Tag Archive for: Fleet

Murray Hire Expands Först Fleet

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Murray Hire Expands Först Fleet: Bristol-based equipment and tool hire business Murray Hire Centres is expanding its long-standing fleet of Först woodchipper machines, after consistently being impressed by the superiority and reliability of the machinery.

Established since 1982, Murray Hire Centres is a close-knit family run business, now employing a total of 15 staff. With 600 account customers, the business has built itself a reputation as the best one-stop shop for equipment and tool hire in Bristol and the surrounding areas.

Murray Hire Expands Först Fleet

Mandy Taylor, Managing Director of Murray Hire Centres, explains why the business has worked closely with Först since its inception and has chosen to maintain the relationship ever since.

“There are numerous factors that make the Först machinery stand out to other machines available on the market”, said Mandy. “We’ve always felt that, paired with the consistent reliability and efficiency of the machines, their smart appearance also makes them far superior against other competitors.”

At present, Murray Hire Centres has two TR6’s, one ST6 and one TR8 machine, with another TR8 currently on order. Ideal for remote locations, the TR6 is a compact and manoeuvrable chipper which comes complete with Först’s unique ForstGrip feed-roller system, allowing for even the toughest forks and limbs to be broken.

Mandy continued: “We have reaped nothing but benefits from having Först machines on our fleet. For the business as a whole, it’s allowed us to offer a full circle of products to our customers. The robust machines have been utilised in a variety of scenarios over time, from general arboriculture work through to site clearances for large company extensions, as well as housing estates.

“Despite it being a rarity to face an issue with the machines, the warranty and after-sales support offered by Först is superb, which really gives us faith in the products and provides us with the assurance we need as a business.”

Going forward, Mandy is confident that the relationship with Först will continue to strengthen.

“Since day one, we have always had a fantastic relationship with Först, and we firmly believe that the machines are the best chippers available on the market.”

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Increased Wiedenmann Fleet

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Increased Wiedenmann Fleet: South Wales contractors Peter Villars Sportsgrounds Maintenance (PVSGM) have doubled their aerator fleet. In January the Cwmbran-based family business added a Wiedenmann Terra Spike XD6 to their current Wiedenmann Terra Spike GXi8 HD.

Director, Iestyn John said: “We need to cover lots of ground fast. Clients want you in and out so they can get on with their business. Even at speed the Wiedenmanns can be relied upon do a neat and tidy job.”

Increased Wiedenmann Fleet

Ahead of the season launching Easter meeting at Bath Race Course, PVSGM spiked the whole race course easily within a normal working day.

Iestyn working with his father, Steve John, said because of relentless poor weather it was the first occasion they had the machines in tandem.

“The Bath track is about 7 hectares. We started in the home straight with the tractors facing separate directions.  Tine holders on the legs of XD are slightly further apart than the GXi8 so hole patterns weren’t strictly identical but matched closely. Both were set to 150 mm deep with heave at 10° as the roots are quite shallow and there’s a base of Cotswold stone beneath. We kept to a steady 3 km / hr.

“Last year the same job took us two days. Now with the extra Terra Spike when we see a weather window, clients will get the benefit. We can get the jobs done faster. “

PVSGM have been operating in South Wales and the South West for over 30 years. With several race courses on their books they also maintain and renovate bowls, tennis rugby, cricket and football surfaces as well as helping a host of synthetic customers.

For more information, visit: www.wiedenmann.com

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School Extends Dennis Fleet

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School Extends Dennis Fleet: Andy Richards, grounds manager at Shrewsbury School, has extended his existing fleet of Dennis mowers having recently purchased three new Dennis FT510’s and two new G760’s. 

Andy has been the grounds manager at the illustrious Shrewsbury School for nearly eight years and he and his team of eleven groundstaff tend to 120 acres of green space – three quarters of which are sports pitches. In addition to synthetic surfaces and other world class facilities there are ten grass pitches which cater for the School’s highly competitive sports teams.

