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SHOPPING
• Call it looking at the market through rose-tinted windscreens, or putting a brave body on things, the mood among many of the chassis manufacturers and bodybuilders at the Road Haulage Association's Tipcon show was surprisingly optimistic.
It's not clear if the tippermen visiting the annual jamboree in Harrogate share this point of view, but with the tipper community struggling to come to terms with the consequences of crippling interest rates and appalling haulage rates, there was undoubtedly
more looking going on than spending. Fortunately, there was plenty to look at, with Tipcon's curious combination of car parks and cow sheds crammed full of gleaming alloy and paint, with a handful of models getting their first showing.
It was also good to see that despite the depressed domestic market, the smaller UK chassis manufacturers were showing their multi-national rivals the way with some interesting new products; Neville Charrold, Don-Bur and Crane Fruehauf also made news on the bodywork front. If there was one theme coming out of the show, it was the return of the six-wheel tipper. AWD, ERF and Seddon Atkinson all gave low-weight/highpower 6x4s their Harrogate debuts, and the feeling from certain manufacturers was that three-axle rigids could well outsell their four-axle counterparts this year, thus reversing the previous trend to 8x4s.
The battle for sales between the three British newcomers should be a fascinating one. Each combines a compact cab with the same engine/gearbox partnership: the Cummins 8.3litre 6CTAA, which employs air-to-air charge cooling to provide a gross output of 198kW (265hp) at 2,400rpm, with 950Nm (7001bft) of torque at 1,500rpm, teamed up with Eaton's nine-speed synchro box.
The AWD TL 24-27 resurrects the old Bedford TL sixwheeler, but with the new driveline, Hendrickson Norde rubber suspension, and the facelifted AWD cab, it rejoins the market with one of the lowest kerb weights among the more powerful 6x4s, with a claimed body/payload allowance of 18.4 tonnes.
While the TL cab looks very tired these days, its nononsense specification and the vehicle's promising productivity could make the 6 x 4 24-27 one of AWD's more convincing contenders. Features include Rockwell drive axles with cross and inter-axle difflocks, three wheelbase choices and Girling Z-cam brakes.
One of its closest competi tors will undoubtedly be the C series powered 3-11 from Seddon Atkinson. Shown for the first time in public, the lightweight tipper from Oldham offers the slightly lower body! payload allowance of 18.1 tonnes, with the other significant difference being the use of Seddon's own RA-472 back bogie.
The current specification promises to be fairly short lived, however, with Seddon promising a revised range of multi-wheelers this autumn, using Rockwell axles, and more significantly, the more modern cab from the Strato. The manufacturers claims that the change will have no significant affect on payload.
Completing the British trio was the ERF ES8.26, also at Harrogate for the first time. Weighing in slightly heavier than the other two 6x4s, ERF's challenger arguably boasts the best cab in the form of the steel Steyr design, which is about 200kg lighter than the ERE plastic cab on the E8 chassis.
The other major show debutant came from Multidrive, which takes the TL cab from its sister company AWD for the latest version of the 8x6 32.5-tonne articulated on/offroad tipper.
Like the AWD six-wheel rigid, it is powered by the Cummins C Series engine coupled to an Eaton 6109 synchromesh gearbox.
Multidrive is now working on a Cummins-powered ERF E10.325 tractive unit, which should be on the scene around August following similar developments with Leyland Daf, Volvo and Seddon Atkinson tractors.
The ERF Multidrive rig is being developed for Yorkshire quarry and aggregate operator Fenstone.
The Harrogate Show was also the first chance for most UK hauliers to see the new lightweight vee-six-powered 1733 tractor from MercedesBenz. For driving impressions see page 10.
The main gearbox news was that Eaton is hoping to show its long-awaited uprated 15612 Twin Splitter gearbox, capable of handling torque ratios of around 2,000Nm (1,4751bft), at the Motor Show in September. The company is also believed to be developing a new family of transmissions for the European market.
Under-body tipping gear appears to be gaining in popularity. Harsh says its sales are up by 50% this year, and that's in a market which is about 30% down on last year.
The triangular frame, preventing sideays movements, is said to be much more stable than front-end tipping gear, and it saves weight too.
The short twin rams use a much smaller reservoir — on an eight legger the saving can be around 100kg with the volume of hydraulic oil reduced from 30 to just 12 gallons. As standard its tips to 55°, but this can be extended to 60° to suit scow end bodies.
The all-alloy step-frame Supakmda tipping trailer from Don-Bur caused quite a stir at last year's Tipcon, and this year the company has followed up with two new all-alloy versions of their sloping-floor Paylowda and its flat-floor Multilowda.
The advantages of allaluminium construction are demonstrated by the Payloada, which saves over 400kg compared with an equivalent steelframed chassis to offer potential payloads up to 25 tonnes at 38 tonnes GCW when fitted with air suspension.
When Crane Fruehauf decided to enter the rigid tipper bodymarket it did not have to go and develop a new body — its sister company Benalu is already in this mark& in France.
The 19.8m3 alloy Tipcon exhibit was imported as a ready built unit, but future bodies will be brought in as kits and built up at Dereham.
The design incorporates an 8mm floor with a 4mm overlay at the rear. Side ribs measuring 70x127mm are pitched at 720mm centres; 100x 120mm floor ribs are pitched at 360mm. Extruded corner sections provide an internal radius of 200mm.
