Rastrum upgrade to the Terex Fuchs MHL 375F

Established in 1996, Rastrum Ltd has been a major force in the development of Rye Wharf. Before Rastrum’s arrival onto the Wharf it was very distressed with no ships to be seen. Due to the intuitiveness and determination of Rod Chapman and Dick Benge, the Wharf now offers a number of services. These include, shipping facilities, warehousing, office spaces, plant hire, vehicle storage and filming locations.

Rastrum’s shipping facilities mainly consists of unloading aggregates for Brett and decorate stone for Longleat Spa, amongst others. The Wharf is currently averaging around one boat a week.

Rastrum have been operating a Terex Fuchs MHL 360 for the last seven years so they felt like it was time to replace and upgrade.

As Rastrum were very happy with their old machine and the service that Blue provide, they decided to upgrade to a Fuchs MHL 375F. With their previous MHL 360 being seven years old, the new MHL 375F has several new features that Rastrum have benefitted from.

The removal of the steering wheel from the cab, means that the operators can now drive the machine using the joysticks. This provides operators with better visibility when working and offers more legroom, for a more comfortable experience. The 375F has also been fitted with side and rear facing cameras which come as standard, to offer more safety for the cab operator and those working around the machine. Rastrum also opted to go for the additional port option camera system which means there is a camera fitted to the end of the dipper. This allows the operator to get a closer view when unloading or loading vessels, which removes the need for a banksman. With the 375F being a bigger machine than their old 360, it also offers a further reach and increased lifting ability.

Clive Cottingham at Rastrum, offers his insight on the new Fuchs MHL 375F material handler: “we’ve been really impressed with the increased power of the new machine compared to the old one. The handler operates nice and smoothly, with a big difference being felt in terms of stability. We recently unloaded a boat containing type 1 aggregates and the extra weight the machine can carry made a huge difference’’.

Having only used the machine on the unloading of one boat so far, Rastrum are excited to use the machine again. The MHL 375F will no doubt serve them just as well as their old MHL 360 did, with Blue providing them with backup and support service, to give them piece of mind.

‘’The Fuchs MHL 375F is an impressively agile, mobile loading machine with a huge undercarriage and operating weight of up to 71 tonnes and a reach of up to 22 meters, which will no doubt help improve their operations. I’d like to thank Rastrum for their business, it was a pleasure working with them.’’ - Pat James, Head of Port Sales, Blue Group

Associated Businesses

  • Warrington, WA4 4SN