CF's stability claim
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TRAILER maker Crane Fruehauf has thrown down a challenge on tipper stability to manufiicturers of rigid lorries, but its offer may be spurned.
CF claims that its 38 tonne tipping trailer with a 44m-' (57ydl body will withstand a greater degree of sideways tilt than any standard 30 tonne rigid, assuming both vehicles are laden to their legal limit.
The challenge follows tests done by CF on a tilt bed in which its trailer out-performed an ERF eight-wheeler with a Neville Industries body. The lorry is representative of the eight-wheel market CF says.
The ERF achieved 7.1 degrees of sideways tilt before the chassis threatened to bend, but the CF trailer went to 9.5 degrees. Both vehicles were loaded with sand. Behind CT's challenge to lorry makers is a belief that many operators are refusing to move up from 30 tonnes to 38 tonnes because they believe articulated tippers are less stable.
This, CF claims, is corn
pletely untrue as far as its trailers arc concerned. And the company adds: "Crane Fruehauf has made more progress in this area than Fruehauf lits American parent] or any other company.
Doubts remain in the industry about the validity of the tilt test in showing how vehicles behave in operation. Dr Bob Keen of Bristol Polytechnic, who has been heading extensive tests and investigation into tipper stability for the Health and Safety Executive, believes that the tilt test gives a simplifed picture of what happens to a tipper in operation, and may be misleading.
The difference in opinion between CF and Keen is of more than academic interest. Operators are increasingly interested in tipping behaviour, and there is the possibility in the long term of some form of mandatory quality testing for tippers.
But Keen stresses that CF and other leading makers have greatly improved the stability of trailers and that the best examples may well be more stable than many rigids. The major concern is with tipper makers which fail to make a detailed technical appraisal of their products, he said.
A leading lorry maker, commenting on CF's claims said: "It is a neat publicity stunt, but a bit of a hollow test.''