In a cherry orchard in South Australia, life has become a lot easier for the people who pick the ripe fruit. A new crew member is now lending a hand with all elevated work in the orchard, including harvesting fruit and maintaining trees in difficult to reach places.
The orchard is the first cherry orchard in Australia to import an elevated platform specifically designed to work in difficult spaces and on steep terrain.
The ATP Lite and Super models from All Terrain Platforms in New Zealand aren’t only being used by horticulturalists either – they’re also found in the construction, agriculture, mining and forestry sectors.
“ATPs can be used for pretty much any job where height access is required, and it really comes into its own in tackling difficult terrains,” says Don Rust, co-owner of All Terrain Platforms in Katikati in the North Island.
“The cherry orchard in South Australia is large and some of the trees are on steep land. The orchardists have a number of elevated platforms but they needed an all-terrain platform (ATP) to service the steeper slopes.”
All Terrain Platforms began in 2012 and has the Super Series of larger machines and the Lite Series developed in response to requests from the horticultural sector and the New Zealand government for a platform that met safety standards and could operate on tricky terrain with up to a 25-degree slope.
“The horticultural sector recognised that harvesting fruit needed to be mechanised to prevent accidents occurring. So, the government approached us to build a machine that could operate on steep and difficult terrain,” says Don.
It took 18 months to build a prototype ATP machine that was first tested in forestry and avocado operations.
The machine is also used to help position protective netting over crops, such as kiwifruit. Operators drive the ATP under the kiwifruit structure, then elevate up through the structure and put netting over the top of the kiwifruit. That required a more compact version of our original machine,” says Don.
“The Lite and Super models are also being used in construction. When a house is built on a steep slope, builders use the ATP instead of scaffolding. Councils and arborists also use the ATP machines to prune larger trees. They can drive around the base of the tree, manage uneven and steep terrain below and the arborist can safely stay in the cage and continue pruning.”
The ATP models have self-controlling dual oscillating axles that are highly mobile and can self-level. Most ATP models can manage up to a 25-degree slope and the suspension system removes up to 80 per cent of the impacts of bumps and on-ground obstacles – crucial for safely operating at height.
The operating cage provides on-screen visual feedback of the ground slope and has over-slope and over-load warnings. The ATP Super and Lite Series are powered by
3-cylinder and 2-cylinder DEUTZ engines respectively.
“The 3-cylinder DEUTZ engine is a strong compact engine and it’s very responsive. It’s also very economical and uses barely one litre of diesel per hour when in mobile and height operations,” says Don.
“We made a few changes to the Super Series ATP to accommodate the DEUTZ engine, but we received such good feedback from customers about the engine in the larger machines that we wanted to use DEUTZ in the Lite Series, too.”
As word spreads about the efficiency, safety and reliability of the ATP machines, Don expects to see more of them in operation.
“One client had around 50,000 avocado trees and had other types of elevated platforms, but there was a clear tide mark on the trees up to where the avocados had been picked,” says Don.
“When he began using our ATP machine, he could move higher up the trees on the steep slopes and instead of being able to only pick 50% of his crop, he could pick 100 per cent of the available fruit. During his first day of picking, realising he could now pick all the fruit, he said, ‘I’ll have this machine paid for by the end of today!”