JCB has launched a new version of its pothole repair machine based this time on its Hydradig wheeled excavator rather than the 3CX backhoe loader.
The JCB Pothole Pro makes the same claims as were made six years ago for its Pothole Master – both claim to provide a cost-effective solution to providing a permanent fix for potholes.
“The JCB Pothole Pro could revolutionise they way potholes are eradicated,” said chief innovation officer Tim Burnhope. “No more ‘mend and make do’,” he said.
The new machine is not yet in production but the manufacturer is talking to dealers to gauge and generate demand.
Similar to the JCB Pothole Master, the Pothole Pro has tools for cutting and cleaning around potholes but it also has a hydraulic cropping tool that the older machine lacks.
While the the Pothole Master, being based on a backhoe loader, had the planer at the rear and the bucket and brush at the front, the Hydradig base unit makes the Pothole Pro a more versatile sort of machine. The planer tool is attached to the wheeled undercarriage, while the bucket and brush are fixed to the 360 degree rotating upper works.
JCB said that tests with contractors and local authorities have shown that the PotholePro can complete a pothole repair in less than eight minutes. Tarmac, which has been trialling the new machine in Stoke-on-Trent, said that it had managed to repair 63 square metres a day, compared to its usual productivity of 20-25 square metres a day.
JCB said that the machine had completed 51 road repair jobs in 20 days, which would have taken a team of up to six operatives 63 days to complete normally.
The JCB PotholePro is equipped with a modified Simex planer, with integrated dust suppression, mounted on the machine’s rear skid steer hitch. The planer is 600mm wide, with up to 1.3m of side-shift adjustment. This allows the operator to plane a full carriageway from the kerb, without repositioning the machine. Hydraulic tilt and depth control provide a consistent depth for larger patches.
The machine’s TAB two-piece boom is fitted with the JCB ‘Multi-tool’, mounted on an X12 Steelwrist tilt-rotator. The ‘Multi-tool’ comprises of two attachments, a hydraulic cropper and a sweeper/bucket. The 600mm cropping tool eliminates the need for floor saws or hydraulic breakers, providing a squared off, clean cut to the repair area. The operator then rotates the boom head to bring a 1.2-metre wide sweeper/bucket into use, to clean up the pothole area, eliminating the requirement for a separate sweeper truck. Material lifted by the sweeper/bucket can be loaded directly into a support truck for removal from site.
JCB said that the 3CX Pothole Master (below) and the smaller Pothole Highways machines will continue to be offered to customers as “they remain very popular with lots customers, particularly in large resurfacing operation, who utilise the front shovel”.
