AWD determined to catch a cab
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• AWD has abandoned its plan to introduce a 38-tonne premium tractor based on the old Bedford TM cab. Instead it is investigating joint ventures which could lead the Dunstable-based independent to launch a heavy tractor with another manufacturer's cab in the next three years.
When David JB Brown resurrected GM's old Bedford civilian truck business as AWD in 1987, it was widely expected that the company would use the long-serving TM cab as a basis for a 38-tonne tractor. It is already using the TL cab on its middleweights.
Although the TM cab is used on AWD's Multidrive artics, off-road dumpers and tank transporters, it lacks the sophistication of more modern units. Marketing and distributor development director Vic Wright says: "We don't feel it is right for the European onhighway market which is hellishly competitive. If you're going to make an impact in that market it's got to be with a significant product."
Wright confirms that AWD is talking to a number of companies about their heavy truck cabs, but a new AWD 38-tonne tractor to follow the TL-cabbed version (CM 22-28 November) is not likely to break cover "for at least two years", says Wright.
The decision not to use the TM cab for an on-road pre mium tractor gives AWD a number of options. It would like to assemble a cab under a joint agreement with another truck maker at its Dunstable plant, trimming the cab itself and possibly using its own unique exterior panels.
AWD could either use an existing cab design or wait for a new one: "Ideally it would be something coming to the market place in the time frame we are looking at," says Wright. A new cab would also replace the TM cab on off-road models.
By buying in a cab, AWD would save major development and design costs while helping the cab originator to recover its investment, so "both partners get to bring something to the relationship," says Wright.
Because of the high start-up costs Wright says AWD is unlikely to set up a specific cab manufacturing deal similar to Daf/Pegaso with Cabtec, or to use a contract cab builder. Contenders for an AWD cab must include Sisu, the Finnish truck maker. Like AWD, Sisu uses its own modern cab atop a proprietary driveline package.
AWD has now gained Type Approval for its TL-cabbed 32tonne drawbar chassis as well as its 32-tonne TL tractor and MTL 33 Multidrive artic, all powered by the Cummins C265 engine. The 6x4 TL tipper, shown at Tipcon in May, should complete Type Approval by the end of January.