ABLE TO CARRY A WIDE VARIETY OF LOADS

Able to Carry a WIDE VARIETY OF OF LOADS

As a single float operator, Mount Gambier based Winterfields Float Hire needs a heavy haulage unit that is sufficiently versatile to be able to carry a wide variety of loads. Paul Matthei speaks with the company’s owner, Matty Winterfield.

AMount Gambier native, Matty Winterfield has been driving trucks for around 25 years, having previously been a diesel mechanic after completing an apprenticeship in the trade. He has been running his own show for the past 11 years.

His first driving job in the mid ‘90s was with forestry company K.C & M.R. Boult, initially hauling B-double loads of woodchips and logs, then later transitioning to float work after the company bought a Drake tri-axle Deck widener to shift its woodchippers and log harvesting equipment.

Matty soon settled into the role and started organising extra work with other

companies to keep the float busy; then after about 15 years with this company the forestry industry experienced a step change, forcing him to weigh up his options.

“The bluegum plantation timber was starting to come online and the boss secured a contract hauling the logs and needed me to do this instead of the float work,” says Matty. “But I was really happy doing the float work for him and had built up a loyal customer base that I didn’t want to lose.”

The upshot was that after much amicable discussion to and fro, neither party was prepared to budge, so with his former boss’s blessing Matty headed off into the realm of the heavy haulage owner operator.

He purchased a second-hand tri-axle full widener and dolly and an ex-K&S Freighters Ford LTL9000 powered by a 400 Cummins and was instantly flat out servicing the customer base he’d built up with his erstwhile employer.

As time went by, machinery got bigger and he took on more customers, necessitating the replacement of the trusty LTL with another ex-K&S unit, a considerably more powerful Kenworth T904 that had been hauling road trains in WA.

“That was a really good truck too but we were still getting busier so I started talking to Drake and we were soon the proud owners of our first new Drake Hybrid 4x4 float, and a second-hand K104B to pull it,” says Matty.

He employed driver Peter ‘Darky’ O’Dea, who is still a highly valued employee today, to drive the cab-over while he continued driving the T904, eventually replacing the original full widener with another hybrid trailer, a unit pretty much identical to the original one. Sometime later the Kenworths were progressively supplanted by a pair of Scania R 730s and the business continued to flourish, but unbeknownst to Matty dark storm clouds were brewing on the horizon.

KEEPING A FLOAT In the fickle game of road transport it doesn’t take much for things to go sour, which is what Matty experienced several years ago when two of his major clients went under in quick succession, both owing him a lot of money.

“We were in a lot of trouble and at the time I couldn’t see a way out so I started preparing to sell up and cut our losses,” says Matty. “I approached a good client who agreed to buy one of the combinations and organised for the other to be sold to someone else.

“As it happened, the good client paid us straight away for the gear then dayhired it back to us so we could continue to do their work for a couple of months. Meanwhile, the prospective buyer of the other truck and float eventually pulled out of the sale which meant we were able to keep operating that unit also.

“It was touch and go for a few months, but we managed to keep our heads above water and get back on our feet again, which I was really happy about because I love doing this sort of work,” recalls Matty.

One of the keys to the subsequent

success of Winterfields Float Hire is diversity, with Matty describing the company’s mantra as ‘you name it, we haul it’. This includes everything from grape harvesters to rock crushing plants, wood-chippers, tree harvesters, dozers, earthmoving machinery and agricultural equipment.

“We have some really good clients around the Mount who are very loyal to us,” says Matty. “We do a fair bit of truck recovery work for the likes of Cummins, Daimler Trucks and O. G. Roberts, it’s probably easier to tell you who we don’t work for.”

HYBRID OF A DIFFERENT KIND When you own a heavy haulage business, being able to quickly and efficiently adapt to a wide variety of haulage tasks is definitely the key to success. This is a prime reason Matty reckons the hybrid 4x4 float is the best thing since sliced bread.

So much so that this is actually his third hybrid steering widener, featuring a uniquely designed and engineered platform that Matty says combines the stability of a full widener with the manoeuvrability and reduced tyre wear, thanks to twin steerable BPW axles, of a deck widener.

According to Matty, after owning three of these revolutionary units there’s no way he’d go back to either a full widener or a deck widener, such is his belief in having the best features of both.

For example, the well-documented ‘Achilles Heel’ of full wideners in

The Drake Hybrid 4x4 float. Matty Winterfield, who has owned and operated Winterfields Float Hire for the last 11 years.

applications like Matty’s is some scrubbing of the tyres on turns when the unit is fully widened. However, the upside is that the wide track of the wheels provides ultimate stability of the trailer when carrying wide and heavy loads.

