HTE Manufacturing & Modifications services the Australian and international market with quality workmanship which, it promises, will stand the test of time.
The company was founded by Managing Director, David Pycke, in 2013, and for operators looking for a tilt tray, power tail body, lazy axle addition, chassis modification, hydraulic fit-ups and much more, it is an ideal choice.
“My background personally is in tow trucks, owning and operating them,” David says. “I started by doing repairs and maintenance, and then began building my own. It kind of grew from there. Now at HTE, we do a lot of dealership work with truck manufacturers. We’re a specialised body builder, so we build tow trucks but mainly tilt trays, which would probably be 80 per cent of our work.”
Throughout its operation, HTE has used a range of Lucidity products. Just under two years ago, as David recalls, he was looking for a wiring system that wouldn’t require an auto electrician to wire each truck. And, in hopes of finding something that would be user-friendly and generic so that HTE could change bits and pieces without changing the core system itself, he came across Lucidity.
“We went directly to Lucidity around 18 months ago, which was the best thing I ever did,” he says. “They had solutions to make a plug-and-play system for us.”
Lucidity, since establishing in 1981, has become a leading Australian manufacturer in wiring and lighting products for the transport industry. With over 40 years of experience in supplying the sector, it was the perfect fit for HTE’s requests.
“They came up with a plan, and they’ve got two different systems for us now on our smaller cradle trucks and our larger tilt trays,” David says. “We got it worked out and it’s been great.”
HTE’s plug-and-play wiring system is made up by the Lucidity Link series of marker lamps and tail lamps and the Lucidity Integrated Distribution Module (IDM) series.
The Lucidity Link series brings an unmatched level of cohesion for wiring and lighting. This series of lamps coupled with the wiring technologies from Lucidity eliminates the need to solder, splice or join any cable within a build. The lights themselves are linked together in a string using industry standard DT connectors which substantially improve assembly time as no labour is required to solder, leading to production efficiency improvements for the OEM.
With high labour demand and skills shortages, Lucidity Link lighting has been a real game changer to OEMs, fleet owners and operators as it really simplifies installation, add-ons and replacement.
On the other hand, Lucidity’s IDM series is designed and manufactured in Australia for the country’s harsh transport environment. The core engineering principle driving the development of the IDM was to enhance reliability with flexibility and functionality, and it has demonstrated that with HTE’s fitment of it across the board.
“We’ve used 30 to 35 of the new Lucidity plug-and-play systems on tilt trays for trucks now,” David says. “Because a tilt tray is different to a sliding body, everything needs to move. So, instead of a traditional single junction on a trailer we have two big junctions – one at the headboard and one down the back of the truck. So, their IDM series that they designed works for that, with the custom loom as well to make it work.”
HTE also imports an American truck body as part of its operations. For these units, Lucidity was able to provide a solution as well – a modified loom for the truck, similar to the tilt tray.
When David initially approached Lucidity, he was very impressed with what it could offer, says Lucidity Australia President, Mathew Jenkins.
“Out of the blue, we got a call from HTE who was looking for lighting stock,” Mathew says. “I started talking to David to let him know about some of the other things we do that he wasn’t aware of. They came and visited, and they spent pretty much a whole day with us.
“They couldn’t believe that you could do what we did so quickly and so accurately. It was a really good discussion and a really good way to start the relationship that I think we’ve been able to maintain.”
Since applying the Lucidity system on its units, David says HTE has gained exactly what Lucidity set out to do with the innovation – savings in time, labour and overall costs.
“Anyone can plug it in, so I don’t need an auto electrician to do it,” he says. “When there’s a shortage of labour at the moment, it’s just made everything so much easier. It’s a much more professional finish as well, it’s very neat.”
According to David, his customers are big fans of the plug-and-play solution too.
“The dealerships and end users love it,” he says. It’s just fantastic. If there’s a problem and they want to change their system, it’s easy because they can do it themselves.
“So, dealing with Lucidity has been great for HTE. They’re very helpful and they have a really high-quality product.”
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