“We have always deployed rigorous repair and maintenance schedules for our entire vehicle fleet, and the new roller brake tester takes compliance and professional operating standards to a new level,” says Mark Rafferty, managing director at Bernard Hunter.
The new roller brake tester has a 20-tonne axle testing capacity and a 24-tonne maximum drive-over weight.
The equipment has bi-directional brake testing capacity with twin source remote control for one-man operation. Combined in-ground scissors fitted to the roller brake testers can provide a 13-tonne axle weight to simulate load for applied brake testing to a height of 180mm.
Axles can also now be weighed accurately to ensure no crane – or vehicle – is overloaded. “Our bigger mobile cranes can be set up in a wide variety of lifting specifications to suit each individual job… Our largest mobile crane at present is a Liebherr 500-tonner. We can now check-weigh the entire, eight-axle rigid in just over ten minutes,” says Rafferty.
Large, multi-axle cranes cannot currently be weighed on the standard roller brake test kit in ATFs, he points out. “With that in mind, we have decided to offer a roller brake testing and axle weighing service to third party customers.” The new equipment has been inspected and approved by DVSA, he adds: “We are also exploring the possibilities of offering that organisation use, if required, when conducting roadside checks in the area.”
Bernard Hunter is also installing VL Test Systems’ 9152 shaker plates. Their specification includes eight-way operation with 100mm travel in all directions to test steering linkages on vehicles with individual axle weights up to 16 tonnes.