Brace of Volvo A30G articulated haulers heads for Argyll
Breaking with tradition, the Argyll based, family-run civil engineering and contracting business A&L McCrae, headed up by proprietors and founders, Alistair and Linda McCrae, supported by their son Calum, has opted for two Volvo A30G articulated haulers.
These are the first Volvo branded machines to be added to McCrae’s fleet of mixed equipment which includes excavators, wheeled loaders and mobile crushers and will be deployed an a whole range of contracting activities undertaken by this forty-year plus, family-run business. “Taking the decision to change to a new brand of hauler has been a leap of faith, to be honest. We took a close look at the market and having taken third-party recommendations into consideration, the projected residual values and lifetime operating costs, we felt opting for the Volvo haulers was the right decision,” says Alistair McCrae.
The A30G hauler from Volvo meets the requirements of Stage-IV final emissions legislation being powered by an electronically controlled, six-cylinder 264kW turbo charged Volvo V-ACT diesel engine. This features high torque at low engine speeds, resulting in good fuel efficiency, high performance, quicker engine response and less wear, i.e. long service life. Purpose built by Volvo, the engine is designed to exactly match the Volvo drive train, ensuring the best use of power and torque, even in tough working conditions. Delivering exceptional fuel efficiency, it is matched to a torque converter with built in lock-up function and fitted with a fully automatic fast adaptive transmission. The rest of the Volvo designed and built powertrain has been reinforced to cope with the higher torque output of the engine.
With a carrying capacity of 28 tonnes and heaped capacity of 17.5m³ the Volvo A30G has a maximum speed of 53kph. The hauler is also fitted with CareTrack as standard, which is Volvo’s telematics system that enables remote monitoring of a wide range of machine functions (e.g. location, fuel consumption, service reminders, etc.) thus optimizing customer operations. The two haulers supplied to A&L McCrae have been equipped with optional cantilever tailgates.
A&L McCrae was established forty years ago in the Argyll area and has grown from a one man owner-operator company to a multi-disciplined civil engineering firm and quarry operator. Typical contracts include general earthworks, road construction and surfacing, civil engineering, forest road maintenance and construction. The company also carries out contract crushing and quarrying from the company’s own Barrachander Quarry near Taynuilt.
SMT GB markets Volvo Construction Equipment products which include wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, hydraulic excavators, Volvo utility equipment and Volvo road equipment products in Great Britain. There are eight strategically placed customer support centres, a dedicated National Used Equipment Centre and a network of utility equipment dealers to ensure high quality customer support is maintained throughout the country.
