AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Adcliffe demounts are four legged friends

30th June 1984, Page 56
30th June 1984
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 56, 30th June 1984 — Adcliffe demounts are four legged friends
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ADCLIFFE ENGINEERS is a name that may not come readily to mind, but the company's customers are well known. De. benhams, Habitat, ICL, Armitage Shanks and Ercol Furniture are among the corn. panies which have "discovered" Adcliffe, demount manufacturer, bodybuilder and (most recently) producer of drawbal trailers. David Wilcox has been to see them.

BECAUSE the demountable body equipment market is relatively limited a demount manufacturer can be small and yet still occupy an important position in that market At its factory, set among the fields outside Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, Adcliffe Engineering has 46 employees. The company started in the early 1970s, manufacturing the Dobson demount system under contract to Dobson of Nottingham.

This system was the clear lift variety where the body is lifted completely clear of the chassis during demounting, as opposed to the contact or guide rail principle as in the Ray Smith system.

In 1979 the manufacturing agreement between Dobson and Adcliffe was ended (Dobson no longer makes demounts) and Adcliffe chairman and managing director, Paul Savage, decided that he would continue in the demount business under the Adcliffe name. "At that point I could have gone for any type of demount system, be it contact-or clear lift with two rams, four rams or even air bags," he told me.

Dobson's clear lift design used four hydraulic rams so that the body was lifted at each corner, and Adcliffe decided that this was the best method. Why? Paul Savage maintains that any clear lift system inherently eliminates the body stresses and strains that he feels must be present with the guide rail method of demounting.

One can also question the need for four lifting rams when two lifting devices — one at the front and one at the back — have proved adequate for other manufacturers. Adcliffe points to the extra stability given during life by four rams, one at each corner. Sales manager, Mike Robinson, simply likened it to a table; four legs are better than two.

Whereas the other major clear lift demount system by Abel uses the vehicle's own air power to inflate neoprene bellows to give lift, Adcliffe prefers hydraulic rams. Power can be derived either from an electro hydraulic power pack or from a vehicle's power take-off.

The four rams are hydraulically connected across the chassis, so that the front pair work together and the rear pair work together. The two control levers on the chassis-mounted power pack are close together so that both can be operated with one hand and the four rams actuated simultaneously.

The rams and associated hydraulics are normally the area where any trouble will arise in demount systems, so I put it to Paul Savage that four rams could mean double trouble. He denied that this was so: "All I can say is that we don't sell many spare parts. I wish we did!" The rams are made to Adcliffe's specification by several outside suppliers.

While they share the four ram clear lift principle, the Adcliffe and old Dobson system differ in several respects. "Dobson used two central locators on the chassis to locate the body. We have four again, one at each corner. We think it's safer. If by any chance the driver forgot to use the twist locks the locators would stop the body moving."

Rams, body locators and retractable twist locks are all on the same two cross-member housings. These are bolted to the vehicle's chassis. Mike Robinson said that some vehicles are easier to fit than others, none has yet proved impossible.

Experience of repairing and maintaining Dobson equipment lead Adcliffe to change the design of the swing-down body

support legs. The bars whic slide out of the body basefrarr and carry the legs on the Dobso system tend to stick with age C dirt and corrosion block the close tolerance tubes.

Adcliffe legs are also Garde on a bar in a tube but it has close fitting gasket to stop the ingress of dirt and it is not a load-bearing bar. Once the legs are swung down into place the weight is taken by the flat surface on the top of each leg.

Adcliffe has two demountable systems. For vehicles in the 10-24 ton gvw sector there is the Adcliffe 80 (so-called because it was launched in 1980) while there is the Weightsaver for 7.510 ton gvw lorries. Both systems follow the same principle but smaller rams and lighter crossmember housings are used for the Weightsaver. The retractable ISO twist locks and body locators are common to both models.

A fairly important sector of the demount market is for 3.5-7.5 ton gvw vehicles such as those used by local authorities, gas, water and electricity boards and British Telecom. They all want interchangeability for their often elaborately-equipped and specialised bodies.

Adcliffe is now developing a demount system to suit this lightweight market. Paul Savage said that it will still be a clear lift design, but not necessarily with four rams.

