Drilling rigs, vans and semi-trailers

Many kinds of imported special equipment are readily bought by our customers. Among them are not just the well-known boom trucks or buses, but also drilling machines, semi-trailers, trailers and vans.

Let's talk about a very useful but little-studied class of equipment supplied to the CIS by many Japanese and Korean manufacturers. For example, small universal drilling rigs on truck chassis, on vans, and on trailers and semi-trailers.

As already mentioned above, the main suppliers of this kind of special equipment are Japan and South Korea. They lead the way in equipment sales, well ahead of European manufacturers. This is largely thanks to pricing that's friendly to the customer while still meeting quality expectations.

For the most part, drilling machines are imported to us from Japan. They differ considerably from domestic models in many respects. The key ones are torque, drilling depth and diameter, and the chassis's core characteristics. The main manufacturers of base chassis for drilling rigs are well-known global brands such as Mitsubishi, Hino, Isuzu and Nissan. Larger, tracked drilling machines are made by companies such as Sumitomo, Yutani, Kato, Kobelco, Komatsu and Caterpillar.

There isn't much to say about the chassis of light-class drilling machines — they're ordinary flatbed trucks, of which plenty run on our roads. They're fitted with rigs capable of auger drilling up to 650 mm in diameter. Average drilling depth is 4-6 metres. There's also a crane unit fitted, capable of lifting up to 3 tonnes. Taken together, this makes such a machine indispensable for setting posts, small piles, planting trees, and so on.

Vans

Japanese and Korean vans are seen more often than drilling rigs, given that their functionality is in far greater demand. On average, a used van from model year 2000 costs around 700,000-800,000 roubles. It comes equipped not just with ABS, ASR and EBD, but also power windows, a heater, power steering, a hill-hold brake, a radio and a block heater.

Almost all Japanese and Korean vans are built in a cab-over layout, which improves manoeuvrability and mobility in city conditions but has a negative effect on driver safety. Even so, these vehicles fully meet strict European quality standards for exhaust cleanliness, comfort, and so on.

Speaking specifically about cargo areas, besides the standard metal body, refrigerated bodies can also be fitted to the chassis, as can insulated bodies, or dry-freight bodies made of galvanised stainless steel or aluminium. Their compact dimensions, top-tier reliability, and ease and comfort of use make Japanese and Korean vans a worthy alternative to European equivalents. This includes meeting the Euro 3 and Euro 4 emissions standards.

Semi-trailers and trailers

For the Japanese and Korean tractor units that have long been common here, there's no need to buy a "matching" semi-trailer or trailer. In principle, almost any will do — you just need to know the fifth-wheel height precisely. There are plenty of equivalent models from both European and domestic manufacturers, and in these conditions, factors like reliability and parts availability matter more and more.

By the general classification, trailers and semi-trailers can be divided into: tippers, tarpaulin-covered, all-metal, refrigerated, container carriers, and car carriers. Semi-trailers are used coupled to a tractor unit, while trailers are more versatile and can even be hitched to dump trucks or flatbed trucks. In fact, there are up to half a thousand different types of semi-trailers alone. Among them you can also pick out timber and log carriers, cement tankers, metal carriers, heavy-duty low-loaders, and many others.

When choosing trailer equipment, it's very important to pay attention to the number of axles. Most often, trailers are built with a single axle or two axles. Single-axle trailers are more manoeuvrable and need a smaller turning radius. But such equipment also has a higher axle load, which considerably increases the chances of it tipping over. With a two-axle layout, the risk of tipping is much lower, but the tractor unit needs considerably more effort to move it, which has a negative effect on fuel efficiency.

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