FL614 floating on air
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• Blazefield Caravan Transport of Pateley Bridge, North Yorks, has taken on the UK's first Volvo FL614 rigid with air suspension on both axles.
The axles can be raised and lowered independently: up by 120mm and down by 140mm on the two-bag front axle, and by 80mm and 90mm respectively on the four-bag rear.
This allows the company to raise the truck's deck height so that wide caravans can clear walls and fence posts at caravan park gates. The deck can also be lowered to ease loading. On most trucks a sloped deck or beaver tail would be needed, explains John Watts, area sales manager at Thirsk-based Crossroads Commercials, which supplied the Volvo.
Low-profile tyres help maintain a deck height of 825mm laden or unladen. The laden height of a steel-suspended FL614 would normally be 865mm laden and 1,010mm unladen.
The £32,000 vehicle, which has a 6.5m wheelbase instead of the standard 5.8m, is built in Volvo's Ghent plant in Belgium. It has a sleeper pod fitted by Airflow of Norfolk.
Blazefield director Tony Grange runs two other trucks.