Possibly a Hymac-based drilling platform?

[Gavin Phillips]

Well I never thought I'd ever be lucky enough to find something rare but this might just be my lucky break.

I do believe it is a Hymac. I do know that a company which may still exist (called Halco) used a collection of older Hymac, JCB and O&K excavators as the basis for drilling rigs that were used in the early stages of opencast operations.

Visibility of what's going on within the site confines is extremely limited and I consider myself very lucky to have got these couple of snaps!

So, is this a Hymac by any chance and can it be model identified?




There's also a couple of older JCB 800-series machines on site. One looks to be a normal excavator, the other has been converted to the same kind of machine as this "possible Hymac". Very curious!

Best regards

Gavin

[Jeremy Rowland]

Nice pics Gavin its definately a 580C.

Jeremy

[Gavin Phillips]

Nice pics Gavin its definately a 580C.

Jeremy

Thank you Jeremy and you've just made my day!

Now if only I could get more pictures of the machinery on-site!

Best regards

Gavin

[Jeremy Rowland]

Its certainly a rare find these days although P. Forkers plant who are not so far from where I live were using a 580D with a similar set up not so very long ago; and they still have some old JCB Powerslide excavators set up the same.

Jeremy

[Gavin Phillips]

Its nice to hear that there are a few of these still soldiering on. Do you happen to know if the actual PowerSlide on the JCB machines is still operational after this conversion? Are the tracks hydraulically controlled to increase stability during operation and reduce width during transport? Some of the later model CAT ones were (325's I think) but not sure about machines of this vintage.

[Jeremy Rowland]

Its nice to hear that there are a few of these still soldiering on. Do you happen to know if the actual PowerSlide on the JCB machines is still operational after this conversion? Are the tracks hydraulically controlled to increase stability during operation and reduce width during transport? Some of the later model CAT ones were (325's I think) but not sure about machines of this vintage.

I would not have thought so and it would not really gain anything to have the Powerslide operational when the machine is used in this way.

Jeremy

[IBH]

Forkers Ltd and Forkers Scotland Ltd run Hymac and JCB mounted drilling rigs like the one seen above. Their website has many photos of such rigs littered throughout: http://www.forkers.com/
I believe Forkers Scotland Ltd was previously called Consolidate Ltd (formerly Seamark Geotechnical) and acquired by Forkers, and, they also ran a fleet of Hymac rigs.

Norwest Holst Soil Engineering, now called Soil Engineering Geoservices Ltd, also had a number of Hymac based rigs for their grouting operations.

[Gavin Phillips]

Hmm very interesting. I do hope there are plenty more of these Hymac/JCB rigs out there that are still bringing cash in for their owners.

Is there a standard drill depth for a drilling rig based on a machine the size of a Hymac 580C? I do believe the JCB's on site are the original 814 "Super" model although since there's two, the other may be different.

Best regards

Gavin

[Jeremy Rowland]

I think you'll find that Norwest Holst have now scrapped most of their Hymac based drilling rigs.

Jeremy

[Joes1989]

I've just found a site in Newton, Derbyshire that's got 4 of the JCB drill rigs on it! I'll try and get some pictures of them in action at some point!

Joe