Bell Wheeled Loaders A Positive Move For Earthline

Wiltshire-based company purchase two Bell machines for their Shellingford Quarry

Plant operators are on a seemingly never-ending rollercoaster ride in their efforts to balance growing costs with static return rates. That balance leaves little room for unscheduled downtime.

One industry leader, Wiltshire-based Earthline, have recently bought a brace of Bell wheeled loaders – and is really enjoying the ride. Since their foundation 30 years ago, Earthline have grown to be one of the largest independent earthmoving, recycling and quarrying companies in the south of England. 

Like every other business in its field, the family-run company has experienced tough periods, but it has remained successful through diversification and a commitment to being flexible to customer needs.

The diversification of applications means Earthline also has to ensure that much of the equipment they buy is capable of performing well at different tasks and in different environments.

This is one of the reasons it opted to demonstrate a wheeled loader from Bell Equipment last year at their Shellingford Quarry site, near Faringdon, in Oxfordshire.

Earthline director Philip Coplestone said: ‘I was a bit nervous and sceptical at first, as Bell’s loaders are relatively new machines to the UK market. Bell have always been known in this country for their ADTs, though the fact that they are John Deere-built gave us some confidence.

‘And it didn’t take us long to realize what a great piece of kit a Bell loader is. The Bell loaders even look like really solid quarrying machines. The high spec and the build quality stands out against anything else.’

The demonstration went well, and an order was soon placed for a Bell L1806E – a mid-sized model in Bell’s seven-strong loader range - even though Earthline had just ordered a couple of loaders from another manufacturer.

Mr Coplestone explained: ‘We don’t like to put all our eggs in one basket, and we were keen to see the Bells in a real operational environment. The demo was enough to persuade us to put our toe in the water and actually order one.

‘The drivers think they’re great; they’re really easy to maintain, very reliable and nice and powerful to operate.’

Despite the positive reception for the Bell loaders, good fortune also smiled on Bell.   

Earthline discovered one morning that one of their other loaders had been vandalized overnight, meaning an urgent replacement was needed. Philip Coplestone got in touch with Bell and agreed to order a second L1806E loader in return for Bell loaning Earthline a larger L2606E model at short notice to fill the operational gap while the new machine was awaiting delivery.

Neville Paynter, managing director of Bell Equipment UK, said: ‘This was a fabulous opportunity for Bell: our loaders had been endorsed by a major player in the industry. Luckily, we were able to reassign our L2606E demo model to Earthline quite quickly, which hopefully saw them through that particular operational problem.’

Bell launched their wheeled loaders at the end of 2008, with the first machines delivered to UK customers in 2009. That same year, Bell launched a version specifically for the waste and recycling industry, capitalizing on the unique QuadCool cooling system, which comes as standard on all Bell loaders and which vastly reduces any downtime due to debris build up.

The onset of the global recession slowed the sale of new machines across the entire industry, but Bell also had to overcome the hurdle of being the ‘new kid on the block’ in terms of their loaders.

Neville Paynter explained: ‘We always recognized that it would take time to convince UK customers that our loaders were as strong and reliable as our dumptrucks. But we also knew that, once a customer had tried them out, they would find it difficult to find fault with them. We have always been confident in the quality of these machines, as Earthline discovered.’

Earthline’s second Bell L1806E loader was delivered at the end of June 2011 – by which time they had seen enough from the on-loan L2606E and the original L1806E to be suitably impressed.

Philip Coplestone commented: ‘Pound for pound, they seem to be more powerful than other makes. And the spec is fantastic. They are definitely good value for money, and I wouldn’t hesitate in buying more assuming the deal was right.’

The Bell loaders are both working at Shellingford Quarry, alongside a combination of nine other loaders. One L1806E is working in a recycling application, processing hardcore, concrete and demolition waste, while the other machine is involved in the excavation and haul of building sand.

Each loader will typically shift 600-700 tonnes of demolition and associated recycling waste per day, or about 400 tonnes of sand.

Philip Coplestone went on to say: ‘We’ve definitely seen benefits in reduced downtime with the Bells. And we also know that the support we get from Bell, should anything go wrong, is second-to-none.’

Philip and his co-director, brother Matthew Coplestone, are no strangers to Bell, despite this being their first foray into Bell wheeled loaders.

Back in 2003, Earthline were running Bell B40D articulated dumptrucks alongside some B25Ds. But the Bells were phased out and replaced by a fleet of ADTs from another manufacturer.

Philip Coplestone admits that the decision was not a good one: ‘We went away from Bell for commercial reasons. But it was a big mistake. We had no end of trouble with the replacements. So, as soon as we came towards the end of the warranty periods we switched back to Bell.’