Second 6x4 Powerliner in service
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• Bedford haulier Ray Joyner will put his second MercedesBenz 2435 6x4 Powerliner tractive unit into service in January. He says that the 6x4s, which have just won Type Approval, are the only ones in the UK.
Joyner, a waste operator, has been running his first 6x4 Mercedes, which he bought in October, on Northern Irish plates because Mercedes had not registered the model in the UK. Joyner will now run both on UK plates.
Joyner's second 6x4 will probably pull a fridge trailer on Continental work. The first is running on an off-road tipping operation. He agrees that a 6x4, which costs about 215,000 more than a two-axle tractive unit, is uncommon for longdistance work, but says the payload and fuel economy on the 6x4 are almost as good as the 6x2. Besides, he says, the vehicle was already on order when he decided to move back into Continental work after several years concentrating on the UK waste sector.
Joyner's new 6x4 will use an 'umbilical' method of enclosing the unit's brake and electric cables in a single hose (CM 6-12 December). The system, devised by Christian Salvesen and a Peterborough engineering firm, is already used on CS's Mercedes fleet.
Pentagon Commercials of Aylesbury, which supplied both 6x4s, is to deliver another to heavy haulage specialist CH Choake of Leighton Buzzard.