MAN for the drawbar job
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• Midlands-based international haulier Brit European has ordered 12 MAN low-frame underfloor-engined 6x2 23.362 units ready for the day 38-tonne drawbars are allowed on UK roads.
According to company boss Rod Carmen, Britain's international hauliers will be at a severe disadvantage if they do not have high volume drawbars ready to roll when the regulations change.
"About 30% of the Continental vehicles entering the country through Dover are 38-tonne drawbars running at 32.5 tonnes in Britain. They will take our business away if we are not ready in advance."
Brit European will base about half of the new trucks on the Continent and half in Britain. They will work on high-volume, low-weight contracts. The 246kW sixcylinder MAN P2866LF diesel is mounted behind the cab and under the floor, and the frame depth is reduced from 330mrn to 270mm. This gives the 85cm frame height necessary to accommodate the 3m-height, 8.05m-long bodies required. Every unit will have a top sleeper cab and Fuller Twin Splitter gearbox.
MAN showed the prototype of the vehicle at last week's Amsterdam motor show and says the design is the result of close collaboration between MAN Munich and its Dutch importer.
"It is a considerably more expensive system," says Carmen, "but when we've got the trucks running with On show at Amsterdam: the MAN 23.362 underfloorengined 6x2. Brit European wants 12, ready for the day 38-tonne drawbars take to the UK roads.
demount bodies they're going to compare very well with an artic system averaging twoand-a-half to three trailers per tractor unit."
Adcliffe Engineers will make the demount bodies for Brit European. "I'm convinced that the units will have lots of advantages for general cargo work," says Carmen.
The 23.362 engine has been wrapped with aerodynamic side guards.