The booming agriculture sector will likely give Daimler Trucks’ latest Australian dealer, Wilson Bolton in Horsham in Victoria’s Western Districts a big boost and a local farmer has infact become the fledgling franchisee’s first new truck customer.
Local crop and sheep farmer, Sam Eagle became Wilson Bolton’s first truck buyer, purchasing a new Fuso 1124 Tipper, which he says will replace a worn out farm ute.
Eagle was facing an eight-month wait for another ute, which made him wonder whether a Fuso truck might do the job better.
“The price difference wasn’t actually very much at all and the Fuso is so much more capable,” Sam Eagle said.
He explains that the extra payload and capacity means it can do things a ute couldn’t.
“If we put a 3500kg fuel trailer on the back the ute is at maximum GCM and you can’t carry anything in the tray. Also, during harvest, if we have a problem with a comb header, which are very heavy, we can’t tow it into town to be repaired with a ute, but can with the Fighter,” he says.
Eagle said that other benefits include being able to carry gravel and other material easily around the farm and haul rubbish to the tip without having to hook up with a trailer.
“You just throw it all in the back, turn up to the tip, pull the lever and the job is done,” Sam said.
He observed that the Fighter tipper has more features than the ute he was originally looking at.
“You get a lot of features, three seats, a touch screen display and a rear camera, whereas they only just made airconditioning standard in the ute I was going to buy,” he added.
Wilson Bolton was recently announced as the newest member of the Daimler Trucks dealership network, selling and supporting Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner and Fuso products.
“It is very exciting to sell our first Daimler truck and to share this milestone with a great member of the community like Sam,” said Wilson Bolton’s general sales manager, Luke Hutchinson.
Daimler Truck and Bus president and CEO, Daniel Whitehead, said it is great to see Wilson Bolton join the Daimler family.
“The team at Wilson Bolton are well known for looking after their customers across the Wimmera and beyond and we are really pleased to have them selling and servicing our trucks and buses,” he said.
The 1124 Fighter Eagle purchased features a GVM of 10,000kg and a GCM of 20,000kg with a 7.5-litre six-cylinder engine delivering 177kW of power and 745Nm of torque mated to a six-speed manual transmission.
