Prinoth and McNeilus have introduced a tracked concrete mixer for the off-road construction market.
Multi Machine, the Prinoth dealer for the Northeast, decided to add a concrete mixer to their national rental fleet so contractors could gain access in hard-to-reach locations.
The tracked mixer allows vehicles to move through soft soils or rugged terrain to get to job sites almost or entirely inaccessible by a standard vehicle. Access to these job sites can require a helicopter to haul and/or pour concrete at an extra cost.
Engineering teams from both Prinoth and McNeilus collaborated with Multi Machine on the project, each adapting their equipment to suit the application and maximize mixer capacities while maintaining stability for an off-road application.
"When I heard about the project, I immediately knew we wanted to be involved," said Bryan Datema, senior director of business development of concrete mixers for McNeilus. "We work hard to provide solutions to our customer's unique situations, and our team always rises to the challenge. I knew this would be a unique project they would enjoy and would allow us to see our mixers more 'off-road' than ever before. We're now ready to build more of these unique vehicles to fill this need in our industry. McNeilus has a real focus on total cost of ownership, and this product can help provide an alternative solution for our customers.”
To achieve the appropriate levels, Prinoth developed a special chassis while McNeilus developed a custom mixer body. The Prinoth Panther T16’s dropped frame chassis was a key design element to lower the overall height of the off-road rubber tracked mixer. By reducing the overall height, the center of gravity is lower, which ensures stability and off-road performance. These modifications were necessary to allow moving the vehicle from one job site to another on a trailer without requiring special transportation permits.
McNeilus designed the mixer body for this special project to maximize payload and create an easy mounting process to the chassis. Specifically, special considerations were taken to customize hydraulic components and design routings to fit the new chassis. The result is a heavy-duty 9-cubic-yard custom McNeilus mixer body designed to stand up to the environment the vehicle will operate in.
When asked about the support they received, Multi Machine’s service manager, Dan Waisempacher said: “Prinoth’s application engineering team was able to use the technology and know-how from the product engineering team, to run tests, calculations and design a proper sub frame to position the mixer where we could be confident it would be safe, and still be able to handle the uneven and hilly terrain a Panther crawler carrier excels in. The team at Prinoth collaborated with the team at McNeilus and we worked together to figure out how many gallons of water and yards of concrete we could safely haul, taking into account the weight of the sub frame and water tank.
"The backing from the aftersales and engineering teams from both Prinoth and McNeilus enabled Multi Machine to confidently take on a big, one-of-a-kind project, and make it happen while being both cost- and time-efficient," Waisempacher said. “We can be confident that our custom machines will not add any unwanted or additional wear on the Panther, and that safety measures of the Panther units are not effected negatively."
