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Jed White, who works for GBC Winstone at Otaika Quarry near Whangarei, drives a Volvo A45G articulated dump tuck.
Otaika Quarry has been in operation, processing both coarse and fine aggregates, since the 1950s. Here, Jed carts material in his hauler from the quarry itself to the crushing plant.
The days are long, but he says the Volvo A45G ADT provides for a fantastic working environment.
“I reckon Volvo ADTs are the most comfortable dump trucks I’ve driven. Volvo really takes care of the driver in the seat.
“The seats are fully adjustable, the cab features great air con, and there is a lot of good safety tech onboard too, like the Load & Dump Brake, which I use a lot,” he says.
Jed points to Volvo’s automatic diff lock as another great convenience measure. This means he doesn’t need to manually switch the A45G into six-wheel drive. The ADT also features telematics information for the driver right in the dash, providing data on load cycles and haul tonnage, along with a total load calculation which can be recorded and reset at the end of each work day.
“This is a great feature because it totally eliminates the paperwork for drivers,” he says. “You can cart material all day and you don’t have to write a thing down; the truck does it all for you.”
The Volvo A45G also allows the driver to pre-set an upper limit to the dump bin hoist, meaning when the 25.1m³ bin gets to a certain height it will perform a hard stop; handy for operators manoeuvring around tighter yards, or where other obstacles might be encountered.
Thanks to a variety of sensors which record engine and drivetrain performance in real-time, Jed can keep an eye on transmission performance, coolant level, oil temperature and hydraulics. If there are any issues, the truck effectively tells Jed via a ‘Vehicle Messages’ display in the instrument panel.
“The truck will know something’s not right before the driver even does,” he says.
“Volvo dump trucks are really reliable,” says Jed. “Nothing major has gone wrong with them so far, but we know that, should anything come up, the TDX service guys are always really quick to get out here".
“I would thoroughly recommend them to anyone in the market for a rugged dump truck of this size.”
