As we all know, this recession has been long and hard. Everyone has   suffered and business in particular, has been hard hit. Hardly the best time   to launch new products might be the conventional thinking, but if it's a   product that is needed and wanted in straitened times - it may prove to be a good decision.

Thwaites is a well-established company, synonymous with quality and "digger" products, so when Thwaites decides to launch a new Micro Skip, it is time to sit up and take notice.

So here it is. In the familiar yellow colour with tractor-type tyres   option, and obviously robustly built from the right materials at the Thwaites   factory near Leamington Spa.

Despite having a collective experience of making "diggers 'n dumpers" for decades, no Thwaites product hits the site without being thoroughly tested. I witnessed for myself the hours of computer-monitored testing of motors, tyres, load-carrying ability and tipping. And yes, Thwaites does take note of what the testing tells it, which is one of the reasons why there is a healthy second-hand market in Thwaites products, especially in these tight economic times.

I did have the opportunity to thoroughly "test drive" the Micro Dumper myself, but I couldn't take pictures and operate, so a Thwaites volunteer was drafted in to demonstrate.

A standard-sized door is not an obstacle for the Micro Dumper. Designed for smaller jobs and priced well enough for jobbing builders to hire or even buy, the Micro Dumper would be useful even on house-size building operations. Barrow the rubble to the skip or use the Micro Dumper? If the choice was mine you know what I would do.

Despite being the standard English summer's day, the brand new Micro Dumper hit the testing field. Note the simple controls, four wheel drive and wheelbarrow-type operating mode. Not daunted, we loaded the dumper with the full weight of concrete rubble for testing.

Uphill with a full load, in the mud on a barely made track. The motor didn't labour, the gearing proved to be correct, and the wheels didn't spin. Only later I discovered that the Micro was still only in two-wheel drive mode. Now that I didn't expect!

Now it's all downhill. On overrun, there was no loss of control because the speed is kept at a steady walking pace set by the operator. Notice how that tyres have picked up the cloying mud. They still didn't slip though, possibly because the torque levels at the wheels are perfectly judged. A view of the controls. Big levers and simple operation are the key to success here. Even after only twenty minutes of orientation with the Micro, I   felt perfectly at home with it and would have been able to use it safely on site. (I hope)

Setting the levers to four-wheel drive. Again, very simple and effective.

Remove the safety pin and use the lever to operate the dumping mechanism. As you can see, this is very effective. Users can dump into skips too, if they set up the appropriate approach and dump set-up. Saves a lot of time and effort as I am sure you can see.

There are other configurations of body available for the Micro Dumper. Removing the skip is a simple matter of releasing the safety clips and taking it away. As you can see, this is a one-person job, as befits a compact piece of kit like this one.

Not every user is working in a muddy field. Golf course operatives carrying sand to bunkers would need balloon tyres to keep penetration of the topsoil to a minimum. Thwaites can help users decide on the perfect configuration for their Micro Dumper.