WYNNING A WAY THROUGH SUDAN
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ROBERT WYNN and Sons, the Newport-based International heavy haulage contractors, are currently transporting around 3,000 tons of sugar refinery equipment from Port Sudan to Sufaiya. Sudan, where the Kenana Sugar Company is building a refinery.
Against stiff competition from companies in the United States, Europe and even Japan this British company won the contract which will be paid for on a time basis.
The journey covers around 1,000 miles of very rugged territory, and the first successful run led by John Wynn took 18 days. A subsequent run was covered in around 11 days.
One sensible stipulation of the contract, said John Wynn, was the provision by Kenana of a grader to clear sand in front of the convoy.
Wynn's are using three Scammell Crusaders — for the first time as tractive units — together with three TM Bedfords. All are six-wheel vehicles towing a mixture of King, Crane and Trailer Systems trailers.
To back up the convoy, Land-Rovers, a mobile workshop and a chuck wagon joined the outfit.
Servicing facilities were organised with the co-operation Df Alfred McAlpine which has Dperations in the Sudan.
These proved necessary when one of the Cummins engined Crusaders developed ..ngine trouble, which resulted n it being towed into an Itaian construction company Defore being moved to the VIcAlpine site. For the two job, the Caterpillar grader was used and it also proved itself invaluable for pulling other vehicles out of soft sand, when they became stuck.
Apart from the engine incident, the main technical problem was tyre damage caused by sharp stones.
However, the vehicles had been well prepared for the journey in other respects, with stone guards for the sumps and in front of the trailer bogies.
The sump guards also stopped the engine fans from kicking up too much dust and reduced the engine temperature — vitally necessary where temperatures were around 110°C.
Each morning the convoy would start at 5.30 am — first light — and continue with a break for lunch until 4 pm. This gave them around 11/2 hours to service the vehicles, before dark.
The Scammells were hauling around 38 tons while the Bedfords carried 20-25 tons per load and it is expected that another 14 to 15 runs will complete the job.
When this contract is at an end they are hoping to set up an associate company to haul the refined sugar for Kenana.