“I would say that the Kerfab Grab Bucket is without a doubt the best thing that we’ve got in our grasp to do our job.”
We had the privilege of speaking to Gavin Mills and his son, who run Clare Valley Waste, a waste management company in South Australia. Their site covers an impressive area of roughly 13,000 km2, where they handle large amounts of waste material, including scrap steel, timber, common household items and general waste.
“We currently service 7 transfer station in our local area,” says Paul Mills. “[The WastePro Bucket Grapple] has improved our business in the sense that it’s given us a lot more range.“
Clare Valley Waste operates 2 JCB telehandlers at it’s facility in Brinkworth, about 150km north of Adelaide. They buy their machines through their local JCB dealer, Vater Machinery in Saddleworth. It was through Vater Machinery that they first encountered a Kerfab product when it was recommended to them by Vater Machinery in 2010.
In 2010, Clare Valley Waste needed a bucket that was fit for purpose, so Kerfab designed and built a custom Bucket Grapple that was capable of loading the maximum amount of material into the restrictive opening of their walking floor.
“We had no device to do that job, that attachment was designed specifically to load material over the side of our walking floor,” Paul said.
In May of 2019 Gavin and Paul once again came to Kerfab in need of another Bucket Grapple for their second telehandler and once again Kerfab was up for the job. Gavin and Paul had a specific purpose in mind, they wanted to increase their capacity and move bulk loads of material across their sites.
Check out the video below of it in use, as Paul explains how it has significantly improved operations.
“Kerfab had the device to do the job that we wanted,” Paul said. “It was designed by Kerfab to fit that bill. Gavin initiated the job and asked Kerfab ‘can you build this?’ and you did“
Kerfab designed, manufactured, and delivered a 2.4m wide WastePro Bucket Grapple with a struck capacity of 2.1m.
This bucket grapple was designed by Kerfab as it would not only make sure their JCB 541-70 could operate at it’s most efficient but that it could also safely and reliably do so. The 2.1m capacity is the capacity of the bucket itself, the grapple attachment allows the bucket to actually hold a lot more material than this.Â
This style of bucket is recommended for waste transfer stations like the ones Clare Valley Waste deal with. Waste transfer stations deal with a multitude of different materials of different shapes, sizes, weights, and abrasiveness. A WastePro Bucket Grapple has a distinct advantage over standard buckets in this regard.
The efficiency increases from having these two attachments, have enabled Clare Valley Waste to achieve their goal.
“We now can load in our shed at Brinkworth in our recycling centre and also we have the opportunity now to go out to the other transfer stations while still servicing our local shed. Efficiency wise, we are more efficient as we have two buckets of the same design.“
As for recommending the WastePro Bucket Grapple, Paul says that he’d love not to recommend it to his competitors because it has helped his business achieve so much.
“I’d love to say we would recommend it to anybody because it is such a good product!” Said Paul. “It opens up a great world for us in regards to servicing transfer stations, but I would say to someone in regards to the Kerfab WastePro Bucket Grapple that it is without a doubt the best thing that we have in our grasp to do our job – so I would say yes it would be an excellent choice to grab that bucket.“
Want to learn more about the Kerfab WastePro Range? Download our brochure below!
Or you can view Kerfab’s range of WastePro attachments for full product specifications here.Â
Alternatively, get in contact with our sales team today by calling 1800 818 079 or email sales@kerfab.com.Â
