Fabrication
Exc@v8 doesn't just import machinery — we convert and build it. Road-rail conversions, bespoke work tools and custom attachment fabrication, engineered in-house at our Kendal workshop in the Lake District.
Excavator conversions
Our best-known conversion work is turning Menzi Muck walking excavators into road-rail plant — machines that can run on and off the rail corridor for vegetation clearance, embankment work and infrastructure access, without losing the walking excavator’s own capability on the ground either side of the track. It’s a genuinely unusual combination: most road-rail conversions start from a conventional tracked excavator, not a machine that can also walk a steep slope.
Tunnelling conversions
Exc@v8 has also built bespoke tunnel machines for major infrastructure projects — including the M525B-TM, uniquely configured to construct escalator barrels and passageways deep below London, and M540 Powerline machines deployed on projects including Crossrail’s Western Tunnels and Caverns and the Victoria Station Upgrade.
Bespoke work tools
We supply and manufacture a wide range of work tools in-house — tree shears, timber splitters, selector grabs, log grabs, basket grabs, hydraulic and mechanical grapples, brash rakes, specialist buckets and ripping equipment. Where an off-the-shelf tool doesn’t fit the job, our engineering team builds completely bespoke equipment to suit.
CAD design and profile cutting
Bespoke brackets and mounting plates are designed and plasma-cut in-house, so a custom fitment is accurate first time rather than a workshop guess. We specialise in S and Open-S coupler brackets specifically, alongside one-off brackets built to a customer’s own spec.
Custom couplers
When a standard bracket doesn’t suit a particular machine or tool, we make a custom one. S and Open-S are common coupler standards across the industry, and we design and plasma-cut bespoke S and Open-S coupler brackets in-house to match your machine or tool, or one-off brackets to your own spec. We also have a stock of standard S brackets available directly. See our couplers for the quick-coupler systems we supply, or tell us what you need built.
Built in the Lake District
Every conversion and custom build happens at our own workshop at Mealbank Mill Industrial Estate, Kendal, in the Lake District — the same workshop that runs our servicing and parts. If you’re local to Kendal or the wider Lakes and need something built rather than bought off a shelf, it’s our own team on the tools.