In control with the Komatsu GD655-7 motor grader

Smith Plant Hire has grown its business around a fleet of reliable Komatsu machines, aided by the manufacturer’s next-level customer support.

Brad Smith isn’t shy about his enthusiasm for Komatsu machinery. While he’s not one to simply pick a favourite manufacturer and follow them like a football team, Smith and his family business have often found themselves coming back to Komatsu.

Smith’s father started Smith Plant Hire in Toowoomba, Queensland in 2005, with Smith himself coming on board a few years after that. The business has since established itself in the area, taking on a range of local earthmoving contracts across civil infrastructure and road maintenance.

Smith says he suggested looking into Komatsu as an option for a new dozer, during his early days at the business in 2008.

“My old man wasn’t really interested at first,” Smith laughs. “But he agreed to give it a go. We reached out to Pat Munro, our local Komatsu rep, and then next minute we were down in Brisbane having a drive of one of their D61 dozers.”

Smith Plant Hire put its money down and hasn’t looked back since.

Pat Munro is now Komatsu Australia’s National Business Manager for Construction Dozers & Special Applications – but he’s still the one picking up the phone when the Smiths need something.

Smith says this positive ongoing relationship is a big part of what keeps bringing Smith Plant Hire back to Komatsu.

“They’ve really stuck by us over the years, and they always go that extra mile,” he says. “Plus, it’s good to know I can always talk to the same one or two people directly whenever we need to get something sorted.”

That original D61 dozer is still in operation at Smith Plant Hire, and has since been joined by a range of other Komatsu products, including two more dozers (a D155 and a D31), three scrapers, a 24-tonne excavator, and a five-tonne excavator.

Late last year, Smith Plant Hire took delivery of a new GD655-7 Motor Grader.

“We did price a couple of other machines out of interest, but we made the decision pretty quickly to go with Komatsu again,” Smith says. “We’ve got that established relationship, and we knew they’d look after us.”

Over the past year, Smith says he’s been getting a lot of questions about the GD655‑7 grader, how it runs, how it feels to operate – and he’s always willing to give it his seal of approval.

“You’ll talk to some people who stick to their one brand and criticise everything else, but I don’t think anything out there can be 100 per cent perfect for everyone,” Smith says.

“I’m not a big fan of joystick controls, for example. Whereas the fingertip control set-up on this Komatsu grader is just brilliant for me and how I work.”

Fingertip precision

According to Komatsu, the GD655-7’s fingertip controls can deliver an up to 93 per cent reduction in operator hand and wrist movement compared to the company’s previous models.

“Komatsu’s approach is fingertip movement over wrist movement,” Pat Munro says. “It’s designed to take the strain off your wrists, by putting all the operation of the equipment into your fingers, which gives you super-fine control.”

It’s a control scheme that clicked with Smith straight away.

“I’m certainly not biased against other types of gear,” he says, “but I find the twisting movements necessary to operate joysticks are just not good on my wrists.”

Given how involved motor grader operation can be, operators often need to juggle multiple functions at once. Smith says all these motions can really take their toll over the course of a long day in the cab.

“With a joystick machine, you might be turning the machine and articulating the blade at the same time, you might also be adjusting the height of the blade or tilting your wheels too, all while you’re trimming at the same time,” he says. “For me, it’s just not a good way to operate.

“On the other hand, the Komatsu’s fingertip controls – along with the steering pad on the left – just make the grader so nice to operate.”

Talking the torque

The Komatsu GD655-7 features a dual-mode transmission, offering both direct-drive transmission and a lock-up torque converter with automatic anti-stall technology.

“You can be operating in direct drive with the inching pedal, but then with a flick of a switch it becomes almost like driving an automatic car, you can just forget about the inching pedal,” Munro says.

This mode also allows the operator to bring the grader to a complete stop without stalling the machine, which can be useful when working around obstacles.

“Being able to adjust the torque converter is brilliant,” Smith says. “Especially when you’re trimming the side curb. You’re not having to ride the clutch or the brake – it just lets you creep along beautifully.”

“The cab is just great to sit in as well – nice and quiet, and with all the creature comforts you need. The vision you get out of it is incredible, and the rear-view monitor coming standard is great too – you don’t realise how much you need it until you hop back into an old machine that doesn’t have it.”

Munro says another feature many wouldn’t expect to come standard on the GD655-7 is the inclusion of Blade Lift Accumulators.

“They’ll absorb some of the pressure if you’re grinding along and the blade hits a rock – it allows the blade to jump over it rather than break something,” he says. “It’s to help protect the machine against a damaged blade or bent rams.”

But among all these features, what really sold Smith Plant Hire on the Komatsu GD655-7 was the inclusion of a Tier 4 engine as standard.

“When the whole world is trying to go green, you need to know that in four or five years that you’ll be able to get that machine onto a government or council site without worrying about emissions,” Smith says. “So that made it a no-brainer for us.”

This article was originally published in the November edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.

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