First Roadhaus heavies
Page 14
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by John Kendall • The first MAN 6x4 F90 tractive units fitted with Roadhaus cabs have gone into service with Betchworth International Heavy Transport. The two 32.502 STGO Cat 2 heavy haulers are rated at 150 tonnes GTW.
One of the first jobs the pair undertook was to move a 62-tonne crawler crane for Balfour Beatty Construction from Newbury to Parliament Square.
The crane is being used on construction work for the Jubilee Line extension at Westminster tube station. Normally Betchworth would remove the caterpillar tracks from the 5.3m-wide crane and re-fit them on-site, but lack of space meant that for this job the tracks had to be in place on arrival.
For this reason the journey was split into three stages. First the crane, minus tracks, was moved from Newbury to Betchworth's Surrey depot astride a Nooteboom double extending low loader with five steering axles and two-axle dolly. At Betchworth the tracks were re-fitted for the move via the M25 and Mll to Chigwell in Essex. At 20:00hrs the crane set off on its final move via the M11, Docklands, City Airport and Whitehall; reaching Parliament Square at around 21:30hrs.
Power comes from MAN's 18.3-litre vee-10 engine, producing 493hp (368kW) at 1,900rpm with 1,734Ibf1 (2,350Nm) of torque between 1,000 and 1,300rpm. Transmission is via a conventional single dry-plate clutch and ZF 16speed gearbox to the double-drive bogie.