Sisu's fate in UK hands
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• Four British hauliers will help determine whether Finnish truck builder Sisu attempts to break into the UK market.
The views of the operators, who visited Sisu's plant late last year, are being sought by Sisu's directors. Sisu is considering a UK venture in two to four years, and for that, says vice-president Ism° Rautiainen, "the groundwork must begin now".
The hauliers, from English China Clays, Redland Aggregates, DH Loveday of Hemel Hempstead and Nickolls Group in Folkestone, drove a variety of Sisu rigid and drawbar tippers, both bonneted and cabover versions. The most likely candidate for the UK would be an eight-wheel cab-over rigid with a Cummins 216kW (290hp) or Perkins 246kW (330hp) engine.
Sisu, however, offers a broad range of both forward control and bonneted models with power outputs up to 356kW (465hp).
Commercial Motor has spoken to the operators — all of whom are either previous, or existing Foden operators — to see whether their feedback will be favourable.
This is what they told us:
O Ken Stokes, transport manager with ECC Quarries in Somerset: "I was impressed. The cab was dated, but the engineering was impressive. They showed us a single-drive eight-wheeler with Robson drive (a toothed steel idle wheel forced between two tyres under hydraulic pressure to transmit drive from one wheel to the other). That was a superb tool."
Would Sisu's 8x2 system with kiting fourth axle be accepted in the UK, where operators seem to favour double-drive rigids? "I don't see why it shouldn't be. It's only because people have become indoctrinated that there's no other system around."
111 Tony Preston, transport manager of Redland Aggregates, who has 50 trucks in his fleet, mostly Foden eight-leggers, carrying asphalt and dry stone: "The trucks I like very much and the company has a superb management team. We drove them on inclines that an equivalent UK make would not even look at." But Preston adds: "They asked me what I paid for my Fodens and were shocked by the level of discount. They would have a lot to work out."
▪ Charles Green, director of DH Loveday, which has
nine trucks: "We carry sand and granite, often running empty one way. For our work the lifting axle would be good. I think they'd have to bring demonstrators over for people to see what they were like." He sums them up as "very impressive — and very dear".
Peter Brazier, retired transport manager at Nickolls, whose company works on the Channel Tunnel project: "It's an impressive truck, but when we were there the ground was as hard as stone. I would have liked to see one in a bit of mud. From what we saw, the 8x 2 worked well with the Robson drive."
Sisu's philosophy is similar to Foden's "custom build" approach with many extras, such as cabphones fitted on line.