Strong start for a new show
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At some shows the bodybuilders are put in the shade by the major vehicle manufacturers. Now they have their own event, and they made the most of it.
by Bryan Jarvis and Toby Clark • The first Commercial Vehicle Bodywork Show at the National Agricultural centre at Stoneleigh, Warwicks attracted more than 2,000 potential buyers.
The event was opened by Leyland Daf Vans managing director Allan Amey with SMMT chief executive Ernie Thompson and Drew Taggart of Wilsdon & Co in attendance. The venue has much to commend it. Stand space and support services are a good deal cheaper than at the Birmingham Motor Show and access is good from most parts of the UK.
With only one un-bodied vehicle on display the chassis makers took a back seat, leaving body, trailer and component suppliers to exhibit an impressive range of products. In fact that single chassis could almost have symbolised a problem faced by many bodybuilders. Most report full order books but with ever-increasing lead times, some running into the Autumn, largely due to a shortage of truck chassis.
With confidence rising some companies, such as S Cartwright & Sons and Gray & Adams, have hardly felt the recession, but many of the medium-sized firms have trimmed back severely in order to survive. Ray Smith, for example, closed its Dutch factory, but its exports have been growing recently, especially to Japan and Malaysia. In the past two months the company has opened a new tail-lift plant and taken orders worth more than £2m, mostly from thirdparty hauliers.
Expand production
JC Payne has more than Om of vehicle bodies to build in the next two months and is looking at ways to expand production at its two factories.
Among the products in the
Vaile Sinclair Group line-up were versions of its Norfrigpannelled reefers, built in Dorset from flat pack kits. One of the first, shown on a Mercedes-Benz 814 chassis, has interested BRS; a 24-tonne version on a Volvo 6x4 chassis is in build for Appleby.
Alongside a handsome Mercedes 1317-based Racing Six horsebox for Lambourne Racehorse Transport, Vaile launched a shapely "economy build" Clipper luton body for Transit chassis. Kits retail at £1,875; and variants are in the pipeline for Mercedes and Volkswagens. A VW LT50 was the basis of Bedwas' new second/limited-first-strike Cobra fire engine. Its moulded panel crew-cab seats five—three with breathing gear—and its steelframed, shuttered body carries 900 litres of water as well as Angus Socol's new 7.5m triple ladder. The 5.0-tonne chassis is expected to be offered with auto-transmission and as a 4x4; so far 65 brigades have taken a look at the Cobra.
Schmitz used the show to announce an insulated dry freight body system for temperature-sensitive goods and a lowmaintenance trailer air suspension for BPW axles. It also showcased the first UK version of its dual-temperature drawbar swap bodies for multi-drop work which were developed with Wincanton Distribution and user Van den Bergh. The order comprises 29 of the 7.55mlong demount boxes and 11 drawbar trailers. The prime movers are Leyland Daf 85 6x4s with 8.55m fixed versions of the Schmitz swaps.
They will run at 35 tonnes GTW but are capable of moving up to 38 tonnes in the future. The Ferroplast swap bodies each have a 3/4-length centre wall. To the left of the wall is a short freezer chamber with Henderson soft bulkheads to enclose four pallets; nine more can be carried in the remaining chilled area. Refrigeration is handled by Thermo King units in the recessed fronts with remote evaporators front and rear.
Solihull-based Wilsdon had its first full length reefer trailer at Stoneleigh built for one of its long-standing clients, Peters of Bedwas, South Wales. The 13.4m inner is built from HiCore GRP panels and cooled by front and rear high-level evaporators fed by Thermo King's Multipac 2 fridge unit and underslung condensor.
A 1.5-tonne Ratcliff pillar lift takes cargo up to Wilsdon's HD2000 heavy duty-floor which has a bauxite top layer.
Multi-floored trailer specialist Wilson Double-Deck showed one of a pair of twin-deckers built for Henderson of Belfast with an aluminium floor that has lowered its tare weight by a tonne to 11.24 tonnes. Rear lights are integral with the side posts and its tail-lift has side ramps for kerbside deliveries.
Double deckers
Wilson is supplying Tesco with 18 tri-axled twin decks-13 with fixed decks, the rest with lifting platforms—and there's another six fixed double-deckers for City Link.
Ratcliff displayed many of its lifts at Stoneleigh, including a well finished column lift with a folding aluminium platform. This model was developed for the Post Office. Its two-piece floor is counterbalanced and closes up easily by hand so that goods can be carried over it at a loading dock.
