FARMERS had the chance to put a LiuGong wheel loader through its paces at the McIntosh & Son New Holland roadshow at Geraldton recently.
"We have been bringing them into Australia for about 11-12 years now," said Johnny Inferrera, from McIntosh Distribution, WA & SA distributors for LiuGong.
The popular machines come standard with between 140-220 horsepower and the reliability of a Cummins engine.
Mr Inferrera said that while the WA LiuGong market was mainly agriculture, they were starting to infiltrate the mining and civil construction industries, including batching plants with quite a few being sold into outback South Australia and Northern Territory.
He said that buyers can upgrade their model's specification to include auto grease, ride control, air suspensions seats, larger buckets, additional counterweights, ZF diffs and Danfoss hydraulics.
When quizzed as to why these front-end wheel loaders were so popular, Mr Inferrera said there were many factors.
"Price, reliability and the fact that you are getting a brand-new loader under warranty for the same price as a competitor's model with 10,000 hours under its belt," Mr Inferrera said.
He said LiuGong's market share was increasing, "especially in ag, where growers are buying new instead of second-hand.
"You can now have peace of mind with a two-year, 3000-hour warranty, backed up by Cummins technicians," he said.
The LiuGong 856H at the ride and drive day featured a 3.5 cubic metre bucket, which Mr Inferrera said was ideal for lime and fertiliser applications.
He said they were also reliable when it came to removing old fence lines and cleaning up stumps, and suggested once farmers have one, they will always find other uses for them.
A Euro quick hitch meant operators can couple up their other attachments with ease.
Mr Inferrera said the ride and drive days were the perfect opportunity for farmers to find out first-hand just how good these machines were.
"Growers have the opportunity to actually drive the machine," he said.
"We get a lot of feedback about how much higher the quality of machine is than expected," he said.
Limited stock is available, but interested buyers are warned that they are selling fast.
Mr Inferrera said he had more stock on the way, to be available for delivery before June 30.
Darren O'Dea
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