Werner Schmucker from Burtenbach near Augsburg founded his earthworks and demolition company in 2000. Since then, he has been working primarily on private contracts in a 50 km radius around Augsburg. In May 2019 he acquired the biggest machine he had ever purchased - an HW160 Hyundai wheeled excavator, with its 2,750 mm axles, dozer blade, adjustable boom and Oilquick quick coupler. He has long known the quality, performance, and the fittings of the South Korean products, and in HCEE's Zusmarshausen-based authorised dealer Fischer und Schweiger, he found the right partner to keep the excavator, which comes painted as standard in RAL 5019, in peak form.

 

"For me, it's not just the machine that is important, but the service is a priority too, and knowing that I am not just a number to my dealer," said Schmucker, interviewed at the Leipheim motorway depot where he is loading heavy concrete road sections with his 17 ton wheeled excavator. "I opted for the wheeled excavator because at 25 kph it can move independently between construction sites and with its wide axles, I can work perfectly with a 2,000 kg pulveriser even when tilted 90°." With the excavator in use for around 500 hours a year, Werner Schmucker is also full of praise for its fuel consumption of around 8.3 l/h of diesel.

The 17.88 ton excavator, which can travel at up to 39 kph, is designed for the demanding European market. This is evidenced by the 127 kW Cummins Stage IV engine, ZF axles and high-quality pumps and valve blocks by Hyundai and Kawasaki. A fuel saving of up to 15% compared with the previous series is further proof. The modern and extremely spacious climate-controlled cabin with infotainment offers the driver a quiet, low vibration workplace, with wide window-visibility. The driver can select one of three operating modes to suit the application, the attachments used and the working environment:

• P-mode (power): maximises speed and power for heavy load work
• S-mode (standard): optimises performance and fuel efficiency for general load work
• E-mode (economy): improves the control system for light load work.

The driver can pre-select the operating pressure and oil flow for up to 10 attachments from the LCD display unit. AAVM (Advanced Around View Monitoring) and IMOD (Intelligent Moving Objects Detection) to warn people in the work area greatly increase the safety of the machines - these additional features are subsidised under German law. The HW160 comes as standard with the HiMate electronic analysis and evaluation system, which collects machine and consumption data via UMTS, providing operators with permanent monitoring of the machine data.

Wheeled excavators are the "Swiss army knife" for every construction site: fast, manoeuvrable, powerful. The 5,100 mm adjustable boom can be combined with two dipper arms (2,200/2,500 mm). The longer arm achieves approximately 5,650 mm digging depth at high break-out forces. The chassis, with its wheel base of 2,600 mm, is of extremely robust design. The dozer blade, blade with two outriggers or four outriggers, lighten the HW160's configuration for construction and handling operations.