French connection for CF?
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• Following the recent merger between Crane Fruehauf and four fellow Fruehauf European subsidiaries (Business Extra page 24) CF could be about to extend its UK product lineup with a French-built allaluminium semi-trailer chassis.
The all-alloy chassis is produced by Benalu, a subsidiary of Fruehauf France, which is the French market leader in aluminium semi-trailers.
According to Crane Fruehauf's managing director Tom Lynchy: "This is a typical example where CF could tie in with its European partnership." While the Norfolk-based trailer builder is giving away few dues, Commercial Motor understands that the most likely use of the Benalu alloy chassis would be with CF's bathtub-style aluminium tipping body — currently built in the UK on a conventional steel chassis.
If CF adopts the Benalu design it would undoubtedly create a great deal of interest in Britain, not least from bulk and tipping operators wishing to achieve maximum payloads within the current 38-tonne weight limit.
It is unlikely that CF would build such a chassis in the UK. Instead Benalu would be used as a "remote" assembly line — at least until there was suffident volume to justify transferring assembly to the UK. Lynchy says: "If we have the volume then we would bring it in and build it ourselves."