New Zealand is fast becoming a market that takes full advantage of the Special Trucks range from Mercedes-Benz (that‘s the Zetros and Unimog). They‘re made for the most obscure operations in the toughest environments, and are proving ideal for just that over here. Now the country can lay claim to a Zetros that has few peers, if any.
It‘s not as though we haven‘t seen a Zetros before – there are a few buzzing around, spreading in the South Island and the like, and we‘ve seen them overseas – but it‘s impossible to not be taken aback when that rather large three-pointed star, set in that chunky, blunt nose, is staring you square in the face. “God, she‘s big!” we quipped, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, as we walked into the shed on Arran McKinnon‘s section just outside of Gisborne and took in the sheer presence of his latest acquisition, a Mercedes-Benz Zetros 2733 A 6×6. That ride height and those 365/85 R20 front tyres, too… And the overall length of the thing, accentuated by the extra drive axle and Fassi crane stuck way out at the
rear… It is a beast.
Photo: This is mild stuff compared with Arran‘s usual graft…
Indeed, Zetros is as much a byword for presence as it is for specialist work, and the work Arran does is rather specialised. He and his brother are both linesmen, maintaining the Eastland Network‘s subtransmission lines, more often than not pulling out the old hardwood poles from the most challenging of terrain and upgrading them with new concrete ones. He needed one truck that could make its way to some frankly ridiculous spots of the land, carrying 12.5m-long poles, and able to do the job of a digger, a crane truck, a basket truck, and a winch truck (or a helicopter at $3000 an hour). That‘s no small ask and as Arran laid out in meticulous detail the requirements of the job, the potential candidates began to drop off the list fast. “Getting the truck started with the need for a bigger crane, really,” explains Arran. The Hiab mounted to his loyal and long-standing 4×4 Isuzu was too small, too old, overworked, and doing too big a job for what it was designed. He‘d known as long as 10 years ago that he was going to need a replacement. The crane he needed had to be a really solid piece of kit. Arran had originally considered going the 8×8 route with two cranes, a big one at the front for the basket and a small one on the back to handle the rotten poles when changing them over.
Photo: Arran (left) takes delivery from Damon Smith of Trucks & Trailers.
It soon became apparent that that setup would be too big and difficult to manoeuvre. He did more digging, and with the help of the team at Allcrane Sales & Service, settled on a Fassi F275.0.25 with one manual extension. “It really required a double rear axle; you could fit it to a 4×4 truck, but you then couldn‘t carry anything else apart from your lunch on the front seat. And you also wouldn‘t be able to get the crane folded with a pole on, meaning it would have to be extended forward to the headboard, and that puts a lot of weight on the front axle,” Arran explains. Doing his research, Arran began to take notice of the Zetros. Among the things that really appealed to him were the massive ground clearance and the low cab roof height, which meant he could lay the poles above it as flatly as possible. “I went to check out some of them doing spreading in Methven for Philip Waring. I rang him up and drove down to see the trucks on the job. He said they were bloody awesome and very difficult to get stuck with all the diffs locked.”
Photo: Arran drives the crane from the sky.
One of a kind
The decision was made and Arran‘s next port of call was Trucks & Trailers, which is beginning to build up a reasonable reputation when it comes to Mercedes- Benz Special Trucks. Last year, for example, Damon Smith, Mercedes-Benz brand manager at Trucks & Trailers, put eight Unimog 5023s on the road for GO Orange in Queenstown, and there are five more currently being built for various roles around the North Island. “We jumped all over it when Arran came to us,” Damon says. “We roped in Phil Lesley who works on Special Trucks based in Australia. He‘s got the experience with Unimogs and the Zetros, which is reasonably new to us. He was a huge help.” Getting the final spec right was quite a process, says Damon, especially so in this instance because the ‘standard‘ Zetros (if there is such a thing…) comes off the line with just two axles and single tyres. If Arran could have an extra axle tacked on to maximise his weights he‘d be away, and so once the truck went through the ordering process and came off the assembly line, it was sent to the Customer Tailored Trucks (or CTT) division for the dual wheels and 6×6 conversion. “From our initial conversation with Arran the process took quite a long time because we had to get the spec right, make sure we could run the dual tyres, communicate with the crane guys and ensure we had the right wheelbase and overhang dimensions, and be sure we could build it,” he says. Once the order was locked in it was about five and a half months until the 6×6 Zetros arrived in New Zealand, at which point it was off for bodywork and fitting. “The truck turned up for us as a basic cab chassis,” says Karl Leonard-Rogers, service and technical manager at Allcrane.
Photo: 4800mm wheelbase and 600mm extended overhang, weight distribution spot on. The pole, by the way, measures 12.5m.
