OPS Equipment has built its reputation as a supplier of fixed and mobile crushing, screening and conveying plant and equipment within Western Australia and the Northern Territory for more than 25 years. The company has traditionally been the official dealer for Osborn, Terex Finlay, Terex Washing Systems, Terex Environmental Equipment, Telestack conveyors and Kiverco recycling plant, mostly within WA and NT. It also stocks a comprehensive range of plant spares and associated products at its Jandakot warehouse that are available to its customers all year round.
OPS Equipment has now added an arrow to its extensive bow – as the official distributor of Terex Trucks products for the WA, South Australian and NT markets.
Terex Trucks, headquartered in Motherwell, Scotland and now a division of Volvo Construction Equipment, has been a manufacturer of off-highway rigid and articulated haul trucks worldwide for more than 80 years. OPS will distribute the manufacturer’s four models of rigid trucks – the TR45, TR60, TR70 and TR100 (payloads from 41 to 91 tonnes) and three models of articulated haulers – the TA250, TA300 and TA400 (payloads from 25 to 38 tonnes). OPS will also provide an extensive aftermarket care service to customers that purchase the trucks.
Craig Lorimer, the group general manager for OPS Equipment, said that the company’s “proven history of sales, hire, service and spare parts support of our current brands” was influential in its appointment as the western states distributor of Terex Trucks.
“Becoming the Terex Trucks dealer for WA, SA and NT is not a decision we take lightly,” he said. “OPS Equipment believes that selling equipment is only one part of being a dealer – ensuring you can support the product and customer with after sales parts, service and technical inquiries is key to what makes us successful now. We took the time to research the opportunity to ensure we could support the customer and be fully backed by Terex Trucks and the likes of Scania for the engines. The trucks compliment our inventory, as a majority of our customers are end users of these types of machines.”
Comparing artics and rigids
Pat Dunn, OPS’s sales manager for Terex Trucks, has been involved in the earthmoving equipment industry for 15 years. He has spent the past seven years working closely with customers on the unique characteristics and requirements of their load and haul operations in the quarrying and mining sectors.
“The Terex Trucks range of trucks are designed to be strong and robust and are currently working in some of the world’s harshest environments,” Dunn said. “From the beginning in 1934 when Terex Trucks started manufacturing the Euclid 1Z, when Terex Trucks built the first off-road dump truck, they have continued to build straightforward, no nonsense solutions. Their articulated dump trucks are a solid example of this heritage and provide a powerful and strong asset that maximises the return on investment through long service intervals and ease of maintenance. They have the best rim pull in their class. They also have both engine and transmission retarders on all models and economical Scania motors coupled with tried and tested transmissions such as ZF and Allison automatic transmissions.
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“The TA models are ideally suited to all quarry and earthmoving applications, including extractive or production operations, and wherever a fast cycle time or long distances need to be covered between the extraction site and the crusher or processing plant,” Dunn continued. “Articulated trucks excel most in difficult terrain or steep inclines and it’s in the toughest of operating conditions such as sand and clay and extreme heat and cold that the Terex Trucks range really stands out from its competitors.”
Dunn said the main advantage of the articulated trucks over their rigid cousins was “their travel speed and their ability to operate on greater inclines and in rougher and more difficult terrain. They are also better suited to working around smaller screen and crushing operations and from a safety point of view by utilising the tailgate option, they ensure that there is less opportunity of spillage onto haul roads which can present serious dangers and loss in productivity while spillages are cleared”.
Lorimer said that Terex Trucks’ rigid range, is designed to be “a very efficient and productive machine. Terex Trucks’ rigid dump trucks actively work to lower customers’ operating costs by outperforming the competitor to get them ‘steeper and deeper’. With the Cummins engine coupled with the Allison transmission across the range [excluding the TR70, which is fitted with a Detroit Diesel MTU-2000TA engine], the Terex Trucks rigid gives greater rim pull than most of its competitors whilst also providing a safer braking system in the dual retardation with brake and transmission retarders as standard”.
Lorimer said that of the rigid trucks, the TR45 and TR60 are “more aimed at the medium sized quarry, whereas the TR100 is more suited to the larger sized quarrying and mining applications. In saying that, it may be more cost-effective to put a TR100 into a smaller operation, depending on the application. The TR100 stacks up well against the likes of the Cat 777, the Komatsu 785 and Hitachi 1700. It has a very attractive up front capital cost and low operating cost when you put the machines side by side.
“Which of the rigids is best suited to the quarrying application?” Lorimer rhetorically asked. “It all comes down to the customer’s requirements. Some areas that need to be considered are: What type of ancillary equipment does the customer currently have to load the trucks? What’s the haulage distance? What are the ground conditions/elevation like? And what are the BCM movements required per shift/day?
“We work closely with our customers to provide the right fleet for the application,” Lorimer added. “Once the customer has given all the information we need for their project, OPS Equipment then takes that information and models the application with Terex Trucks to come up with the right solution.”
‘Keeping it simple’
{{image3-a:r-w:200}}Terex Trucks was acquired in 2014 by Volvo CE, which has invested in the Terex Trucks products to deliver improvements in both product quality and customer support.
“The Terex Trucks range of articulated trucks is built in Scotland at the Motherwell factory on the ‘Keeping It Simple’ methodology,” Lorimer explained. “The trucks are designed to be mechanically friendly and work to minimise the need for complicated repair and maintenance. Terex Trucks and OPS Equipment have just launched the GEN 10 range of articulated trucks that features improvements in areas such as operator comfort, performance and serviceability. Ultimately, though, it is down to the local support provided by the dealer and the OEM. This is where we believe Terex Trucks stands out in all areas, coupled with the strong partnership of OPS Equipment.
“We believe the Terex Truck range will hold its own in the market and compete well against the competition.” Lorimer said. “The Terex Trucks range has intentionally refrained from adding some of the high tech features that you see in a ‘premium’ brand so as to ‘keep it simple’ but one thing OPS Equipment is certain about is that the Terex Trucks range will deliver what the customer is looking for at a lower capital and running cost that is mechanically easier to maintain by the owner.”
Lorimer also emphasised that OPS Equipment is also fully backed by Terex Trucks’ Asia-Pacific arm, with a dealer manager also based in Perth. “We have a fully equipped workshop located in Jandakot, WA with branches in NT and SA. Spare parts, service fitters, extended warranties and service agreements/contracts are all part of the after sales support that OPS Equipment can offer its customers. We’re also well supported by Scania and Cummins locally for quick response if there are any issues with the machine. Our workshop personnel also receive intense training from Terex Trucks on the equipment to allow OPS to support the product.”
Strong interest
The full range of articulated and rigid trucks is expected to become available through OPS Equipment in the first quarter of 2017. The TA300 is in stock and that vehicle is also available for quarry customers to book for demo days. The TA400 will join it in April when OPS Equipment intends to offer both trucks as part of its long-term hire or sales fleet. “The hire to buy model available on the trucks is the same as the one we offer on our Terex Finlay range to customers that qualify,” Lorimer said.
Since the OPS/Terex Trucks partnership was announced in December 2016 and OPS Equipment celebrated a launch day on 20 January at its Jandakot HQ, Lorimer said there have been some inquiries about the new range of vehicles from quarrying customers. “We’ve had quite a good response to date, with a lot of interest around the TA250, TA300, TA400 and TR100,” he said. “The feedback we are getting from customers is the product is well priced, we can match our competitors’ units with the options they are offering, the operating costs are lower and the build of the trucks looks good.”
In the eastern states, Terex Trucks haulers are available through Terrequipe, based in Rockhampton, Queensland.