Gwrtaith Gwynedd’s Volvo’s Loading Shovel is spot on
After nine months, Pwllheli based Gwrtaith Gwynedd, has nothing but praise for their Volvo loading shovel, which was purchased from SMT GB’s utility dealer for North Wales – Mona Tractors Ltd.
The Volvo L45H is being deployed handling green waste, waste wood and road sweepings at Gwrtaith Gwynedd’s recycling business. “Prior to this we used to run tele-handlers but found the maintenance costs quite high in this type of application,” explains proprietor Harry Parry. “We have had a strong relationship with Mona Tractors for many years, since our other activity is farming, and so when they took on the franchise for the Volvo compact equipment we felt confident enough to give the Volvo loading shovel a try.”
Because of the ongoing telehandler issues, SMT GB in conjunction with Mona Tractors arranged to loan Gwrtaith Gwynedd a used shovel whilst awaiting the delivery of their new 8.8 tonne L45H.
“The machine we borrowed had 10000 hours on the clock but it still felt extremely robust with virtually no wear in the linkages and was a pleasure to operate,” continues Harry. “It really endorsed our good decision to buy the L45H and having been running it since March the machine hasn’t skipped a beat and is extremely economical on fuel – it’s really spot on!”
The L45H is powered by a Volvo four litre, four cylinder Stage IV final engine developing 99.3 hp and a maximum torque achieved at just of 1450 r/min. This in turn is directly linked to a fully hydrostatic transmission providing a maximum speed of 30 kph. Specifically for HM & BP Parry’s recycling operation, the machine was equipped with a 1.5m³ general purpose bucket and 15.5R25 Nokian tyres. “Getting the specification of the tyres right was crucial for our operation and these tyres provide a high degree of traction, superb wear characteristics when working on the concrete pads yet are flexible enough to work efficiently on soft ground when we occasionally use the machine around the farm,” explains Harry.
The main duties for the L45H however are in the recycling yard where it handles incoming material from all over the north of Wales. This includes green waste, wood waste, road sweepings and inert building waste. The green waste is constantly being turned in windrows as it breaks down, the wood is shredded and graded and the road sweeping are screened then washed before plastics, metals and other recyclable material is recovered from it. The majority of the processed material is composted and used on farmers’ fields – including Harry’s.
Gwrtaith Gwynedd is the trading name of HM & BP Parry, a husband and wife team that has farmed the land around Pwllheli for many years. It was in 1998 that Harry Parry saw an opportunity to branch out and start recycling material to compost for his own farm and the recycling business has grown significantly since then and now recycles up to 25,000 tonnes of green waste per annum.
Mona Tractors Ltd is SMT GB’s utility dealer covering the North of Wales marketing compact excavators from 1.5 up to 8.8 tonnes and compact loaders from 0.8m³ to 1.5m³ capacity. The company has three outlets across the region including Ruthin, Anglesey and Pwllheli.
SMT GB markets Volvo Construction Equipment products which include wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, hydraulic excavators, Volvo utility equipment and Volvo road equipment products in Great Britain. There are eight strategically placed customer support centres, a dedicated National Used Equipment Centre and a network of utility equipment dealers to ensure high quality customer support is maintained throughout the country.
