An excavator or dragline that can reach out 82 feet and excavate as much as 7280 pounds of material is a unique piece of construction equipment.
An English company, the Priestman Brothers, Ltd., originally designed the VC (Variable Counterweight) in the 1970's. It was designed for water control, power station, and sand and gravel use. Priestman's North American Master Distributor had sold over 50 VC's by the early 1980's. Since then the export market for the VC has continued to grow. New markets have opened in Australia and Europe. By 1987 45% of Priestman's VC sales were outside of the United Kingdom. A major market for the VC has been Latin and Central America. The VC product line was purchased by R-B International in July of 1991. Since this time they have begun to distribute the VC directly in the United States through a network of American owned construction equipment distributors.
The VC longreach excavator, or draghoe as it is sometimes called, has two unique features that make it a one of a kind machine. These two features are the variable counterweight and the cable in-haul rope.
The counterweight is automatically positioned by a hydraulic cylinder to counter balance the bucket and its contents. Every other excavator manufactured has a fixed counterweight. The feature keeps the VC's maximum ground bearing pressure under three pounds per square inch. Given that the VC can have a gross vehicle weight (GVW) of 150,000 pounds there are many advantages gained from machine stability while excavating.
The VC also utilizes a winch and cable that is mounted on the base of the boom to pull the bucket and its contents. The VC's winch pull of 26,460 pounds allows the draghoe to significantly outperform other excavators that use hydraulic pressure to achieve breakout force. The VC's original inventor patented these two features, so no other construction equipment manufacturer can make the longreach with these specialized features until these patents expire.
Texas Crane Services has been a VC distributor since 1990. Many of the VCs sold by Texas Crane have been to customers that are involved in water control. The company has focused its marketing efforts on this niche market. More recently, in an effort to expand its market Texas Crane has added the VC to its hourly operated and maintained fleet. Because of this and because of numerous flyers about the VC, area golf courses have contracted with Texas Crane to perform pond maintenance. Operators have commented on the ease of operation of the VC. They compare running it to playing a game of Nintendo. The joystick controls make operating the VC as easy as sitting in your living room playing Nintendo with the kids, especially when you turn on the air conditioning in the cab!
The R-B International VC Longreach Excavator is a unique machine created for a niche market. When a company finds a piece of equipment that will give it an edge on the competition it should take advantage of that opportunity. R-B International and TEXAS CRANE SERVICES have teamed up to do just that.