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Supplying the needs of one of Europe's leading car and

16th December 1999
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Page 14, 16th December 1999 — Supplying the needs of one of Europe's leading car and
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van manufacturers calls for a vast pool of semitrailers. Ford's 2,00o-strong fleet requires regular replacements; this recently brought Montracon an order for 400 semis featuring some interesting innovations. Bryan Jarvis reports.

Trail blazing for car pan moves

• To keep its factories in the UK. Germany and Belgium running smoothly, Ford Motor Company runs a major fleet of tractive units and more than 2,000 semi-trailers, making this vehicle manufacturer one of the biggest own-account operators in the business.

It also operates a flotilla of RO-RO ships out of Dagenham docks, so most of the trailers have to be built tough enough for ferry handling. All of which explains why Ford is keen to take advantage of every advance in trailer design when ordering replacements for ageing semis.

Its latest order, Which is being supplied via Transamerica, is for 400 raisingroof, high-cube models from Montracon. Half are being built by its Woodville and Doncaster factories and the rest by its Dutch partner Pacton in which Montracon owns a 42% share. Each of the two plants is churning them out at the rate of 25 a week. Although these are proven designs, Montracon has included a number of modifications.

Some of the detail changes originate from driver acceptance panels, but the real engineering improvements result from working in tandem with Pacton. "We've put over 200 hours of engineering time into the chassis alone," says Montracon's European sales and marketing director Chris Curzon. Following 18 months of trials with two prototypes, he's more than pleased with the result.

Ferry work is notorious for damaging trailers, hence the extra reinforcements in the front bulkhead frames, the chassis and in the floor. The chassis itself has been redesigned with special l-beams, carefully profiled to accommodate discbraked axles.

The 13.7m trailers will be running between here and the Continent so they need to be able to couple at either 960mm or 1,250mm, hence the use of 245/70R 19.5in tyres and special suspensions for high-cube trailers. UK-sourced examples will have BPW running gear; Pacton is fitting SAF units.

Fork-lifts

To absorb bashing from fork-lifts, the cross-members are supported at the rails with extra angle plates. The floor spars are set at 200mm centres over the rear 1.8m, and 450mm apart further forward. Much of the floor is covered with heavy-duty Wisadeck but there are extra steel panels over the wheelarches.

Underneath, the wiring is fed through steel channelling which, like the chassis itself; is sealed at every point to keep moisture out. At the back is a galvanised underrun that lifts, secures and releases using a simple coil-spring arrangement. The rear doors are specially strengthened too, as is the roof, which has extra protection plates at the outer edges and elevates via an air-operated system. The control buttons are conveniently grouped in the front panel above Montracon's latest "Mavis" sliding suzie coupling.

Along with two buffer sections on the bulkhead, an enlarged air bag is used to give the roof assembly an extra 150mm of lift.

This means that for normal side loading there's a 2.8m aperture height, but with the roof fully raised it opens up to 3.2m. As the roof lifts the side posts telescope using a simple cantilever linkage with internal gas struts.

The drapes move along the cant rails easily enough and the extra curtain length tucks away when not needed. To make it easier to locate the front curtain pole, the front bulkhead tapers towards the roof—and one really clever detail change is the use of buckles that are cranked inwards. This small feature is expected to save thousands of pounds in ferry damage.

Specification details include a front axle lift, Haacon landing legs and aluminium side guards. Another useful addition is the automatic adjustment to a 1,250mm ride height when coupling to a UK-spec artic.

Curzon predicts that UK trailer manufacturers will find that the already tough going will get even tougher as long as there's an uneven playing field across the European Union. Contracts are getting fewer, especially from rental fleets, smaller, and customers are demanding more complex designs.

Montracon is managing to cope, says Curzon, but smaller trailer builders are really suffering. "We're tendering for one order against a German company" he reports. "We're already down to the tune of £3,000 a trailer before we start and that's all down to the currency problem."

The trailer market is down 2.5% on 1998 and it seems that many rental companies have turned to refurbishment programmes in order to stay profitable. But while the Ford trailer contract seems to have dominated Montracon since its beginning in May 1998, the Doncaster branch has also been busy supplying other customers.

Parceline, for example, has taken more than 100 trailers this year, 90 of which were high volume and run on lowheight suspensions with 19.5in wheels. Matched with 50 new Mercedes 1835 Lo-Liner artics with dual-height fifth wheels, the trailers are fitted with internal moving decks that lift via hydraulic rams and cog and triple-link chain mechanisms. "It's a well proven system and is backed by a five-year warranty" says Curzon. Montracon has also moved away from riveted side panels; the outer cladding is now bonded onto the steel raves.

Parceline's sister company Interlink has added 30 Mercedes rigids to its fleet, all fitted with Montracon dry freight van bodies and underslung Dhollandia tail-lifts. Like the Parceline vehicles, they will be operated by Mayne Nickless Express.

Montracon has built trailers for Argos with a fixed second deck: a Ratcliff tail-lift serves both floors and has sockets in the underside that the double-door locking mechanisms can hook into when closing up.

Other recent orders include another 20 tandern-axled rear-steer dry-freight

vans for Carpet Express and 40 boxvan trailers for Hill Hire for a long-term contract with Gagewell. Another order from UniDrug for 18 boxvan trailers and the bodying of 16 Scania P114 340 4x2s brought in a cool 21.1m.

Montracon also builds trailers for road-rail use, and it was one of these that helped Boalloy win the Intermodal category in Commercial Motor's 1999 Trailer of the Year awards.

The Doncaster and Pacton plants have worked closely with Babcock to ensure the trailer is compatible with the Novatrans rail wagon system—this sort of work accounts for 45% of the group's annual R&D budget.

It's made to a light, huckepack design with an air-operated lifting rear bumper and a slim neck with a special locking mechanism. This allows it to couple with up to four different wagon types. The trailer appeared on the Freightliner stand at last week's Earls Court Intermodal show.

INVESTMENTS IN SERVICE

• Recent investments at the Doncaster factory include £200,000 for five overhead cranes, and a 1250,000 laser cutter with a 0.0001mm accuracy This links directly to the design office and materials supply and cutting systems. The body shop also has seven Ming jigs that repaid their investment within a year.

ill In October Montracon established a dry-freight trailer, tipper and reefer outlet at the farmer SDC site at Westside Garage just off the Al at Scotch Corner in North Yorkshire. Montracon Northern will provide its customers with a full spares and repairs backup.

• Montracon's Doncaster workforce includes five apprentices and a second-year undergraduate from Sheffield's Hallam University


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