A Lamtrac 6160T and set of Diamond Mower attachments have transformed Dignit Earthmoving’s capabilities to tackle post-bushfire regrowth in NSW
For Dignit Earthmoving owner Matthew Thornton, a Lamtrac 6160T mulcher carrier from local distributor Colbrook Industries has been a gamechanger for his vegetation management business thanks to its mix of a compact build and high throughput.
Thornton set up Dignit in 2020 after a difficult bushfire season, and the subsequent regrowth, affected his family’s cattle farm in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
“The fires were devastating for a lot of people in this area,” he says.
“We then had a few really wet years that fueled such a level of regrowth that we couldn’t stay on top of it. That was the inspiration for setting up a forest mulching and land clearance business.
“We mostly work with private land holders – there are a lot of hobbyist farmers around as well as some larger farmers, but also people developing their properties to generate some kind of grazing capability. A lot of our work is building fire breaks, with fire-affected properties needing a cleanup.”
Diamond Mowers
After trying equipment from a couple of different brands, Thornton got in touch with Colbrook Industries – the Australian distributor for Lamtrac and Diamond Mowers – to check out its range of cutting and mulching attachments.
Having had such success with the Diamond Mowers brand, Thornton now has a full suite of attachments to tackle a wide variety of vegetation.
He describes the Brush Cutter Pro X rotary mower for his skid steer as being a “three-bladed slasher on steroids”, which is suitable for both grass as well as trees, while the 84-inch Brush Cutter Pro X for the Lamtrac is “a whole other ball game again”.
“It’ll do everything that the brush cutters on a skid steer will do, but twice as quick. The only thing I don’t use it for is mowing my lawn,” Thornton says.
“I also have the Diamond Mowers OD Pro X drum mulcher, which is the open rotor drum. It’s fantastic.
“I call it ‘the mop’ – you can go in and just make an area really clean with it. It’s fast, efficient and basically a Swiss army knife – it covers vegetation across the board. Once you start looking at that shrubby stuff that might be a bit thick for a Brush Cutter, you go from there right up to your big trees.”
A belt drive disc mulcher handles more specialised cases of small standing woody material in the four to eight-inch diameter range, such as eucalypt regrowth suckers and wattle, while an EX Pro X bite limiter drum is used on an excavator for roadside cleanup work.
Thornton says his collection of Diamond Mowers attachments keeps growing because of their user-friendly build, particularly when it comes to repairs and maintenance.
“They haven’t tried to over complicate anything,” he says.
“They tick all the boxes in terms of build quality and features, but it’s easy for me to take it apart if I need to. Time is money when it comes to this sort of work, so if they’re built in a way that means I can troubleshoot most things on site, it means that I’m not losing time waiting for a dealer to send someone out to diagnose the issue and then get the parts.
“With both Diamond and Colbrook they have the attitude of: let’s fix it and we’ll ask questions afterwards, which is what you need. I know I can ring Colbrook and, first and foremost, their aim is to get me back up and operating. That being said, there have been very few circumstances where I’ve really needed support, because the products themselves are highly durable and reliable.”
Next step
With his sights set on expansion, Thornton says the 6.2-tonne Lamtrac LTR 6160T mulching tractor offered his business the ability to take on larger jobs.
A dedicated mulcher carrier, the Lamtrac is powered by a 155hp (116kW) Cummins engine, is just 2m wide and comes with a forestry-rated ROPS cabin, large side-entry door and an impressive reach height of 3.4m for both forestry and land management.
“I’ve managed to grow fairly rapidly, and I was at a point where I had enough work and was thinking about where to go next – how can I get bigger work and take on more jobs but still be able to do the work I currently had?” Thornton says.
When asked how the Lamtrac boosted his business, Thornton says the difference in what he can process with the Lamtrac is ‘night and day’.
“The Lamtrac is just built for doing that kind of work,” he says.
“I’ve found that it doubles my productivity, which is a big deal if you’re quoting jobs.”
“I got the Lamtrac at the end of 2023 and it fits my business well because it allows me to do both short and longer jobs.
“It can do your one or two-day jobs because it’s a compact machine that’s easy to transport, but with high productivity and high efficiency. I can also approach a landholder and say to them – if we use this machine for a couple of weeks on your property, you’re really going to get some good value for your money with a low cost per acre.
“So, the Lamtrac ticked all the boxes in terms of being able to give me more productivity and efficiency across all of the work that I was doing. Being on rubber tracks it also has a low impact on the ground.”
Customer service
Thornton has nothing but praise for the Colbrook team and its product range, saying that the excellent customer service he has received has been a major factor in his decision to invest in the Lamtrac and Diamond Mowers equipment.
“I’ve definitely toyed with the idea of moving into some of their smaller machinery, like the slope mowers, but another Lamtrac will be on the cards at a certain point, that’s inevitable,” Thornton says.
“The crew down at Colbrook have set the bar so high now in terms of the level of customer experience that they’ve given me that I doubt I could deal with any business that offers better service and support.”
For more information on the Lamtrac 6160T and Diamond Mowers range available from Colbrook Industries, visit: www.colbrookindustries.com.au
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