Irish economy chassis
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by Bill Godwin • UK bodybuilders and potential customers have been secretly shown the prototype of a six to eight-tonne tonne truck and bus chassis developed in Northern Ireland and designed to minimise ninning costs.
Cannon Truck has been formed in Strabane, Co Tyrone by William j Cannon to investigate the potential of producing and marketing the vehicle, derived from the Polish-made Star 742 chassis. A 143hp (107kW) Cummins 6BTA 5.9litre unit drives through a ZF S 5-42 gearbox into a banjo-type single-bevel rear axle. Two final drive ratios are offered.
The ladder-type chassis and semi-elliptic spring suspension are imported from Poland; a decision is imminent on the type and make of cab, likely to be sourced from the Continent. Standard wheelbase is 3.28m for a chassis length of 6.28m although options are listed for chassis lengths of up to 7.20m.
For light passenger applications an air-suspension option (probably based on a Hendrickson pattern) is planned. A USmade Westinghouse straight air system has drum-type service brakes and emergency/parking actuation by spring servos. Cannon is examining a shortlist of component suppliers in the UK before officially announcing the full vehicle specification and details of availability. Frame height of the prototype chassis is 825mm but this may be lowered for bus applications. While it is intended to set up production in Northern Ireland, assembly may be transferred to Great Britain at a later stage.