RJT Excavations Ltd – looking to the long haul with Volvo Construction Equipment

RJT Excavations Ltd of Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders has chosen to opt for new equipment from Volvo Construction Equipment based on the overall total cost of ownership for its plant fleet 

The recent additions to RJT Excavations’ fleet are a new 50 tonne Volvo EC480E excavator rigged for mass excavation and an L180H loading shovel complete with a 4.6m³ rehandling bucket, both of which have been assigned to the company’s contract crushing division. “We have a long association with Volvo equipment and are still running six-year old A30 articulated haulers which have proved very reliable and productive,” says RJT’s Contract Crushing and Transport Manager, Les Pole. “We needed to replace existing kit for our contract crushing division and having looked carefully at the market and, more importantly, having analysed the total cost of ownership over a set period, coupled to our past experiences operating Volvo machines, the package on offer was too good to overlook,” he continues.

Both the excavator and loading shovel have been supplied with an enhanced driveline warranty covering the next 5 years, or 10,000 hours, coupled to a Volvo Blue Service support agreement, meaning the machines will be regularly maintained by Volvo engineers at the correct service intervals using genuine Volvo parts. “When we looked at the lifetime cost of operating these machines, in particular the fuel savings and ultimately the residual values, everything stacked up,” says Les. “Not only that, the comfort and wellbeing of our operators is equally important, another reason for choosing Volvo.”

The Stage-IV Final 13-litre engine, featured in the EC480E develops 378 nett hp and is ideally matched to its automatic sensing-mode hydraulic system. The machine’s hydraulics are perfectly matched to the engine and is controlled by an advanced system which provides on-demand flow and reduces power losses within the circuit. Volvo’s unique ECO-mode contributes up to significant fuel savings without any loss of performance in most operating conditions. As well as improving fuel efficiency, this increases controllability for more precise performance. Additionally, Volvo’s integrated work-mode system offers the operator a choice of five work modes according to the task in hand – I (Idle), F (Fine), G (General), H (Heavy) or P (Power max) – for optimum efficiency and machine performance. When the controls have been inactive for a pre-set amount of time, the excavator can be programmed to automatically reduce engine speed or even shut down to further reduce fuel consumption and noise. Operators can keep track of both current and average fuel consumption via a simple gauge in the cab.

The EC480E has been supplied with a 6.5m mass excavation boom, a short 2.5m dipper arm, an hydraulic quick-fit and a 71-inch extreme rock bucket. Thus rigged, the machine is well on top of its duties loading blasted rock into a mobile crusher as part of RJT’s mobile contract crushing division.

Besides the excavator, the company has opted for a 28-tonne Volvo L180H wheeled loader which again joins the contract crushing division. Equipped with a 4.6m³ rehandling bucket, the machine also sports L5 XMineD2 wheel and tyre assemblies, a RDS 8000 Loadmaster weighing system, and all round visibility aids including an Ogden reverse alarm with automatic braking.

The L180H features a 13-litre Stage-IV final engine developing 333hp in a relatively low rpm range of between 1300 and 1400 rpm. The loading shovel also benefits from Volvo designed and manufactured driveline components, including optishift, with torque converter lock-up and reverse by braking feature – all designed to offer considerable fuel savings each shift. Fuel savings are further enhanced by the Volvo Eco-pedal encouraging the operator to run the machine at its optimum rpm in the engine’s torque curve.

Besides the two new machines for the crushing division, RJT Excavations Ltd has also recently added two, fourteen tonne Volvo EC140E excavators along with a DD25B tandem roller for its civils division which are deployed on typical building, construction and ground works projects.

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