It is mounted on a full-length channel-section sub-frame. Standard features include ladders and ropehooks; the tophung tail gate has an automatic release/locking mechanism activated by tipping and lowering.
Telehoist has traditionally concentrated on its range of Tel-lite and Tel-by sand and aggregate bodies, but at Tipcon the company launched its first muckaway body.
The 12 metre show model is mounted on a Renault G260 6x4 chassis which is also equipped with an improved version of Telehoist's G rain front end tipping gear.
The main news on the Renault stand was the fitment to its multi-wheelers with Hen
drickson Norde rubber bogie suspension; the system is now an approved retrofit option in the UK, with a promised 200kg saving over a steel-suspended bogie.
The revised G-range cab shown in Geneva this spring was nowhere to be seen, however, though it is being introduced on the G200/G230 17-tonners later this month, with the three and four-axle models due to follow when stocks of the current versions run out. This change should also see a more powerful G340 join the eight-wheeler range, boasting a 252kW (338hp) charge-cooled diesel.
Cummins debuted the latest versions of its six, ten and 14-litre truck engines. With a new in-line fuel pump, higher injection pressures and air-to-air charge-cooling, the B Series engine now offers up to 157kW (210hp) of power. . .
A larger sump capacity has also helped extend the LIO's services intervals by 25%. It's been made quieter too, by as much as 1.5dB(A), and has a stiffer cover for the gearing at the front end.
Its new PTO on the fuelpump side is much more acceptable than the previous system, which was taken off the front of the crankshaft.
The most powerful automotive engine in the Cummins stable is the 14-litre Super E 465, which offers a mighty 1,939Nm (1,430Ibft) of torque.
Cununins is hoping to show one of its engines equipped with Electronic Controlled Injection(ECI) at the Birmingham Show in September. Earlier trials with ECI engines in the United States have now been completed and ECI 10 and 14litre Cummins engines are now available in America.
Perkins displayed the most powerful of its four-engine Eagle Tx line-up; the 280kW (375hp) version. The Eagle Tx range is offered by ERF, Foden and Seddon Atkinson in their top-weight rigids and tractors. The big news concerning the Eagle Tx, however, is that a small number of 298kW (400hp) versions of the 12-litre Tx Eagle are out in the field running with UK operators in a mixture of chassis makes. Launch date is not known but maybe we'll see full production models before the end of the year.
It was the first time at Tipcon for the most powerful variant in the Perkins Phaser family, the 156kW 210Ti; this charge-cooled diesel has so far been adopted by Seddon Atkinson, and also by Foden for its new 2000 Series 17-tonner.
Production of the 2000 Series is slowly getting under way, with the Sandbach firm having high hopes for the skip market, among others. The show vehicle was a shortwheelbase tipper with the standard Cummins B Series/Eaton 4106 dtiveline.
Foden also showed the 4000th 4000 Series truck to be produced since its Tipcon debut three years ago. The company also supplied one of the few rigids at the show on air suspension, with a 4300 tipper featuring the Peterbilt-designed Air-Trac system on the Wilcox stand.
Michelin's XZY range of wide-single tyres has been designed especially for doubledrive and trailer operations to avoid picking up debris off road, as can happen all too often when it becomes trapped between twin wheels. Other claimed advantages are weight saving and slightly improved stability through gaining the widest possible axle width.
Hinos were a lot thinner on the ground than last year, with a solitary FY275K 8x4 on importer Harris's stand, with the firm promising immediate delivery of bodied tippers from stock. The long-awaited lightweight six-wheeler still seems some way off.
Pride of place on the Iveco Ford stand went to the 250kW (340hp) 300.34 8X4 Maggie which was introduced at last year's Tipcon with the turbocharged air-cooled Deutz vee-eight. The company was at pains to point out that the Deutz option is still available on the Cargo 6X4, contrary to its earlier announcement.
The benefits of adding a lifting mid-axle to a 17-tonner were demonstrated by chassis engineers Southworth, who exhibited a Leyland Daf Freighter 17.18 which had been uprated to 22.36 tonnes, with a payload of 14 tonnes, by the addition of a central axle. Running costs are claimed to be little more than for the standard 4 x 2.
BPW's ECO-system hub combines the hub, tapered roller bearing, thrust ring, sealing ring and axle nut as one assembly. This is said to reduce brake lining replacement times to 34 minutes per axle line and to increase service intervals. The assembly is designed to run for 300,000km or two years using BPW long-life grease.
NMI, a local firm from Barnsley, is a new name in the trailer market and chose Tipcon to launch its 9.8m, 44m3, step-frame tri-axle model.
Northern Ireland trailer builder SDC is offering its complete range in the UK with both square and bath-tub designs.
SDC (Solid Dependable Craftmanship) uses square stepframes with a 300mm drop from the neck to belly to maximise cube. Internal comer gussets are angled at 45° to provide strength while allowing for a clean tip: 6nun sidewalls and 8mm floors are standard to all SDG tippers, but various types of rear gates can be specificed. Top: AWD displayed its new lightweight 6x4.
Above left: Crane Fruehauf rigid body from sister company Benalu.
Above centre: The BPW EGOhub reduces servicing times. Above right: Harsh external control allows precise discharge control.