School Extends Dennis Fleet

The boys compete internationally in cricket, and Shrewsbury School boasts a string of historically strong football teams. Rugby is played at a high level and girls compete locally and nationally in hockey, netball and tennis. It’s no wonder then that with over 800 pupils, many of whom participate in sports, that the sports pitches endure an incredibly high amount of usage. This, however, does not keep Andy and his team from maintaining them to an exceptionally high standard.

“The trick is to be pro-active rather than reactive,” he says. “We try to keep the standards of our pitches to those of the football league. In fact, our first team football pitch is definitely better than the pitch I had when I was the head groundsman at a professional football club.”

Andy chooses to use a variety of equipment from Dennis to get the best out of his sports surfaces. For cricket square maintenance he uses his three Dennis FT510’s and for football two G760 mowers.

“This is my third batch of FT510’s and they work extremely hard here,” he says. “We use them predominantly for cricket wicket presentation and through the cricket season we host 250 matches – they are used for every one of those.”

The Dennis FT510 is an interchangeable cassette cylinder mower giving users options to fit twelve different cassettes including scarifiers, verticutters, brushes, spikers and slitters as well as 5 or 10 blade cutting cassettes.

“We’ve got a wide range of cassettes and by having the three machines we have the ability to use a different cassette in each one. We might have a cylinder, a brush and a verticutter out at the same time so we can use them back to back. On other days, one of the team may just work all day on a wicket and they can simply interchange their cassettes without having to get a different machine out. It’s a massive time saver and it’s great having that versatility.”

For his football surfaces, Andy revealed that he is an advocate of hand mowing and that he uses his G760’s in conjunction with his Dennis Premiers: “I’ve always been a fan of the G760’s and originally we used them on the cricket squares. However, we started hand cutting the first team football pitch with them and we have the added bonus of using a variety of different cassettes such as the verticutter and brush.

“To allow us to mow more pitches by hand we use the G760’s alongside the Premiers which have a slightly wider cut and it gives us a good contrast with the G760 because that is slightly smaller and slightly lighter. When the pitches are wetter we can get on with a G760; on other occasions we may veer more towards the weight of the Premier.

“We try and vary what we do and it may depend on the usage and what games we have but it is ideal having a variety of machines.”

With such a hectic schedule, Andy was also quick to praise the reliability of the machines and the back-up he receives from the Dennis team.

“We are such a busy school and we haven’t got any downtime at all. Fortunately we don’t have many problems and that comes down to the quality of the machines. The back-up from Dennis is really good and reassuring and I could pretty much guarantee that if something did go wrong, I know that something would be sorted out extremely quickly.”

For further information or a no obligation demonstration, please contact Dennis 01332 824 777 or visit www.dennisuk.com

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New John Deere Fleet At Abridge

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New John Deere Fleet At Abridge: Based in 160 acres of beautiful Essex parkland with stunning views of the countryside which can stretch as far as London on a clear day, Abridge Golf Club at Stapleford Tawney near Romford describes itself as combining traditional values with a modern outlook.

Course manager Geoff Smith welcomes what he also describes as a ‘new dawn’ at the club, with recent developments including a third successive John Deere course maintenance equipment fleet deal with local dealer P Tuckwell Ltd at Ardleigh, near Colchester. This is based on a John Deere Financial operating lease with PowerGard Protection Plus warranty and maintenance cover for the duration of the lease, based on simple monthly payments.

New John Deere Fleet At Abridge

This deal has been complemented by the arrival of a new teaching professional and a new golf club fitting centre installed by Golf Principles of Basingstoke, as well as plans for a redesign of the clubhouse plus an overhaul of the practice facilities and driving range. A new full wall-to-wall Perrot state of the art irrigation system, the first one of its kind in the UK, is also being installed by contractors M J Abbott this winter.

“It’s a really exciting time for the club,” says Geoff Smith. “With this new investment, the first for several years, we are aiming to bring the course back to Open Qualifier standards and keep ahead of the competition. The only real asset we have is the golf course, so it needs to be looked after.

