Cummins has achieve a significant milestone delivering its 5000th ISXe5 engine sold in the South Pacific with the engine now in service in a Kenworth T409 with Rocky’s Own Transport, based in Rockhampton.
“The ISXe5 represents Cummins’ most successful ever introduction of a new heavy-duty truck engine in the South Pacific,” says Mike Fowler, director of automotive business for Cummins South Pacific.
“This is due in large part to the extensive field testing of the ISXe5 in Australia before its release. We began testing 15 engines early in 2012 in single trailer, B-double and roadtrain applications, clocking up millions of kilometres before the release in 2013.”
Fowler points out Australia has been a global proving ground for Cummins truck engines since 2012, the benefits of which are seen in the success of the ISXe5, the biggest selling engine in Australia’s heavy-duty market. The ISXe5 achieves Euro 5 compliance through SCR technology.
Rocky’s Own is currently running 32 ISXe5 engines, their reliability and fuel economy rated highly by operations manager Rod Carige.
“I always hear if we’re having any product dramas… I’m not getting any phone calls about the ISXe5,” he says. “Fuel economy is very good too.”
Rocky’s Own was involved in the ISXe5 field test program, running two engines, which are still in service today, each having clocked up close to 700,000 km at the end of November 2015. Much of their work has been into some of the hottest areas of the country, as far afield as the Pilbara mining region in Western Australia.
Rocky’s Own runs a fleet of more than 130 prime movers and 220 trailers. The company’s beginnings in 1985 were modest, a couple of trucks and a table and chair set up in a small timberyard in Rockhampton.
Dangerous goods and general freight are the core of its freight task today, a task that sees close to 100 Cummins-powered Kenworths operating across Australia.
The company started swinging over to Cummins power for its linehaul fleet in 2006 and by 2013 had put its 100th ISX engine into service.
“I don’t have any bad news to tell you… we’re not having dramas,” says Mark Chardon, service manager for Rocky’s Own, commenting on the service history of the ISXe5. “Reliability is more than meeting our expectations, and it’s an easy engine to service.”
Chardon points out that Rocky’s Own carries out mid-life component replacement at around the 520,000 km mark, replacing the compressor, turbo, water pump, belt tensioners and engine brake spool valves. The engine is then run out to 900,000 km before the truck is traded. This mid-life maintenance ensures optimum engine reliability and performance.
