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railer uildees peOials
Page 37
Page 38
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y ancni Vontgomerie
ENOWN as a volume manufacturer of trailers has vantages and disadvantages. Advantages because eryone knows the ir:.----;LIray name, and disadvantages cause many people associate the size of the organisation th a lack of interest in the "one-off" type of product.
York is a company name hich is very well known in the nsport industry. Expansion in cent years has meant the quisition of Anthony erimore in 1975 and ammell Trailers in 1977, but e company has not lost sight the large section of the arket which is not always terested in the standard the-shelf tandem-axle footer.
One of the ways in which rk gets around the problems a big organisation is by erating the York Truck uipment branches in parallel ith the York Trailer Company ctories.
The York system has the ivantages of both the big and e small company. Each 'anch has its own engineering t-up (and with an annual mover of around E1 million), lich makes it possible for an ierator to buy a production liler from the Northallerton .7:tory and have it customised a York Truck Equipment anch to suit his individual luirements.
ritical height
An example of this is where Avonmouth branch of YTE ilt a step-frame trailer based York castellated main-rails conveyor manufacturers hl Ltd. The trailer was signed to transport mobile weyors so overall height was ritical factor if bridge
-nolition was to be avoided. York overcame this problem building dual-purpose wells he bottom deck which
tered the overall height of conveyor and also served to ick its wheels. Previously the iveyors had had to be towed on their own wheels and were restricted to about 12mph.
One of the most impressive York "specials— in terms of sheer size if nothing else — was a trailer designed specifically for operation in the oil fields. It was intended to carry a vast range of equipment both qn or off the highways. This "range of equipment" included vehicle pipes and mobile office and dormitory accommodation.
Biggest trailer
This trailer was in .fact the biggest that York has built. It was 16.8m (55ft) long and 2.9m (9ft 6in) wide and could carry around 90 tons of payload. When operating with oil-field tractive units (in this case, a Kenworth) the nose of the trailer could be lowered to form a ramp. The equipment could then be driven or winched on to the trailer.
Although the concept of a
-tromboneextending trailer is not new. I wonder how many readers realise that the term "trombone" is actually a York trade name? One such design — believed by York to be the first drop-deck extending type — was introduced in early 1976.
This design had a loading height of 460mm (18in) lower than a conventional flat platform trailer. The tandem axle version was designed to operate within C and U Regs at a closed length of 11.9m (39ft) overall so that conventional divisible cargo could be carried as back loads.
The fully open length was 16.2m (53ft) with an intermediate position at 14m (46ft). The in-axle version went
continued overleaf
up to 16.6m (54ft Gin) overall and 13.6m (44ft Gin) fully closed.
Di Lusso, maker of kitchen furniture, was able effectively to halve its transport costs with some assistance from York's "bespoke trailer" facility. With the original 40ft curtain-siders, the company could get nowhere near the 20-ton payload capability of the trailer because the bottom packs containing the ckd kitchen furniture were being crushed by the weight of the others stacked on top. York simply added an extra floor so the full weight-carrying potential of the trailer could be utilised.
Back loads
The problem of bridge heights and what could be carried under them affected Kenneth Forbes (Plastics) Ltd of Downham Market. Previously this company had used a specialised trailer to carry large plastic tanks for the chemical and food processing industry but it operated outside C and U Regulations and therefore could not be used to carry regular divisible back loads.
York built a trailer with a centre well in the deck to carry the 4.3m (14ft) diameter x 9.1m (30ft) long tanks. It was supplied with removable panels over the well which converted the trailer to a standard flat platform, enabling it to carry palletised loads.
One of the York -you want it — we'll build it" facilities which is becoming extremely popular is the rejuvenation or even total conversion of existing trailers. This can be done at any of the York branches and just how far the rebuilding goes is depends entirely on the customer.
As a guide to cost, it is possible to take a trailer and put in a new floor and running gear (which York of course also makes) for under £3,000, compared with the £4,000-plus for a brand new unit.
Converted
Examples are two 30ft single-axle trailers which came out at the other end of the workshop as one tandem-axle 40-footer. And York does not insist that the trailers are made by York. The Truck Equipment branches will handle any make.
And York does not confine its activities to trailers alone. A Guy Big J tractive unit was converted to a long-wheelbase rigid for Huddersfield Parcels to operate as a drawbar outfit — complete, of course, with a York trailer on the back!
York thus has the best of both worlds, with Northallerton handling the volume production for such items as the conventional tandem-axle flat platform. A more specialised product such as, say, a coil carrier, would have a production volume insufficient for Northallerton, but such an order could be handled easily and economically by one of the Truck Equipment branches.
A final example of the York policy of building "one-offs" to suit the customer was a grp-bodied trailer designed to carry 150 to 170 fully grown pigs. Built to comply with 'Government regulations on th transportation of live animals, the body had front and side vent slots and two side access doors per deck. The chassis was a conventional York step frame running on York axles with Airpoise suspension.