PITCHCARE CLASSIFIEDS MACHINERY
Ten years of blood, sweat and tears
Designed to relieve compaction, improve drainage and revitalise growth, the OxyShot was introduced into the Charterhouse Turf Machinery portfolio at BTME 2019. It was a long road to Harrogate though for the machine’s creator, Peter Knight, who spent ten years converting the concept of the OxyShot into a reality...
Peter Knight is a well-known name in the field of sports turf maintenance and construction. He established his company Bury Turfcare in 1988 and, over the years, has kept abreast with the tools and techniques required to keep playing surfaces first-rate.
“When it came to the spot-treatment of heavily compacted soil, the go-to machine was always a Robin Dagger” says Peter. “I was regularly out contracting with the Robin Dagger, and it was a popular machine with groundsmen and greenkeepers across the industry.”
“Whilst everyone who used it agreed it was a brilliant machine, it wasn’t without its problems! The noise of it deafened you, the emissions from the petrol-driven engine nearly choked you and the vibration of the unit nearly killed you! It therefore wasn’t a massive shock when it was removed from the market for Health and Safety reasons, however, a machine to conduct the same job never emerged into the market to fill the gap.”
“I spoke to a number of people who agreed there was definitely a gap in the market for a new air-injection machine, so I used the concept of a product that worked but went back to the drawing board for a completely new design.”
“One of the main elements was to run the OxyShot purely off a large compressor, eliminating the need for electrics to reduce the risk of failures. The very first version of the OxyShot was pieced together in my shed, from various parts and components from other machines. I took this from engineer to engineer before I found someone who could invest the time, taking it piece by piece, to create bespoke components which would go on to form the very first prototype. It was then that Charterhouse Turf Machinery, and their parent company Redexim, became involved and suggested modifications that my engineer could work with.”
“It was all a massive learning curve, from understanding how to make the machine perform as I wanted, to sourcing all the necessary certification… ten years of blood, sweat, and at times, tears. But the combination of my hands-on experience as a contractor, Redexim’s manufacturing know-how and the expertise of the engineer proved to be the perfect mix.”
The end result is a unit that uses a single 25mm probe to inject air into the soil in four directions, at a pressure of up to 110psi and to a maximum depth of 500mm (20”). It can also be fitted with
122 PC April/May 2020
OxyShots in action at Ipswich Town Football Club’s training ground
The man behind the machine: Peter Knight (left), with Nick Darking of Charterhouse Turf Machinery
Lister Wilder’s two hire machines at work
an optional 14mm probe, to reduce the working depth to 250mm. It lifts, expands and decompacts the ground, without the need for chemical applications.
As well as dealing with compaction on sports pitches, the highly manoeuvrable unit can be easily transported for spot treatments in a variety of situations on a golf course - from high footfall areas such as walkways, to improving the drainage on greens and in bunkers. It can also be used for arboricultural operations, to deliver aeration to tree roots growing in compacted, air-starved soils.
Its multi-purpose nature has seen it become a staple on the hire fleets of dealers and contractors up and down the country. One of the first dealers to add the OxyShot to their hire offering was Lister Wilder. “We purchased our first unit back in August 2019,” explains Hire Operations Manager, Steve Potter. “Charterhouse presented the machine to us and, because of its unique operation and the lack of similar machinery in the market, we were keen to be able to offer the machine into the hire market. It was a learning curve for all involved, but it wasn’t long before we were able to demonstrate the machine’s full potential when installing thanks to the support of both Charterhouse and Bury Turfcare.”
Their predictions on the popularity and demand for the OxyShot came to fruition which saw Lister Wilder add a second unit to their hire fleet in January 2020 - just before the worst of the wet weather hit golf clubs and facilities up and down the country. “Roughly 90% of the demand we’ve seen is from golf courses, who will take the OxyShot on hire for a week to relieve compaction on greens and tees. Because there’s no other machine at the moment that can work to the depths that the OxyShot can, and
OxyShot in action on a golf course
instantly removes any standing water, it’s been hailed miraculous for those clubs that have exhausted all other avenues of dealing with deep compaction.”
The OxyShot is distributed exclusively throughout the UK by Charterhouse Turf Machinery. Nick Darking concludes, “When Peter first presented us with the concept, I and the team knew he was on to something. Having been the last company to import the Robin Dagger, we were well aware of how important that type of trouble shooting, deep aeration was to customers across both golf and sports turf and how, since it was taken away from the market, no machine had been introduced to fill that void. Nearly eighteen months on from its launch, the OxyShot has proven itself to be a fantastic addition to our aeration portfolio and has clearly demonstrated its true potential throughout the wet winter of 2019/20.”
www.charterhouse-tm.co.uk
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