Roma’s heavy handed approach

Shaving a few kilograms off equipment tare weight might increase the payload on paper, but head west of Roma, Queensland, and it’s durability that drives productivity and profit as Howard Shanks discovered

Roma is a decent five and half hour journey west of Brisbane. It’s a thriving town and is noticeably famous for its rich and distinguished history in gas and oil exploration and as the pivotal business centre for the Western Downs. Roma is also home to Australia's largest cattle sales, held every Tuesday and Thursday at the Roma Saleyards.

The first gas field was discovered in the Roma township in the early 1900s and by 1906 the natural gas was used for lighting in the town. Yet it wasn’t until the late eighties that coal seam gas production really took off in earnest.

It was around that time that Charlie Burke began carting supplies and equipment for a few gas exploration and mining companies.

Today Charlie, along with his partner Ian Forbes, operate Roma Transport a company they started when they joined their two private companies together back in 1992. At last count, their fleet consisted of approximately 40 Kenworth trucks, 160 Haulmark trailers and 50 Haulmark dollys along with numerous other plant to support the gas industry.

"We do a lot of work in remote areas," Charlie told us. "A lot of dirt work, most of it in pretty harsh conditions too. We go right into South Australia and up into the Territory where some of the more remote oil and gas locations are. Even within a 200-kilometre radius of this district we get into some pretty harsh country where they have been drilling."

"That’s why we’ve stuck with Kenworth trucks and Haulmark trailers, because they’re built tough enough to endure the harsh conditions in the gas fields." Charlie continued. "Both Haulmark and Kenworth have the stability and support network to look after us and we’ve never had any trouble with them."

"In fact, we’ve currently got a rig we are servicing 200 kilometres west of Boulia, bordering on the Simpson Dessert, and it’s a trying area for any equipment," Charlie admits.

Charlie doesn’t scrimp when it comes to optioning up his trucks either. It starts with the proven double-row Kenworth chassis that forms the backbone of these trucks. They are no ordinary Kenworths either, they optioned for extreme conditions, and it’s worth spending a few moments checking out the specifications.

As you’d expect, under the hood is a Cummins engine rated at 550 horsepower, coupled to a Fuller RTLO22918B transmission. The tailshaft is Spicer’s SPL250 that connects to Dana D52-190 axles with cross-locks in the rear, and a final drive ratio of 4.56:1 all riding on Kenworth’s KW6-60A21T steel spring suspension. Up front is a heavy-duty King bullbar with robust driving lights.

Meantime, ensuring his drivers are well catered for, he specs up his trucks with TVs, Ice-Pack bunk air conditioners, fridges and water tanks.

"They’ve got everything to give a bit of luxury for when the drivers are away from home," Charlie added.

Yet despite the issues with the early EGR engine, Charlie Burke is far from being the only operator to stick with Cummins.

Nevertheless, the subsequent ISXe5 is a substantially different and noticeably simpler beast to its EGR counterpart. For instance the ISXe5 uses an XPI (extreme high pressure, upwards of 30,000 psi) common-rail fuel system, and a standard waste-gate turbo-charger along with one overhead cam instead of two like the EGR engine did.

In fact, the turbo used in the ISXe5 is the same as the one used on the proven Gen-2 Signature engines some years back. But most noticeably is the significant improvement in fuel economy over the EGR engine that puts the SCR engine in a class-leading position in this field.

The Haulmark flat top, drop decks and extendable trailers have also been specced to not only be extremely durable but practical as well in the field.

"They’re ruggedly built, and by that I mean designed to suit our conditions," Charlie says. "They have a lot of runners under the floor and a 5mm steel deck. Yeah sure, they’re a bit heavier than most others on the market," Charlie concedes. "But they do last the distance and you have the confidence to know they will get out and deliver the load and get home without breaking down."

"We get extra things like timber racks and bolsters for carting our casing and tubular loads which are removable along with racks to put them in. Haulmark even incorporated our unique roll-over ‘Road Train’ signs, which eliminates the problem of covering them up when swapping from a single or road train configuration, this way the drivers can simply flip them over.

"All the trailers have belly tanks that hold approximately 1500 liters of fuel. We can fuel right through from the third trailer to the prime mover. They are just things that make it easier for the men out in the field," Charlie explains.

The Haulmark side-tippers’ tubs are constructed in various grades of high-wearing impact-absorbing materials to suit the cartage of many types of materials, including road-base, screenings, rock and ore concentrates.

The tub and door hinging designs have been developed to provide low maintenance and trouble free operation. The design ensures maximum tip angles to guarantee no product hang-up, load security and a clean safe tip every time. The hydraulic systems are synchronised and the use of over-centre valves and lock valves ensure the consistent and safe tipping process is maintained through the unit’s life cycle.

In fact, to further reiterate the respect that Haulmark has throughout the remote region of the transport industry, the company has been awarded an Australian Defence contract to supply 2500 trailers for the LAND121 Phase 5B project.

Haulmark Trailers has built a strong reputation for providing quality manufactured transport equipment that is designed, engineered and developed to meet the varied needs of their clients.

Many other transport companies too, recognise that Haulmark Trailers’ focus and commitment on manufacturing quality military trailers for a variety of applications is one that flows through to their civilian equipment as well. Their products service anything from transportation of trucks, to fuel stores all the way to armoured fighting vehicles. Operators like Charlie Burke understand what it means when Haulmark successfully create individual heavy transport solutions to exceed the most demanding industries requirements such as the Australian Defence tasks.

For Roma Transport to deliver the company’s consistent on-time track record, all with the cargo intact, Charlie insists on using only BPW running gear fitted to his Haulmark trailers and dollys.

"Nothing compares to BPW for a low cost whole of service life," Charlie said. "In comparison to the other axles and suspensions I’ve used, BPW is by far more robust and stable. As for component parts life, we can run a trailer for over a million kilometres without having to touch the brakes, bearings, S-cams, adjusters or bushes."

He explained that a simple breakdown in remote Outback Australia can cost many thousands of dollars to rectify and that’s not something neither he nor his clients will tolerate. "Saving a few cents and kilograms on cheap equipment is just false economy out here," Charlie added.

"There is no question that, Kenworth, Haulmark and BPW, might cost a little more than other gear when you’re comparing the quotes in your office," Charlie concludes with conviction. "But five years down the track you can bet your last dollar that your Kenworth truck with its Haulmark trailers, dollys and BPW running gear is by far the cheapest option to run, and they’ll still be running too."

Roma’s heavy handed approach

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