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OFF THE SHOULDER SHOW
Page 116
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• rhe Association of Recovery Vehicle Operators' annual display at Warwick this year gained the title of International Recovery Vehicle Exhibition (IVREX), and appropriately enough it was one of the biggest events to date.
There was plenty of innovation, although less among the glamorous heavy recovery vehicles than among the more profitable mediumand lightweight models.
A novel spectacle-lift vehicle was unveiled by Innovation Engineering of Chester. Unlike conventional hydraulic models, the ParaSpec 1000 is operated by an electric winch, with a cable looped over a fixed top boom that doubles as a crane jib and raises the towing-arm frame in vertical runners. The company likens its action to that of a fork-lift truck; one benefit is that the arm always remains horizontal, giving a good approach angle for picking up cars with low-mounted spoilers.
The full price of the Brade Leigh-bodied Ford Transit (to uprated recovery specification) is £20,000.
French-manufactured recovery equipment built by Jigé Lohr is now being imported,by Apex Body Works. Its mainstream slidebed bodies have several unusual features — notably a long-stroke horizontally acting ram that tilts the bedframe through a scissor-action mechanism mounted between the main chassis members.
Also distinctive are the toothed guides along the body frame that locate with gears at the back of the chassis to give progressive movement. Among exhibits was a model with a second car deck raised by screw jacks in a fixed front frame.
Almost every feature of the American-built Jerr-Dan spectacle-lift recovery vehicle was operated hydraulically, including the jaws of the
wheel-lift and the extending, slewing underlift boom. The Chevrolet pickup also had twin Ramsey 2.2-tonne hydraulic winches looped over a hydraulically extending liftand-tow main boom, giving it a lifting capacity of up to three tonnes that belied its modest size. Wireless remote control is available as an option. The bodywork is in aluminium alloy, with stainless-steel fittings. The complete package, bought through Euro-agent Alco Nederland, is priced at £10,000 (minus the vehicle).
Recovering and delivering high-value cars has become a • security-sensitive activity; consequently demand for enclosed bodywork is growing. Hull-based Jobling Trailers has made a speciality of this equipment, and showed an outfit — the first throughloader — with curtain sides.
It comprises a slide-bed vehicle hitched to a closecoupled trailer, giving drivethrough access from the back. Tilt covers are used on some models for the same effect.
Jobling imports some of its bodywork from the French manufacturer Fiault, but builds its own trailers and also carries out crew-cab conversions.
Land Rovers converted to three-axle configuration are not new, but one at Ivrex is said to be the first to be turned out ready-converted from the Land Rover factory, complete with a crew cab. The body, with its multiple hatches, was produced by recovery specialist J and J Conversions with a two-tonne swan-neck hydraulic underlift boom with extending spectacle frame.
It has been a year of innovation among spectacleframe wheel-lift vehicles. The Scorpio, from TFL Truck Fitments, offers users the opportunity to pick up the front wheels of a car without lifting it. The main boom extends backwards hydraulically; the jaws are held in the half-open position by coil springs, hut automatically snap round and under the front tyres as they come into position.
A tensioner needs to be fastened in place across the front of the jaws in transit to lock them in position.