EuroTrakker attack
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• by David Craik Two hauliers and a vehicle examiner are calling on lveco Ford to recall and modify its 340E34 EuroTrakker tractive units because, they claim, the brakes have a serious design fault and are not up to the job.
Londonderry-based haulier John McDaid of JJ McDaid Haulage is so concerned that he is selling his four Iveco EuroTrakkers.
McDaid says the problem is with the EuroTrakkers' Simplex brake system. He and vehicle examiner Tony Jones of the Vehicle Examination Agency, who was formerly with the Vehicle Inspectorate, believe the system causes 'uneven and excessive wear of certain brake shoes on heavy EuroTrakkers". Jones feels that the system is fine for trucks up to 14 or 15 tonnes but has been "misapplied" to the heavier wagons.
The problem is com pounded, says Jones, because "there is no way of knowing how worn the brake shoes are on a given truck by looking through the back-plate inspection slots". All you can see is "the good part of the shoe", he adds.
Jones describes one EuroTrakker, which was operated by the Birminghambased firm Tommy Smyth Haulage, as like "nothing I have ever seen in my life before" with all its leading brake shoes worn down to the rivets after just 18,000 miles.
Smyth says one of his EuroTrakkers went "totally out of control after a brake seizure". He points out that he would have been the one going to jail if some one had been killed.
McDaid concludes: "At breakfast in my house my wife is crying over her coffee when I leave because she does not know whether I will come home or not."