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"The other 460 6x2 is still bedding in at just

21st November 2002
Page 32
Page 32, 21st November 2002 — "The other 460 6x2 is still bedding in at just
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Keywords : Volvo Fh

under 20,000km in the first month but it's giving high eights to low nines at the

moment. " Bob Sumpler II BS Traction of Crawley runs a fleet of eight tractors hauling containers, mainly in south and central England. MD Bob Sumpler says: "I don't only run Volvos; we have two Dots and an lveco. We cover the range with the FH, with 4x25 at 380, 420 and 460 plus 420 and 460 6x2s, running at 40 and 44 tonnes. When I bought the 380 I thought that it pulled very well but it struggles a bit beside the 420s and 460s. It does quite well on fuel, though. It returns between 8.5 and 9.0mpg while the 460 452 does 9.0 to to.ompg. The other 460 6x2 arrived in October and so is still bedding in at just under zo,000km in the first month but it's giving high eights to low nines at the moment. It runs night and day so I'm expecting to get more from it.

"Strangely it does better at night with a tall step-frame trailer and 44-inch gap to the headboard than it does with a lower and close-coupled container during the day.

"I have kept trucks for five to six years but over the past 18 months we've restructured the fleet with five new vehicles since May last year. I don't have any fixed approach to the way I finance the vehicles; some I buy outright and others I have

‘r-7.10Xik, on lease. It really depends on 'k"-----Th( what the best deal is at the

time Maidstone Commercials is my local dealer and I have to say that their back-up is superb. When I had a breakdown in Belgium a while back and I thought I was being overcharged the dealer worked it out with me this end. They give me a courtesy call at least once a week. My Daf is a good truck but I haven't had any contact from the dealer since I bought it three years ago.

"We bought the T-reg 452 460 secondhand with the XL cab and CD trim. It had a few warranty items, which included cab bushes, an engine water leak behind the compressor and an air leak on the foot valve. They put them right without any hassle and gave me a replacement while they did it. We service the trucks that we don't have on lease with a maintenance contract. Parts prices can seem high at times so it's always worth haggling.

"The four-wheelers give a payload of about 24 tonnes and we get a couple of tonnes more out of the six-wheelers. Over the past few months we've noticed an increase in the heavier weights so we may have to look at replacing some of the 4x2s.

"We fuel up at the weekends over the other side of the Channel so the size of ill, tanks is something we consider. With thi older Volvo FH 6x2s it's possible to get till full 1,50o litres but my latest one has capacity of 1,35o litres so [would have ti increase that to take the maximum allowed The savings are considerable—up to Lz5o week per vehicle.

"There are a couple of things which coull be better on the new model; the mirrors cre ate blindspots on both sides and we've los the space on top of the dash that we used ti stow the phone or a couple of books.

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