Safe as houses with Gordon's
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Gordon's Transport has made a big investment in a top-of-the-range MAN 6x2 with a huge crane to service a niche market—moving portable buildings.
• by Bryan Jarvis Shifting portable buildings is no longer sideline work that hauliers could use to fill gaps in their schedules. it is a serious niche business calling for dedicated vehicles and experienced staff That's why Gordon's Transport has invested £97,000 in adding a new MAN 22.403 Roadhaus-cabbed 6x2 equipped with an enormous 67t/m Bonfiglioli crane to its fleet of 18 tractive units. Director Jonathon Atkinson has ordered a similar MAN 6x2 but without a loading crane, and is also planning to replace another five elderly artics.
Gordon's was established in 1979 near the A1(M)/M62 crossover at Beal in East Yorkshire by Ces Gordon to work closely with the construction industry It now has sites at Purfleet and at the ferry terminal in Dartford, its speciality is transporting portable cabins and tower cranes, hence the use of fairly hefty longreach cranes.
The new MAN 6x2 with its Italianmade crane has an all-up weight of 20.2 tonnes; 8.8 tonnes of which is the crane assembly. Cheadle-based ACB Hydraulics fitted the Bonfiglioli—director Adrian Barker readily admits that it was no easy task.
Forward taper
Because the MAN's main beams have about 75mm of forward taper from the centre of the vehicle, and widen at the same time, ACB had to build a subframe that would provide a level mounting. The extra frame stretches from the back of cab to the rear of frame and has a latticed interior to stiffen it against the forces running through it. With the subframe in place the crane was then welded on, the shallow Jost fifth wheel bolted down, and the whole chassis top covered with aluminium chequerplate.
Mounting the crane's hydraulic oil tanks under the rear corners helps to take some of the weight off the front axle but unfortunately the tank caps stand proud and can be fouled by the trailer neck when negotiating awkward sites.
"It's all pretty much of a compromise," says Barker. "The tanks have to be high enough to provide a good head of pressure to supply the pump so we'll have to recess the filler necks."
Gordon's has regu lar work with Portakabin of York and the MAN's usual driver, Kevin Ashmore, is well versed in handling the large cabins. They weigh 3.5 tonnes apiece, are 4.25m wide and need a police escort when they are moved around. Having driven a Scania R113 380 6x2 with Topline cab he's well pleased with the Roadhaus's extra space and wonders how he got all his gear inside before.
On site Ashmore parks alongside the cabin, runs the support legs out and positions the crane overhead with its lifting chains attached. He then climbs his ladder to locate the shackles and secure the chains.
Remote radio control has turned this into a one-man job; Ashmore can wander around checking the load as his work progresses.
Then, with the cabin positioned on the flatbed trailer and the chains stowed, he's ready to roil.
There's a noisy warning system in the cab to warn if the crane is net fully settled on its mountings so there's little chance of driving off in error.
Atkinson is very much concerned about impending changes to the way that police escorts are to be costed. At present it comes from the public purse but this will soon be charged to the haulier or end user," he says. "This is our speciality and very much a niche area. "Essentially it's cabins and tower cranes, but we're looking out for other work too."