“Members can already see what we’ve achieved, and our board members believe the course is the best it’s ever looked. A neighbouring club’s greens chairman even said that he’d heard Abridge is in absolutely magnificent condition.”

With this third package deal, 100 per cent of the equipment has been leased compared to just 40 per cent with the club’s first agreement. “The terms of the deal and the service package have improved each time, and with this latest investment we know exactly where we are budget wise for the next five years, with no hidden costs,” says Geoff.

The package covers 26 John Deere machines, including PrecisionCut and TerrainCut walk-behind and ride-on mowers for the greens, tees, approaches and rough, compact tractors and a front loader, Gator utility vehicles, an amenity turf sprayer and a bunker rake, plus ancillary equipment.

“We looked at all the main brands and had machines on demonstration – all of my staff get to try them and report back on their likes and dislikes,” says Geoff. “Our mechanic Paul Aylett, deputy course manager Ben Scrivener and I then evaluate the staff’s findings and look at price options and back-up issues.

“For us it all comes back to the dealer and the service we’ve historically had and continue to get from Tuckwell and sales manager Neil Peachey. All the advice, help and extra support really count – it’s a good relationship, and it works well for both sides. Our machines do a lot of work and if Paul cannot solve things, I need to know that someone from the supplier can be with us within 24 hours.”

Geoff Smith also says he’s very impressed with the new John Deere 9009A rough mower, which provides much better definition around the course. “When it was first demonstrated I didn’t want it, I thought it was too big, but Neil said he’d take it back if I really didn’t like it – and it stayed!

“I like the new 220SL walk-behind greens mowers too – we hand cut five out of seven days in high season, using lights and front brushes, and they do a very good job. The new A Model mowers with the TechControl display on the CommandArm are great as well, allowing every machine to achieve the same consistent finish across the course.”

For more information, visit: www.JohnDeere.co.uk

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Toro UTV Fleet Increased

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Toro UTV Fleet Increased: John O’Gaunt Golf Club in Sandy, Bedfordshire, has recently purchased two Toro Workman utility vehicles, which has increased the club’s UTV fleet to seven. These hard-working vehicles have racked up in excess of 16,000 hours of work between them demonstrating outstanding value and longevity.

 

Nigel Broadwith, course manager, runs machines that are up to 18 years old with no problems. “I think we are proving at John O’Gaunt that you can get more out of your Toro machines than perhaps you think you can and that you don’t have to always buy new to get results,” he says.

Toro UTV Fleet Increased

“Our oldest Workman is the 3300D from 1999, that machine has done an impressive 4132 hours of work over 18 years. Of our more recent machines we have a HDX-D from 2015 which has put in an equally impressive 1652 hours in two years.”

Most of the UTVs Nigel purchases are second-hand, with the latest two purchased as they came out of a five-year lease deal, which means they represent great value for the club. In fact, purchasing the machines this way meant Nigel could buy two second-hand Workman utility vehicles for the price of one new one.

“Even new the Workman UTVs present good value, but purchasing our utility vehicles this way is cost-effective and means we can put the rest of the budget into our turfcare machinery, plus fuel consumption is excellent. A Workman is a workhorse and puts in the hours. We use ours for diveting tees, topping up bunkers with sand, turf and tree work and transportation; we even have one whose body we have removed and replaced with a topdresser for that sole use.”

But that’s not all. The club’s Workman vehicles are nothing if not versatile, stepping in when needed with all sorts of jobs as Nigel explains: “The machines comfortably seat two men and in the rare times when we have issues with player’s golf trollies we’ve been more than happy to pick up members and transport them around the course in the Workmans. They are quick, quiet and still look good.

“I think it’s important to consider all the options available when it comes to creating your fleet. Toro proves itself to be capable of lasting and still being up for the job, even when the machines are up to 18 years old. That’s why I think Toro make the best utility vehicles in the industry.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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