Lycoming County Articulated Hauler

Easy Rider

As the sun rises over Lycoming County Landfill, you can see there’s a new truck in the driveway. And at just one year old, it may not be a shiny new truck, but that’s because it’s already paid its dues.

It takes the tough corners, glides across hillsides and rolls over bumps with the greatest of ease. It’s the new Volvo A40E Full Suspension Articulated Hauler and it’s increasing productivity across North America. Why? As the industry’s “Cadillac,” it’s one of the most operator-friendly machines in the business.

“Those who have the A40E FS are seeing an increase in production and smoother running site by site,” said Henry Sorgen, a Volvo heavy equipment sales manager at Highway Equipment & Supply Co., in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania.

“Those who want one are looking at their current fleets to find the machine that the A40E FS will replace.”

Known as a global advancement in off-road hauling, the Volvo A40E FS enhances comfort, speed and allows operators to haul smoothly over the toughest of site terrain.

So what do you do when you’re getting ready to unleash the world’s first hydraulic full suspension articulated hauler? You go directly to the customer and take a competitive ride.

Testing, testing…

Volvo Construction Equipment’s North American headquarters asked one of the busiest worksites in the United States to create a long, rough ride to test the Volvo A40E FS in the most difficult operating conditions.

“Volvo was on site for four days and we built a really rough two-mile course to test the Volvo A40E FS,” said David Strayer, Assistant Operations Manager at Lycoming County Landfill, about nine miles south of Williamsport, Pennsylvania. “The tests went so well, we bought one.

“We didn’t want to disrupt our normal operations so we built the course and used that as our main haul for the demo days. We built rumble strips, speed bumps, and corners that were off level on the backside of our borrow area where we strip dirt out to cover the landfill,” Strayer said.

Located on Route 15 near the Allenwood Federal Prison Complex, the 500-acre landfill officially opened in 1978 and accepts about 1,100 tons of municipal solid waste per day, from six neighboring counties. It may be a landfill, but it’s one of the most scenic, surrounded by wooded wilderness and populated by families of deer, wild turkeys and eagles. Even the landfill’s roads are something to see.

Asked about how the test began, Product Manager John Waldron of Volvo in Asheville, North Carolina, chuckled, saying that all of Lycoming’s landfill roads “were too nice” so the test course needed to be created to put the new full suspension through the “really tough stuff.”

Stay the Course.

“We test, and test, and test new products all across the country,” Waldron explained. “We’ve been working with Lycoming for over 10 years and they agreed to create the hauler course for us.”

Lycoming has purchased several Volvos over the past few years and currently has a Volvo EC360B Excavator, four articulated haulers and four Volvo E series loaders: Volvo L330, Volvo L220, Volvo L90 and Volvo L70.

Three articulated haulers became four just one year ago.

When Team Volvo visited, David Strayer said that he, the other Lycoming operators, John Waldron and Volvo Product Specialist Blaine Pressley took turns in teams of two riding along the new course in the new Volvo A40E FS, a Volvo A40D articulated hauler, and an articulated hauler from a competitor of Volvo.

Which Volvo A40E FS features became the main topics of conversation?

“Safety, comfort and productivity,” Strayer said. “The cycle times were much better with the Volvo A40E FS and it handled much better.”

The manufactured rumble strips, corners and bumps reinforced the benefits of Volvo to the Lycoming team, which faces some of these problems in the working sections of the landfill and in crossing Route 15 to get to the “borrow area.”

At Lycoming, where the machines are regularly worked up to 10 hours a day every week, rains turn the landfill to mud and summer can transform the roadways into a dust storm (battled by the landfill’s water trucks).

“One of our main requirements for a machine and for production is safety,” Strayer stated. “We need good visibility and braking power because we do a lot of backing down over slopes to dump soil. When you have a machine with 30 to 40 tons in the payload, you want to be able to stop. Safety is our first and foremost concern.”

With Volvo articulated haulers, safety goes hand in hand with comfort.

“You also want a machine that is going to treat your operator properly,” Strayer said. “This is up there high on my scale because when you’ve got a happy operator, productivity is up.”

The new Volvo A40E FS provides both safety and comfort, surpassing the competition, said Dave Bonus, Lycoming’s Operations Manager.

“The test proved that the Volvo A40E FS truck is the Cadillac of haul trucks with its operator comfort and very smooth ride,” Bonus said. “Hands down, the Volvo haul trucks far exceed in comfort compared to the competition. There’s also a definite increase in productivity.”

Strayer continued: “Our operators like the braking ability, and the mirror configuration provides excellent visibility. And the noise level is much better in the Volvo.”

How We Roll.

“We run an organized facility, meet every morning and hand out the assignments. It’s first-come, first-serve with the machines and the guys who want to use the Volvos are out the door first. There’s a difference in enthusiasm.

“Any time you have a machine with less bouncing, easier serviceability, and less time in the shop, it affects the overall profit line.”

Strayer explained that, in addition to the new full suspension, Volvo’s haulers are also beating the competition with easier service checks and fills.

“The new Volvo trucks do it all for you electronically. I’ll tell you, it’s really nice. Volvo has had a decade of great advances.”

Stuck on You.

Highway Equipment & Supply Co. has been working with Lycoming for 27 years. Henry Sorgen said that after the dust settled on the test course, Strayer and the Lycoming team reaffirmed their belief in Volvo again – a better machine means better business.

“Lycoming saw that they were going to get a 30 percent increase in production,” Sorgen said. “With the increase, the full suspension Volvo A40E would pay for its additional costs within 12 months. We sold them the full suspension after Volvo did that test. They said, ‘We’ve got to start replacing some machines.’ They’re not the only ones saying that.”

Lycoming is not only sticking with Volvo. Strayer said the landfill continues to value its partnership with Highway Equipment because of the dealership’s parts and service support.

“They are very good at getting here and supporting our projects,” he explained. “Highway’s Lead Tech Dana Bernier is very reliable and makes sure that everything is cared for.”

Dave Bonus added, “Whether purchasing or renting a new piece of equipment for a particular job or servicing a piece of machinery on site, the people at Highway Equipment help keep our landfill operating efficiently with very little downtime.”

And thanks to Highway Equipment, there’s a Volvo A40E FS just waiting for tomorrow to begin again.

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