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A local truck for local people
Page 73
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This month CM has been trawling our classified ads for a fleet tractor to haul locally at 40 tonnes. Functionality was the key, as our notional operator specialises in low-mileage work. Here's how we got on.
It seems 40-tonners are back in vogue — the trouble is, the used market is handling tractors that were bought new three or four years ago when 44-tonne 6x2s were all anyone seemed interested in.
Our remit is simple: the chosen truck will be working within 50 miles of base and will be safely tucked up in the yard long before the day is out. We want a maximum of around 10hp/tonne as we don't expect our truck to be fully freighted too often — it will be picking up and dropping dry freight with a triaxle curtainsider.
Our target is a day cab (though we aren't too confident of finding one); our budget is a healthy £15,000 (ex-VAT) and we want something registered around 2000. With CM'S classified in front of us, it's time to hit the phone.
We immediately get both ends of the spectrum. A 2000 MAN 18.410 XXL is the first thing we spot, but it's too powerful and too well specced, while a 1997 low-roof Daf 85:330 is too old and too weak.
But after just a few turns of the page we find the ideal truck: a 2000 (X-plate) Renault Premium 385.18. White, tidy inside and out, and well worth a look, says the seller, "as we don't have many of these left". How much? "It's thirteen-two-fifty plus VAT. mate."
It looks like the French have done us proud because the next 20 minutes are spent finding and discarding 400hp-plus tractors with super cabs, which cost a small fortune compared with the Premium. Put off slightly, we decide to root around the 1997-98 products to see what's available.
A 1998 Daf 85CF380, minus air management kit, jumps out at us, but we are put off by the high mileage and its 'well used' condition.
Our tight remit seems to be getting the better of us, but just as we're about to give up Foden comes to the rescue.A 2000 (Wplate) Alpha with air management kit and a Cummins 380 driveline could well give the French a run for their money.
It comes compete with a sleeper cab and fixed fifth-wheel; the Foden dealer politely asks for £13,500 (ex-VAT). Now we have a two-horse race.
Then ERF gets in on the act with a 2001 (51-plate) ECSI 1 with an identical engine to the Foden, which is right up our street. It sports the LX cab, has a low mileage and is, by all accounts, in very good nick.
Being 12 months younger it breaks our budget at £19,500 (exVAT) but taking depreciation and its condition into account it might actually represent a better deal.
With most truck manufacturers offering around 400hp as the entry level for tractors these days our continued quest for sub-400hp 4x2s isn't going well. We are repeatedly advised to "go to the auctions" or contact exporters who might have what we're after. That's not bad advice, as ex-petroleum and late 1990s supermarket stock can still be found.
Scania comes up short, but its compatriot Volvo doesn't. Its FM12 is classic fleet material; to a certain degree so is the FH12. Before long we have a contender: 2000 on a V-plate, white, nine-speed box with a 380hp engine. The price tag is £14,250 (ex-VAT). u