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'Working with an excavator without RotoTop is like working with a plastered arm!'

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Winfried Ott from the Bagger Fuchs company in Leinzell, Germany, has already operated his RotoTop for over 8,000 hours - and is now using the same rotary drive on a second excavator.

Winfried Ott mostly works on his own with his JCB Hydradig and its 26 different attachments, but does sometimes receive assistance form his family. Fuchs takes on a variety of different projects, such as earthworks, terrain modelling, building natural stone walls, horticulture and garden maintenance work, tree felling and removal of tree stumps, demolition work and waste disposal.

A few months ago, he replaced the first JCB Hydradig with a new model and the RotoTop was transferred to the new excavator.  A new inner piece means that Ott now has an 8-fold rotary joint with two separate circuits. He needs this in order to be able to operate certain attachments such as hedge trimmers, felling grapples or cutters over long periods of time, even in tough applications. "Nobody offers an oil passage of 120 litres except Holp with its RotoTop – using it, you are equipped for every attachment and every tough job," says Ott.

At the time of the interview, Winfried Ott had some unintentional spare time on his hands: a few days earlier, he had damaged the RotoTop for the first time when he was working blindly in a hole in the ground and didn’t see strong roots, which then tore off a hose on the rotary drive. While this was being repaired in the Holp workshop, he tried to carry out individual tasks using only the quick coupler and attachments - a frustrating experience, he says: "In landscaping, for example, I can no longer get my tasks done, there is always too much manual labour left over because I can no longer work precisely and quickly enough and usually need an extra man on the ground. When I work with other excavators with e.g. a Powertilt, I'm only half as fast compared to working with the RotoTop. Excavating without endless rotation really feels like working with a plastered arm to me. Now that the RotoTop is gone, you realise what you're really missing."

Without the RotoTop, he had placed curbs with his excavator and the client promptly complained about the slower working speed and the fact that many corners had to be finished by shovel and hand. He has therefore postponed his construction sites accordingly until his equipment is complete again.

Since the RotoTop arrived at Bagger Fuchs, there is no longer any need to use a shovel and spade; manual labour is literally a thing of the past because the endless rotation allows to work so flexibly and precisely. Ott explains: "The RotoTop really saves me an employee, especially when I'm carrying out gardening and landscaping tasks, the increase in performance can even count more than 100 percent."

Winfried Ott also appreciates the intuitive way of operation of the RotoTop; working with it is logical and therefore happens almost automatically. The low installation height is also important to him, so that one hardly feels any loss of tearing force. He also appreciates the really strong turning force, making it possible to turn with a 140cm wide bucket within the soil.

Ott describes the backfilling of a construction pit as a prime example of an application with RotoTop, as it is possible to remove the material lengthways and backfill it right into the corners without anyone having to help with a shovel. With the RotoTop, you can turn the bucket in the right direction, simply drive along and smooth out the material in just a few minutes. The same applies to levelling, here you simply have to adjust the bucket and can then move forward very quickly. The RotoTop also helps to work with millimetre precision when setting natural stones, angle stones or prefabricated steps. To do this, Ott uses a boom for lifting and aligns the parts before lowering them.

"These are just a few examples - I could list many more. My conclusion is that you especially realise all the advantages of the RotoTop when you don't have it at your disposal," concludes Winfried Ott.