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Owner operator


Paul Gowans has boosted the versatility of his


ECR58 midi excavator with a tilt rotator and a broad selection of attachments.


The VOICE sent


taffordshire-based owner operator Paul Gowans is all too aware that being a highly skilled operator with an excavator is no longer enough to give a competitive edge. He knows that to sit head and shoulders above competitors, he needs to provide solutions for customers. And those solutions don’t always involve digging a hole or trench, quickly and accurately.


“An excavator is so much more than just a digging machine,” says Paul Gowans, “and operators can no longer be ignorant to their capabilities.”


Having ventured down the road to being an owner-operator in 2010 with an ageing 1.5 tonner, the compact machine was soon joined by a much more versatile excavator, a secondhand EC55B.


Spending two years on the EC55B and swapping between a Solid leg grapple, Krupp breaker and a screening bucket in addition to a more conventional line-up of buckets, he soon learned the value of having different attachments at his fingertips.


Geoff Ashcroft along to find out more. . .


Happy with the weight and working radius of a 5-tonne midi, his 55B became a stepping stone to a short radius alternative – a Volvo ECR58 Plus – giving him greater versatility among tighter, more restricted sites. “The 55B had been so reliable that I had no reason to consider anything other than another Volvo,” he says. “And buying secondhand remained very important for me as a start-up business.”


“But I needed more versatility from my Volvo,” he says. “I could see the way forward being much more attachments- biased. I just had to work out how to spend my money wisely.”


To create his perfect excavator


THE VOICE PAGE 22


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