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Grounds maintenance contractor Herts & Cambs Ground Maintenance improves efficiency, productivity, and pride while reducing operating costs with MAJOR Tri Deck wide area roller mower.
As a grounds maintenance contractor, there are three things that Justin Willmott’s customers are expecting of him; firstly, they want the perfect finish to give them pride in their grounds and facilities; secondly, they want a service that is no-fuss and on-time, when the grass needs cutting; and thirdly, they want value for money. Justin is the founding Director of Herts & Cambs Grounds Maintenance Ltd., and has been operating in the grounds maintenance industry for twenty years. His company offers a full-service grounds maintenance programme to customers usually within a 70 mile radius of home, near Melbourn, Hertfordshire.
Meeting increasing client expectations
“Most people are looking for efficiency, a good finish and value-for-money,” commented Justin, “that doesn’t mean it has to be cheap, but it means it’s incumbent on us as professionals to provide an efficient, reliable and cost-effective service. Some of my customers are still with me from when we first started and they always expect the best from us. But isn’t quality, efficiency and value-for-money what we all expect in life?”
Herts & Cambs Ground Maintenance Ltd., (HCMG) has a client base that covers a whole host of customer types, including schools, parish councils, sports grounds and pitches, commercial estates, car parks, hospitals, solar farms and many more applications. Traditionally, large expanses of sports fields and amenities would be maintained using wide cylinder and triplex mowers, but as most operators of this type of machinery are full aware, these can be very expensive to maintain and, can spend a lot of time in the workshop instead of mowing.
Investing in quality, shaft driven machinery
“Over four years ago,” added Justin, “ we were wanting to drastically reduce the maintenance costs of our triplex mowers because they were attracting too much down time and we were always sharpening them to get the right finish. We looked at other equipment on the market while we were at Saltex and really liked the potential of a winged roller mower and decided to look at what was available. On comparing the differences between the brands, we felt that the Major TDR was far the better choice, was very well built, was much easier to maintain – because there were no belts and it was very simple to operate. So we chose the Major TDR 16000 and it is now in its fourth season and has proven to have been definitely the right choice.”
Major’s TDR16000 is a trailed, folding, three-unit, 4.9m cut wide-area mower and boasts a patented, three-point pivot system which, in conjunction with front and rear rollers, means the machine can follow the contours of the ground without scalping. It also leaves a clean, striped finish, similar to a cylinder mower – just what the customers are looking for. The TDR16000 has eight, contra-rotating rotors with a total of 32 blades which overlap by 75mm to leave a perfect finish, and has a simple height of cut adjustment ranging from 10mm to 150mm. For transport width, the TDR 16000, folds to only 2.5 metres and is available with a braked axle as an optional extra.
Covering wet and dry ground at fast forward speeds
“What I really like about the Major winged roller mower,” enthused Justin, “is that it’s much wider than you can normally get cylinder mowers, it copes with almost any difficult grass cutting job and doesn’t seem to be affected when the weather is inclement or wet under foot. It operates at a faster forward speed, so we get a lot of ground covered quickly and, it leaves an absolutely professional finish. Comparing it to a cylinder mower, the Major is much easier to maintain, spends far less time in the workshop, uses very few replacement parts and from a conservation perspective, is able to reclaim some rough areas that would otherwise have to be avoided when using a triplex.
Higher work rate with reduced maintenance bills
”The drive train on the Major winged roller mower is through a gearbox, so no belts to wear and it just means, that other than general maintenance and greasing, there’s not a lot else that needs looking after. We are able to sustain our business because of the amount of ground we can cover very quickly, our customers are very pleased with the result and we can provide them with an even better, more cost-effective service, because we are not spending anywhere near the amount of time in maintenance that we previously experienced.”
HCMG run the Major TDR16000 behind their new 105hp Claas Atos 340 tractor and it’s usually operating up to ten hours a day, especially during the season. Spare parts they get from their local Major stockist – TNS, “they’ve always got what we want,” added Justin, “but then, that doesn’t amount to much through the year because our overall spare parts bill has reduced considerably compared to the parts bill for our cylinder mowers.
Quality of cut improves performance, impresses clients
Some of the feedback we are getting from our customers suggests that as we don’t need to cut too short with the Major TDR, the grass is becoming denser and more lush. Also, because of the effects of the front and rear rollers firming the ground, they are getting better ball bounce in the field. That’s good to hear because it shows that not only are our customers happy with the our service, but it means everyone who uses the grounds and facilities are gaining additional benefit, whether it be for sports related or environmentally beneficial benefits that we weren’t necessarily expecting. The Major has been such a good decision for us, that we are looking at adding another Major mower to our fleet in the near future. It just works!”