On the other hand, the deck widener has a standard wheel track width which means when the deck is widened, the outer extremities of the deck protrude well beyond the wheel track, making the unit less stable compared with the full widener.

Enter the hybrid steering widener, a design that reduces the drawbacks in Matty’s business of each design by combining the positive attributes of both. In short, the best of both worlds.

The hybrid, for stability, has the forward two axles that widen with the deck as per a full widener, while the rear pair of axles remain fixed in deck widener fashion.

However, the real secret weapon with the rear tandem set is its steerability, with all four duals either self-tracking when travelling forwards or commandsteerable when reversing into tight confines.

According to Matty, the innovative arrangement works a treat and he reckons it saves him through reduced tyre wear; achieving increased tyre mileage compared with his original full widener.

“This is the third hybrid quad float I’ve owned, and I’ve found it to be a really good option, the best of both worlds,” he says. “You get the stability benefit of a full widener without the tyre scrub.

“It’s also very useful when you’re travelling on a skinny road and have to pull over to pass an oncoming vehicle or to let following traffic pass. That’s because the left sets of wheels on the rear two axles can remain on the tarmac which helps maintain stability, with only the forward left wheels having to run off onto the gravel.”

If there is a downside to the hybrid it is this, the onlyway to achieve improved rubber longevity, is to run through a program of timely tyre rotations including turning of the steering axle tyres on the rims.

“It’s necessary to move the tyres from the steering axles to the forward fixed axles because the steering action tends

to wear the inside shoulders after a while,” says Matty. “We turn the tyres on the rims initially and then we move them to the forward axles to ensure we get the maximum life from them.

“We don’t do big kilometres, we average around 120,000km per year, a lot of which is around town in tight subdivisions, and a lot of forestry work where narrow tracks make access for full wideners very difficult. The hybrid is definitely the best option in these situations.”

Matty adds that he likes the fact that the rear steer axles are BPW because of the simplicity and reliability, with spare parts readily available off the shelf. He says that the direct mechanical link between the wheels is far less complicated compared with the plethora of valves and hoses that hydraulic steering systems on full wideners require.

The most important thing, Matty says, is to keep the grease up to the kingpins.

“In our experience, if you grease them regularly, they have a very long service life,” says Matty.

COMMAND STEERED IN REVERSE Matty goes on to explain that this latest hybrid unit has an added advantage over the earlier two in that in addition to self-steering going forwards it can be command steered in reverse.

“The difference with this new hybrid over the previous two we owned is that we have wireless remote-controlled command steering so we can steer it in reverse which is another key benefit when negotiating tight access locations,” says Matty.

The locking mechanism for the steer

axles and also the command-steerability is operated via remote control from inside the prime mover cab or by a switch at the rear of the trailer. Matty says he locks the axles in the straight-ahead position at speeds over 60km/h which means the trailer tracks well at highway speeds.

Other features of the hybrid that he appreciates are the 13-metre deck length and bi-fold ramps, both of which assist in the loading and carrying of plant and quarry equipment including crushing and screening machines that are long and have low ground clearance.

“The bi-fold ramps are longer with less ramp-over angle which is handy when loading long gear with low ground clearance; and the longer deck enables us to position the loads better for ideal weight distribution over the axle groups,” says Matty, adding that a new 2x8 Drake dolly was also purchased to replace a 2x4 unit, raising the payload capacity from 50 to 60 tonnes.

“We carry some machinery that bumps over the 50-tonne mark so it’s necessary to have the extra capacity of the 2x8 dolly,” says Matty. “With the extra metre of deck length over the previous unit, we are able to position heavy equipment to ensure all our axle weights are spot on.”

The hybrid float widens to 3.7 metres and Matty also specified extra tie-down points on the deck s because in his words, “you can never have enough tiedown points.”

He also had extra toolboxes fitted along with three-way container pins which add versatility to what can be carried. There’s also a hydraulic winch mounted at the front which is vital for the truck breakdown and recovery work that the company does.

Chrome plated steel rims of 19.5 inch diameter finish off the look of the float nicely, and it also has wind-down landing legs and hydraulics that operate from a pump mounted on the truck’s engine rather than a power pack on the trailer.

SCANIA SUPERPOWER When it came to performance to pull up to 60 tonnes of payload, Matty went right to the top of the Scania totem pole, ordering the R 730 about four years ago which he says is ideal when up on the weight and in heavy going up hills and in off-road forest work.

