To Russia with love from Scammell
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TWO SENIOR Russian engineers arrived in England last week to collect a Scammell 6x4 Crusader tractive unit.
For the next six months the truck and trailer unit will be on trial carrying perishable foodstuffs from Moscow to as far as France and Iran.
Vladimir Genza and Yevgenyi Rizhkin, both experienced drivers, came to the UK last week to familiarise themselves with the 44 ton GCW vehicle before setting off on the 2,900 km (1,800 mile), three and a half day journey back to Moscow, via East Germany and Poland.
During the run they are making use of the twinbunked, fully insulated cab for overnight accommodation.
Specially designed for operation in temperatures down to. -30°C (-22°F), the Scammell is the first civilian Crusader to be fitted with a Rolls-Royce Eagle 305 engine. Previously, only military Crusaders have been equipped with this unit.
The Rolls-Royce engine has been fitted with cold-starting equipment which uses an electric element to ignite and. partially pre-burn the fuel in the inlet manifold, thus heating the intake mixture for easy ignition in the combustion chambers.
Cab features
Most of the new features on the Russian machine, however, are associated with the heating and insulation of the cab, isolating the crew from both the weather and from engine noise.
Glass fibre wool in a 25mm (tin) layer is used to insulate the cab roof, while the double skinned walls have 64mm (21/2in) of foam.
All night heating in the cab is provided by a small singlecylinder diesel engine, mounted behind the cab, running off the main fuel supply which keeps the engine water hot when the main engine is not running.
Circulation of the heated air via the normal cab fan heater is controlled by a thermostat mounted beside the bunk.
To keep the diesel fuel warm enough to prevent waxing overnight, the exhaust of the auxiliary engine is directed on to the main fuel tank.
As installed in the Crusader, the Rolls-Royce engine produces 227kW (305bhp). It drives through a 394mm (151/2in) twin-plate clutch to a nine-speed constant-mesh Fuller gearbox.
The final drive is via two Rockwell hub-reduction drive axles, while an inter-axle diff lock is incorporated for maximum traction.
All the switches and gauges have been labelled in Russian and the driver's handbook has also been translated.
Crane Fruehauf supplied the trailer, which is a 12-metre refrigerated van built to ATP regulations in aluminium alloy.
It is insulated with 100mm (4in) of polyurethane and lined with dimpled plastic sheeting.