Australian specialised cranes and rigging company, Seymours Cranes, Rigging, and Labour, has purchased its fourth Maeda mini-crawler in the past year. Owner and founder, Ashley Seymour, discusses his relationship with Pace Cranes, and why he’ll consistently choose the Maeda brand.
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Amid the bustling atmosphere of an urban construction site – a soon-to-be high-rise with workers coming to and fro like no tomorrow – and with the noise of heavy-duty construction equipment being powered filling the ears of passers-by enjoying a 29-degree day in Burleigh Heads, Queensland, a revelation is unfolding in front of Ashley Seymour.
Perched on a slab in front of him while his team helps to assemble a tower crane – one of the many services Seymours offers – is the thing he needs to make his life easier.
Contrary to the title, it’s not a telekinetic, inter-galactical life-force, but it is something that provides just as much balance and power when needed: it’s his Maeda MC305C.
“Maeda mini-crawler cranes are just such reliable machines,” he says. “They’re exceptionally lightweight and are perfect for jobs where space is constricted, which is really handy for our line of work.”
For Ashley Seymour, the hustle and bustle of the modern-day construction site is what he’s accustomed to. With a career in the industry spanning 30 years, Ashley’s words on the Maeda brand possess an added element of veracity.
Entering into the trades in 1992 as a carpenter, he began his career in rigging and crane assembly with Lindores Cranes, working on a range of tower crane assembly and rigging projects.
Throughout his time, Ashley has worked across an array of projects, such as the Sydney Olympics, moving to the Middle-East to erect and operate Mammoet’s heavy lift cranes before returning to Australia to assemble Mammoet’s 2000-tonne PT50 ring crane in WA.
He eventually settled down on the East Coast of Australia, taking matters into his own hands in 2016 when he set up his own business.
Conceived in 2016, Seymours Cranes, Rigging and Labour initially began its venture as Seymours Building and Construction, a testimony to Ashley’s days as a carpenter.
Today employing a team of 15 people consisting of seven riggers and eight crane crew, Seymours provides quality rigging, dogman and crane operation services across Australia.
Now entering its eighth year of existence, the company’s expertise has seen it work across a range of projects, from teeing up tower cranes on high-rise residential and commercial projects through to assembling and configuring crawler cranes.
“We operate anywhere people want our services, but we’re being kept busy here in South East Queensland,” he says. “We’ve worked all up and down the East Coast, however, such as assembling a large crawler crane for John Holland on the Sydney Gateway, among a range of other projects.”
Through his time in the industry, Ashley has gained a finetuned sense of what machinery is required for what purpose and, above all, what brands he trusts the most ahead of others, For Ashley, this is reflected in his initial experience with the Maeda brand when working with Steel Erectors in the 90s that has led him to purchasing four Maeda mini-crawler cranes through New South Wales-based national distributor, Pace Cranes. Receiving two MC305Cs and one MC405C back in March last year, the previous 12 months of operating his three new crawlers has left Ashley nothing short of convinced he made the right decision.
“When I was beginning my career, I would always work with or around Maedas on construction sites,” he says. “Consistently, the machines performed so admirably and reliably on sites such as shopping centres and high-rise buildings due to their long reach and light weight.”
The specifications support his statements, too: on one hand, the MC305C possesses a lifting capacity of three tonnes at a radius of 2.5m, a maximum lifting height of 12.52m, and a maximum below-ground reach of -64.36m. In conjunction with its total weight of 3.9 tonnes, the MC305C presents a more-than-viable option for jobs requiring compact, high-performance, machinery.
The MC405C, on the other hand, holds a maximum capacity of 3.83 tonnes at a radius of 2.7m, a maximum working radius of 16m, a maximum hook height of 16.8m, and a total weight of 5.6 tonnes – again, all features pointing towards a machine that thrives on compact, tightly clustered construction sites, as well as underground, constricted civil engineering worksites. For Ashley and the team at Seymours, the mini-crawlers’ flexibility with construction projects fits right in with their profile of working on any assembly job that comes their way.
“We purchased all the available extensions with our Maedas,” says Ashley. “We can use the single-fall hook, the searcher hook, and the optional fly jib too, which gives us extra flexibility whenever we’re confronted with low-headroom scenarios.”
It’s based on the performance of his three Maedas to date that Ashley announces a fourth Maeda mini-crawler, the MC285C, is on its way to the national dry-hire crew. With business booming for Seymours Group along the East Coast in assembling crawlers and tower cranes, Ashley saw fit to expand the company’s fleet of supporting machinery to increase the amount of jobs it could take on board. And, when it came to acquiring the machine, there was only one company he would turn to again: Pace Cranes.
“It’s impossible to fault the service we’ve received from Pace Cranes,” he says. “The entire team has been excellent for us every time we’ve worked together.”
Based out in Sydney, New South Wales, the construction equipment supplier has held a relationship with the Maeda brand for over 30 years, with founder Paul Heeks shaking up the crane industry and introducing mini crawler cranes to the land Down Under. Now run by Anthony Heeks, the family business has consistently strived to supply comprehensive, detailed customer service, which is precisely what Ashley felt he received from the dealer and National Sales Manager, Michael Cawston, labelling their service as “highly responsive, detailed, and holistic”.
“Throughout the entire process, Pace Cranes were so easy to deal with,” he says. “As a customer, you want to feel valued, and Pace Cranes were always more than willing to give me their time for any queries that I had.”
READ MORE:
- Komp Cranes acquires new Maeda MC305C through Pace Cranes.
- Larry’s back with Maedas.
- All Terrain Services’ sustainable growth with Maeda.
