THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER WITH HARSH

17 October 2023

LYNE GROUNDS MAINTENANCE PROVES THAT THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER WITH A  LITTLE BIT OF HARSH

Lyne Grounds Maintenance loves its new HARSH hookloader, not because it’s a big, top of the range model but for the precise opposite reason – it’s one of the smallest.

Based at Balderton near Newark, the company needed a truck that would combine the maximum possible cargo handling capability along with economical operation and easy access to any on or off-road working environment. After due consideration, the answer was a HARSH hookloader unit fitted to an Isuzu 7.5t gvw chassis.

“The little HARSH unit totally fits the bill” says owner Doug Lyne, “and is an absolutely perfect match for the 7.5t Isuzu chassis. It’s a truck that we can take to wherever we are working, which includes open fields, rural lanes, schools, sports grounds, hospitals and private clients. 

We have two bodies for the hookloader, the first being a high capacity cube body and the second a flat platform. Whilst the big box body is generally used for moving woodchip and other cut – down vegetation, it’s also ideal for transporting equipment such as our tracked chipper. As with the platform body, the ability to load our various pieces of kit on the flat at ground level makes everything very easy, as well as being much safer for our staff. 

With a hookloader body on the ground we obviously don’t need long loading ramps for our grass mowers etc to climb up. We simply take all our equipment for whatever job we are doing in the bodies, so we don’t need trailers either. Altogether, it’s a great system.”

The HARSH unit chosen by Doug is the HH6 model, which offers a 6 tonnes lift capacity from a single lifting cylinder. Operation is with a conventional PTO / pump system with an optional hand – held remote control that affords both greater visibility over the loading / unloading procedure as well as minimal intrusion into cab space. In any user application, HH6 can handle containers between 3.8 and 4.3 metres in length, whilst providing an impressive maximum tip angle of 52 degrees.

“For a small business such as ours, going down the hookloader route offers some really big benefits” says Doug. “I’d say that in reality the HARSH hookloader system effectively doubles the work capacity of the truck, and therefore increases our overall efficiency and productivity very considerably.”

Founded by Doug back in 2000, Lyne Grounds Maintenance offers clients in the East Midlands a complete range of services for the upkeep of all types of grass surfaces, as well as tree pruning / removal, hedge cutting and clearance of unwanted vegetation. In every sense, it’s a growing concern!

Speaking for HARSH, Business Development Manager Harry Hustler says “It’s always good when customers re-evaluate their working practices and come up with a better way of doing things – and especially when they are go-ahead small businesses such as Lyne Grounds Maintenance.

We’ve worked closely with Doug to develop and deliver exactly the truck he needs, and I’m delighted that it’s already fulfilling its promise.”