Self-tracking saves £800 a year
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• Cheshire haulier Firmin Coates is to fit self-tracking rear axles to all of its new trailers, after discovering that each selftracker was saving it £800 a year in tyre wear.
Firmin Coates currently runs 12 rear-steering trailers out of a fleet of 34. The devices add about £1,000 and 200kg to the price and weight of the trailer, so they pay for themselves within 18 months, says fleet manager Gareth Lloyd.
"We were replacing the four corner tyres on the tri-axles every 12 months; now they last 18 months or two years,'' he says. But Lloyd, whose Byley-based company does general haulage, rules out retrofitting self-steer axles on his existing fleet.
The firm's four latest 13.6m tri-axle trailers are fitted with tracking axles built in Italy by Stefan and marketed in the UK by Rubery OwenRockwell. The rest of its semis are 12.2m models with chassis from Crane Fruehauf or Craven Tasker and Task or Boalloy bodies.