Heritage Commercials Magazine - capturing the spirit of vintage days

Going Dutch

With a similarly successful maritime history to the one once held by Britain, the Dutch have remained a force to be reckoned when it comes to salvaging ships, operating tug boats and mega lifters.  And what applies on the ocean also holds true when it comes to heavy-haulage by road, as exemplified here by this FTF heavy-haulage truck which was built in the Netherlands with this sort of use in mind.

So this vehicle has been appropriately restored in the colours of Magnaload, a division of the world famous Mammoet company, a global leader in the art of lifting and transporting extraordinary loads.  This is underlined by the stylised Mammoth figure on this lorry’s cab doors: Mammoet being the Dutch word for this powerful, but now extinct species.

Geoff Makinson, who bought the FTF nine years ago in 2001 and rebuilt it to its pristine present day condition commented: “Our family firm, GHM Group of Horwich near Bolton, specialises in the sale and hire of heavy plant, so we have always had an admiration of the Mammoet company, and having some connections there prompted me to restore the FTF in their livery. Mammoet operated FTF trucks extensively in the Middle East and in the UK under the Magnaload name, which was a joint venture.  I have heard it commented Magnaload never operated an FTF in the UK;  I knew this to be untrue, and pictures have recently surfaced on the internet, which have confirmed this, supplied by one of Magnaload’s former drivers, Len Peacock, who drove for Magnaload during the Seventies.

For someone with Geoff’s forty-year plus association with plant sales and repairs, also lots of experience in heavy-haulage, tracking down this lorry’s prior history wasn’t too difficult. He was already aware of this particular FTF’s existence in the UK some years ago when operated by Baldwin’s Crane Hire of Slough. “They bought it in 1995 from a Dutch dealer and it was then registered for some reason as a ‘Rosenkranz’, as it was used as a prime mover to tow a 1,000-tonnes capacity Rosenkranz lattice boom crane in those days,” said Geoff. “When Baldwin’s had problems, the FTF was then inherited by Ainscough Crane Hire, who bought the business. I purchased the FTF along with a number of other items of ex-Baldwin’s equipment which were surplus to Ainscough’s requirements. The FTF had been relegated to shunting trailers in the Middlesbrough yard due to the disposal of the Rozenkranz, and the Motor Panels cab on the FTF had extensive corrosion problems. These cabs were also fitted to Scammells, ERF, Guy and Seddon, and they had a bad reputation for rusting. Repairing the cab on the FTF proved to be the most expensive part!”

Discovering a museum for FTF lorries had been established in Holland then enabled the full history of this specific truck to be revealed. It was discovered that it was one of a batch of 39 trucks which were commissioned for the Royal Dutch Army as replacements for some ageing Thornycroft Mighty Antars. They were used for transporting tanks, including the mighty Chieftains, on tank transporter trailers also built by FTF. These army issue FTFs carried registrations running in sequence, from KN-95-00 to KN-95-39, and this example was allotted the registration - KN-95-18.

United Nations

Geoff continued: “I got in touch with Ton Spaansen, the FTF Museum’s curator, and Gerald Veldman of the FTF club who between them provided a lot of extensive documentation and even photographs of the truck when in service with the Dutch Army. They were in use until their sale in 1993, and after being sold off most of them were exported to be used in the Mexican and Czechoslovakian armies. The Czech units ended their days in United Nations colours in the Bosnian war, all of them getting badly damaged in the conflict. The fate of the Mexican trucks is unknown to the museum, and it appears that the only survivors are this one, which Baldwin’s bought, and one retained for display in the Royal Dutch Army’s Museum.”

The Floor company, which manufactured FTF trucks of various types and descriptions, started to build trailers shortly after the Second World War, and the big step up into lorry manufacture was assisted at a half-way stage to full manufacture in 1952 when Floor and the American Mack company came to an agreement whereby Mack trucks were supplied in kit form to be assembled by Floor and sold to the European market. FTF, or Floor Truck Fabriek to provide the firm’s full name, had a background in road haulage, and a factory was established in Hilversum, Holland. Eventually, the arrangement with Mack fell on difficult times, and as a result, the first FTF branded trucks were designed and completed for sale in 1966. However, there was still a connection with Mack - this firm supplied axles for some models. Other North American component suppliers to FTF included General Motors, who supplied their Detroit Diesel engines, Allison transmissions were installed and also Fuller gearboxes.

