The Allied W8L is put to the test pulling large logs
like these all day in the remote parts of Indonesia. Francis Sebastian
visited this camp in September.
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When an Allied winch goes out the door from the factory, there's a lot more behind it than an invoice. Our customers know that our commitment to building a great product includes making sure that it works great when it gets to the end user. And it doesn't much matter where that user happens to be.
The Allied team was on the move recently, from one corner of the globe to the other. In September, Territory Manager Francis Sebastian traveled to Indonesia to be with one of Allied's key customers, P.T. Trakindo Utama. With headquarters in Jakarta, they cover this widely dispersed country from around 30 locations.
Francis's trip to the province of Samarinda sounds like something out of Indiana Jones. First a one-and-a-half hour trip on good paved road. Then seven hours by Jeep on bone-crunching forest road. Then a canoe ride across the river where he was met by logging trucks on the other side. Finally, another two hours through virgin forest to the camp site.
At this site, the logging company, P.T. RKR, has 50 D7G dozers fitted with Allied W8L winch. They are logging Meranti and Urin, high-quality species, with logs averaging 14 tons.
The customer was having some problems with the wire rope breaking prematurely, and Allied had developed a fix. But the real test was in the field. Francis was able to be on the site, observe the operation, and verify that we had done the modification to the customer's satisfaction.
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About the same time, but halfway around the globe from Indonesia, Territory Manager Allen Johnson and Winch Engineer Ken Bush made a whirlwind series of visits to Africa. In one week they visited key customers Tractafric in Gabon and Cameroon and J.A. Delmas in Ivory Coast. The visit to Cameroon included a thrilling four-hour ride along the West African coast to visit skidders in the bush.
This visit was prompted by reports of problems with the Lufkin winch on older Caterpillar 528 cable skidders. Allied purchased the Lufkin winch in April of 1999, and is now upgrading the renamed W400 winch to match the high standards found in the Allied dozer winches.
Ken was able to meet with key personnel at each dealer location and obtain firsthand information on their experiences. Armed with this data, Ken will now be able to improve the design of the Allied W400 winch.
In November, Francis Sebastian returned to Indonesia, this time accompanied by winch engineer Richard Hobbs. Richard presented winch service training at several locations for P.T. Trakindo Utama. They also visited customer locations to check out the heavy use that the winches must endure in this region.
In January, Territory Manager Dan Embry will head into the wilds of the Latin American country of Honduras to provide winch service training to our dealer Caterpillar Casa Comercial.
It might seem like a long way to go to look at a winch. But at Allied, no customer is too far away.
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