice, smooth to operate and very quick on the road, just an incredibly versatile piece of kit really””.

Simon also spoke about the incredible pushing power on the new machine which is obviously helped by the increase in the engine torque which is rated at 516Nm. This pushing power was clearly demonstrated as man and machine set about loading some difficult material from the waste stockpile onto a waiting tipper.

Simon concluded, “I’m loving the all-new six-speed auto-shift transmission, that combined with the auto-drive feature makes it an absolute joy to drive on the road, it really does tick all the boxes for me!”.