Coleman’s Equipment has provided Robinson Earthmoving a striking grey Cat D8 dozer, marking it as the 100th piece of plant to join Robinson’s all-Caterpillar fleet. As well as turning heads, this dozer is also raising money for the local hospital. We speak with owner Chris Robinson to find out more
Heads have been turning on the Coffs Harbour Bypass as a dark grey Cat D8 dozer painted by used machinery specialist Coleman’s Equipment goes about its business on the Pacific Highway Upgrade.
Delivered by Coleman’s Equipment at the end of January to Robinson Earthmoving, the unusual paint job and custom decals are a celebration of a key milestone for the company as well as an inspiration for raising money for a good cause.
100th piece of plant
With Robinson Earthmoving engaged on the 14km Coffs Harbour Bypass project, stretching around the western edge of the coastal NSW city, Robinson says the time had come for the addition of another D8 dozer to his all-Caterpillar fleet.
With Robinson’s long association with Coleman’s Equipment, he reached out to managing director Mark Coleman to source a used dozer, but also to bring an interesting idea to the table – getting Coleman’s Equipment to paint the machine in dark grey to celebrate its position as Robinson’s 100th piece of plant.
After Coleman’s Equipment had sourced a 2018 model low-hour 39-tonne D8 dozer, this is where things got interesting.
“I had an idea in my head and took it to Mark,” Robinson explains.
“When I said that, for our 100th machine, I wanted to do a D8 Caterpillar bulldozer in Kenworth colours, you should have seen his face!”
“We wanted to do something a little bit special and not everyone paints a huge bulldozer a different colour. We also went for some custom decals.”
With its own paint facility and highly trained workforce, Coleman’s Equipment is well placed to take on customisation jobs, with the team quickly getting stuck in to bring Robinson’s vision to life.
It also worked with fellow Orange business McSigns to design a set of custom Cat logos and Robinson Earthmoving signs to adorn the striking dark grey paintwork, chosen to match Robinson’s Kenworth trucks. Three gold plaques proudly mark the dozer as being Robinson’s 100th machine.
“We’ve purchased machines from Coleman’s Equipment, sold machines to them, done haulage with them and hired machinery from them for close to 10 years now, so for our 100th machine it was great to get them involved and they’ve done a really good job,” Robinson says.
Money for a good cause
Alongside the paintwork there is an even more inspiring story – Robinson’s desire to acknowledge the lifesaving care his three-year-old daughter received from Coffs Harbour Hospital’s children’s ward.
“I wanted the new dozer to stand out, but also do something a bit special with it,” he says.
“As we’re working on the Coff’s Harbour Bypass in our home town, I decided to do a donation to the Coffs Harbour Hospital children’s ward. My daughter was quite sick and spent a bit of time there, so I thought, why not do some sort of donation?”
“I contacted Coffs Harbour Hospital and asked if they needed anything for the children’s ward, as they did a fantastic job with my daughter. There’s a range of things they need, including a new bladder scanning machine for children. At the moment, if a child needs to get their bladder scanned, they have to go to Brisbane or Sydney. “
“So, we’ve started that process and, for every hour the D8 dozer is working on the Coffs Harbour Bypass, I’ll donate $20.”
And he’s not alone – interest has been gathering amongst the local earthmoving community, with other businesses adding their own donations to the cause, including a generous gesture from Coleman’s Equipment.
“I was talking about my idea for donating money to the hospital with Mark and he told a few of his other clients, showing them pictures of the painted dozer, and they said that they’re happy to put in some money, too,” Robinson says.
“On top of that, Coleman’s waived the cost of the paint job, which was probably $40,000 in the end, which is fantastic.”
“This is why we’ve gone to such an amount of effort for this bulldozer. It’s not just about painting it, it’s about advertising what we’re doing for a good cause.”
On the job
When asked why Caterpillar was his go-to choice of equipment, even if the classic yellow has been superseded with a coat of Kenworth grey, Robinson says he’s been running a pure Cat earthmoving fleet for several years due to the high level of technological requirements demanded by his work.
“We predominantly build new freeways, so Tier One infrastructure work, and we’ve got to run the latest and greatest technology,” he says.
“Caterpillar has always been leading in that market. The other reason is we do some work out around Moree and Narrabri, so more remote areas, and they’ve got the best aftersales service, mechanics and coverage across those areas.”
“Sitech Solutions installed a Trimble Earthworks 3D GPS System onto the machine, as, for our work, this technology is compulsory. It means you have your full design right in front of you, so every time you’re blading a bit of dirt, you know what level to cut to, or to fill to, and you can see the full shape of the road.”
With the dozer already out on the bypass tallying up the hours, its unusual appearance has been causing a stir – exactly as Robinson wanted.
“The paint job has certainly stood out, as you can imagine, as people are used to Caterpillars being yellow,” he says.
“So, when a dark grey bulldozer turned up, everyone was rubbernecking; they just couldn’t believe it. It was the talk of the job for the week.”
“Even when transporting it from Coleman’s in Orange to Coffs Harbour, the number of people tagging me on Instagram on photos and videos they’d taken of it was crazy. It’s just not something that people see every day.”
For more information on Coleman’s Equipment, visit: colemansequipment.com.au
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