It’s not every day you get to see a new player in the Australian market, which has been designed here in Australia for our rugged conditions. When I heard we were putting the OzDiggers OD-130T Tracked Loader to the test I was excited to find out exactly how it was going to perform. In terms of features there are plenty, from the extra wide tracks and self-levelling bucket to electronic joystick control and carbon bushes. It was clear from the get-go there was plenty to look at, and with Heath Thompson from Impact Pools & Landscapes on board as our operator, it was not going to be dull test.
There are loads of features but I thought a good place to start was the price. Now I don’t want to state an exact figure, but let’s just say this skid steer is going to leave you with plenty of dollars to include a good collection of attachments because it came in surprisingly lower than I expected.
So the price is right, but what about performance, control and ride quality?
It’s all about the ride
Heath had plenty to share on his operator experience. “A good place to start is the ride. Stepping onto the operator platform provided a good amount of movement and absorption – it almost felt like a mini-tramp. Once I got moving around the site, the platform with its suspension and the springs balanced out the ride extremely well, taking all the shock and pain out of my knee area. All operators of skid steers have used machines at one point or another where they felt like they were going to be thrown out of the machine. But the OD-130T Tracked Loader felt stable and well balanced,” Heath explained. To lay a few more features out for you the HC controls are Italian, it’s sporting Japanese NSK bearings, high-quality switches and a direct drive system (not belt) – all of which play their part in making it an excellent machine to operate.
OzDiggers OD-130T Tracked Loader Features:
- 22.4kw, 3 cylinder diesel Perkins engine
- Available in both tracked and wheeled specs
- Italian HC control valve
- Japan NSK bearing, 60H strong chains
- Big aluminium radiator
- LED lights
- 600kg load capacity
- 2400 rpm rated speed
- Modular attachment system
- Designed by Australians for Australians
It’s all in the details
For the tech nerds I’ve included some of the machine specs for you to investigate. For those who skip the details, a quick summary: the OD-130T Tracked Loader is powered by a Perkins Diesel engine producing 22.4 kW (30hp), which is delivering a top ground speed of 6.8km/h and includes a hydrostatic drive, hydraulic flow rate of 36 litres/min, and a working pressure of 180bar. To translate that simply means you are going to get plenty of work done by having all the ground speed and hydraulic flow you need to drive a considerable collection of Digga accessories. The skid steer will quite happily operate anything from a stump grinder, rock bucket, rock breaker, trencher, digger, ripper, auger, trench filler, pallet fork, lawn ripper, sweeper, cement mixer, closed sweeper, grapple, levelling bar, snow blower, lawn mower and angle blade with its modular attachment system.
The Wrap-Up
The OD-130T Tracked Loader backed up its impressive list of specs and features with a solid all-round performance. There were several huge sections of logs and trunks of massive trees that were onsite, which the OD-130T Tracked Loader pushed around with ease. One or two of the logs Heath lifted I was amazed he got off the ground. If the reliability of this machine is as impressive as the build quality and onboard features, I can see the OD-130T doing very well in the Australian market.