The company went on to produce 657 trucks of various specifications in 4x2, 6x4, 6x6, 8x4, and 10x4 chassis configurations. Standard trucks were produced but the main emphasis was on heavy duty applications, before manufacture ceased in 1995 as a result of falling sales due to the availability of  heavy haulage trucks from Mercedes-Benz, Scania, DAF and Volvo. FTF continued to produce trailers under their own name until the company was bought by Nooteboom, who still sell a general purpose trailer under FTF’s name.

Axle loadings

Tipper trucks were a very strong line for the company, and FTF made use of the comparatively lenient approach of the Dutch axle loading regulations that permitted larger capacities than most other European truck makers could meet, therefore allowing for healthy home sales. A consequence perhaps of Holland being as flat as a pancake I suppose! And maybe the need to have the right sized trucks for the massive Zuiderzee land reclamation scheme that was finally completed in 1986 may have influenced matters when it came to axle loading?

The Zuiderzee project may have taken over eighty years to complete, however, Geoff said that he wasn’t one for hanging about when it came to getting the FTF back into full working order, and the poor state of the cab was foremost in mind: “It was the usual problem with the Motor Panels cab, the roof section had rotted out where this joins the gutters, and the best solution was to have this professionally done by a trusted sheet metal company, Lostock Fabrications. This work involved inserting a couple of inches of steel all along the gutters as well as work on the cab  sides where the fibreglass front wings bolted on to the cab. I then had the interior restored by Premier Autotrim of Wigan. The cab was professionally painted, not once but twice, as the finish was not to showing standards; which prompted us to redo the job in-house; a steep learning curve which then took place over a protracted time-scale. But we came up with the desired finish in the end, which was done by Adam Bohen, Warren Kennedy and myself.”

Geoff reported no problems with the Detroit Diesel 12V-71N engine or the Allison six-speed, semi automatic transmission, as this truck is only displaying 168,000 kilometres, a figure he is confident is entirely accurate. Other than a full service and new filters, this was all that was required.

Winches

A pair of 30-tonne capacity German hydraulic winches of Rotzler manufacture driven off the PTO, had gone missing, however as Geoff is so well connected in the plant and heavy-haulage world, making a few enquiries eventually tracked the originals down so that these could be refitted.

Geoff took me out for a short run around the countryside outside Horwich in the FTF, and getting into the tall cab is no easy feat! “They didn’t have much idea of driver comfort in those days,” Geoff commented. “Ergonomics was a word which hadn’t been invented!” Needless to say the cab is quite spacious, although as Geoff pointed out, it was pretty noisy. “The engine’s a two-stroke, so it makes a fair old racket, or music to your ears depending on your tastes, but you soon learn to put up with the noise. Although fuel consumption works out at about one and a half miles per gallon! The two-stroke’s of about thirteen litres and has a healthy output of 475hp. Driving it is no big hassle but for the sheer size of the thing at nine feet wide! The six-speed semi automatic gearbox on a manual shift is driven via a torque converter; which means you can just stick the gear lever in ‘sixth’ when running light and then just leave it there, letting the torque converter do all the work. Just don’t expect to go all that fast: it’s flat out at forty-five!”

To weigh down the back axles for added traction, Geoff added three tonnes to the ballast box, although he’s now considering adding an additional three tonnes for a smoother, more relaxed driving experience. However, this may not be such a problem in the foreseeable future, as Geoff has managed to track down and purchase a suitable trailer for the FTF that maintains the heavy-haulage theme with a continental flavour. “I heard about this Scheuerle drawbar low-loader trailer that was being sold in Berlin,” said Geoff. “This is a really old design, with a set of chains running under the loadbed, which are connected to both the front and rear bogies which provides all wheel steer. Wynns had a very similar trailer in the sixties. I contacted Scheuerle about this, and they reported this trailer must be at least fifty years old! I just have to find the chassis number to confirm the exact age. Now that the FTF is completed, this trailer will also be done up in Magnaload’s livery.”

The combination of the two should make for a very impressive line-up, and bearing in mind the FTF and Mack truck connection, finding a suitable load for the low-loader trailer shouldn’t be problematic, as he has several  projects on the go including a 1960 Mack B Model and a 1968 Detroit powered R Model! He also has an Autocar that was recently unearthed from a New Jersey junkyard; not to mention many various other classic vehicles and plant equipment as alternative heavy loads!