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MEDITERRANEAN MAESTROS

Thanks to lveco, Italian truck manufacturers have earned a worldwide following; a visit to the Turin show revealed that their bodybuilders are also in the big league.

111 Judging by the exhibits at the Turin Motor Show, Italian industry is already engaging the right gears to benefit from the looming single European market.

Its bodybuilding elements are lively and innovative, responding to the needs of the -padroncini" (small, privatelyowned companies) who run somewhat ageing fleets.

As 40% of their vehicles are over nine years old, compared with equivalent figures of 29% in West Germany and 12% in Britain, the Italian hauliers are being urged to update their fleets with better and more profitable vehicles.

Italy's bodybuilders offer a wide range of products engineered to a very high standard, and the country's specially adapted equipment, such as municipal bodywork and add-on items, are clearly as advanced as any.

Lorry-mounted cranes look especially strong with 10 home manufacturers exhibiting. Together they are reckoned to be building about 10,000 units annually; Bodies fitted with walking beams and moving floors are popular on the Continent among bulk or palleted waste transporters, especially in France where trailers up to 13.5m in length are used.

Legras claims a 90% share of its French home market and is beginning to make headway into Italy, selling over 40 walking beam-type trailers in its first year.

The 80m3 version exhibited has Legras' own patented triple-section floor design, driven hydraulically and compacting to the front on a3:1 basis.

With aluminium chassis and bodywork including four, fold-over canvas roof covers, the 13.4m-long tri-axled airsuspended trailer weighs in the region of 8,000kg. A 12.5m 78m3 version for the Italian market will cost about 115 million Lira (£50,000).

half for the home market and the rest for export.

Peschi, which produces around 700 units annually, has new 16/17 tonnne/m models about to come on to the market and will have 2.5 and 4.5 tonne/m cranes ready for the autumn.

Nevertheless British companies are exploiting niches, such as the reefer market.

York, for example, with its whollyowned subsidiary, Piacenza, is selling Thermostar bodies and TEC running gear in return for TIR tilts and dry powder tanks, while Joloda, with its Italian partner, Tecnogroup, is making good headway with its moving-floor designs. It already has 12 semi-trailer systems in service and also met a growing interest at Turin for its Airoll and Skate and Track systems.

Other British companies with Euroconnections exhibiting at Turin included Ratcliff Taillifts, Holset and Avon, with its Backstop Italia.

Miele's latest high-volume outfit, with Volvo FIO óx 4 rigid and drawbar trailer, is built to Philips-concept dimensions.

Both demountable bodies are 8.15m long by 3.0m high and will carry 80 metric pallets within its combined 125m3 of cargo space. It is only the second such combination from the Pignataro-based company, the other one having been designed for carrying five aero pallets.

Air suspension is used throughout to allow body-swapping, while low-profile tyres permit a 3.0m internal height within a 4.0m overall limit. For this application, Meile uses an ATC22 hydraulicallyextending drawbar unit from French manufacturer Jimecal of Fontenay-leComte; this senses any reduction in the gap between the bodies via a looped rail and pushes the trailer rearwards. AC Plast Robbiese of Robbio, which has built temperature-controlled bodywork for the past 30 years, showed a neat alternative sliding door design for its refrigerated bodywork on an Iveco Ducato 49.10 chassis.

The side door is of the same 75mm GRP panelling and moves on twin side runners with a top rail guide; when closed it locates with a pair of plugs into the vertical A-post. However, this costs three times the price of a hinged door, making an expensive option.

York Italian subsidiary Umberto Piacenzc of Cremona exhibited a Thermostarbodied reefer on one of its shallownecked, triaxle semi-trailers, and orders taken at the show for 20 affirm Piacenza president Giovanni Dosi's view that the Italian market is booming, and his prediction that the company will treble its reefer sales this year.

With over 95% of its hauliers owning four vehicles or less, it is also a fastidious marker with reefer companies preferring to replace their box bodies every four years to be sure of meeting the ATP certification requirements.

The Harelaw-built body is of bonded construction, self-supporting and is attached to the chassis with clamp bolts. It carries the latest Thermo King Super Boss I I di freezer unit. Twin-section, side-tipping semi-trailers are in favour with some Italian transport companies due to their versatility, stable tipping characteristics and their ability to off-load most free-flowing products into confined hopper areas.

This steel 36-tonne GCW Viberti trailer with Carmosino aluminium dualcompartment bodywork and sub-frame, has a 12.6m nominal length and weighs in at 6,800kg.

Each section with its top-hinged side panels has a pair of underfloor triplesection rams that can tip to either side, and its centre bulkhead sections can be removed to allow full-length loading and tipping.

