.61■■••■•■••••■ Dennis gets lowdown on Lance • Dennis has developed a new superlow-floor city bus from the Lance single-decker.
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The entry step height of 320mm can be reduced to 250mm using a kneeling function on the air-suspended chassis, but approach and departure angles remain at 80, the normal requirement for UK bus operations.
The low height has been achieved by using independent front suspension devised by ZF: a conventional beam axle would rule out the low floor.
The ZF RLE independent front suspension units are similar to MacPherson struts, with single lower wishbones. An air spring rotates around the strut and enables clearances within the wheelarch to be considerably reduced. This allows the wheelarch housing to be kept compact. Behind the rear axle the chassis is identical to the Lance. Pi xer comes from a 157kW (211hp) Cummins C Series engine, driving an Eaton axle through a fontspeed ZF Ecomat automatic gearbox.
Dennis has already received at t order from London Buses tut :it> SLF citybuses worth over LS.3111. This is the first order Ii a in t,■ floor citybus from a UK operatoi.