Water Trucks Purpose-built for Drilling and Blasting

Drilling and blasting in mines, quarries and large civil excavation projects is a common process that requires experienced personnel and specialised equipment to achieve safe and successful outcomes.

Drill Rigs are the backbone of the drill and blast process, and must work 24 hours a day with as little downtime as possible for maintenance and refilling with diesel and water. This is where specialist support vehicles like Ausroad Drill Support Trucks come in to their own.

For over 30 years, AUSROAD has designed and manufactured specialist service vehicles for major mining, civil construction and government clients. These vehicles include the industry standard stemming trucks and specialised mine support vehicles such as drill support trucks, water trucks, shot utes, and dewatering trucks. There’s also the road maintenance trucks like the Jetmaster, HD (Horizontal Discharge) and custom-built asphalt crew trucks.

With a solution to meet its clients’ unique requirements, one vehicle that stands out in the AUSROAD fleet is their purpose-built HR water and diesel service truck.

According to AUSROAD Plant Services General Manager, Aaron Jemeljanovs, this vehicle is designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia specifically for the harsh open-cut drilling operations typical of Aussie mine sites.

“Our truck is configured for optimised performance and flexibility in drilling applications. It is capable of fuelling drills with water and diesel simultaneously, reducing the shutdown time for the drill. The truck can also be parked on a bench during wet weather, allowing drills to be refilled directly from the truck when access to the area for other vehicles is restricted.”

Aaron added that “the truck can also operate as a standard 16,000 litre water truck, as well as topping up other plant and equipment onsite with diesel without the need for multiple pieces of equipment onsite.”

The integrated features of the truck make it the ideal support vehicle for drilling and blasting. They are extremely reliable and keep downtime associated with maintenance or mechanical failure to a minimum. Additionally, the water cannon spray-head configuration can be adapted to suit the application at hand, and the tank has a full epoxy lining to prevent corrosion.

“The truck’s diesel pod has a 4,000 Litre capacity with a hydraulic-driven vane pump to suit an output flow of up to 200 Litres per minute,” said Aaron. “They also feature a coupling for bulk fill for large plant and machinery and a standard nozzle for LV’s, as well as an in-line diesel filter fitted downstream on pump.”