Demand for graders and new, used or reconditioned grader parts will be high this summer. Phil Hunt Parts is covering all bases.
It’s all go at Tamworth’s Phil Hunt Parts, especially since the new and used parts supplier started stocking John Deere construction equipment parts several years ago.
“The John Deere parts have kept us busy.” says Phil Hunt Parts owner Brendan Hunt.
“We’ve worked very hard at stocking as many John Deere machines as we can. We’ve got a significant number of John Deere graders already dismantled, and just recently we purchased a brand-new John Deere grader for the dry hire division of our business.
“What we’re saying, is that we believe in the John Deere product so much, we’re prepared to invest our own hard-earned on a brand new grader – We’re putting our money, where our mouth is.”
This expansion of the business into offering machinery for hire has been a slow burn over the past two years, with this division operating under the name of Hunt Plant Hire. Hunt says that the purchase of the new grader is another step in developing this further.
“We’re getting ourselves in a position to take on local government work,” Hunt says.
“We have a good relationship with our local council and have helped them with parts for their John Deere graders in the past. There’s potential for us to provide a grader on hire whenever they pull one into the workshop for maintenance, or their workload demands an extra grader”
Alongside the John Deere parts, the business also supplies parts from a range of other manufacturers, including, Allis-Chalmers, Fiat, Hanomag, Clark, MF Industrial, Galion and Mitsubishi Graders.
“We specialise in Champion Grader parts as well, and we’ve now secured access to genuine and aftermarket new parts,” Hunt says.
“The Champion Graders started out as DRMCo. We’ve wrecked a dozen DRMCo graders here and they were bought out by Champion, Champion were then bought out by Volvo. So, we now specialise in all three of those brands, particularly the grader side of things.”
Hunt says that as graders become more popular, he’s seeing increasing numbers being operated by small contractors or farmers.
“Parts have traditionally been very hard to get for DRMCo and Champion Graders,” he says.
“We like to think that we do a pretty good job of supplying a new and used option. And we’re the only business in Australia that does that.”
With continuing heavy rainfall and flooding affecting large parts of NSW, including in the regions surrounding Phil Hunt Parts, Brendan says graders are in high demand, fixing damaged roads once the waters recede.
“When it’s this wet, tracks and roadways are always the first hit,” he says.
“As you can imagine, the second it dries up, everybody’s in their graders trying to tidy up roads so they can gain access again. Anytime there’s rain around, graders are hot to trot and we’re in a position to cater for any machine breakdowns, that may occur.”
In terms of having stock on hand, there is a high demand for used parts currently, as supply chains for new stock continue to suffer delays. Hunt says, Phil Hunt Parts has been buying heavily and wrecking a large number of machines to keep its supplies high.
“Importing new stock and the lack of new stock worldwide on the back of COVID, has been challenging,” Hunt says.
“Because we had such a huge volume of stock here pre-COVID, we’ve been able to service our customers without a hitch. I’ve been pleasantly surprised how well we’ve coped and pleased our customers haven’t had to suffer long waits on incoming overseas parts, as others have had to.”
To see what parts and attachments Phil Hunt Parts has available, visit: www.philhuntparts.com.au