"I'm looking for reliability not performance."
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• Rob Cantrill and Sons, Phil and Ben, base their operation at Retford. For the last ii years dad has been running to Russia and outlying states. For the past two years he has run a 23.380 6x2 Seddon Atkinson Strato Cruiser.
"I used to run a second-hand Daf with a Space Cab but decided it would be better economically to invest in a new vehicle. I'm a haulier, not a mechanic, so I need a vehicle that is in a reliable condition and always available for work.
"Buying the Seddon Atkinson has turned the job around. It's a good value British truck with an Italian cab. If price was not a factor it might not be my first choice—there are other trucks that have a better image but don't offer as good value for money. Mine has the biggest T7 cab, the same as lveco fits to the EuroStar." He says. "It's equal to anything on the road in terms of comfort. It's not as big as the Space Cab but there is sufficient room for two men to live in it for 300 days of the year.
"I don't need a huge amount of power to run in Russia. Road conditions are a lot worse than here so average speeds tend to be quite a bit slower. I'm looking for reliability, not performance. In fact too much power can be a disadvantage on snow and ice.
"The Cummins engine has a high rate of fuel return which incidentally helps to keep the fuel tank warm in temperatures that can drop to —40°C. Cab heating is a bit poor. Most of the time I'm not even trying to drive economically but we average about 9.8mpg.
"I'm running on six axles at 38 tonnes— for tax reasons in this country and to meet the axle weights imposed in some of the countries I travel through. In Kazakhstan, for example, we are limited to 36 tonnes gross. Overall the truck is on the heavy side because the trailer is fitted with belly tanks and side lockers, but we still get a payload of 2 r tonnes at 38 tonnes.
"I've been asked if I would be better off with backup from Scania or MercedesBenz in these out-of-the-way places. There comes a point in the journey where a breakdown means parts have to be flown out, whatever the make of truck. Parcel carriers such as DHL and TNT offer a good service now and so a replacement is only 48 hours away.
"Direct Commercial Sales does all of my servicing. It has fluent working practices and is so helpful I can't praise them enough. There are a lot of bad garages about so it's great when you find a good one prepared to look after the small contractor. Seddon Atldnson's technical department was also a great help when I needed noise and emission certification for Austria. "I don't have a replacement policy as such, only to run new equipment as we can afford it, so
I expect to keep —am. this truck for four years. I got a good deal last time
when I traded in with the local dealer. They
know this truck so I expect a good price this time around. It won't be as much as for a Scania of the same age, but then I haven't had to lay out an extra £11,000 or so over the four years.
"We will go for whatever is top of the range at the time, but if Seddon Atkinson made a LHD alternative I would definitely go for that.
"The one weak point has been the alternator. We are now on our third—the last one just fell to bits and at about 14 months the one before cooked the computer. There wasn't an in-line fuse to protect it. SA's warranty covered all the towing-in charges and they had the truck back on the road within 24 hours.
"Apart from that, nothing has gone down on the electics. Hendricicson's midlift axle tends to trip out and drop down. Lockers and under-bunk stowage is small for a long-distance truck and there are no in-cab lights in the top part of the high roof cab. I prefer the 12-speed constant mesh box.
"Eaton's Twin Splitter is a wonderful gearbox. There are too many gears with Eaton's r6-speed synchromesh transmission and the gear change is slower as well. I think the engine is just about perfect but the self-adjusting brakes don't really work. We have covered about 280,000km in the last two years and we are still on the same tyres." •