Special narrow Panther T12 vehicle.

A case in point is how Prinoth, working in tandem with its Australian dealer GMJ Equipment, created a solution for an electric distribution company that is spreading to other customers in the country. Soft underfoot conditions can be especially problematic for Powercor Australia, serving 1.2 million customers in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria.

The company, charged with installing and maintaining powerlines, poles and/or transformers, often found itself on steep slopes in muddy conditions. The equipment Powercor used – truck-mounted elevated work platforms – wasn’t up to the task.

“When you get into rough and wet terrain, they sink and were unstable on hill sides,” says David Johnson, operational fleet specialist with the company. When this happened, other issues ensued. Extracting the trucks from the situation could mean the work area needed to be restored after the job was finished. The off-road capabilities of the Prinoth Panther T8 tracked vehicle caught the attention of Powercor. Coupled with GMJ Equipment’s LL18.50 mobile elevated work platform, the Panther T8 allowed crews to easily access whatever jobsite conditions were thrown at them, exerting just 4.1 psi ground pressure when fully loaded.

“The Prinoths make little damage,” Johnson says. Perhaps more important: productivity has increased. “We can get the equipment where we previously couldn’t get it in the wetter months,” he says. Powercor started using Panther T8s in 2015 and now has three in its fleet. One problem down. The next one, however, required more than a standard fix. Enter Prinoth’s Factory Application Service, dedicated to meeting customer’s special requests.