For a young, expanding civil excavation and plant dry hire business, the cost-effectiveness of adding LiuGong machines to its fleet has been simply too good to pass up.
From a base at Banksmeadow in Sydney, DL Civil has been traversing the greater area to perform the full spectrum of excavations down to backyard swimming pools, as well as handling a wide range of demonstration works.
Dublin-raised David Leonard arrived in Australia from Ireland about 15 years ago, and within about 10 years he has established a business comprising around 30 machines including excavators up to 40 tonnes, seven to eight trucks, and a team of about 20 operators.
Sitting alongside the DL Civil business today is DL Plant Hire and that’s the one the LiuGong equipment is helping to expand.
It recently welcomed a 2.8-tonne, zero-swing 9027F LiuGong excavator and a 3.8-tonne 6032 roller.
David has had a long relationship with Liam King of local LiuGong dealer, Pacific Machinery Group, where he has purchased a range of machine attachments, and, also aided by strong encouragement, he said he could no longer ignore the benefits of the LiuGong brand.
“They are our first LiuGong machines and they are way cheaper than the alternatives,” David says.
“At this smaller end, they probably cost $20,000-$30,000 less and in the mid-range of excavators, the saving is more like $50,000-$70,000.”
The 9027F LiuGong excavator is powered by a 20hp Yanmar engine and suits a range of works including utilities, foundations, landscaping, indoor and outdoor demolitions, and construction.
It is easy to operate and transport and the zero tail and boom swing allows it to dig right alongside its tracks.
“With the zero swing, it can work in tight access areas,” David says.
“For one job, I also took the roof off to work inside a garage. It only required unscrewing a few bolts – it was easy.”
He says the 9027F machine completed some excavation work initially before being set for the dry hire business and heading out to a company to assist demolition works. It uses a quick-hitch for all buckets and also includes a hammer and a grab to pick up rubbish for loading into skip bins.
The 6032 LiuGong roller is the dry hire business’ first roller on civil jobs including road and car park construction and its operators have been highly impressed.
“For their performance in doing the job for a machine price that is $20,000-$30,000 less than others, the LiuGong rollers are really good,” David says.
Power and vibration with the LiuGong 6032 roller are delivered via a reliable Tier 3 Perkins engine, which David said helped to provide even further confidence to operators.