5ince airport bus manufacturer Janus Bus completed its first aircraft catering vehicle earlier this year, the Rome-based company has secured orders for another 19; six for Alitalia and the remainder for airline servicing at Rome's airport.

The 12.65-tonne GVW U36 is based on a 3.6m wheelbase Iveco 135.14 chassis with a 105kW 5.86-litre diesel engine, Allison AT545 automatic transmission and carries a 3.0-tonne payload.

Its neatly designed GRP cab and body panelling is from the same company — Cam of Modena — that produced bodywork for Ferrari.

Using wanderlead controls, the 2.09m high service body elevates on its scissortype under-frame by means of a single, four-section hydraulic ram and steadies on four supporting legs.

It has a 1.67m-high load bed which can be raised through a height of 7.79m.

Once positioned, the service passage with its fold-out bridge plate extends 900mm towards the aircraft fuselage where a rubber collar serves to keep the weather out.

Street sweepers have come a long way since the handcart, brush and pan. This 10.5-tonne GVW SM4000 wash-andbrush-up model from Moro of Pordenone vacuums up street rubbish into the 4.03m3 container body which is mounted over the rear between four hydraulic rams.

A 750-litre tank carries water to wash dirty areas and to clean fine dirt from internal filters.

To discharge the load, the tailgate opens hydraulically and an ejector plate travels rearwards, expelling the muck.

The SM4000 is powered by a 69kW Italian manufacturers such as Minonzio of Varese are renowned for their superbly finished, extending mobile shops and this 14-tonne 140 VI) model is a fine example. Once parked for trade, hydraulic systems are used to lower the support legs, then two roof sections slide open longitudinally from the centre.

This allows the side and rear panels to pivot upwards, also hydraulically, to form the outer roof surround.

The partitioned and tiered front counter then extends forward and once the shelves are stocked, hey-presto — the shop is four-cylinder VM diesel with a Lint automatic transmission and hydros' drive to each rear wheel: it can wor) to 20kmih and travel at 40km1h. Gr tipping is achieved by raising the bo its front rams, while raising it on "a fours" allows room for driveline maintenance.

Three hydraulic pumps power thi body elevating rams and sweeper/ discharge circuits.

Moro has built 25 of the SM4000: within the new model's first year an them into Belgium, Holland and Fr ready for business.

Minonzio builds its own air-spru chassis using Iveco automotive components including 97 or 123kW diesels, five-speed Iveco manual or speed Allison automatic transmissii Both the engine and gearbox are mi mounted, but down the left hand sii the chassis.

The top-spec Spazio model, on it wheelbase, is 7.0m long, extending 9.0m and will set a budding Latin entrepreneur back a mind-boggling million Lira (about ,f95,000). This aluminium triple-decked 12.5m semitrailer, bodied by P Pezzaoioli of Montichiari, combines the lightness, strength and versatility necessary to carry animals at a 33 tonnes GCW limit.

Two of the floors elevate on four hydraulic rams with fail-safe locking devices at each corner. Extra full-width securing bars slot beneath each floor as an added safety measure.

Its triaxle air suspension has a lift/lower feature which, with 215175R 17.5in lowprofile tyres, maintains a fairly shallow angle for the loading ramps which provide a full-height tail closure with torsion bar assistance.

Bari-based Calabrese group, which builds a full range of tipping bodies, has devised a neat three-way tipping body kit for any light commercial vehicle in the 2.5-4.0tonne range. Shown on a 3.5-tonne Ducato chassis, the CT1 prototype uses a small electro-hydraulic ram in a crocodilejaw-type frame that swivels on a spindle attached to the subframe's central tubular cross member. Clips at each corner are released in pairs, allowing a lod of up to 2.5 tonnes to be tipped left, right or to the rear.

Calabrese is represented in 60 countries including Ireland and plans to distribute the CVI tipping body kit through lveco dealers. In Italy the basic kit costs five million Lira (L2,200) and, with its standard rear tipper models, expects to take a 10% share of Italy's light duty market of 6,000 units a year. Rubber-bottomed dumper bodies, first devised six years ago in Scandinavia for heavy mining and tunnelling work, have appeared for the first time at Turin in onroad form as a result of a joint agreement between Swedish manufacturer Skega and Acar of Mondavi. Steel-framed bodies have a built-on reinforced rubber floor supported on loops of thick nylon ropes to absorb the rough jolting effects when loading rocks and rubble.

Acar's first Volvo N12 6x4 — based onroad model — with its twin-under floor rams, has a 14-tonne unladen weight and a 33-tonne payload.

Several on-site versions are already in use in Britain with ARC, ECC and Redland Aggregates, but Skega is looking for a UK partner to market its heavy onroad versions.