Drawbars are magic for carpets
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• West Midlands floor-covering supplier Tomkinson Carpets has replaced its delivery fleet with six Scania P94-220 17-tonne drawbar units and eight MAN 14.224 14tonne local distribution vehicles. Abel Demountable Systems supplied the five centre-bogie skeletal trailers and 24 matching 6.1m swap bodies, each one fitted with flush rear doors and an electrically powered carpet hoist. All 14 chassis have Abel's straight lift gear; in concert with the Scania drive axle and trailer-bogie air suspension, demounting is simply a matter of raising or lowering the suspension and positioning the support legs.
To change bodies, Abel's lifting plate is installed in the chassis (front and rear on the steelsprung MANs and only at the front on the Scanias) to get the right height for demounting.
The 28-tonne-plated Scania rigs trunk between the company's Kidderminster plant and five different UK sites, with the odd solo drop around the Midlands. The 14-tonners make 20 delivery drops a day with furniture and carpets.