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CLASSY CARGO
Page 128
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• A ramped body with curtain sides was specified by Aston Martin Lagonda for its latest specialised car transporter, based at the company's Newport Pagnell headquarters. The long body is mounted on a 7.5-tonne Ford Cargo 0813 sleepercabbed chassis.
Because the floor is ramped with a rear loading height of only 490mm, the curtains vary in height (from 1.8m at the front to 2.4m at the rear) making the vehicle unusual in appearance. When required the 7.5-tonner hauls a matching 5.6m-long, similarly-bodied drawbar trailer to accommodate a second Aston Martin or Lagonda.
The bodywork and trailer were both built by G K Harvey Coachbuilders of Wymondham, Norfolk. The 3.5-tonneplated trailer, equipped with closecoupled running gear on 205/75R14C tyres, is built up from a 100 x 50mm steel box section spaceframe.
Its deck is less steeply ramped than the longer Cargo body's, largely because its front end is kept low enough to allow drive-through loading. The trailer body is curtain-ended at the front as well as the back; behind the front curtain are a pair of rigid 610mm-wide bridging plates which are stowed vertically.
To load or unload the Cargo without uncoupling its trailer, the plates are lowered across the gap between the two chequerplate-covered decks. From the side, the deck of the Cargo's body is almost curved; its steepness alters progressively. The floor at the front is 450mm above frame-top level. This elaborate design was chosen, in preference to a straightforward beavertailed flat-platform body, because of ground clearance. All of Aston Martin Lagonda's cars have long wheelbases and are built low to the ground, so an abrupt ramp-angle change would have risked fouling the underside.
Both vehicle and trailer have traditional car transporter loading ramps stowed below the floor, which slide out from slots in the rear cross-member. The ramps, the spaceframe under the front of the body (where a heavy-duty electric winch is installed) and underfloor tool cabinets all contribute to the Cargo's high unladen weight of 5,100kg. The trailer weighs just 1,500kg. Neither half of the combination, even carrying AML's heaviest cars, is normally loaded to its plated weight.
The side curtains (manufactured by Harvey) are of the familiar buckle-down variety, with tensioning poles at front and rear corners. They are rarely opened, but offer access if necessary, for example to fork-lift a damaged car aboard.
The curtain-sider affords weather and security protection for high-value cars, yet allows car doors to be opened inside the vehicle without risk of their being scuffed on rigid sidewall structures.
Running with the trailer, and carrying two exotic cars, AML's new transporter is returning a fuel consumption of about 23.51it/100km (12mpg), says the company.
0 by Alan Bunting