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Fifty-five years ago haulier AE Wilson's yard at Sandtoft, between Doncaster
and Scunthorpe, reverberated to the sound of RAF bombers flown by trainee pilots. The site occupies part of what used to be a training station. In fact Wilson still uses the old control tower—which is, inevitably, supposed to be haunted—and the company's workshops were once used to maintain RAF fire engines.
Today the roar of aircraft has been replaced by the muted rumble of drawbar rigs which the company uses to deliver roofing tiles and other materials to building sites. Five out of its nine trucks are drawbars, operating either at 40 tonnes with tandemaxle trailers, or at 35.5 tonnes with single-axle trailers.
A mixture of VED savings, higher payloads, greater flexibility, and reduced maintenance costs has prompted its move from eight-wheelers, says Mark Wilson, who helps run the business.
A 3+2 4o-tonne wagon-anddrag incurs an annual VED bill of £2,340 for the prime mover (up to 26 tonnes), and £430 on the trailer (over 12 tonnes). Run a topweight eight-wheeler and your
VED bill shoots up to14,400.
The drawbar rig also offers a serious improvement in payload. Running at 40 tonnes, AE Wilson cart get 26 tonnes onto a drawbar combination hauled by a Leyland Daf 85 Series, or just over 25 tonnes with a 95 Series. "That compares with the 19.5 tonnes we were achieving with our eightwheelers," says Mark Wilson, who adds that there isn't even a fuel consumption penalty to pay.
"The 85s are giving us from 8:5 to 9mpg," he reports. "Our 95, which we bought to celebrate our 25th anniversary, is returning 8.5mpg at present, but isn't run in yet."
Unlike the eight-wheelers, the prime movers have rear lift axles which reduce tyre wear and increase brake life. The eightwheelers tended to suffer from tyre scrub and axle alignment problems.
"We were having to change the tyres every 15 to 18 months," says Wilson. "By contrast, the tyres on our drawbar trailers last from two to three years, and the rear tyres on the prime movers last for two years or more. So far as maintenance is concerned, all we have to worry about on the trailers are the axles, brakes, lights and greasing the coupling."
The Wilsons built their trailers themselves using VBG couplings and mostly Mentor axles.
But how do the drawbars cope with muddy construction sites? There hasn't been a problem yet, Wilson reports—and if access is tight, the driver can always drop the trailer and run in solo. Once he's unloaded the truck he can use his truck-mounted grab to transfer the trailer's cargo onto the back of his unit, and take that into the site too.
Even without disconnecting trailers, the drawbars are proving far more manoeuvrable than the two artics AE Wilson used to run. "We had real problems getting them down narrow country lanes and onto sites with restricted entrances," Wilson recalls.