The 26-tonne rigids are fitted with rear-mounted cranes, and work with drawbar trailers at 44-tonne gross train weights. As 2546 L models, they are powered by 454bhp 10.7-litre in-line six-cylinder engines.
Given the crane’s position at the back of the truck, the Wincanton team ensured compliance by opting for uprated rear-steer axles plated at 8,500 kg to give a 19-tonne bogie weight.
The vehicle bodies and the trailers were built in Sheffield by Massey Truck Engineering, and incorporate multiple lashing points for use with ratchet straps – 900 mm curtains provide additional load protection.
In another ‘first’, rather than specifying traditional Keruing hardwood flooring for its new trucks and trailers, Wincanton has chosen a more sustainable alternative in the form of a honeycomb composite plastic that is also safer and lighter.
Meanwhile, Hiab’s 145DLL-1 HiPro long boom crane has a 14.4-tonne lifting capacity. ‘Power on demand’ technology contributes to fuel efficiency by ensuring that the vehicle engine responds directly, via the PTO (power take-off), to the crane’s requirements – so when the crane is not lifting a load, the engine runs on idle.
Wincanton also specifies Hiab’s HiConnect telematics system. Working together, technicians from Hiab, Massey Truck Engineering, Mercedes-Benz and Orwell Truck & Van have programmed this to deliver key information via the 12in primary colour display in the upgraded interactive version of Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ new Multimedia Cockpit. This includes pictorial warnings that, for example, the crane boom or remote-control unit have not been correctly stowed.
Further enhancing safety and fuel-efficiency, the Hiab cranes have also been programmed with remote engine start/stop and PTO selection from the loader’s handset control.
Wincanton operates a fleet of over 200 trucks from 27 customer locations nationwide, which make bulk deliveries of materials to UK construction sites. Most work as drawbar combinations, and the majority of these are by Mercedes-Benz.
Standard equipment on the fifth-generation Actros includes MirrorCam, Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ digital replacement for conventional mirrors that relay images to screens mounted on the A-pillars inside the cab.
The new trucks have 2.3m StreamSpace sleeper cabs – the narrower of the two widths available – and merit two stars from Transport for London’s Direct Vision scheme.