BACK IN MAY, EDINBURGH-BASED, BERNARD HUNTER MOBILE CRANES HIT NEW HEIGHTS WITH SCOTLAND’S FIRST 700-TONNE LIEBHERR CRANE. HEAVYTORQUE CALLED IN AT THE FIRM’S GILMERTON ROAD HEADQUARTERS TO REPORT ON A BOOM IN BUSINESS.
Currently marking 75 years in business, Edinburgh-based, Bernard Hunter Mobile Cranes has taken delivery of Scotland’s first 700-tonne Liebherr mobile crane. The eight-axle LTM 1650-8.1 model is also only the second of its type to enter service in the UK. The new Liebherr will replace the company’s 500-tonne, LTM 1500-8.1, which it has operated over the last decade.
“The Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1 puts our business into a different league as a supplier of heavy lifting solutions,” says Mark Rafferty, managing director at Bernard Hunter Mobile Cranes. “The variety of applications it will suit is incredible and some of our customers are already starting to plan work for the new arrival.”
SEVERAL TRANSPORT OFFICES HAVE DIECAST SCALE MODELS OF THEIR VEHICLES ON DISPLAY, AND MANY HAULAGE ENTHUSIASTS HAVE THEIR OWN SMALL COLLECTIONS. BUT HEAVYTORQUE HAS BEEN TALKING TO A COMMERCIAL PILOT IN CYPRUS WHO HAS TAKEN MODEL COLLECTING TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL.
There’s not much that Modestos Meletiou hasn’t driven in his time. From bulldozers and forklift trucks, through low-loaders and fuel tankers, to helicopters and commercial jets. His current job during the summer is piloting a fire-fighting plane to tackle wildfires over his native Cyprus. But whatever he’s doing during the day, he always comes back to the same thing at night: assembling die-cast models. He has over 6,500 at present, including what’s believed to be the world’s biggest collection of 1:200 scale model aeroplanes. He also has huge numbers of miniature scrapers, concrete mixers, mobile cranes, dumper trucks and all sorts of other construction vehicles. But the most treasured part of his collection is hundreds of low-loaders, predominantly in the colours of UK companies.
“My father used to drive an Oliver bulldozer in the late 1950s,” Meletiou explains from his home in Aradippou, on the outskirts of Larnaca, “so I was always interested in big construction equipment. But then in 1980 he started a fuel truck company.
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GOLDHOFER PLANS TO INCREASE ITS MARKET SHARE IN THE UK AND MARK HOWE HAS BEEN BROUGHT IN TO HEAD THE OPERATION. HEAVYTORQUE FINDS OUT ABOUT THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE STEPSTAR AND THE RANGE OF AFTERMARKET SERVICES THAT ARE BEING INTRODUCED.
German specialist trailer manufacturer Goldhofer is well known in the UK for its wide range of superbly engineered specialist designs, with particular emphasis upon the heavy end of the market with its multi-axle modular equipment, SPMT’s, girder bridge and other deck options, along with specialist extenders and numerous other high capacity designs. It also offers a wide range of step-frame designs with a number of axle and suspension options, including the innovative MPA hydraulic MacPherson Strut design, the STZ-L and STZ-H beam axle designs with air and hydraulic suspension respectively. Also the ARCUS P and PK designs, with pendle axles able to handle payloads of up to 130 tonnes. With all of these options, operators have plenty of choice, but they now have a further option available, aimed squarely at the lighter end of the market, a sector where the well-respected German manufacturer has struggled to compete in the UK.
RJC LOWLOADERS IN HIGHAM FERRERS IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE IS ONE OF A GROUP OF COMPANIES BEARING THE INITIALS OF THE MAN WHO STARTED HIS FIRST HAULAGE BUSINESS MORE THAN 50 YEARS AGO. RAYMOND JAMES CRAWLEY MAY BE 75 NOW, BUT IS SHOWING NO SIGNS OF SLOWING DOWN, AS HEAVYTORQUE DISCOVERS.
At the age of 15, Ray Crawley didn’t run off to join the circus, but he probably did the next best thing. He joined a travelling fair. From 1961 to 1971 he worked for Thurston’s Family Fun Fair. He operated various rides, including the Waltzer, and later he ran a stall with his young wife, Janet. But as far as he was concerned, the best bit was when the fair packed up and moved on to the next town. “I was a second man to start with,” he tells me. “We had an ex-Pickfords Scammell. It took three men and a piece of rope to start it. We used to tow three trailers, and I loved it.”
The problem with working on a fairground was that it only offered employment during the summer months, so many of the fairground drivers found other driving work during the winter. When he was old enough, Crawley did the same. “I got a C-licence in 1969 and started R Crawley Transport. My first lorry was a Thames Trader.
