Non Toyotas in the mines, how are they going

Lol Alby, I'd say there all going very well, Because any non toyota brand that wasn't, would be broadcasted all over this place!


Cheers Axle.

Ably

They mostly buy Toyotas for a reason.
A bit more expensive but are generally more reliable than their counterparts.
As you may have noticed in your travels as soon as you head west there are Toyotas everywhere. I have heard the same as you about the other brands failing in the mines.

Cheers

Alby,

Probably 10-12 months ago, I saw a triple loaded with Mahindra utes, done up to mine specs, and heading west. To Cloncurry, the Isa or into the NT?

Not long after saw a similar load, this time well used Landcruisers heading east, all looking a bit sad, dirty and..........well used. :-)

Around the Isa and the 'Curry, it still seems to be the usual Hiluxs, Landcruisers and some of the medium sized trucks, in both single and dual cab. Mostly all with that yellow reflective tape.........

Haven't heard anymore of the "test" Rangers being used at Cannington, since RA departed EO.

Bob

I have been keeping my eyes on Pickles when the first of the GX mine or gov ones came on to be sold and what I have noticed is the ones I have seen GX 200 s most in the condition report say under body corrosion and some some case major corrosion

one the other day said engine bay filthy major under body corrosion and seats all in a filthy stained

Now I am not sure if these are mine but from the roll bars and other gear I would have to assume some are from mines

I am not sure what prices they went for but I asked some one about the cost of cleaning and all I was told is expensive

I have been told from a couple of guys who work in the mines up here in the Hunter Valley that the mines dropped Toyotas because of their minimal safety accessories. In short, they did not have the right number of airbags according to some OHS formula. Even a local Toyota admitted that to me when I was chatting to him about it. I don't have any info as to whether Toyota addressed the problem as this conversation was probably 18 months ago.
OBJ

W.A. minesites are still predominantly Toyota, although there are grumbles about the earlier model Toyotas being more robust and presenting with less problems.

Ford are pushing hard to get more Rangers onto W.A. minesites, but the new Ranger sales are still dominated by private buyers, shire councils and other general businesses.
The Ranger has made a slight dent in Hilux sales to the W.A. miners, but it's still a long way behind on mining sales.

The news articles always like to boom up that Rangers are decimating Hilux on the minesites, but it's not true - they lump all sales figures together to make it look like Hilux is losing lots of mining sales - but it's the private and council sales area is where the Hilux is lagging.

Ford Ranger hits Toyota Hilux where it hurts - news article

Vehicle purchases are driven by OHS, bean counters, and mining engineers - and the main driver today is how safe the vehicle is.
The big miners will now only buy vehicles with the highest crash-safety ratings.
So a lot of the cheaper vehicles will never get a look in, because their crash-safety ratings are poor.

Anyone who buys a used minesite vehicle is buying trouble.
Salt water is always used to water down minesite roads, as fresh water is always in short supply.
That salt water often contains some dreadful additional corrosive ingredients such as sulphur, iron, calcium, magnesium, and arsenic compounds that often highly acidic or highly alkaline.
Add in naturally corrosive chemicals in the soils used for haul roads and minesite roads, and you have the scene set for high maintenance levels and short vehicle life.

Cheers, Ron.

(former mining contractor and gold miner, with current mining industry contacts and knowledge)

Whilst not necessarily an answer to the question posed, a comment I'd offer is that mines are "exceptional" places, put a vehicle of any brand into them and most are likely to develop problems over time.

Perhaps some more that others, and the problems may be different - but it is to be expected.

And similar to Ron's prior post, I think the type of vehicle is governed first and foremost by the OH&S requirements of the particular company, other considerations follow behind this.

Cheers, Baz - The Landy

It's interesting to see that the prices on new Jap-built Prado and Landcruiser have suddenly been adjusted downwards by $4000-5000 - largely due to the Japanese FTA, according to Toyota Australia.
That will smart, for anyone who just bought a late model used Prado or Landcruiser, and who was using the old prices as a guide.
It's only the Jap-built vehicles that are affected, all the vehicles built elsewhere, such as Thailand, are unaffected.

New vehicle price drop for Landcruiser and Prado

Cheers, Ron.

I thought that the only reason Toyotas were being dropped was because the mines required all vehicles to have a 5 star ANCAP rating which the Toyotas used did not have and Toyota refused to upgrade their vehicles and let to Toyota to drop the commercial Landcruisers in a year or two.

So unless Toyota change their minds and upgrade the commercial cruisers to 5 star ANCAP then I understand they are history.

Garry

Here in Broken Hill with both major mines all I see is CBH have mostly 2006 toyota standards and Perilya have a few Triton and Ford and I have seen a lot of patrol utes come from the underground section


in the case of the Patrols ute 4cyl most of them look like they have had a hard life underground the others seem to be surface service vehicles

With any purchase of any fleet it's the bean counters that get the final say
Given a choice of vehicles that pass their OH&S and previous reliability, it then comes down to a selection of "package deal"
There is no GST or sales tax so the deal then comes down to the basic price from the dealer / factory.
Remember we're talking about a couple of hundred in a big concern here.

Then when the vehicle is sold on the auction houses get the best price going, remember that is judged by the poor suckers that had to pay all the GST and sales tax.

This works out (roughly ) they can buy a Yota for the price of a Great Wall and resell it later for the street value of the Yota, sometimes making a good profit , sometimes breaking even on costs.
But still reducing their fleet costs by doing it this way rather than buying a fleet and flogging it to death.

Many dealers that have late model Yotas and Rangers got them from the local shires fleet sales and many have been used a salary package deals and never did any actual hard work , with the exception of the occasional weekend jockey.

The mines ones are very similar but are evident by the underneath replacements and panel work done on them and get a lower price on the market ,and higher k'ms and if lucky, still get back what , or near, it cost them in the first place.

So yes it all comes back to the bean counters and special deals made with the builders of the vehicles.


z

HI
The mine I was working for purchased Nissian patrols
The biggest trap as with all things, cheap to buy but very very spendy, robbery on guenuine parts.
The manager never tried non guenuine or had his superiors setup a discount parts supply from OEM . Absolute Di** heads .
To solve this problem the decision was to go to CANNOT BELEIVE THIS
***Tractors by Kubota **** same outcome
The utes would do a ""complete""" front and rear end every 3mths
The tractors would need all things that moved every 3-6 mths [including diff housings and body parts ]
Over all repair bill the same

Approx cost for nissian parts is double that of a tojo [f/end complete]
[many parts on the nissians were unavailable non guenuine ]
Life span of an under ground ute 2 years then it was a rust bucket

Rust was caused by
humid underground condition
driving in constant wet conditions
finds or drilling muck very abrasive and high in corrosive minerals
vibration created bare metal where rust starts
use of artesian basin water laden with minerals to wash down after shift

swampfox