Platform Sales and Harvey Tree Care's CTE TRACCESS 230

Platform Sales and Harvey Tree Care’s CTE TRACCESS 230

Tom FosterJanuary 6, 2023, 8:55 amJanuary 6, 2023

“I try to stick around the Harvey shire if I can,” said a very cheerful Dave Smith on an early-morning phone call. “It’s probably one of the biggest shires there is in WA. Harvey Tree Care doesn’t venture more than about 60km from the depot.”

Even so, there is enough work in the region to keep Dave, his team, and his machines hard at work.

“We do total tree removal mostly,” said Dave. “We prune them, obviously, and we do a lot of shaping, but we don’t really get involved in anything smaller than a tree.”

At the moment, Harvey Tree Care has a few machines: an 18-metre spiderlift, an older trailer-mount, and the newest addition, a CTE TRACCESS 230 from Platform Sales.

CTE TRACCESS 230

The CTE TRACCESS 230 stabilises in four different working configurations, allowing you to work in confined areas. With ground penetration stabiliser sensors and automatic stabilisation as standard, the machine is ideal for all types of tight spaces and terrain.

The fully proportional remote control on the CTE TRACCESS 230 has three separate functions: operation in the basket, drive, steer and stabiliser controls; and command for the tower from the ground. When used for the drive, it can be operated with smooth easy movements for precise operation, while allowing full vision of your surroundings.

When installed in the basket console, it has fully proportional controls of up to three simultaneous movements. With a double pantograph boom, it allows for plumb-line operation vertically, which makes for easy one-handed operation when lowering or raising, without the worry of impact from a lower boom. With 200kg basket capacity in all positions, telescope and jib boom and +/- 360° turret rotation allows reaching the correct working position easily and safely.

What is it that Dave likes about the TRACCESS 230?

“It’s 23 metres instead of 18,” laughs the happy West Aussie arborist. “Love that!”

“It’s got a good reach, and it’s smooth to operate,” he continued. “It’s intuitive to use, too. We’ve been using it for a few months now, and we’re not using anything else at the moment. We’re pretty happy with it.”

‘Platform Sales’ part of the Lift Industries Group

Dave has been dealing with Platform Sales’ rep Phillip White, and between the service and the machinery, Harvey Tree Care is being well looked after.

Platform Sales kicked off in Sydney more than a decade ago after becoming Australia’s first retail sales agency for the world’s largest producer of self-propelled aerial platforms. A partnership was quickly established with world-class Italian manufacturer CTE Lift, and that resulted in the supply of the firstever aerial truck-mounted platform built, certified and commissioned in Sydney.

Since then, Platform Sales has been taken over by Lift Industries who are exclusive Australian and New Zealand agents for products such as Terex Utilities, Klubb and Lodax ground pads. While retaining the exclusive Australian dealer for CTE truckmounted and Traccess Spider Lift ranges, and the company works hard to provide customers with an exceptional customer experience overall.

“We deal with Phillip White at Platform Sales,” explained Dave, “and he’s usually available on the phone pretty quickly. He gets back to me with answers whenever I have queries.”

Final thoughts

Aside from the excellent performance of the machine in general, there’s an aspect of the CTE TRACCESS 230 that Dave has found especially suited to his work.

“With my other machines, when you use the telescopic boom and you’re reaching out, there are sensors which, depending how much weight you have in the bucket, won’t let you extend the full length of the boom. With the CTE TRACCESS 230 it can be at the maximum 12.2 metre outreach and it will carry the full 200kg without tripping out.

“It’s a really good feature.”