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Bells rings big
To further underline the growth in demand for
bigger ADTs, Bell Equipment introduced its
E-Series Large Truck range, a radical upgrade
of the previous D-Series as far as payload is
concerned. Du Pisanie believes that with the
Large Truck range, the South African based
OEM has introduced machines that offer
better cost per tonne moved, a big driver for
fleet owners operating in today’s challenging
economic conditions.
The Bell E-Series Large Truck range comes
with significant increases in payloads.
Compared with the B35D, the B35E has
gone from 32,5 t to 33,5 t, while the B40E
tips in with 39 t, compared with the 37 t
on the previous B40D. During comparative
testing between the B40E and the B40D,
Bell found that, taking into account all the
variables, the B40E up to 10% lower cost
per tonne than its predecessor, the B40D.
Du Pisanie explains some of the reasons
behind the move towards increased
payload. “The general rule for hauling
earth is that bigger trucks give a lower
cost per tonne. Right now the earthmoving
industry in Africa is looking for the most
cost-efficient operation. The commodity
prices have dropped, and so has income,”
reasons Du Pisanie. There are also other
factors contributing to the lower cost
per tonne of the E-Series. Firstly there
is the new engine from Mercedes Benz,
optimised for off-highway use by MTU,
which offers more power and lower fuel
consumption. Secondly there is the 7-speed
Allison transmission which gives better
performance and fuel burn than that fitted
to the outgoing D-Series range of trucks.
The demand for ultra-large (60 t) ADTs is
coming from a number of sources. “Firstly,
we have customers who are looking for a
solution for the simple reason that bigger is
cheaper. The second source is that we have
customers who run rigid dump trucks which
struggle to give good productivity in wet,
muddy and undulating conditions. There are
smaller rigid dump trucks available in the
market, but the smallest RDT sold in signif-
icant numbers is a 60 t truck and that is why
we decided to offer something that matched
this size class in payload but which is sig-
nificantly more capable off-road. The B60E
offers a viable alternative to customers run-
ning 60 t RDTs in conditions where the RDTs
sometimes struggle with underfoot condi-
tions,” adds Du Pisanie.
While the B45E maintains the B45D’s
41 t payload, Du Pisanie believes this has
the potential to be the company’s jewel in
the crown. The company notes an increase
in demand for 45 t trucks globally, and the
B45E, with its rated payload of 41 000 kg,
a bin volume of 25 m³, and a powerful new
engine, has the potential to become the
most popular model in the range due to its
overall value proposition.
“The B60E is another special offering in
our range by virtue of it being our largest
truck, which is also a ground-breaking con-
cept. It is capable of moving large volumes
of material in all weather conditions. It
also provides a unique solution to a market
segment that was previously contested by
rigid trucks only,” says Du Pisanie.
Enter Volvo
Volvo CE also flexed a big ADT muscle with
its new 55 t A60H that made the headlines
at bauma 2016. The behemoth fits the bill
for high production sites. It is interesting
to note that a South African coal miner
became the first customer to place the first
order of three A60H units at bauma 2016.
Tomas Kuta of Volvo CE says that bigger
sized ADTs offer a better value proposition
than their RDT counterparts in the same size
category. He believes that the versatility of
articulated trucks, along with availability
of these larger machines, means they are
gaining ground on rigid alternatives.
Kuta believes that the 55 t ADT will
take 60-80 t rigid trucks to task, especially
where unfavourable underfoot conditions
such as rain-washed sites, can bring rigid
haulers to a complete halt. He also argues
that the lure of a 40% more capacity on
the A60H compared with the previous 43 t
Volvo A40G, is too good to ignore.
The new 55 t capacity A60H is the larg-
est machine to be built by Volvo CE. It is
ideal for heavy hauling in taxing off-road
operations, including quarries, opencast
mines and large earthmoving operations. It
comes with a host of features aimed at im-
proving onsite efficiency. With intelligent
systems from Volvo CE, such as MATRIS,
CareTrack and the On Board Weighing Sys-
tem, fleet operators can optimise produc-
tion and minimise operational costs.
“CareTrack is the Volvo CE telematics
system that offers access to a wide
range of machine monitoring information
designed to save the operator time and
money,” says Marnix Reedijk, product
manager of Customer Services at Volvo CE
EMEA. CareTrack generates a wide range
of reports – including fuel consumption,
operational hours and geographical
location – via a web portal, as well as
sending SMS/email alerts.
Fleet managers can use CareTrack to
proactively manage their wear parts and
their service maintenance. The benefits
include a reduction in fuel costs, optimised
machine and operator performance and
increased uptime. Operation reports allow
machine owners to monitor idle time –
information that gives you the power to
reduce fuel consumption, non-productive
machine hours and service costs. Geo and
time fencing features on CareTrack can
notify the owner if a machine goes outside
pre-set location and time boundaries. A
status report provides access to fuel level,
machine location and machine hours.
Tipping large volumes
Speaking of size, Barloworld Equipment,
the southern African dealer for Caterpillar,
introduced the Cat 745C, said to be
Caterpillar’s flagship ADT, and a radical
redesign of its previous star model, the
Cat 740B. It notably comes with increased
payload capacity, improved fuel efficiency
and productivity, along with a host of
ARTICULATED DUMP TRUCKS
The new 55t capacity A60H is the largest machine to be built by VolcoCE
CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS
JANUARY 2017
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