Mildura Rural City Council in Victoria and Flinders Ranges Council in South Australia have both adopted separate solutions for a common problem: maintaining vast stretches of rural roads.
With an area of more than 22,000 square kilometres, Mildura is Victoria’s largest local government unit by geographic size.
While Flinders Ranges Council is comparatively smaller with an area of more than 4000 square kilometres, it only has a population of around 2000 people, compared to Mildura’s 60,000.
Both councils must maintain rural road networks encompassing hundreds of kilometres. For instance, the roads in Mildura serve as bus routes connecting the community, while in Flinders Ranges, the roads have to be suitable for the large numbers of tourists.
Council crews often need to travel significant distances over roads in various states of repair. Accordingly, vehicle suspension is a major consideration for fleet managers.
The Flinders Ranges Council recently acquired an Isuzu FRR 600 truck fitted with a tipper body for town maintenance work.
The Council’s Works Supervisor, Lee Braddy says the truck was procured with a particular view to towing a plant trailer.
“Each of our staff members who drive this truck find it very easy to operate and handle,” he adds.
The truck is equipped with an Isri 6860 air suspension seat to provide a smooth ride for drivers no matter the condition of the road. It also comes with a five-ton payload, making it useful for carrying roadwork and streetsigns, tools and gardening products.
Similarly, Mildura purchased two JCB 2155 Fastrac tractors in 2009 specifically to tow a range of road maintenance attachments, such as grid crushing and compaction rollers, and smooth drum rollers – each weighing 11 tons.
The Council’s Workshop Team Leader David Baird says the smooth riding provided by the tractors’ suspension systems has been well received by the crews, who often spend long periods of time traversing rough, unmade roads.
The tractors use a 54-forward, 18-reverse-speed Smoothshift transmission, which comprises a six-speed manual synchromesh gearbox, a three-speed synchromesh range box and a three-speed powershift with selectable auto-shifting.