"The original price is good...spares are
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competitive.
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Roger Kneebone
Roger Kneebone of RK Plant and Transport runs a fleet of 18 trucks from his base at North Hill near Launceston, Cornwall. He has a pretty mixed fleet which includes ERF, Foden, Oaf, MAN, Seddon Atkinson, Scania and Volvo operating at up to 44 tonnes.
"Fifteen of our trucks are rigids and four are lightweight Seddon Atkinson six-wheelers," he reports. "We run three tippers on contract to Hansons and the other one is a mixer equipped with a 6m3 barrel, Several things influenced my decision to buy them including price, payload and both the proximity and the relationship we have with the dealer. We have been buying trucks from Pannell Commercials since I started out in road haulage in 1989.
"I believe SA has one of the lightest chassiscabs that you can buy. Access is a problem in this part of the country so the narrow cab and the high ground clearance at the front end appealed to us. We distribute sea sand and lime to the local farms and the T5 is a practical cab that makes it easier to negotiate the narrow entrances, which often have very solid granite gateposts either side! I could have bought an Iveco, which was cheaper, but I wanted the Cummins engine.
"The tippers, with alloy wheels and fully insulated Rhymney Valley alloy bodies to the Hanson spec, are suitable for carrying asphalt and have a payload of 17.7 tonnes. They do about 90,000km a year and the mixer; which has a lot more standing time and ewer goes far from the concrete plant, does about 40,000km a year.
"We try to organise the tippers so that they run loaded for up to 70% of the time but fuel consumption can vary between 7.0 and 10.5mpg depending on what they are used for.
The rubber suspension on the rear bogie is very reliable but does not give the best articulation needed to maintain traction on site work. The ground clearance below the balance beam has improved on the latest one but there is still room for improvement with the way the A-frame is mounted. The bush on the top of the axle bell housing wears much too quickly. On one vehicle we had to replace them before they were out of the first two years warranty.
"We have experienced some gearbox problems. We have had four replaced on the three tipper lorries but not all for the same reason. One had a broken shaft and another stripped a synchro. Seddon Atkinson and Pannell Commercials were very good and have now agreed to replace them with a heavier duty box. The brakes are good. The linings are easy to replace and the parts are reasonable—we do our own servicing once they are out of warranty. You get a bit of extra tyre wear because of the rubber suspension. Drivers complain about the vague gear change so the gear linkage could stand improvement.
"It's tough country in this part of the world but the Seddon Atkinson stands up to the work. We have one 240 and the rest are 280hp. Most of our work is over A-roads where journey times are often determined by what is in front of us.
"We hope to run them up to 10 years but we keep them until they become uneconomic and either trade in or sell privately. The residuals on Seddon Atkinsons tend to be pro rata to the price you pay new. We bought one chassis second-hand and that was quite good value but I don't believe there is much difference on whole-life costs between them and other makes of trucks when all factors are taken into consideration. The original price is good, spares are competitive and it carries up to half a tonne more per trip. It is much as I expected."