Allcrane not only supplied the Fassi crane and all its fittings, but also built the bodywork and framing to support the poles. “We designed it about a year ago. Arran came to us with all the weights and dimensions, from poles to chains and the other gear he needs on the job, and said ‘that‘s what the truck needs to carry‘. It was quite a process of trying things out, figuring out wheelbases, where the crane was going to sit, getting the deck length right. In the end, the centre of gravity was a little further back than we designed, which helped us even further, and it came out just 12kg off the original calculation. That was what the design work was all about!” We were certainly blown away by the quality of work and attention to detail in this build, and by all accounts so was Arran when he first saw the finished product. “I‘d been shitting myself the whole build, thinking if it turns up and it‘s no good then I‘m in big shit. But weighed out with everything on as I use it, it comes in at 5800kg on the front (it can take 7200kg with those tyres), so I was away. All up it‘s 16.6t, and the poles are 1600kg each, so it comes to 20,380kg with the poles. I‘ve got about 1.3t up my sleeve,” he says. “It motors along beautifully, especially compared with the Isuzu. The roads in Gisborne aren‘t the most flash, but in this it‘s like a flying carpet. Also, when you‘re on the hills, this feels like a rock.”
Photo: Arran‘s view – winch supporting wires as they get fixed in place.
Learning curves
Interestingly, for a man whose crane driving skills form a larger part of his occupation than his truck driving skills, Arran‘s needed more tuition getting to grips with the leap in technology presented by the Fassi than by the Mercedes. “The crane is the crane – the F275 structure is the same all over the world. But behind the scenes there‘s a bit more going on here; we‘ve specced it for this application,” Karl explains. “The crane is all new to me, all computerised, not manual like the old one,” says Arran. The remote has various functions programmed in specifically for Arran, including an engine start and stop and remote tamper operation. Allcrane worked with Arran on many scenarios where he may need assistance – especially when he‘s in the wops with no cellphone coverage. “We had to think about all these things for Arran‘s application. He was great with feedback, telling us what he needed to be able to do and what he couldn‘t have going wrong. He has no phone connections out there and we have no radio in our office, so we had to think outside the box and engineer in failsafes,” Karl notes. Given the varied terrain Arran has to contend with, the whole unit was also designed to be over-stable as a basket truck. With a full reach of 16.5m, Arran is able to park the Zetros in the ideal position and leave it there for the whole job, whereas the old unit would need to be moved and set up three or four times for different tasks.
Photo: 6×6 configuration a unique Zetros conversion.
This is a boon, as repositioning the vehicle is often difficult – never mind trying to get two different vehicles in alongside each other. Arran‘s new process in brief: pre-drill the hole, go up in the basket and undo the wires (one truck dealt with), set up the winch to lift the wires off the old pole and suspend them out the way (two trucks), then, once he‘s safely back on terra firma, hook the new pole to the winch and position it in place (three trucks). “I also get a nice view from above, instead of having to do a lot of it from the ground,” he says. Naturally, the compromise is having to swap out the drill and basket, but Allcrane tried to make the process as easy as possible. “We have used a multi quick-release hydraulic connector and dry changeover system, so it doesn‘t drip any oil. There‘s a nice big lever so it‘s easy to operate with cold hands, and all the tools use the same fitting. We tried to simplify it as much as possible,” Karl says.
Thinking poles
Simplifying the job not only meant making the crane as user-friendly as possible, but the whole vehicle too. “We designed the whole body thinking poles,” Karl says. Therefore, not a single potential lashing point was wasted, all points on the headboard are certified and rated, and there are chain spots for heavy-duty chains under the deck. From the driver‘s seat, Arran wanted to be able to see as much of the deck as he could through the mirror. To aid visibility, there‘s a handy rear-facing camera installed with a display mounted atop the dashboard, while floodlights were specced and sit perched atop the cab. Powering the beast along is a surprisingly modest 240kW (326hp) BlueTec 5 6-cylinder, coupled to a 9-speed manual transmission with PTO, and a 2-speed transfer case. “The Special Vehicles share a lot of the same components with many of our other bigger trucks. The engine and gearbox are common to a lot of our trucks,” Damon says. “It has some uprated suspension, and of course the tyres, but it‘s a pretty strong truck so we don‘t see many failures.” “Once I had a trial run and was shown my way around the diff locks, I was good as gold. It was like going from a Cessna to a Boeing,” says Arran, attributing that analogy to Gary Walker who was his first point of contact regarding the crane. “Gary put a lot of hard work into it right to the end, and still keeps in contact with me to see how it‘s going.” Arran‘s only full of compliments for the teams at Trucks & Trailers and Allcrane. And rightly so. After all, this wasn‘t a simple tickbox order for a familiar truck in a common application. There was no precedent for a vehicle just like this – but, thanks to meticulous attention to detail on the part of customer and suppliers, it‘s fair to say that there is now.
Photo: Rear-facing camera for visibility. Cup-holders for coffee.
Photo: Three-up – if needed.
Photo: Office environment familiar Mercedes-Benz.
Photo: Pull-out step makes climbing onto or under the bonnet easy.
Photo: Pull-out step makes climbing onto or under the bonnet easy.
Photo: Load-sensing pads ensure safe loading of basket.
Photo: Implements on, implements off.
Photo: Big grille. Big crane.
Photo: A quick-release hydraulic connector and dry changeover system ensure implements can be changed over without fuss.
Photo: Controls mounted on the basket and on a waist belt have programmed functions specific to Arran‘s operation.