Boalloy won a Design Council award for its Multi-Height curtainsider but its main exhibit at Stoneleigh was a drawbar Tautliner combination for Haugh & Ward's contract with Target Express, via Salford Van Hire. The Scania P93 rigid has a 7.47m curtained body; the Wheelbase Engineering stepped trailer has a 8.15m two-floored body. Body gap is controlled by the Jimecal pneumatic/hydraulic towbar system. A "pram handle" on the front of the trailer senses the gap which is then adjusted by a hydraulic ram. Pressure is maintained by a wheel-driven pump.
Air Management Systems had news of a GRP kit that combines a curved hack-of-cab fairing with a matching trailer front capping. This, says AMS, cuts the gap by up to a metre, reducing drag co-efficient by 20%.
Commercial Coachbuilders of Paisley attracted interest with a smart, durable looking powdercoat finish on the aluminium body cappings of a Scania P93based insulated body for Watson & Philip.
Several rigid reefers at the show used the Danish-built Proteus lightweight flexible insulated partition. It weighs only 3kg, not including top and bottom support rails, and costs £650 complete with fan kits. Proteus also offers insulated pallet covers.
Although bodies and ancillary products took centre stage there were a number of new chassis on show.
Mercedes' latest UK model, a 2250 with Euro cab and Hendrickson lifting second-steer axle was making its UK debut. The kit is available for air sprung 2538LS, 2544LS and 2550LS SK models; costs £1,650 and will be fitted by MercedesBenz at Wentworth.
New vehicles
Leyland Daf Vans introduced two new vehicles to show off its in-house bodybuilding service.
Royal Mail Parcelforce has bought 20 High Capacity Parcel Vans, based on the extra-longwheelbase 3.5-tonne GVW 400 chassis with lightweight bodywork derived from Cartwright's Parcelpacker.
The walk-through, fiatfloored body offers 15m3 of cube. It uses lightweight Carbofont composite panels and has an electrically operated nearside door—the next version might dispense with the driver's door.
With a rear roller shutter door the body price is £5,280; options include quarter doors at the rear and a manual side door. The turbo-diesel chassis-cab costs £17,193.
The other LDV body was a factory-built dropside pickup using aluminium Ingimex components and based on the new 3.1-tonne GVW short-wheelbase 400 Series chassis. Payload is around L5 tonnes and it costs £13,330 in naturally aspirated form. LDV production is up from last year's average of 200 vehicles a week to 250 a week, and 60 more production staff have been taken on.
Iveco Ford was at Stoneleigh to launch its SuperCargo 260E27 6x4 mixer chassis with Hymix 6.5m3 body
Renault VI announced 14 new variants of its Manager, Major and Magnum ranges, including 26-tonne Manager 6x2 rigids; heavy haulage Majors (rated at 120 and 150 tonnes); and mid lift and tag axle 6x2 Magnum tractors. None of these was included in the display, which was dominated by a Magnum 520 6x2 rigid operated by the Williams Renault racing team (CM 3-9 March). The TBVequipped Ro-Hill Bodies box van will carry supplies around the Continent, and features a neat Del tail-lift/rear closure with an inset personnel door.
Renault's other eye-catcher was a Messenger van fitted with a Simon Ranger access platform. The hydraulic unit has a working height of 12.8m, and the 5.5-tonne van is fitted with automatic levelling jacks. But this end of the market is not Renault's main interest: Bernard Momin, managing director of RV1 UK, spoke at the show of the company's conscious shift towards heavy trucks and recent increases in revenue despite falling registrations.
Production version
Ford displayed the Flareside pickup, based on the Transit 120 chassis-cab; a prototype which previously appeared at the London Motor Show. The production version goes on sale soon; dealers should be able to take orders from next month.
The other Ford exhibit was the Transit 230 4.0-tonne chassis-crewcab fitted with a Tipmaster Dustmaster. This tipping refuse collector incorporates suction equipment and has a payload of 1,200kg.
AL-KO Kober announced its status as a "recognised convert er" of Volkswagen's Transporter. Its low-height AMC chassis conversion offers a wheelbase of either 2,697mm or 4,097mm and a maximum GVW of 3.2 tonnes. The chassis has a maximum width of 2,150mm, and is 100mm lower than standard.