US and Germany keep their cool
Page 15
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• by Colin Barnett Two leading trailer manufacturers from opposite sides of the Atlantic have joined forces to create a new force in the reefer market.
North American market leader Wabash, based in Lafayette, Indiana, has teamed up with Europe's biggest curtainsider specialist, German company Krone, to create the Krone-Wabash brand. The joint venture will only produce controlled-temperature equipment; both parents will continue to develop their own ambient product lines.
Krone used to import the US-built Cool Liner from Wabash. The rise in the value of the dollar combined with supply difficulties to kill this off, but Wabash still uses Krone components in its RoadRailer intermodal trailers.
The two companies had planned to build a plant in Holland; this was foiled by high land prices and a shortage of suitably skilled labour. Instead they have bought the Nor-Frig reefer plant at Hvam in the Danish province of Northern Jutland.
Apart from the largest sheets of foam and the fridge equipment, which is bought in from Carrier and ThermoKing, virtually the entire body is produced in-house. Current capacity is around 25-30 units a week, but that could easily be increased to 50.
Chassis are piggy-backed three at a time from Krone's main plant at Werlte, once they have received the usual electrically primed and powder coated finish. Running gear from BPW, SAF or Discos is supplied to customer choice. Although disc brakes still command a small price premium, Krone reckons that drums will be consigned to history within the next 12 months, Krone-1Nabash's basic reefer is a simple rear door semi-trailer, but variants include four-axle drawbar trailers and various configurations of opening-side semis for the Scandinavian market; doublecompartment and doubledeck layouts; swap bodies; and dedicated flower and hanging-meat units.
The reefer construction techniques are also applied to produce a light, insulated dryfreight box.
Wabash vice-president Dick Snodgrass does not expect the new reefer range to be exported to the US as long as operators there buy primarily on price. Also, most trailers in the US are loaded through the rear doors by drive-in fork-lifts with 7.5-tonne axle loadings.