Wheely great for digger drivers

Inventor Peter Metcalfe (left) with mate, IT whiz Bevan Falloon, promoting the innovation at National Fieldays.

Dean Taylor looks at Kiwis’ latest inventions, like this digger attachment that eliminates the hassle of using ramps

Whangarei's Peter Metcalfe loves driving his digger, but hates handling the ramps for loading and unloading.

His solution was a set of wheels that attach to the digger's blade with ratchet chain dogs and turns the vehicle into a climber.

He engineered the attachment himself ("over-engineered" is his description) and fitted it to his 3.5 tonne digger.

With the climbing wheels in place, Metcalfe was able to climb his digger off and on to a truck without the need for ramps - success!

He says initially that was all the invention was intended for, making his working life that little bit easier and saving a lot of time.

But then he thought the digger with a set of wheels might be able to do more than just climb off and on a truck, and so he experimented.

He soon found he could cross ditches and small streams, and climb up and down banks.

That was another bonus as it sped up his work and made the machine more versatile.

Metcalfe also found another advantage using the climbing wheels - extra stability.

By extending the wheelbase and track width of the digger, he was able to lift more and stretch further.

In fact, Metcalfe says that with the wheels on, the whole machine feels safer and more stable.

When he returned from Fieldays he had another challenge on his hands - heavy rain that hit the Far North had washed away a fair bit of his driveway.

He got to work with his digger and returned the gravel from the bottom of the drive to its rightful place - and then found yet another advantage of the climbing wheels.

By lifting the digger on to its sprockets, and transferring the weight forward, he was able to use it to compact the fill to keep it in place.

Metcalfe says using the digger with the wheels on has become second nature and made the machine much better at its job.

He says any good digger driver would soon learn how to operate the machine with the attachment.

And though he acknowledges his invention would need certifying to become marketable, he has used the climbing wheels extensively since June and is confident the device would pass muster.

However it pans out, he's sold on his own invention and says he's never going back to ramps.

For more on the Climbing Wheels digger, www.fastestdigger.com