Friday, June 11, 2004

The verdant wilderness of the Great Smoky Mountains is where the U.S. states Tennessee and North Carolina meet. The region is a year-round heaven for hikers, campers and other nature lovers.

Dave Newton has little time to admire the scenery. He and his crew of seven, stationed in Asheville, roughly 4 ½ hours west of Raleigh, North Carolina, have a job to do: Maintain miles upon miles of high-voltage power transmission lines crisscrossing these mountains. Dave Newton works for Carolina Power & Light, a large utility company with a service territory of over 34,000 square miles.

To carry his crews and hundreds of pounds of equipment safely into the middle of nowhere – and back out again – Newton relies on Canadian imports: the combined off-road force of Ontario Drive and Gear's (ODG's) ARGO Conquest and the new eight-wheel-drive CENTAUR. 'The biggest advantage of the CENTAUR,' he says, 'is that it does backcountry work that usually only a helicopter could do. That's why a CENTAUR pretty much pays for itself in no time at all.'

The new CENTAUR is the ultimate off-road utility vehicle. It offers a cargo capacity of 1,500 lbs. and is available with a 31 hp turbo diesel or 31 hp gasoline engine. Its unique 8x8 off-road and amphibious capabilities allow the CENTAUR to operate year-round, even in difficult terrain like swamps, deep mud, water, snow and ice.

Carolina Power & Light has been using ODG's CENTAURS for well over a year now, and Dave Newton is impressed: 'What really makes our job easier is the CENTAUR's carrying capacity. We have to haul in transmission structure crossbars that can weigh anywhere from 400 to 600 pounds, plus have room for our crew.'

'I wouldn't trade our CENTAUR for anything,' says Newton, and that's not for lack of trying. 'We did try track-type equipment once,' he remembers. 'But under our extreme conditions out here, my crew literally tore that machine up in two hours. The CENTAUR has been reliable and goes just about anywhere.'