SCANIA REVEALS A RUGGED INDIVIDUAL

Scania G 450 XT 8x4 tipper Ekerö, Sweden Photo: Dan Boman 2017

Scania has chosen Melbourne’s International Mining and Resources Conference for the Australia reveal of the next part of the company’s New Truck Generation, the new XT mining and construction range.

Scania says the Scania XT delivers a highly robust range of solutions for a wide variety of applications and can be configured to an operator’s requirements using one of three available cab sizes.

“The Scania XT is perfectly set-up for a range of construction and mining applications on sealed and unsealed surfaces,” said Scania Australia managing director, Mikael Jansson.

“The Scania XT has been designed to shrug off tough conditions and a few bumps and scrapes without the need to visit a workshop to replace exterior fittings. Our customers will be happy to gain additional uptime facilitated by this careful attention to detail.

“Trucks like these often cover significant distances each year on regular roads in the course of delivery and back-loading, so efficient fuel use is of great importance to the operator,” he said.

“Of course, the Scania XT features all the pertinent safety features and equipment needed to provide the greatest level of safety and safe operation to protect drivers from harm, unnecessary downtime and inconvenience,” he said.

“The construction industry faces increasing demands for sustainable and cost-effective production. With a powerful line-up ready for the toughest mining and construction tasks, Scania is well prepared to meet the highly diverse transport assignments within these sectors.

“We have the right products, the right services, and the right skills to help Australian mining and construction operators specify the perfect vehicle for their needs, securing maximum uptime and enhanced total operating economy, protecting their profitability, and therefore enhancing their long-term business stability,” Mr Jansson said.

Scania says like its already released on-highway siblings from the NTG, the XT comes with side curtain rollover airbags as standard that provide industry-leading driver and passenger protection in the event of a crash or rollover. Scania rightfully claims to be the only truck maker to offer this potentially life-saving feature and is standard across the Australian range.

The XT is available with a full range of Scania’s modular Euro 5 or Euro 6 SCR emission engines mated to the Scania Opticruise automated/manual gearbox, including its innovative clutch-on-demand feature for particularly challenging environments.

Scania says the XT range stands ready to prove its grit and credentials I rugged off road conditions and is equipped with a unique protruding steel front bumper, headlamp protection grilles, front under-bumper skid-plate, a 40-tonne towing point in the centre of the bumper and robust door mirror housings as well as an elevated ride-height and all-steel parabolic leaf spring suspension.

Scania says there is no typical XT application and they may vary from pure off-road situations or highway cruising to the challenge of close-quarter manoeuvring in an urban construction site.

Scania says it allows customers to define the features they need and select them from a long list of fully engineered solutions from forestry to elevated work platforms and from bulk materials haulage to mine service vehicles.

In terms of specification it’s about mixing a balance of payload capacity, reliability, fuel efficiency and maximum uptime.

Scania claims the XT range is a response to the growth in business the company has attracted in the mining and resources sector in Australia in recent years as well as an answer to operators in the domestic and civil infrastructure construction boom.

Scania says it is providing a variety of customer-friendly services designed to support uptime and total operating economy, and the XT range provides customers with the same benefits that long-distance and urban distribution operators enjoy.

These include having a nominated fleet manager to support planning, coordination and administration of all fleet services, who will work to detect potential problems in advance, and optimise the vehicle or fleet’s service plan to achieve maximum uptime.

Scania claims it can also configure a service arrangement where its factory-trained technicians can attend in-house, rented or temporary on-site workshops to maintain or repair vehicles as well as ensure sufficient supplies of spare parts are kept on hand.

The Scania Fleet Management Systems – Control Package provides information on fleet position, vehicle tracking and geofencing, as well as fuel use, driver behaviour and can capture damage reports to help speed up repairs.

The Scania Driver Support system is an on-board assistant that provides continuous driver feedback on driving style, safety and fuel efficiency and delivers a summary after a completed assignment. The system is designed to work in-line with the Scania Driver Training Programme in order to reduce wear and maintain a consistently fuel-efficient driving style.

Scania Driver Training and Coaching gives the driver the opportunity to maintain top performance. A skilled driver contributes to increased road safety and better fuel economy while lowering the vehicle’s environmental footprint. Scania’s unique one-to-one application-based driver coaching paves the way to excellent driving habits with reduced wear and tear, stress, and fuel consumption, while increasing comfort and road safety.