Gollins Kubota U145 excavator: fleet milestone and site-use notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Buckinghamshire-based builder and plant hirer Phillip Gollins has pushed his rental fleet past 100 units with a 14.6‑tonne Kubota U145 reduced tail swing crawler excavator, one of the first of its type in the UK and built on a Sumitomo platform under a 2025 OEM deal. The machine, powered by a 78.5 kW Stage V diesel engine with three hydraulic modes plus Auto fine‑tuning, is working on a Southern Utilities contract in Hertfordshire with an Allu hydraulic riddling bucket and mobile crusher to turn excavated soil, concrete, and asphalt into reusable fill. Gollins specified a monoboom and front dozer blade for stockpile levelling and machine anchoring during heavy loading, with operators citing the compact cab door swing, audible tracking alarms, and proportional joystick controls as key usability gains.
Technical Brief
- Sumitomo OEM deal (2025) brings its 14‑tonne-class undercarriage and hydraulics into Kubota’s European range.
- Gollins’ plant hire fleet now exceeds 100 units, including more than 60 excavators from 1–13 tonnes.
- Cross-hire business model avoids multiple depots, supplying self-drive machines mainly to other plant hire firms.
- On the Southern Utilities contract, up to 15 road teams tip mixed spoil daily at the Hertfordshire hub.
- Allu hydraulic riddling bucket is used to separate fines before oversize is fed to a mobile crusher.
- Front dozer blade is routinely used as a stabiliser when loading heavy crushed stone into trucks.
- Cab door folds fully within the swing radius, reducing collision risk with adjacent structures or parked plant.
Our Take
Kubota’s move into the 14‑tonne class with the U145 aligns with a pattern in our database where UK hirers like Murphy Plant and John F Hunt Hire Centre are standardising around Kubota in the 8–9‑tonne bracket, suggesting the brand is now targeting continuity for customers as they scale into heavier civils work.
With Gollins’ fleet already beyond the 100‑machine mark and over 60 excavators from 1–13 tonnes, stepping into a 14‑tonne class machine positions the business to compete for slightly heavier infrastructure packages in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire without jumping to full-size quarry or bulk earthmoving kit.
Several recent Infrastructure pieces show Shellplant repeatedly brokering Kubota fleet deals (e.g. Murphy Plant’s 19‑unit KX085‑5 order), so its role here underlines how regional dealers are becoming key gatekeepers for brand loyalty and specification choices among mid‑sized UK plant hirers.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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