To: From: "Joe Mortelliti" Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 14:32:04 +1000 Subject: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com Hi All, I spent an interesting hour with a guy who's business is totally based on fitting out Toyota's for the mining industry. He sets them up to be in constant 4wd. Fits Detroit lockers... which by the way he does not recommend for street use as simply they are too harsh for normal driving. Anyway we got onto why are the mining companies he deals with exclusively using Toyota' and not Nissan's as well. He tells 2 stories A Queensland mining company changed over the fleet of 40 Toyota's for Nissans...the result was a total disaster with the Nissan's failing in all areas including body and before long they replaced the lot again with Toyotas again...they simply failed in this tough mining environment. A Gippsland mining company introduced 3 new Nissans to the Toyota fleet and it was not long before they were "accidentally" involved in write off incidents. The digging equipment "accidentally" ran over one crushing it completely...one "accidentally" rolled into deep hole...the last was "accidentally" buried under tons of earth. The miners simply hated them and management avoided any further losses by sticking with Toyota's. Even though I own 2 Toyota's I have seen it more as a personal liking and acknowledged that Toyota's are, neatly and cleverly engineered and overall a refined package compared to the Nissan, but I would not knock a Nissan as I always felt from reports that they were a little more robust/tougher and the drive train was heavier and stronger. My experience with the whole Toyota vs Nissan saga was just emotional arguments and not worth the energy. So to get this type of feed back from people involved with the mining company certainly seems good reason to feel that a Toyota really is the better unit by a long shot. Regards Joe To: From: "Corr, Darren (CALCAR)" Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 13:42:36 +1000 Subject: RE: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com Why is it then, that if you go to the Short Course Competition, there is always a larger quantity of N's over Toyota's competing. I keep telling myself that it is because they are cheap and you have to hate your car to be able to compete in these types of competition. I was always under the belief that N's had a tougher driveline than Toyota, but the refinement was well off the mark. Personally, I agree that it is an emotional debate more than anything, and that comparing the two is like comparing Alpine to Pioneer stereo's, maybe with scientific equipment you can tell the difference, but to the average Joe, they are pretty well the same. Obviously my opinion, Corry To: From: "Joe Mortelliti" Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 14:59:29 +1000 Subject: Re: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com Hi Darren, In the example of the 40 units given, the company makes a big investment, it's commercial,not emotional, based on what works to get the job done and they proved to themselves which vehicle could not do the job. Regards Joe To: From: "Corr, Darren (CALCAR)" Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 14:17:48 +1000 Subject: RE: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com Don't get me wrong Joe, I'm not surprised at the outcome. Having worked with big companies and been involved with people who work in and for the mining industry, it is a good industry to test equipment out. (If the company is willing to take a chance and trial something different.) I have seen many tests done from the mining fraternity with tyres and oils, and the outcome of those is very surprising. It is amazing how different products fare when they are in the hands of large industry. The other bonus, is that large industry keep records of what went wrong and why, so the likes of oil sampling and tests is recorded religiously. Corry To: From: "Joe Mortelliti" Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 15:31:50 +1000 Subject: Re: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com Yes commercial usage generally sorts products out. We were in the film processing industry in the 70's running a medium size fleet of cars throughout Victoria, picking up films at camera stores and chemists daily. We had Mazda 1300 wagons, Gemini's and Volkswagon's...In the end the fleet ended up being Mazdas 1300 as they were so trouble free, each clocking up to 120,000 miles (not km) in short space of time and still running reliably when traded. Regards Joe To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com From: "Kirk, Selwyn S" Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 17:07:16 +1100 Subject: RE: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com As a current employee of a large open cut coal mine I feel like I'm in a position to tell the story first hand. My current work vehicle is a Nissan Ute. (TD6) http://forums.overlander.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=19143 see above for a list of mods It is true that the company I work for switched over from Toyotas to Nissans. This was done around 5 years ago. Since then they have switched back to Toyotas. Both have had there share of dramas. We keep the vehicle for 3 or 4 years under lease (be aware buying from auctions as the "real" user/ abuser can be hidden) This is my second Nissan Ute. The first did not make it to the end of 3 years before the chassis was rusted so bad the vehicle was declared unroadworthy. My current vehicle has a cracked chassis (Nissan engineers from Japan have been on our mine sites to investigate the problems and have now rectified the problem on future production models) This vehicle was the LAST Nissan to make it to site during the changeover period. So I got the intercooled 6cly turbo diesel. (as this was the only diesel engine available in the base model at the time) I was disappointed to be driving a Nissan again, instead of my new Toyota. Now the interesting/ technical bit. Since the Toyotas have been on site there have been 2 instances of utes rollovers (none for the 3 years of the Nissans) higher centre of gravity? Nissans had a habit of burning out clutches (higher gearing) and the mines decided that the cheaper 3lt diesel Nissan wagons in the long run were not too many revs required to hill start/overcome turbo lag. Nearly all the Nissan utes developed some cracking of the chassis between the front tray mount and the front leaf spring hanger. I haven't heard of the constant 4x4 or the Detroit lockers, and I would hazard a guess that my company has the largest fleet of mine vehicles in the country. I leave the vehicle in lock at all times though, you never know when you might need it. My vehicle will average 40 thou kms a year with me being able to take the vehicle home at the end of the day. This car does about 30% road 40% gravel and 30 low range 4x4 (and loving it and getting paid to love it) Cheers Selwyn Kirk 2003 GXL Diesel Selwyn.kirk@bhpbilliton.com To: From: "Bellbirdweb" Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2004 00:06:53 +1100 Subject: RE: [lcool_aus] Toyota's in the mines Reply-To: lcool_aus@yahoogroups.com Back in July, I did a tour of the worlds largest Uranium mine at Roxby Downs. They exclusively used Toyotas, and made quite a point of it during the tour. They run them into the ground, and then strip anything useful off them, and bolt it on to the next one. It was amazing to see hundreds of 78 series utes as far as the eye could see. Graham Tait HDJ100+++ Sydney ********************************************** BELLBIRD DISTRIBUTORS http://www.rescuestuffdirect.com =20 sales@rescuestuffdirect.com Streamlight Torches - Waterproof Cases - Rescue Gloves **********************************************=20