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It road-going 38-tonne V articulated vehicle fitted a newly designed semiatbogie drive/steer syswill go on public display he first time at next th's Tipcon exhibition in rogate.
he novel trailer-axle-drive ern, which uses propeller ts to connect the tractive drive axle with the semier's tandem-axle bogie, been developed by tidrive of Peterlee, nty Durham.
his is a new company set iy David Brown, a director xtix (formerly DJB) a ing manufacturer of articed off-road dump trucks :h now bear the Caterpillar e.
rane Fruehauf and Scam!, Leyland Trucks' \Vat1-based special vehicle sidiary, co-operated with Itidrive in building the first prototype vehicles, one of ch uses a Roadtrain 6x2
tractive unit, the other a Roadtrain 4 x 2.
On both these, the standard Albion drive axle has been replaced by a Soma hub-reduction unit with a pinion output from its spiral-bevel ditferen Drive is taken to the semitrailer's tandem axle bogie, which is a standard Albion unit as used by Leyland on Constructor 6x4 and 8x4 rigids, through a three-piece propel ler shaft with an unusually long splined sliding joint in its centre section.
The trailer bogie is mounted on a turntable which is steered by two rods which cross through slots in the trailer's box section central spine chassis and which are connected to the fifth-wheel mounting.
To protect the propeller shafts' universal joints from excessive angles, the vehicle's degree of articulation has to be limited.
The Department of Transport has examined the Multidrive vehicle and Brown says that he now expects no difficulty in gaining Type Approval.
The main advantages of the Multidrive artic for tipper operators are that its traction off-road is at least as good as that of an 8x4 rigid, while its manoeuvrability and payload are much better. The Multidrive conversion adds about 1.5 tonnes to a standard vehicle's kerb weight.