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Allison Transmissions is looking for new markets to keep its

19th November 2009
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Page 47
Page 46, 19th November 2009 — Allison Transmissions is looking for new markets to keep its
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latest owners happy. CM went to a Nordic testing ground to find out where it is looking to gain a foothold.

Words./ Images: Cohn Barnett Allison Transmissions probably had a lucky escape in 2007 when, after 78 years of ownership, General Motors sold it to two venture capital firms. Carlyle Group and Onex Corporation.

Venture capitalists being what they are, it's inevitable Allison is expected to widen its markets, but its traditional areas of fire, refuse and public transport have no room left for growth, so new pastures are the only real way forward.

Every time we've been asked to try Allison's automatic transmissions for the mass market, we've always come to the same conclusion. Although the gearboxes work well enough, the capital cost when fitted to a light to middleweight chassis is prohibitive for most operators Allison isn't helped by the rise of the ZF automated manual transmission (AMT). But if you consider the market for high-value, long-service-life specialist vehicles, such as where the proportional cost of an Allison becomes less significant, the auto 'box is more appealing.

Day one

Allison's Nordic sales office recently laid on a two-day driving experience in a massive gravel quarry near the industrial town of Boras in western Sweden. On day one, we were privileged to drive a Volvo FH16 660. The big Volvo 8x4 tractor had a special seven-speed 4700 version of the Allison 4000-series fitted from new.

The owner of Wallners Specialtransporter (www. wallnersspecialtransporter.com), Mikael Wallner owns half-a-dozen I-Shift-equipped heavy haulage tractors, so he knows his way around the Volvo options list, but when it came to ordering his own vehicle, he wanted an Allison.

He cites the Allison's fine low-speed control and full-power continuous-drive shifts as the main attractions. Much of his work is carrying wind farm components of up to 45m length to remote sites, so off-road ability is a must.

Although Swedish law permits operation at 200 tonnes with an 80kinh limit, or 220 tonnes at 45kmh, he has carried loads grossing 280 tonnes. For our drive, though, the five-steering axle Goldhofer trailer was bearing a big Caterpillar articulated dump truck, itself fully loaded with gravel, to give us a gross weight of a mere 105 tonnes.

In a show of either over-confidence or over-engineering, this Allisonsupported trial is putting 3.100Nm through a 'box designed for 2,500Nm.

Wallner initially gave us a demo down the 2km gravel haul road from the quarry's high point, the integral retarder dealing effortlessly with the 18% grades and hairpin bends, before turning the rig around and allowing your writer to take it back to the top.

Selecting the ultra-low 763:1 first gear on the traditional Allison keypad gear selector (it normally sets off in the 3.51:1 second ratio) and pressing the throttle saw 105 tonnes move off under perfect control.

The most revealing part of the exercise was the ease of driving. Without devaluing the skills of its professional driver, the first 90% of the truck's capabilities could be exploited by a complete novice after a few minutes of practice. We were soon confident of stopping on the steepest bits of the damp gravel haul road, holding 105 tonnes just on the torque converter and restarting with millimetre precision.True, you could do most of this behind an AMT, at least for the few moments before the dry-plate clutch dissolved in a cloud of smoke.

Conclusion

We came away from our two days in the Scandinavian mud happy we'd found a worthwhile new direction for the Allison transmission. If your tipper operations veer in any way towards the extreme, we'd recommend you consider it on your next tipper. •

Tags

Locations: Boras

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