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BUILT FOR WICK CONVERSION
Page 68
Page 69
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by Paul Brockington, MIMechE TRANSPORT managers who have had to meet changing demands for types of bodies during the life of a vehicle will appreciate the problem which recently faced Mr C. J. Olford, transport manager of Scot Meat Products of Bletchley.
Any one or all of the 400 insulated bodies in his van fleet may require to be changed to fully refrigerated bodies during their life — but when they were bought no one could say how many or how soon. Possible variations in marketing policy and the diverse operating conditions of the vehicles, which are based at 30 distribution points in England and Scotland, were at the root of the problem. Furthermore the bodies in Scot's fleet have double the life of the chassis and are designed for mounting on a new chassis halfway through their lives. So any decision has to be long-term.
Cravens Homalloy (Preston) helped to solve the problem by bonding a steel plate into the bulkhead of their one-piece reinforced plastics body. This enabled a Hubbard refrigerating system to be fitted to the front of the vehicle when required, without structural alterations. The condenser is fitted to the cab roof.
Last August, 10 Commer KC40 chassis were equipped with these bodies and five were fitted with a refrigeration unit. It is claimed that a conversion from insulated to fully refrigerated can be completed in an hour. Mr Olford is certainly satisfied that the problem has been solved: a further 50 KC4Os with identical bodies have been ordered in the intervening. 11 months.
Ease of repair One of the merits of plastics construction is that it greatly simplifies repair to damaged sections, and while the first cost of a grp body is comparable to that of an aluminium counterpart, ease of repair has been found to represent an outstanding advantage over other types. Mr Olford referred to this advantage as "terrific" when we were discussing the pros and cons of different forms of bodywork construction.
Expert plastics-repair service is obtainable from bodybuilders in all the company's operating areas. Five or six years ago few bodybuilders could provide a satisfactory service; the big improvement in the service available could promote the greater use of plastics bodies for smaller vehicles by operators generally, in Mr Olford's opinion. He was, however, doubtful whether plastics bodies could be produced for longer vehicles and artics to withstand the torsional flexing of long chassis. In his view, the inherent stiffness of a plastics structure was a disadvantage for such applications unless a lightweight shell could be evolved that had a torsional stiffness sufficient to eliminate flexing.
The right image "The company's transport is an outward sign of the quality of the food it carries", says Mr Olford. An eye-catching livery, good paint quality and a clean body are regarded as musts for optimum appeal. The glassflbre skin of the plastics bodies provides a good base for the orange, white and black livery. Mason's polyurethane paints are used throughout and are said to be very hard-wearing.
The Commer chassis is plated at 4.9 tons and the bodied vehicle has an unladen weight of 2 tons 1 lcvvt, which allows for a payload of about 2 tons, the normal load being about 30cwt. Of the remaining 340 insulated sales vans in the fleet, about 114 are based on Bedford CF 25cwt standard vans, approximately 80 on Ford Transit 35cwt chassis and 46 on BLMC EA350s. Like the Commers they can all be driven by driver /salesmen without HOV licences. The remainder of the fleet comprises Ford D300 3-ton vans and Ford D400 4-tonners equipped with glassfibre bodies.
The Cravens Homalloy one-piece moulded grp body was redesigned in 1971 with Scot requirements in mind. It is built to meet the increasing demand by operators of vehicles in the 5-ton-gross category who want a body that is suitable for carrying goods in the higher temperature range of 35/46 deg F.
With an interior length of 9ft 7.4in, a width of 6ft 4-in and a height of 5ft 1 lin, the bodies of the Commer KC40s have a cubic capacity of 590 cu ft. Floor height is 211 6iin and the aperture provided by the single rear door is 211 6in. The thickness of the polyurethane insulation is 2in. The bodies weigh 11 cwt and the unladen weight of 2 tons 11 cwt is increased by 3 cwt when the refrigeration unit is fitted. One of the vehicles will be on display at the Commercial Motor Show at Earls Court in September.
Advance notice Over the years Scot has budgeted its sales-van requirements to• cover a prospective period of five years, and in October of every year Cravens Hornalloy have been informed of the company's needs for the coming 12 months. All the vans are fitted with shelving and a non-skid floor.
Chassis are normally replaced at three-year intervals after covering about 50,000 miles; in some cases replacement may be deferred for up to a year, but no longer. Apart from routine servicing, maintenance is performed by the main agents of the vehicle makers in each area according to a pre-planned schedule which includes preparation for DoE annual tests.
Vehicle selection is based, in the main, on average route congestion and parking difficulties, BLMC EA350s and Bedford 25 cwt vans being favoured in the London area because they are relatively easy to park in tight spots.
' Of the 25 trun king vehicles in the Scot fleet, 21 are 32-ton artics, the remaining four being rigids suitable for use as tractors of maximum-weight draw-bar outfits. The rigids and the majority of the tractive units are Volvos, but there are one or two AEC Mandator tractive units. Mr Of ford praises the Volvos for their cab comfort generally, their good seating, favourable top-gear performance and easy gear change.
Easy loading of the larger vehieles is aided by the use of mobile dock lifts, of which 10 are the electro-hydraulic type with a capacity of 1 ton and were developed for the company by Ratcliff, who also supply standard tail-lifts for a number of vehicles. A dock lift is positioned close to the rear of the vehicle deck for loading and the gap is bridged by a hinged plate, The goods are normally stacked on four-wheeled trolleys equipped with shelving.
Particular care is taken in the selection of drivers who are, of necessity, salesmen by profession. All applicants are pre-tested by the British School of Motoring and must comply with an agreed standard of efficiency jointly acceptable to BSM and Scot before they are taken on.
fi. Scot employs 10 Ratdiff mobile dock lifts of the type seen in this photograph of a Volvo 32-ton-gross bunking vehicle. The clock lift is frequently used for loading wheeled trolleys equipped with shelving.
7. This Cravens Homalloy insulated/refrigerated semi-trailer van is used for trunking. It is based on a standard aluminium container with corner castings that ill mounted on Rubery Owen axles It has a capacity of 1500 cu ft and is equipped with a Ratdiff tail-lift. The tractive unit is an AEC Mandator.
8. The Volvo F88 six-wheeler in this photograph is one of four similar blanking vehicles that would be suitable for use in drawbar combinations grossing up to 40 tons.