Marakon, Finland’s largest supplier of hydraulic hammers and excavator attachments, has delivered a Xrock XB18 hydraulic breaker to Tommi Mäkinen. The breaker belongs to the Normet Xrock rock breaking product family. Mäkinen is the same man who won four FIA World Rally Championship driver’s titles and two additional world championships as a team principal. In addition, he has been part of numerous manufacturers’ world championship victories.
Today, instead of rallying, Tommi’s daily life revolves largely around managing his farm in Finland Puuppola, north of Jyväskylä, and various construction projects on which he is happy to operate the machinery himself. This time, a sauna project in the Tahko area required a hydraulic breaker, and Marakon arranged a rapid delivery just before Midsummer.
Perhaps the environment in which Tommi grew up played a role in shaping his DNA. The Rally Finland event captivated him as a young boy, and the dream of owning a rally car was planted in his soul at an early age. Growing up on a farm, he became familiar with all kinds of machinery. A tractor was the first four-wheeled vehicle he ever operated.
Naturally, the picture also included field cars and many other noisy machines. The dream of rallying had been simmering for years before Tommi, in his early twenties, began investing seriously in achieving it. He took the controls of a forestry machine, hauling timber out of the forest. The money he earned enabled him to buy his first rally car. The rest is rallying history—not only in Finland but around the world. Besides Tommi, only Juha Kankkunen, Sébastien Loeb and Sébastien Ogier have won at least four World Rally Championship titles.
"Flat over crest, full through six, easy left two, rock"
These are the kinds of pace notes a rally driver hears from the co-driver, and Tommi listened to them for years.
"Rocks certainly became familiar during my rally career. Even with pace notes, we often made contact with rocks and even cliffs. More often than not, the result was damage to the car—sometimes even retirement from the rally," Tommi laughs.
Now Tommi intends to settle the score by breaking some rock into smaller pieces using equipment considerably heavier than a rally car—a hydraulic breaker mounted on an excavator, something he had no previous experience with.
The need for the breaker arose when Tommi decided to build a traditional smoke sauna on a small rocky island in the Tahko area. Preparing the building site and installing electrical cables and water pipes required blasting and levelling rock ridges as well as creating trenches from the construction site to the shoreline.
Having no prior knowledge of excavator breakers, Tommi called his long-time acquaintance Tomi Veijalainen (former owner and CEO of Marakon), who provided advice and directed him to the right solution. Tommi already owned the excavator—a Volvo EC180—for work on his farm.
A phone call to Marakon Business Director Jyrki Hyyrönmäki set the process in motion, and within just a few days a Normet Xrock XB18 hydraulic breaker was waiting for installation in the yard of Tommi's farm in Puuppola. Installation was carried out by Marakon Service Manager Tuomo Virtanen, who also instructed Tommi in the proper use of the breaker.
Tommi says he received valuable guidance from Tuomo on both correct operation and maintenance of the equipment. He even jokingly named Tuomo as his trusted backup whenever questions arise regarding the breaker. As for Marakon's spare parts service, Tommi cannot yet comment extensively, but after spending time with Tuomo during the installation he believes spare parts availability will not become an issue. According to him, Marakon's Lahti facility keeps all wear parts and most other components in stock for nearly all breaker models.
By Pontoon to the Island
Despite the short delivery schedule, Marakon still managed to equip Tommi's breaker with an automatic lubrication system, which earned praise from Tommi even after only brief use.
Installing the breaker on the excavator in Puuppola farm went according to plan, but a small challenge emerged when it came time to test it. There simply weren't any suitable rocks on the farm. After a short search, however, appropriate rocks were found and the breaker settings were adjusted to suit Tommi.
"All thanks go to Tuomo's professional expertise," Tommi says.
The Normet Xrock XB18 is designed for excavators weighing 14–23 tonnes. The breaker itself weighs 1,340 kg. The machine is also equipped with a tiltrotator. Everything was ready just before Midsummer, and the next challenge was transporting the equipment to the island off Tahko. Since there was no ice anymore—fortunately—the excavator could be transported across the water.
For this purpose, Tommi had commissioned the construction of a custom pontoon barge in his own workshop. The barge has a carrying capacity of 60 tonnes, allowing the excavator and its attachments to be transported safely from the mainland to the island.
"There simply wasn't anything like this available nearby, so we decided to build one ourselves. I'm sure it will be useful for other projects as well," Tommi says.
The barge has a total usable width of seven metres. Hinged side pontoons can be folded upward, allowing the barge to be transported by road without requiring an escort vehicle.
Windows Still Intact
A little over a week after Midsummer, Tommi was found working on the small rocky island of Pieni Pentinsaari. He says he has already become quite comfortable with his new tool.
"I've only accumulated a couple of hours of breaking so far. It's been a good start, even though this is my first time using a hydraulic breaker on an excavator. Perhaps all the operating positions and techniques aren't yet completely optimal, but you learn more with every strike. Since these are my own projects, there's no rush—so the windows are still intact, at least for now," Tommi grins.
"So far everything has gone according to plan. The Xrock breaker has performed exactly as expected. I've already excavated a cable trench quite a long distance into the bedrock at a depth of more than half a metre. Having gained some experience already, I'd say this setup represents the smaller end of the scale if maximum productivity is required."
Besides breaking rock, bucket work is also carried out on the island. Tommi praises the quick coupler for its ease of use. Changing between the bucket and the breaker is fast and requires virtually no hydraulic hose handling.
Once the Tahko smoke sauna project is complete, the Xrock breaker will certainly find other applications. Tommi attacked the rock with such enthusiasm and dedication that there will undoubtedly be more projects ahead. However, he is reluctant to call himself a contractor, preferring instead the title of an enthusiastic machinery enthusiast. Naturally, much of the time he spends operating machinery is connected with work on his farm.
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Jarmo Vaskelainen
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