An innovative tilting vehicle transporter is earning international acclaim for its creator, Dunedin engineer and transport business owner Barry Armour.
Barry designed and built the Crouch Deck system that “bends” the transporter in the middle, so that the rear of the deck crouches down to road level and allows vehicles and machinery to be loaded up a gentle incline, instead of a steep ramp. The system is unique and a patent on the design is pending. It’s ideal for racing cars or sports cars, which have very low clearance under the front valance and also for forklift trucks.
Sales are already starting to take off in New Zealand, but the majority of interest is coming from the United States, where a Michigan company has begun building them under licence – the American company calls the system Tilt Bed and it’s already grabbing attention from US transport operators.
As with many great ideas, this one is simple. Barry’s company Armour Transport Technologies Limited, takes a small-to-medium truck, cuts off the chassis from behind the front sub-frame and then fabricates a new deck that incorporates its own chassis. It has a pivot point directly behind the cab that allows the truck to cantilever.
One of the keys to making it work is an air suspension system that Hendrickson tailored to suit Barry’s requirements.
Hendrickson supplies a modified version of its Comfort Air system that helps to save weight, whilst providing the mechanism to raise and lower the rear of the deck. Comfort Air is based on Hendrickson’s popular HAS technology and is normally used in buses, motor homes and ambulances.
Pat Duncan, of Hendrickson New Zealand, says the existing frame hangers are removed from the Comfort Air system and the assembly is modified to pick up the Crouch Deck’s own hangers.
“It works very well and helps us to keep the weight of Crouch Deck to a minimum,” says Barry Armour.
“We’ve already saved ourselves plenty of weight by not having a separate chassis with a deck on top and the Comfort Air system slots in nicely and ties it all together – much better than the leaf springs and separate levelling system I started off using. Now the air suspension does the job for us.”
Barry first got the idea for the Crouch Deck when working with Jeff’s car transporters, using a single car transport truck. Noting the difficulty in loading and unloading low-slung vehicles, he thought a sliding deck system that he had seen in Australia might be the answer. Experimenting with a 9-tonne Mitsubishi in his engineering workshop he eventually came up with the pivot idea.
“I decided that the deck had to be incorporated into the chassis, not mounted on top, so that you could keep the height down and then it occurred to me that it would be even better if the rear of the deck could be lowered,” says Barry.
To achieve that Barry came up with the idea of creating a hinge in the middle, enabling it to pivot, lowering the rear of the deck and front of the cab. It uses twin double-acting hydraulic cylinders to work the pivoting system, with the Comfort Air suspension taking the rear down even further and a hydraulically-operated tailgate lower providing a 10-degree angle of approach, compared to 35-degrees or more with a conventional transporter. The whole thing is operated by a remote control and takes just seconds. Vehicles and machinery are secured by fold-away hooks built into the deck.
Losing separate chassis has given the Crouch Deck a very low 104cm deck height, which is great for bridge clearance. It also reduces the centre of gravity and makes the vehicle far more stable.
To date, Barry has built eight Crouch Decks for the New Zealand market, but his partner in the US, Jones Body Company, is ramping up to make thousands.
The Crouch Deck truck makes loading cars and machinery simple.
For further information contact Pat Duncan, National Sales Manager, Hendrickson New Zealand, phone (09) 570 4721.
(Prepared on behalf of Hendrickson Suspension by John Ellegard, Stanford James Public Relations and Marketing Communication. Phone 0-9-815 0589, email john.ellegard@xtra.co.nz, mobile 021 975 452)
|
