For Sunshine Coast couple Ronda and Glenn Price, semi-retirement meant a change of lifestyle and an opportunity to work for themselves after investing in a Komatsu PC18MR-3 mini excavator.
Glenn had been working with excavators for 25 years for large companies like Humes (part of Holcim) and Cordwells Concrete, but as he started to wind down from full time work, he was looking for a different adventure.
“I’m at the point in my life where I wanted a bit more flexibility with my work/life balance. Ronda and I talked about what might work best, and we settled on investing in a mini excavator and seeing what type of work I could get on the Sunshine Coast, going out on my own,” Glenn says.
Ronda and Glenn bought a Komatsu PC18 in the middle of 2022, and Glenn quickly picked up some projects around the area, with the support of Ronda on the administration and financial side of the business.
“We’ve relied mainly on word of mouth, and haven’t had to do much advertising at all just through our connections with friends and my work connections. We’ve had a regular flow of work coming in, from landscaping to building trenches for plumbers. The excavator has been great for us to get some steady workflow,” Glenn says.
Glenn says he and Ronda were looking at a few mini excavators on the market, but landed on the PC18 because of Komatsu’s solid brand reputation.
Komatsu’s PC18MR-3 is a tough and productive machine in a small package, perfect for rental fleets, owner-operators, builders, plumbers, electricians and other tradies, or anyone who needs to work in confined conditions. It can pass through narrow space due to narrow width and the undercarriage can be expanded for good stability during excavation, plus it incorporates features of bigger Komatsu excavators, and comes standard with the Komtrax remote monitoring and location system.
“We did our research, and knew that Komatsu sells quality machines, and the cost of the excavator and trailer package was pretty competitive with other brands. It’s a great, compact machine that’s easy for us to get from job to job, and into the tight spaces on the usual residential sites we’re working on.”
Click here for specifications and brochure of the PC18MR-3 excavator.