Oh boy.
Hello, Mr. Beats.

How’s it going, Doug?
It’s going good. How are you?
Good, good, good, good.

So, glad to have you here.
Well, you know what? You always like these shows.
Come over, meet a lot of people.
Right. Promote the new product.
That’s right. Right.

So, I was wondering if you got to take a look.
Yeah. I know. I came here this morning. I walked around it.
Looks like a nice new truck.
Oh, yeah. And I—I don’t know the features that are on there, but you would, I suppose.
Oh, yes. Absolutely.

And uh, some of the things that we do is getting feedback from customers like you.
So some of the things that you and I have talked about before—to make trucks, you know, more productive, last longer.
So—so you mean in order to give you feedback on this one, I’d rather buy one?
That’s right. It would help.
We—we—we could put one in your home.
Oh, yeah. I’m sure, I’m sure you could. I’m sure you could.

All right.
No, but it looks like a nice picking truck.
I’m glad they had one in the house.
So yeah, let’s go have a look.

So we’re at 50 tons with this truck.
Yeah. Yeah.
And some of the major improvements are—we redesigned the hood so that the visibility is much better.
Yes, I was in it. I noticed that there’s quite a bit of room in the cab.
Yes. And I guess you noticed that we put a new display there so that everything is touchscreen on this new machine.
Noticed that too.

And we’ve tried to make the truck much more efficient, even in maintenance in it.
So if you look at things like where we did with the hydraulic tank—yeah, it’s more narrow so it’s holding less fluid.
It’s enough fluid.
But when you have to do a hydraulic oil change, why would you put 30 gallons in it if you only need 21 gallons to dump the bed?
So, so that’ll cut your cost that way.
Yeah. Right.

And we’ve had to up the horsepower.
So, so above your 40s, above your 45s—uh, this machine is going from about 490 horsepower up to about 516 on this one.
Okay. Absolutely.
So, to pull the load.

And it’s going to—it is the only—and I guess the big thing with this is—it’s the only truck on the market that has a fully complete hydraulic suspension underneath it.
So, it allows you to drive over and the hydraulics will keep the tires on the ground, give you a nice smooth ride for your operator.
Means I don’t care for the operator. I care for the truck.
Exactly. Yes.
And—and making some more material go through that trauma.
Right. Yeah. That’s what pays the bills.

No, because that is nice.
I heard about the suspension on this and it’ll make a difference on the haul roads, especially when we’re moving frozen material.
We’re really in that.
So, no, that’d be good. That’d be slick.
Yes. Be nice.

Yeah. What’s fuel consumption? Same as the other ones? A little more?
We’ve kept it about the same.
But even though the horsepower is up, you’ll still see about the same fuel consumption you’ll see on 45s—but hauling five ton more.
Yeah. Yeah. That’s—that is good. Wow.

I see you got floers on this one.
Yes. Yeah, that looks pretty nice.
Yes. And so, right in the mud and muck that you work in when I was visiting you before doing this simulation—yeah—it’ll keep that road in good shape.
Down that ground pressure so that you’re not sinking out of sight.
So, yeah.

No, it’s overall nice looking truck.
Like I said, I sat in it this morning.
I seen the touchscreen. More room in the cab.
I’ve seen that and everything like all the electronics, whatever.
Well, that is for the mechanics, I guess.
But they—more yardage, more productive, whatever, right?
Yes. We’ll have to argue about the price, I guess.
But we’ll see.

Oh, yeah. Which I’m not a salesman, so—
I know. I understand.
We’ll have to—we’ll have to get—we’ll have to get the salesman involved.
We’ll talk to the other ones, but it’d be nice to try one.

Because like we have, what—20? I think there is 17 40 Thunders, 45 Thunder, and then there is 3 35.
That we have 20 older trucks there already.
And it’d be nice to add something new like this.
Yeah, you’ve been a good customer for us and man, we appreciate that.
But like as the other ones get the hours, we’re going to have to, you know, bring in new.
Absolutely. So I’d love to try one, so to speak.

Yeah, there’s one other thing on the other side that I’d like to show you.
Yeah, let’s do it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn’t see that one.
I know. Uh-huh. Yeah.
So that’s why you need to take a trip with me.

Need a new set of booster cables, do I?
So, uh, actually—so this, if you unplug it—yeah—it is an ISO jump start.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So, up in the cold weather, you guys kill batteries badly.
So, you can plug in here.
If you don’t have the ISO jump start, you can pull these plugs off and hook your cable straight in that way.
Yes.

Your main—your main disconnect is going to be here now.
And when the technicians need to do troubleshooting on the truck, they can plug in here and get all the codes and stuff off the truck.
So, we made a little service center to make everything right in one spot so it’s easier on you guys to do that.

And uh—and the whole new wheel, whatever. But yeah.
Yeah, I see you can get up on both sides of these now.
Absolutely.

Yeah. Uh, something else that’s big in the mines is when you start climbing on a piece of equipment, you need to tie off, not be falling.
So, I don’t know if anybody showed you or not, but the ring you have there—we’ve made handrails all the way around so you can circle the truck, clean the snow and ice and mud off the windows or whatever.
And then they have a place to clip their harness in so they won’t have any slips and falls.

Yeah. No. And I see they let the hood down and everything.
The visibility is way better than it is on the old ones.
Yes. We put much more angle on that.
It also has a front camera on it, by the way.
Oh, I didn’t—so if somebody is right against the front of it, you can see—
Oh, I didn’t know. Within 3 inches.
Yeah. Well, that’s kind of—
Yeah, absolutely.

Because it is a little ways up there, right?
That’s nice. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. No, it looks nice looking truck.

Like I said, would love to try one.
So, we’ll just have to see if we can make a deal.
Yeah. Maybe we can get something up there and let you try one out.

Talk to the wife. See if I can afford it.
That’s right. Yeah.
No. Happy spouse, happy whatever.
That’s right. Happy wife, happy life.
Yes, that’s what they say. Yes, sir.

No, I—I like the looks of it.
The while I was walking around this morning—I sat in it this morning.
And—nice truck. Nice truck. Nice truck.

Well, man, I appreciate you giving me a little time.
You betcha—anything.
As always, good to see you, man.
You’re just going to have to come and check it out when we get one.
Absolutely. I’ll come see you.
That’s good.
All right.
Good.