King-size challenge to the Continentals
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by Brian Weatherley • Why do so many UK truck operators think the best place to buy a specialist trailer is on the other side of the Channel? King Trailers sales and marketing director Mark Carrington insists it's a perception that's out of touch with reality: "Everybody thinks the Continentals have something we haven't got but we're more than capable of giving the market what it wants."
For King, that means not only meeting the challenge of Continental invaders such as Broshuis and Goldhofer in the UK, but also taking the battle to their home markets.
"We've worked very closely with the German TO/ authorities and the trailers we're building meet German Paragraph 70 regulations for abnormal loads which are the equivalent to our own UK STGO regs," says Carrington.
At next month's Site Equipment Demonstration show at Milton Keynes King will unveil a number of prod
ucts designed to counter any Continental attack.
Its MTSE range of singlespine extending trailers (launched at SED last year) now includes a 590mm low-deck version compared to the standard model's 870min deck height. The new extendible will compete against the latest low-decker from Broshuis, launched at the RAI Show earlier this year (CM 15-21 February).
But while Broshuis has reduced its deck height to 510mm by running the BPW axle tubes through the chassis rails, King has used cranked axles from French manufacturer SAE. These allow the single spine to he fully retracted under the platform; the Broshuis trailer's through axles necessitate a double trombone.
The low-height King extendible is for carrying vessels; it stretches from 13.621.2m and has a 25-tonne payload with a 35-tonne gross trailer weight.
King has further refined its MTSE46/3 single-spine extender with the addition of wheel wells on the platform which specifically allow a Terex dump truck to be carried into Europe within the 4m Continental height
limit. It also has special bogie position to ensure con-ect load distribution with this
heavy load. Payloads of up to 35 are offered on three-axle models and 48 tonnes on four.
Following in the footsteps of King's lightweight stepframes, the standard workhorse GTS46/3 tri-axle stepframe now has a 160mm low neck height, bringing the overall load height down by 100mm, reducing the "step height" of the top deck.
Further improvements have been made to the automatic unfolding rear loading ramps, they're now more safe to operate, while the adoption of the recently introduced "posilok" top deck access ramps reduces the risk of the ramps being forced sideways when the top deck is being loaded.
Two years after its management bought the company out from Boustead, Carrington reports that King is aiming to "specialise in niche markets where engineering is complex and the volume is low that's where we're hoping to score."
Some 25% of King's turnover has traditionally been exported, with sales mainly outside Europe. However, in 1995 10% went into the Continent and Carrington says King is now looking for a distribution partner in Europe.