Trading-up to a truck from a ute ‘makes life significantly easier’ for Fourth Phase Electrics Owner and Managing Director, Casey Landman. Casey, who has been an electrical contractor for the best part of a decade, decided to expand Fourth Phase Electrics with a ute-to-truck upgrade. Casey selected an Isuzu NPR 45-155 AMT SWB Tradepack as it could accommodate the four-person strong Fourth Phase Electrics team.
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Having driven a mate’s Isuzu truck in the past, Casey was aware of the reliability of the vehicles as well as the simplicity of piloting one. “Before I got the truck, I’d drive one car to tow the excavator and I’d get one of my employees to drive another car towing a trailer full of gear,” Casey said. “Now I can tow my excavator and all the cables and conduits and stuff in the truck. I can fit three times as much and I’m not pushing my GVM limits.”
Making life easy
Based in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, Fourth Phase Electrics provides industrial, commercial and residential electrical services throughout Victoria. As well as the cost effectiveness of having one vehicle doing fewer trips, the intelligent safety features of the updated N Series were a drawcard for Casey, who travels an average of 700 kilometres a week on Melbourne’s busy roads. Casey’s 2022 NPR comes with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), a network of active safety features that includes forward collision warning (FCW), the distance warning system (DWS) and lane departure warning (LDW).
The ease of use of the Fourth Phase Electrics crew was also front of mind when it came to customising the Tradepack, which Casey did with two large toolboxes fitted with adjustable cable holders, drawers and shelving. “There’s also an extra battery, a fridge, an inverter and a microwave so I can actually have a nice warm lunch when working in rural areas and still have plenty of room to carry all the stuff we need,” he said.
Customising trucks this way really improves the work day, and with everything at Casey’s fingertips his NPR 45-155 is the tool shed, the transport, the lunchroom, the office – with nothing out of place or unaccounted for. “It’s got built-in central locking and LED lighting as well.” Toolboxes built on to trucks can create blind spots when not carefully planned, but the Tradepack range is designed to avoid this issue with split mirrors, which the NPR 45-155 sports, creating excellent visibility.
The versatility of the truck suits the wide variety of work that Casey and his team does, from rewiring rural airports to installing residential solar panels. “One week I might have a pallet of solar panels on the back and the next week I’ll have half-a-dozen lengths of cable tray and half-a-tonne of thick cables on the back,” he said. Featuring a GVM of 4500 kg and a GCM of 9000kg, the NPR also has towing capacity of 4500kg, which makes light work of Casey’s professional and recreational pursuits. It’s also a boon for the weekend task of renovating his house.
No limits
“Being able to carry timber and cement sheet and just general building materials is always handy,” he said. Powered by Isuzu’s extremely popular four-cylinder 4HK1-TCN engine, the NPR has plenty of grunt at 114kW (155 horsepower) @ 2600 rpm and 419Nm of torque @ 1600pm – 2600rpm. The eye-catching wrap on the Fourth Phase Electrics Isuzu means Casey and his team are always behind the wheel of a mobile billboard, advertising wherever the team drives or parks.
The future is sparkling for Fourth Phase Electrics, with Casey keen to do more work with commercial clients in the fields of renewable energy and the efficiencies that come with power factor correction. The Fourth Phase Electrics team recently finished a power-factor correction installation at the True Foods manufacturing facility in Maryborough in the Central Goldfields of Victoria. After a site analysis, the team designed and installed an SVG unit in the food factory’s main switchboard. Casey estimated the work would lower the company’s power bill by $50,000 or more a year.
“It’s a decent investment but overall a very good return,” he said. “Typically, they pay themselves off in of 18 to 24 months.” Casey is more than happy with his decision to upgrade from a ute to a truck. Another expansion of his business would see him skip a ute altogether and go straight for a truck designed for the work a tradie does.
The reliability and peace of mind of a light-duty truck like Isuzu’s N Series range means Casey won’t exceed the GCM and be overloaded, a worrying issue many tradies face when driving utes. “I’d get the same model,” Casey concluded. “It works really well for Fourth Phase Electrics needs.”•