Highway speed excavators with new upgrades
Automatic transmissions and a new, high-visibility paint scheme punctuate the introduction of Gradall's Series IV highway speed excavators at ConExpo-Con/Agg, the construction equipment's global trade show March 22-26 in Las Vegas.
"Gradall is extremely pleased to offer, as standard equipment, our AutoDrive automatic transmission drive system on our Series IV excavators with highway speed undercarriages," said Bill Thomas, vice president of Gradall excavator products.
"More than 60 years ago, Gradall first introduced the concept of putting excavator productivity on a highly mobile chassis that could be driven to various job sites, without the cost and expense of a lowboy trailer. Putting our AutoDrive system in the modern, highly productive successors to those early models represents a major advancement and convenience that can impact positively on operator training as well as increase job satisfaction."
The AutoDrive system has a new six-speed Allison transmission with a push-button control in the undercarriage truck cab. The system interfaces with a new Cushman transfer case -- the heart of a new remote drive design that enables operators in the upper cab to efficiently reposition the machine around job sites or over the length of a roadside ditch.
The AutoDrive system as well as an XL 4100 IV model will be on display in Gold Lot Booth #150. The XL 4100 IV weighs about 49,000 pounds, while the AutoDrive system also is standard on the XL 3100 IV model weighing about 41,000 lbs. and the XL 5100 IV model weighing about 57,000 pounds.
"Each of these models can be driven over back roads as well as interstate highways, enabling them to work at one or more sites in a single day and then easily return to the safety of the equipment yard at night," said Thomas. "Our AutoDrive feature just made this process even more efficient."
New Series IV models also feature a new yellow paint scheme with red and black accents, replacing the grey scheme with red and black accents on Gradall machines since around 2000.
"The yellow helps us differentiate our new Series models at first glance," said Thomas. "Plus, because our machines do multiple jobs all over active job sites, the new color responds to customer requests for even higher visibility in accordance with their stepped-up safety initiatives."
Series IV highway speed models also feature Tier 4i Mercedes engines that meet the latest EPA standards. The engines are carefully engineered to efficiently and cost-effectively power the undercarriage at speeds of up to 60 mph on highway, or 5 mph for repositioning around job sites from the upperstructure cab. The same engine also powers the upperstructure swing as well as the famous Gradall telescoping, tiling boom movements.