Off-road role for 6x6 Maxter
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by Steve Banner • The first 6x6 Renault Maxter has been sold in the UK. But owner National Power won't be operating the 26-tonne gross, LHD tanker on public roads.
Designated as a G340ti.34M, it will spend its working life confined within Drax power station in North Yorkshire. Never exceeding 15mph—the site speed limit—one of its main tasks will be to help stabilise ash heaps by spraying them with a mixture of water, grass seed, peat, and a stabilising agent.
A thick carpet of grass prevents fine ash from blowing away and covering everything with a film of grey dust.
Scrapers
The truck replaces two fourwheel drive Bedford TMs, and will work alongside a trio of Terex articulated scrapers converted into dust suppressors.
The 3.85m wheelbase Maxter is fitted with a Renault 9.8-litre, six-cylinder turbo-charged and intercooled engine pumping out maximum power of 334hp (249kW) at 2,000rpm. Top torque of 1,1431bft (1.550Nm) is at 1,200rpm.
The truck is equipped with a Renault B9 nine-speed gearbox and a Twin Disc clutch. The gearbox has a first gear inhibitor installed at RVI's Dunstable workshops, which turns it into an eightspeed with high and low ratios.
Six-wheel drive is permanently engaged, and the Maxter has front and rear axle differential locks, and interaxle locks. The VG2000 transfer box is made by Steyr.
The off-roading Renault rides on semi elliptic steel springs front and rear. The three-man day cab comes with electric windows and electrically adjustable external rearview mirrors.
Built by Vallely Engineering of Leeds, the 3,000-gallon cylindrical vacuum tank is made from 5mm mild steel. The dished and flanged front of the barrel is 6mm mild steel, as is the fully-opening rear door, which is equipped with hydraulically operated tophinged automatic Hydra-Lok clamps. Reinforced with external stiffening rings, the barrel is lined with bitumastic, and the two internal baffles are of walkthrough design.
A spray bar has been mounted beneath the Maxter's front bumper. The rear of the tanker has a fish tail spreader cone and plate fed by a 6in air-operated slide valve in the rear door. It can be operated from a rear control as well as from the cab.
The tank inlet valve is a 41n Saunders lever-operated ball valve, with a high level fill pipe.
A Jurop R260 air-cooled yarnum pump and the centrifugal pump driven by the main hydraulic system have oil bath silencers and automatic dripfeed lubrication. A circulation and mixing facility stirs the tank's contents. An alloy hose tray has been fitted on the nearside. A single sight glass is mounted behind the driver. The old 1,800 gallon Bedfords had two apiece, one on either side of the tanker barrel.
Vallely has built similar trailer tankers which spray latex onto blast furnace fuel at British Steel's Redcar, Cleveland site to prevent flying dust.
Not surprisingly, the Renault is serviced by time rather than mileage. Time is recorded on a Jaeger clock concealed behind a panel in front of the dual passenger seat—the panel also hides the truck's fuse box.
Supplying dealer Thompson of Beverley, North Humberside, estimates that an hour equates to 40km of travel, which means that the first service will be at 120 hours. Thompson will maintain the Maxter on-site at Drax, and a dealership spokesman says that a suspended tow may have to be used to transport the truck to Beverley if major repairs are required.
"After all," he points out, "it isn't taxed, runs on red diesel, and doesn't have UK Type Approval either."
The Maxter was delivered just before Christmas, but some damage had to be rectified before it could go to work. One of its first tasks was to blast accumulated ash from under a conveyor that runs across part of the site with a high-pressure water jet.
"The alternative would be to dig it out, and that would mean stopping the conveyor," regular driver George Gott explains.
Gott, 57, has worked at Drax for 21 years and, born without his left hand, finds left-handdrive particularly convenient.
He has no trouble changing gear with his right, and the spray controls mounted on the dashboard are within equally easy reach. He can alter the width sprayed by the rear jet.
The only other in-cab concession to his disability is a large knob on the wheel rim designed to make it easier for him to turn the wheel from lock to lock. "I was asked, and said I would prefer left-hand-drive," he grins. "I wouldn't have minded an automatic, but somehow I don't think National Power would have stood for the extra cost!"
He's delighted with the Maxter's performance. He points to its ability to climb surprisingly steep mountains of ash—the inclines look as severe as 1-in-3 in some places—and stresses how easy it is to drop from highto low-ratio gear.
"All you need to do is tap the lever, and it does it itself," he observes. "Mind you, you can go up some of these slopes in 4th, even with a full load on board.
"The exhaust brake's very useful, too," he adds. "1 hardly ever have to use the service brakes." He's also impressed with the versatility of the Vallely equipment.
Transfer pump
"You can use it to suck out some of the pits on site. If I have to, I can suck water out of a dyke rather than fill up from the water tank. It could be employed as a transfer pump if necessary," he says.
Gott was consulted on the vehicle's design. It's fitted with a rear-mounted hose reel on a swivelling frame. He asked for the reel to be powered to make it easier to roll-in and roll-out the 25m of hose it carries.
He has one useful tip for anybody faced with having to spray an ash mountain. "Always spray on the way down, never on the way up," he advises. "Because on the way down, you'll be crossing a wet surface."