Although originally, and still primarily, a demount manufacturer Adcliffe also builds dry freight bodies. It produces about 250 a year for both demount and non-demount use. This bodybuilding runs right up to 12.2m (40ft) semi-trailers, either on Adcliffe's own chassis or in grp (glass reinforced plastic) chas sisless form.

Most of the dry freight bodies are in aluminium, although grp is gaining in popularity as the price of aluminium rises. It is now not much cheaper than grp. Curtain-sided bodies can also be supplied and Paul Savage said the strength of the demount baseframe lends itself to a curtain-sider.

By building both the demount system and the body, Adcliffe reckons that it can cut some of the logistical and production problems that can arise when the two come from separate manufacturers and have to be married.

Last year, the company was able to take this integral approach one step further by branching out into the world of drawbar trailer building. Demounts and drawbars go together very nicely in operation and Adcliffe says that it is finding that customers are being attracted by the possibility of a "package", with demount system, bodies and drawbar trailer all from the same source. It is also easier for Adcliffe-building demount equipment into other people's drawbar trailers does not always make for the neatest installation.

Dunlop's air suspension can be incorporated into the drawbar trailers. This option has been chosen by computer company ICL for its Volvo-based drawbar to give a better ride to delicate electronic equipment.

For several years people have been predicting that drawbars will win more and more friends here in the UK. Although they were excluded from the rise in maximum permitted weight, to 38 tonnes, drawbars got a shot in the arm this March when their restrictive 30 mph nonmotorway speed limit was removed. This brought them into line with other lorries above 7.5 tonnes gvw (50rnph on dual carriageways and 40mph on other roads). This should enhance their attractiveness to operators who cannot rely on motorways for their routing.

Last year Adcliffe built 15 drawbar trailers; Mike Robinson is expecting the total to be nearer 40 this year. Two of the company's newer customers who have chosen the complete Adcliffe package of demount system, bodywork and drawbar trailer, are Debenhams and Dow Freight.

Debenhams uses the Dodge G13 rigid to pull the drawbar trailer on trunking work and the two 5.5m (18ft) box bodies are demounted onto non-hgv Dodge G75 rigids for final retail deliveries.

Dow Freight operates express parts delivery services for MANVW, Volkswagen-Audi, Lada, Reliant and International Motors (Hyundai, Subaru and Maserati). MAN-VW MT10.136 drawbar chassis are used although the same 6m (20ft) demountable bodies can also be used on the much larger MAN HT 16.240 drawbar units trunking work.

Most of Adcliffe's work for demountable drawbars has been on Daf and Volvo vehicles.

The close-coupled drawbar has been an industry talking point recently with Crane Fruehauf's latest GLZ and the new Ray Smith version, making appearances at last month's Institute of Road Transport Engineers exhibition at Solihull. Does Adcliffe Engineers see the close-coupled drawbar as the next logical step in the development of its product range?

Paul Savage is rather sceptical about the close-coupled idea: "I think it's a bit gimmicky to be honest. There's too much emphasis on just a few extra inches. How often is a vehicle loaded so that it really needs that little bit of extra space?" He is also a little wary of the legality of the Dutch-designed (Contar) extending A-frame used in the Ray Smith close-coupled drawbar. These outfits built to the full 18m length limit when in a straight line will be slightly overlength when turning a corner. The A-frame extends to give adequate swing clearance.

Would the Department of Transport's vehicle examiners measure a vehicle's length when it is turning? Paul Savage does not know but understandably takes the "once bitten, twice shy" attitude. He and the other dernount manufacturers have already experienced a similar situation over the definition of demounts. It was not until this year that the Department of Transport finally clarified that demountable bodies are part of the vehicle, not the load, for dimensional purposes.

The earliest examples of Adcliffe's own demounts are now five years old and so the factory is carrying out some transfer work. It is removing the demount equipment and installing it on the new chassis. This supplements the new demount business which is currently running at 5-7 chassis a week.

Paul Savage claimed that there has been no recession for Adcliffe and that this year has shown a real upturn in business. Turnover is running at 45 per cent ahead of this time last year.

Tangible signs of the growth in business are six new schoolleavers who started at Adcliffe a few weeks ago and a plan for factory expansion which will increase its area by 50 per cent; building work starts next month. Paul Savage has a further factory expansion scheme which will give another 50 per cent increase, aiming to make sure that the Adcliffe name will become very much more widely recognised in the future.


comments powered by Disqus