Dealer to cross frozen frontier with Fiennes
A lot of dealers will tell you that they will go to the ends of the earth for you but how many actually mean it? Well UK dealer Finning is preparing to give legendary explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes the ultimate level of service by sending one of their team to the South Pole in one […]
Finning has converted two Caterpillar D7Rs for the Antarctica expeditionFinning has converted two Caterpillar D7Rs for the Antarctica expedition
A lot of dealers will tell you that they will go to the ends of the earth for you but how many actually mean it? Well UK dealer Finning is preparing to give legendary explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes the ultimate level of service by sending one of their team to the South Pole in one of the riskiest expeditions attempted on the continent.
Early next year, Sir Ranulph Fiennes will lead an attempt to cross Antarctica over the winter months and as anyone that has a passing interest of the expeditions on the continent will know, this is a feat that has never been successfully completed.
Fiennes himself has called it “The last great polar challenge.”
Currently Fiennes and his teams are making final preparations ahead of the trip’s departure on the South African ship, the SA Agulhas. On board the ship will be two specially modified D6N Caterpillar dozers supplied by Finning.
UK Caterpillar distributor Finning supplied the two bespoke Cat D6N track-type tractors and spent two years working on the design and manufacture of the machines, which are commonly found on construction and waste sites, to make them suitable to work at temperatures as low as -70oC.
Each unit will tow more thanf 55t of material, including an accommodation caboose and a science caboose, which will house equipment to measure the depth of the ice in winter, providing data that will contribute to the climate change debate.
Commenting on the challenge, Fiennes said: ““Having liaised with Caterpillar, who supplied the two factory D6N models, Finning engineers have been working with my team over the last two years on a comprehensive retrofitting task, designing the ultimate Antarctic expedition machines.”
