AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

TIG R EASY

5th April 1986, Page 56
5th April 1986
Page 56
Page 56, 5th April 1986 — TIG R EASY
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?

ON ITS TANK

In a year of running mainly between London's major airports our Jetlink 747 Tiger has covered over 230,000km — economically and mostly trouble-free • Whatever the attributes and shortcomings of new models, our testers are adept at finding them. One thing they cannot assess, however, is how a vehicle will be performing after a period of long and hard service. For that reason from now on CM will be monitoring the case histories of certain vehicles and periodically reviewing their performance.

One of the subjects of our long-term test programme is Leyland Tiger registration number B102 KPH.

It is now well over a year since the vehicle entered service with National Bus Company subsidiary London Country on its busy Jetlink 747 coach service between Gatwick and Heathrow airports. In that time new sections of the M25 London orbital motorway have been opened, allowing greater use of the vehicle. This is reflected in the 243,284km covered by the coach until the beginning of March this year. although it never operates far from its base in Staines.

Performance has generally been impressive, although marred by a premature gearbox failure — its most serious setback. The coach is one of 10 operating on the same service. Many have covered even greater distances than B102 KPII, but none has had a similar failure.

The Jetlink service is a night-and-day operation. During the year it was extended to serve Luton airport and Stevenage as well as Gatwick and Heathrow. Each day, each coach is driven by several drivers — when one takes a break, another takes the coach over to keep the wheels turning.

Both the Berkhof Everest body and the chassis, with its 180kW (245hp) engine and semi-automatic Hydracyclic gearbox, are popular with the men who drive and maintain the coach.

Although the Jetlink 747 is mostly a motorway service it also runs into both major London airports and has to contend with fairly severe traffic conditions on the northern leg of its route near Watford where the M25 has yet to be completed. During the March 1985 to 1986 period the coach covered 230,943km and consumed 57,646 litres of diesel fuel to give an impressive overal fuel consumption of 24.9 litilOOkm (11.32mpg). This is better than the 27.69 liti100km (10.2mpg) figure which we achieved when we tested a Duple Laser-bodied Tiger 245 (CM, August 6, 1983) — itself a creditable result compared with others.

Engine oil consumption between oil changes was minimal, with only 19 lit (33.5 pints) of engine oil needed during the entire period.

At the current rate of progress B102 KPH and its nine sisters will have covered around a million kilometres each during four years of service.

At the end of one year the body our guinea pig coach shows very little sign of wear despite its suffering a couple of minor accidents. Inside, there are no discernable signs of wear on the Vogel seats, although a couple have required some minor attention during the year.

During a full year the coach was off the road for 52 days. Of these, 12 days were taken up by routine rota services and preventative maintenance; 21 days were lost as a result of accident damage and 14 days owing to premature gearbox failure. Only five days were lost as a result of other incidents.

Tags

Organisations: ON ITS

comments powered by Disqus