Allison smoothes the way for leading Australian spraying equipment manufacturer
An Australian manufacturer of spraying equipment uses Allison automatic transmissions to ensure smooth, simple operation and cost effectiveness in its range of specialised self-propelled spraying equipment.
Ballarat, Australia – Considered the leading manufacturer of self-propelled sprayers in Australia, Goldacres has been building specialised self-propelled spraying equipment from its head office in the Victorian rural city of Ballarat for the past 40 years. In 1997, Goldacres started using Allison transmissions in its Crop Cruiser sprayers, and according to chief-engineer Roger Richards, the company has never had a problem with a transmission since making the switch to Allison.
"Since we first started using Allison in the prototype Crop Cruiser spraying tractor almost 15 years ago, we have built more than 140 units. The performance has been exceptional," said Richards.
The latest Goldacres Crop Cruiser Evolution sprayer uses an Allison 2500 Series 5-speed fully automatic transmission mated to a 6.7 litre Cummins QSB turbo diesel engine, producing 225 horsepower.
"Our engineers decided to mate the Allison 2500 Series transmission to our chosen Cummins diesel engine back then because it was the ideal option. We found hydrostatic transmissions were too complex and too expensive, a manual transmission was too difficult to operate, and other transmissions were way too expensive," Richards said.
Goldacres Crop Cruiser Evolution sprayers must be built to cope with a wide range of conditions, due to the vast contrasts of the Australian countryside. Soil conditions can vary from rock-hard, sun-baked dirt to muddy, rain-soaked terrain, and temperatures can be intense as well - from 0 degrees Celsius in winter to more than 50 degrees during summer.
Richards explains why these extreme environments make Allison the best choice. “Using an Allison transmission allows the tractor to maintain constant engine revs no matter what the conditions. It does this by automatically changing up and down to deliver a constant speed. By running the Allison automatic with the Cummins engine, we can easily mate the two so that their electronic control units speak to each other to provide optimum performance across all conditions.”
“Because they are so well matched, the sprayer unit is always in the correct gear, and the engine is in its torque band, which also means the operating temperature is lower, and noise is reduced. Allison enables the sprayer to maintain a smooth crawl, which ensures the crop being tended will receive the correct amount of spray delivered at the appropriate pressure," he added.
A factor that has made the Goldacres Crop Cruiser Evolution sprayers so successful for farm spraying is the versatility of the design with the ability to increase the vehicle's track from three metres to four metres. The Crop Cruiser Evolution can also be fitted with spraying booms that range from 24 metres to 36 metres wide to cope with a variety of farming requirements. This allows the vehicle to cater for a range of applications from broad acre to row crops as well as the ability to carry from 3000 up to 5200 litres of sprays including herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and liquid fertilisers.
Allison has gained Goldacres’ loyalty for another reason, which is the extensive and well-resourced back-up it receives, particularly across remote farming areas of Australia. "Allison really backs its product up well, particularly through its dealer, Heavy Automatics, which delivers the sort of after sales service that gives us the confidence to sell our sprayers into the most remote regions of the country," Richards said. "If there is a problem on a remote farm then they will have someone out there straight away to rectify it and have the sprayer unit going again, minimising any downtime for the customer."
About Goldacres
Goldacres is a family owned company, which has been established for more than a quarter of a century. It was founded and is still headed by John Richards and operates from two factories, in Ballarat and also at St Arnaud 130 km northwest where the company was first established. The head office and production facility at Ballarat occupies a 13-hectare site manufacturing self-propelled and trailing sprayers in its recently expanded 5000 square metre production space. The Goldacres equipment range is sold and serviced through a network of 80 dealers Australia wide.
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About Allison Transmission
Allison Transmission is the world’s largest manufacturer of fully-automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles, medium- and heavy-tactical U.S. military vehicles and hybrid-propulsion systems for transit buses. Allison transmissions are used in a variety of applications including on-highway trucks (distribution, refuse, construction, fire and emergency), buses (primarily school and transit), motor homes, off-highway vehicles and equipment (primarily energy and mining) and military vehicles (wheeled and tracked). Founded in 1915, the Allison business is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A. and employs approximately 2,800 people. Allison has manufacturing facilities and customization centers located in China, The Netherlands, Brazil, India and Hungary, with a global presence, serving customers in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and Africa. Allison also has more than 1,500 independent distributor and dealer locations worldwide. More information about Allison is available at www.allisontransmission.com.
This press release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "plans," "project," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," “intend,” “forecast,” “could,” "potential," "continue" or the negative of these terms or other similar terms or phrases. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks. Factors which may cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated at the time the forward-looking statements are made include, but are not limited to: risks related to our substantial indebtedness; our participation in markets that are competitive; general economic and industry conditions; our ability to prepare for, respond to and successfully achieve our objectives relating to technological and market developments and changing customer needs; the failure of markets outside North America to increase adoption of fully-automatic transmissions; the discovery of defects in our products, resulting in delays in new model launches, recall campaigns and/or increased warranty costs and reduction in future sales or damage to our brand and reputation; the concentration of our net sales in our top five customers and the loss of any one of these; and labor strikes, work stoppages or similar labor disputes, which could significantly disrupt our operations or those of our principal customers. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that the expectations will be attained or that any deviation will not be material. All information is as of the date of this press release, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in expectations.
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Miranda Jansen, Allison Transmission Europe B.V. Marketing Communications, Baanhoek 188, 3361GN Sliedrecht - The Netherlands , Tel: +31 78-6422 174. miranda.jansen@allisontransmission.com
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