DEALER FEEDBACK PELICAN ENGINEERING Pelican Engineering of Leeds is a
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Foden-franchised dealership and usually carries a stock of about 12 vehicles. Sales director Ken Grindrod says: "The choice of engine is about evenly split between Cummins and Caterpillar but it does depend to an extent on the type of work the truck is to be used for. There is a greater preference in the construction industry for the Caterpillar because of the commonality with other plant machinery. The majority choose the 38ohp version but the difference is in the electronics so it is fairly easy to uprate or downgrade.
"As far as the gearbox goes there is only a small difference in price between the eight, iz and i6-speed, so most operators go for the 16-speed," he adds. "Nearly all Alpha eight wheelers we sell have rubber rear suspension. As yet we don't expect to see Alpha 8x4s in the used truck market as die average haulier operates his eight-wheel Fodens for five years or more from new. So it's too early to talk about residuals except that we have put a tractive unit out of our hire fleet through the auction and that did fetch good money." •