UD hosts Qld drive day

More than a hundred truck dealers, sales personnel and customers came together at the Mt Cotton driver training facility in south-east Queensland on July 15, to get up close and personal with a full range of UD trucks.

Vice President of UD Truck Sales, Jon McLean (pictured), said salespeople needed hands-on experience with the trucks, "so they can love them".

Representatives from big fleets were massaged with the benefits of using medium-duty trucks that shared a commonality of product and service with bigger fleet brands like Volvo and Mack.

A line-up Quon trucks released at the Brisbane Truck Show in 2013 led the action, with body and dog configurations along with single- and bogey-drive prime movers.

Two new releases had their first public outing: a prototype locally developed Quon 6x2 rigid-and-dog 14-pallet combination and a smaller Condor tipper.

"At the Brisbane Truck Show this year we couldn't show the full range so we thought we'd do that at a site like this," said Mr McLean.

"Many of these people [present at the Mt Cotton drive event] have never been in a UD, don't know the history of the UD and haven't driven one. It is a great opportunity today to promote our product."

This year has seen the last of UD's 13-litre, 470hp engines, which have now been replaced by Volvo Group's GH11 engine and the Escot V transmission. The GH11 is an 11-litre block available in 420 and 380hp options.

A Condor MK 11 250 with a factory-built and fitted tipping body was released for the UD drive day and is aimed at the lighter end of tipper applications – landscaping, construction and the like.

The tipping body is easy to use with a dash-mounted pushbutton PTO switch and a simple lever beside the seat similar to a hand brake: pull up to lift, push down to lower.

UD says the tipping operation is designed for business people – those who are not necessarily professional drivers.

The Condor is powered by UD's seven-litre six-cylinder intercooled turbo-diesel. The engine produces a modest 180kW at 2500rpm and 720Nm across the entire driving range.

The truck has two transmissions on offer: a six-speed UD manual and an Allison Gen 5 LCT2500 five-speed automatic.

trucksales.com.au found both options had plenty of bounce and were easy to drive. The power levels were more than adequate; with three tonnes of wet sand on the back the MK handled the steep pinches and bends of the Mt Cotton construction site comfortably.

It was, according to Jon McLean, a time of celebration.

"First and foremost we are celebrating our 80th anniversary and you can see that in the livery on the trucks," he said.

"It's an historic year for us and a lot of things happening in Tokyo, with new headquarters and a new customer centre being built."