Fruehauf France to build Boalloy Tautliners
Page 29
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• One of the largest French trailer manufacturers, Fruehauf France SA, is to produce under a new licensing agreement the Boalloy Tautliner system both in that, country and in Belgium. This move represents a notable success for Boalloy Ltd. of West Heath, Congleton, Cheshire, whose young managing director, Mr Gerald Broadbent, fathered the system for which patents have been applied.
Last week Commercial Motor was invited to see a Fruehauf France 12 metre demonstration trailer with the Tautliner curtain-side top, rear and side entry fitted before it left with a French crew for the Continent.
The Fruehauf French tie-up is significant in that it represents Tautliner's entry into Europe. The unit left immediately after the Congleton demonstration for the works at Auxerre, south of Paris, where it is now being shown to major French transport concerns.
A month previously the 12-metre (39ft 4pn. skeletal semi-trailer was delivered by Fruehauf to the Boalloy factory where it was fitted with a timber deck and Tautliner frame including a fold-back arched roof. It is anticipated that the French firm will offer a comprehensive range of Tautliner designs but they feel that the 12-metre body will have a greater appeal on the Continent.
The Tautliner vehicle body system is a four-way tensioned side-curtain design giving drum-tight side walls. It can be opened and closed easily in a minute or so and saves valuable time in loading and unloading. In addition, the Fruehauf trailer has been given a roll-back Pakamac, and double container-type rear doors. Material used in the roofing and side covering is pvc with nylon belting to hold the load in position. The roof retracts quickly and easily folding to a width of only 4ft against the streamlined glass-fibre bulkhead. The curtain sides and top give a fully weather-proof high speed vehicle that can be loaded from each side, from the rear, or crane-loaded through the roof.
Brief specification:
Fruehauf wide-spread tandem axle semitrailer; length: 12m (39ft 4-1-in.), width, 2.5m (8f1 Timber deck; Tautliner four-way entry curtain side system with Paka mac (.1.T.) roll-back roof; Side curtains are of Tarvyn. a Trevira-reinforccd pve fabric.
Container-type rear doors closing onto a hinge-aside aluminium headrail.
Glass-fibre streamlined front bulkhead to reduce wind resistance.
Headroom under collapsible arched roofs, 2.25m (7ft 47lin.);
Capacity on platform, 24 standard European pallets in two rows of twelve.