Larry Allen and his son Andrew operate two UDs from their base in Queensland. The PK9 is the tenth UD Larry has owned since 1976.
“I bought an American truck once but came straight back to UD, the quality is better and the purchase price and running costs are much lower,” said Larry.
“This new automatic is perfect for our work because you don’t have any strain on the driveline, it is particularly good for slow creeper work when we are watering a new landscape or returfing project.
“For our application you can dial up a gear and keep it there, it won’t change up thinking we are going to go faster and you can control it very easily.
“We mainly do work for landscape contractors and local councils, covering parks streetscapes, new road side plantings.
“We have an 8000 litre tank on the back and a pump that can throw water 80 metres out from the truck, which is important because we often have 10,000 square metres of turf to water in.
“We use an aluminium tank to keep weight down and switch them from truck to truck; our current tank is 18 years old and still going strong.”
Larry’s son Andrew usually drives the new PK9, while Larry drives an older PK265, however Larry explained, “I have been lucky for the last couple of weeks when Andrew has been on holidays and I’ve been driving the automatic, it has been a real pleasure, I think I might have to sell the old PK and buy myself a PK9 Automatic.
“It has great brakes and we run all steel suspension because I think that is better than airbag when you are carting water, it is a bit more stable and easier to manage in my view.”
His son Andrew added, “It is comfortable, it has plenty of grunt and works extremely well.”
