Nice idea shame about the Regulationt
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AT BP OH International's seminar earlier this month, delegates examined a Finnish monocoque road tanker similar to two currently being operated by BP's Finnish subsidiary, Suomen BP Oy (CMApril 10).
BP also invited other interested parties including representatives from the Health and Safety Executive and other oil, companies to attend a presentation, and drive and examine the vehicle and discuss its decign and potential with Kimmo Lannenpa, general manager, and Taisto Vainionpaa, export manager, from Hollming 0y, the tanker's manufacturer.
Designed by Raijo Hirvonen, who had previously been involved in the design of cars, the first protot\ pe Hollming chassisless road tanker was built in 1978 (CM October, 1979). Full production of the tanker began at Hollming's Kankaanpaa factory in 1980, and now tifty are in service in Finland, SOM9 with mdjor oil companies other than BP, including Esso and Shell.
Hollming claims to hold between 25 and 30 per cent of the road tanker market in Finland and expects to sell around thirty units per year. Clearly, in a country with a population of only five million, there is little possibility of Hollming increasing its sales significantly so the company is now considering how it might fare in overseas markets.
At this stage, no Hollming monocoque tankers are operating outside Finland, but Kimmo Lannenpaa told me that he hopes to receive approval for the tanker soon from the Swedish authorities. The next market to attempt would logically be Britain.
The idea of finding a company in the UK that might build the tanker under licence appeals to the Finns, partly because that would help to keep its price competitive, and also because they are keenly aware of how important service support is. When asked about what tanker would cost in the Taisto replied that it was "vi difficult to say", but in Finla the tanker as shown sells about half a million Finn ma (approximately £60,000).
That makes it sound extrem expensive, but when cons ering its price one should Niel mind that a tractive unit wh costs £25,000 in this cour 'would probably sell for arm. £45,000 in Finland.
A more useful guide to 1 cost of the Hollming vehicle that it is said to sell for about per cent more than a sim capacity six-wheeled cony' tional chassised tanki However, according to Tai Vainionpaa, if the cost of air s pension, fitted as standard Hollming, is taken into accoi the price difference is even les The main advantage of monocoque design is its Ili weight. This 6x2 tanker, signed for operation at tonnes (21.65 tons) gvw and of 42 times in Finland, has a rb weight of 7,500kg (7.38 ns) which includes about Dkg for the discharge equipwit, such as pump, hose reel d meter.
Nith five compartments, the ik's total capacity is 17,200 es (3,784 gallons). On the face it that does not compare so Fourably with the load cape? of a lightweight British sixleeler tanker which already be up to about 21,300 litres 700 gallons) at 24 tons gross. t on a like-for-like comparison tween its design and a conntional tanker, Hollming ims a 20 per cent increase in id capacity for the prime )ver and a 5 per cent benefit 'the monocoque trailer.
rhis particular tanker carries troleum and heating oil (it 3ms that these may be carried 3ether and there is no requireant for only gravity discharge petroleum in Finland).
clearly, the maximum cepay of vehicle will depend upon 3 weight limitations in the untry of operation and the ecific gravity of the product .ing carried. Hollming has apared a six-wheeler for Swen, for example, where its aximum gvw will be 24 -Ines, with a load volume of ,0001it (4,620 gallons). As in Hand, this would be operated th a two-axle drawbar tank iler giving a total capacity for 3 complete outfit of about ,000 litres (8,800 gallons).
Finland's maximum gross dght limit was increased in ru this year from 42 tonnes to tonnes, so the five-axle awbar combinations there ould now be able to carry an more.
The tanker's low unladen right does not result solely im its monocoque construcn, however. Hollming uses aluminium wheels, aluminium air reservoirs and a Volvo cylin-. drical aluminium fuel tank, The main tank structure shell is made of 4.2mm thick aluminium alloy, thick enough to satisfy the requirements of the Institute of Petroleum's Code of Practice.
The cab is a Volvo F7 day-cab mounted on two cantilevers which extend from the tank's bulkhead. A substantial crossmember, with hefty flitching, runs between the cab's front mountings and has a towing jaw built into it.
The low mounted cab does not tilt, because the only component underneath is the radiator. The horizontally mounted engine is slung underneath the tank. Forty of the fifty vehicles built so far by Hollming have had Volvo THD 100, 9.6-litre engines, as fitted to BlOM coaches, coupled to Volvo SR62 sixteenspeed gearboxes. MAN's more powerful D2566MK VL engine, coupled to a ZF 16 S-130 gearbox is offered as an option. The steering components, wheel hub assemblies and rear axles also come from Volvo.
Hollming fits rubber suspension as standard on its tank trailers with air offered as an option, but on the prime mover Hollming is reluctant to fit anything other than air suspension. It is of the Finnish company's own design, using Continental air springs.
The trailing, single-wheeled rear-axle can be raised when required — for example, when running unladen, or to impose
more load on the,drive-axle and thus gain traction. When the rear-axle is down, the imposed load on the rear bogie is divided between the two axles so that 62.5 per cent of it is carried by the drive axle and 37.5 per cent by the trailing axle.
A useful feature of the air suspension system is that the front or rear of the tanker can be raised by as much as 10 cm (4in) to allow the tank's compartments to be completely discharged even when it is parked on a slope. Two dashboard mounted switches control the valves which regulate the air pressure to the bellows.
Hollming describes the ride of the tanker as being "in a class of its own" and my impression after a brief drive of the unladen vehicle around an airfield was that this is no idle boast. There was none of the bouncing and jolting ,which is to be expected with a conventional empty vehicle, and only a barely perceptible pitching motion. When fully loaded, this tanker's ride must be superb.
The low centre of gravity, about 400mm (15,71n) lower than that of a similar vehicle with a chassis, greatly helps stability and leads to an unusually low overall height. Good roll stiffness, so important in a tanker, is further enhanced by the design of the rear bogie which has the trailing axles' air bellows mounted outboard of those on the drive axle.
Even by modern standards, the noise level in this vehicle's cab is remarkably low — Hollming claims a maximum of 70dB(A), regardless of which engine is fitted. Another pleasing feature for drivers is the low mounting of the cab and its steps.
The British operators who inspected the tanker were generally impressed by its features. One operator was able to quantify the value of weight saving on tankers on a particular operation within his company. He