Able to tow various types of equipment and to be fitted with attachments, the Shantui dozers from Cobra Equipment Sales impress on a number of fronts, including its fuel-efficient engine
Shantui’s DH-series dozers have been a highly popular machine at Cobra Equipment Sales, due in no small part to their versatility.
In addition to pushing materials, the Shantui dozers have the capacity to tow equipment and can also be fitted with many attachments to suit the operator.
As an authorised dealer and distributor of Shantui equipment, Cobra has recently seen some of its earthmoving customers attach agricultural machinery to the back of their dozers for land preparation purposes.
One customer taking advantage of the towing capacity is Owen Lane, who is the owner of small earthmoving business – Hiregrade – which he has been running for over 30 years.
He has attached an anchor chain to a heavy-duty drawbar on the back of his Shantui DH17-C3 crawler dozer – enabling him to clear brigalow scrub.
In order to knock over regrowth timber, the anchor chain has been hooked between his 20-tonne and 204 horsepower (152kW) Shantui dozer and another-branded dozer.
“This is the first major job I’ve done with the Shantui dozer, but I’m already impressed,” Lane says.
“It’s highly manoeuvrable and easy to operate.”
Fuel efficiency
Thanks to a highly fuel-efficient Weichai engine, Lane has also been pleased with the amount of money he’s saved in fuel costs.
In comparison to equivalent dozers of leading brands, he says the Shantui machine uses 30 to 40 litres less diesel fuel over a 12-hour shift.
Considering the high price of diesel fuel in the current market, the Shantui engine is making all the difference for him.
“Over a period of time, the fuel savings all add up,” Lane says.
Cobra founder George Nason attributes the fuel-efficient engine to the many years of research and development undertaken by Shantui.
“Shantui has acquired a wealth of knowledge from other machines over the years, and they’ve come up with their own engine,” he says.
“They’ve been building it for many years, and now you can see the benefits through fuel-efficiency and power.”
Another Cobra Equipment customer, Lachlan Smith, owner of H.L. Smith Earthworks, says his Shantui DH17-B2 dozer is also providing significant fuel savings.
“Shantui’s engine is much more fuel efficient compared to other dozers,” he says.
“It consumes half the amount.”
Based in Casino, New South Wales, Smith has also been towing agricultural machinery on the back of his Shantui dozer.
A four-metre-wide disc plough has been attached to lend a hand in a land development project – involving rehabilitating scrub and improving pasture.
Impressed with the dozer’s power and towing capacity, Smith says the dozer is a perfect alternative to wheeled machinery when having to work in rough terrain.
“The regrowth I’m driving through would damage or destroy any machine that has tyres, but my Shantui dozer’s tracks aren’t affected when it runs over the top of the regrowth,” he says.
Performance, price and reliability were big selling points for Smith, a key factor in deciding to go with the Shantui brand over other dozer manufacturers.
Selling points
Reinforcing these reasons for going with Shantui, Lane also says the affordability of the dozers were a big standout.
“I think the quality is just as good as some of the other leading brands, but the Shantui machines are less than half the price,” Hiregrade’s owner says.
“I believe the Shantui brand is going to continue to become more popular in Australia, and the dozers will retain their resale value.”
Farmer Peter Campell is also fond of the Shantui brand, and is using his DH24-C3 crawler dozer on his own rural property in Goondiwindi – on the border of New South Wales and Queensland.
His dozer has been fitted with a variety of attachments, including a tree spear, stick rake, blade plough and heavy-duty forestry protection guards, to clear country for his cattle and prepare the ground for crop planting.
Another standout of the Shantui dozers for Cobra’s customers has been the large cabin space, providing plenty of room to make sure that comfort is maximised throughout the day.
What Cobra’s founder, Nason, finds most special about these dozers is the independent hydrostatic drive of each track – providing easy manoeuvrability of the machine.
“When you steer, it just speeds one side up and slows the other side down, but you never lose traction on both sides,” Nason says.
“Being hydrostatic drive, our customers are finding that the dozers are much easier to operate.”
In addition to Lane’s Shantui dozer, he also owns a Shantui grader which he finds highly affordable, and hopes to add a Shantui excavator from Cobra Equipment to his fleet soon.
Already a big fan of the machine, customers like Lane can trust the Shantui, Nason says, as the company is the world’s largest manufacturer of bulldozers.
“Shantui is the number one seller of bulldozers in many countries, due to its affordability, reliability and ease of operation,” he says.
“At Cobra Equipment, we’ve been selling a lot of DH17s up to the DH24s which are suitable to smaller contractors, and interest in larger models is also growing due to the Shantui brand’s proven track record.”
For more information on the ‘DH’ Shantui range of dozers, visit www.cobraequipmentsales.com.au or call (07) 3379 9419.
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