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FAMILY-OWNED POTTERIES HEAVY HAULAGE HAS OVER 25 YEARS’ EXPERIENCE OF MOVING ABNORMAL LOADS THROUGHOUT THE UK, IRELAND AND EUROPE AND IS CENTRALLY LOCATED IN STOKE-ON-TRENT, STAFFORDSHIRE. HEAVYTORQUE TALKS TO ITS OPERATIONS MANAGER ROBERT POWELL.
Specialist heavy transport is a demanding business at the best of times, requiring regular investment in the latest equipment, employing suitably qualified staff, and having the operational and support services required for a company to function safely, efficiently, and profitably. Step outside the UK on a regular basis and it becomes far more challenging – a considerable number of additional rules and regulations have to be complied with. The operator has to contend with lower axle weights, permit requirements, escort regulations, strict curfew hours for movements. All of this invariably differs between countries. Furthermore, the equipment operated has to comply with these additional rules, which can be at odds with our own domestic rules. Britain’s recent exit from the EU and the reintroduction of customs regulations, has added even more complexity to the task of moving oversized loads across borders.
WITH A LARGE FLEET OF HIGHLY DISTINCTIVE TRUCKS AND TRAILERS BACKED UP BY A COMPREHENSIVE WORKSHOP FACILITY, EAST SUSSEX-BASED RECOVERY SPECIALIST MICK GOULD COMMERCIALS IS READY FOR PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING, AS HEAVYTORQUE FINDS OUT.
If you’ve ever spent much time on the M20, M25 or M26 motorways in the south east of England, the chances are you’ll have spotted one of Mick Gould Commercials’ recovery vehicles. And you won’t just have given them a cursory glance, either, because the company’s fleet stands out from the crowd in a way few others can, incorporating a large number of classic bonneted North American trucks from Peterbilt, Kenworth, International and Western Star.
The firm and its vehicle fleet have both come a long way from relatively humble roots back in 1983, when at the age of just 22, founder and MD Mick Gould set himself up as a sole trader to provide mobile commercial vehicle repairs, after cutting his teeth as an apprentice in an independent Foden dealership in Tunbridge Wells.
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HEAVY HAULAGE IS ONE OF THE MOST DEMANDING AND EXACTING SECTORS IN THE HAULAGE INDUSTRY. WHILE FOR SOME INVOLVED IN THE BUSINESS, OPERATING IN THE SECTOR HAS BEEN A CONSCIOUS CHOICE, FOR OTHERS IT’S NOT REALLY AN OPTION. THAT INCLUDES THE MANCHESTER-BASED Q CRANE AND PLANT HIRE, A MAJOR BUSINESS IN THE CRANE AND PLANT HIRE SECTOR. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
Equipment on the Q Crane and Plant Hire list includes tracked excavators from three-tonnes to 34-tonnes capacity as well as long-reach and wheeled excavators, dumpers and attachments. The Q Crane Hire fleet includes crawler cranes with capacities between five and 150-tonnes as well as telescopic crawler cranes with capacities up to 100 tonnes. Not surprisingly, such heavy machinery needs transport and this is where the Q Crane and Plant Hire heavy haulage fleet comes in.
It is not always just a simple matter of loading up a crane and taking it to a site, explains head of operations Andrew Pearson: “We run three little five-tonners. They weigh 10 tonnes, so effectively don’t need heavy haulage. Then when we take the next step up, which is a 40 tonner and then we go up in sequence at 40 tonnes, 50 tonnes, 65 tonnes and 80 tonnes.
VOLVO TRUCKS HAS BROUGHT A SWEDISH SPECIFICATION 6×2 RIGID AND A PURPOSE-BUILT TANDEM AXLE DOLLY INTO THE UK FOR TESTING. HEAVYTORQUE GETS TO DRIVE IT.
The heavy transport industry has by definition, operated vehicles that exceed the weights and dimensions allowed under the Construction and Use (C&U) Regulations for generations, but most operators within this sector operate conventional vehicles that give much needed flexibility, because a fair proportion of the workload might not require an oversize outfit.
Over the years the UK authorities have gradually increased the maximum gross weight for C&U operation. Back in 1964 articulated combinations were granted an uplift from 24 to 32 imperial tons. This remained in force until 1983, when five-axle artics were allowed to go to 38 tonnes, drawbar outfits lagged behind for some years, but eventually caught up, weight limits were increased to 40/41 tonnes and eventually 44 tonnes on six axles in the first decade of this century.
Issue Twenty Seven: with 148 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