The Scania has notched up 500,000km in the four years since it was bought new and Matty says the Scania Repair and Maintenance package works well for his business.

“It’s a fixed cost so you don’t have to worry about fluctuating servicing costs which is a big bonus in my book,” says Matty. “I’d sooner pay the fixed cost every month because you can factor that into the business much easier than unpredictable expenses.

“With both the truck and float I need to know that I can hook up and head off to Perth or Brisbane or anywhere in between at a moment’s notice without the worry of something going awry.”

All up, for Matty Winterfield there is no substitute for high quality equipment that enables him to do his job with the utmost confidence, thereby enabling him to get the work done in the most efficient, safe, comfortable and cost-effective manner possible. With the Scania R 730 prime mover and Drake 4x4 Hybrid float he truly believes he has the best of both worlds.

SERIOUS SAFETY CHALLENGES

Fatigue and distraction are serious safety challenges for heavy vehicle drivers and operators.

Experts tell us that if you’ve had less than seven hours of sleep in the last 24 hours, it’s likely that you’re suffering from fatigue. If you’ve had less than twelve hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, it’s also likely that you’re impaired by fatigue.

Apart from potential health problems, a lack of sleep can often lead to poor judgement, slower reaction times, errors, and micro-sleeps, among other outcomes.

Fatigue is the most common cause of crashes involving a single heavy vehicle, especially concerning when you consider that any vehicle driven at 100km/h will travel over 80 metres in just three seconds.

The Heavy Vehicle National Law (HVNL) outlines a shared responsibility for safety which means that both operators and drivers have responsibilities for ensuring fitness for duty with regards to managing fatigue.

Drivers are responsible for making “FATIGUE IS THE MOST COMMON CAUSE OF CRASHES INVOLVING A SINGLE HEAVY VEHICLE, ESPECIALLY CONCERNING WHEN YOU CONSIDER THAT ANY VEHICLE DRIVEN AT 100KM/H WILL TRAVEL OVER 80 METRES IN JUST THREE SECONDS.”

sure that they present fit for duty, and that they follow the company’s safety policies and procedures.

Meanwhile, it is the company’s responsibility to make sure their systems are safe – including realistic rosters, policies and procedures.

An understanding of this shared responsibility, led to both drivers and operators highlighting the benefits of fatigue and distraction detection technology, or FDDT at an NHVR Fatigue Safety Summit. They told us it was helping to identify when drivers might be fatigued, potentially preventing incidents before they occur.

We made a commitment to undertake some research and trials, and engaged experts, including Dr Drew Dawson from CQ University, for their advice on what potential there is for this sort of technology to impact fatigue.

This work involved interviews with 80 transport and bus company employees – including drivers, owners, schedulers and safety staff – from 12 road freight and bus companies. Feedback from industry saw the technology as a potential game changer for heavy vehicle safety.

Most FDDTs provide an in-cab alert to the driver – either a sound or seat vibration to indicate a fatigue or

In-cab alerts prompt drivers to pull over and take a rest.

distraction event is happening. The distraction alerts occur when the driver has their eyes away from the road for too long. The driver is immediately alerted and they can then decide to stop and have a rest when it is safe to do so, or do something else to make sure they don’t fall asleep at the wheel.

Distraction and fatigue can sometimes be linked. If a driver is fatigued, they might start looking around more to try and keep themselves awake. Sometimes fatigue can lead to a driver having “highway hypnosis” – looking at the road, but not being fully aware of their surroundings.

Most technologies can also send an alert to someone within your company or to a nominated third party that can call and check in, or have a chat.

The studies conducted for the NHVR showed that FDDTs led to fewer near misses and crashes.

Two comprehensive studies and some excellent feedback from a dedicated working group means we’re ready to move forward with a series of best practice guides for drivers and operators. We will also progress a pilot later in the year to better understand the effectiveness of the technology and refine the regulatory framework to maximise the safety benefits.

In June, the NHVR released our Vehicle Safety and Environmental Technology Uptake Plan which outlined the work we will undertake to accelerate the introduction of new safety and environmental technologies into the Australian heavy vehicle market.

Through this plan we want to provide certainty and consistency and promote safer and more productive heavy vehicles.

I’m pleased to say that one of the first areas we will see this emerge will be incentives to use fatigue and distraction detection technology.

The Australian heavy vehicle industry has shown an enormous capacity over many years to invent, trial and embrace new technologies, particularly when it leads to greater safety or productivity benefits.

The positive response and encouraging results from this trial are testament to that.