Two more Loadmaster on-board weighing systems for Kelston Sparkes
Kelston Sparkes, the eponymous plant hire and sales group founded by company chairman Kelston Sparkes in 1952, have recently taken delivery of two Loadmaster 8000iX systems and fitted them to two Volvo L110G wheel loaders.
The family-led company, based in Stanton Drew, near Bristol, has grown from a single-man operation to a business now employing 150 people in a broad spectrum of contract areas, ranging from demolition to remediation, crushing and screening to recycling, and training to surveying.
The company is a long-term customer of RDS South West and holds a significant place in its history, as recalled by managing director Roger Hawker: ‘We supplied our very first Loadmaster 5000 system to Kelston back in 1994 and his company has remained a premier customer ever since,’ he said.
Loadmaster has benefitted from more than 17 years of continual development at RDS Technology headquarters in Stroud, Gloucestershire, and the latest recently launched 8000iX model benefits from additional standard features, including temperature compensation enhancing system performance, particularly on loaders with a wide variation in operating temperature, and angle compensation for an additional level of precision on most sites, not just those with obvious slopes.
In addition, the Loadmaster iX range offers effective management of weighing data. The Loadmaster 8000iX has an integral SD card port for fast and efficient data transfer between the loader and the weighbridge or office PC, as well as allowing pre-registered customer reference data to be uploaded directly to the instrument.
The two newly equipped Volvo L110Gs will join a fleet of 20 wheel loaders working within Kelston Sparkes’ crushing and screening division and will be deployed on a wide variety of sites, including one of the company’s specialist areas, serving the quarrying industry in the South West, particularly in the Mendip Hills.
Commenting on the system’s effectiveness and the service from RDS South West, managing director Alan Sparkes said: ‘Loadmaster is an integral part of the ‘load-out’ process. Trucks are accurately loaded at the face, eliminating return trips from the weighbridge and, therefore, maximizing productivity. I have a positive working relationship with Roger Hawker at RDS South West; he knows what we want and is always available on the end of the phone.
