Truck tractor equipped for winter service on Croatian roads

Truck tractor equipped for winter service on Croatian roads

A set of professional winter equipment arrived at the Zadar County road company recently and will maintain high-priority roads in the winter

At the end of May we delivered a set of professional winter equipment to ‘Ceste zadarske županije d.o.o.’ company, which is the road maintenance contractor for Zadar County. Equipment consists of a 3.2 m wide snow plough and spreader with 5 m3 dry agent capacity spreader and 2400 L liquid agent tanks.

The winter set is different from those usually seen on Croatian roads because a two-axle MAN TGS truck tractor with 470 hp and a useful load of 10 tonnes was used as a propulsion vehicle.

This also represents a new trend on the domestic market, which was commented by the RASCO regional sales manager Miroslav Paviša:

The typical combination for winter service used by Croatian road companies includes a three-axle truck with front snow plough and spreader, usually with 6 m3 hopper, installed in a vehicle crate. Truck like that is used in construction work during the summer season, but the road construction company encounters the problem of limited useful carrying capacity of the vehicle. That is why a part of them have recently decided to install winter sets on truck tractors. There are two main advantages of this approach: Truck tractor can transport far more construction material in summer, and our customers say that it has much better manoeuvre capabilities and is a far better choice to work on difficult terrains in winter season. Therefore, in certain scenarios a truck tractor is a better choice for winter service than a classic two-axle or three-axle truck.

 

The roads that truck will maintain are located on the mountainous part of the Zadar hinterland with many passes and strong wind gusts. These are also state roads of high importance that must be open all year round (especially when the highway is closed due to wind gusts) so that the Croatian Littoral does not remain cut off from the rest of Croatia.

The snow plough mounted to the vehicle is VITER, heaviest plough in our product portfolio, intended for cleaning larger and deeper snow. The plough was custom made with an elevated right wing and extension of both side wings to maximise the efficiency of clearing and disposing of snow from the road.

A SOLID spreader with a 5 m3 dry agent hopper is installed on the rear side of the vehicle, with an auger transport system and liquid agent tanks with a total volume of 2400 L. The spreader is simply operated directly from the vehicle cabin with EPOS 5 control unit.

The winter combination was directly installed on the truck tractor saddle by our vehicle upgrade team. Before the installation, the vehicle was equipped with a two-circle hydraulic system for the operation of snow plough and spreader, a front mounting plate for the snow plough and a connection to the electrical installation upgrades on the truck.

The spreader is fixed to a truck with a specially designed subframe, and two additional points on the hydraulic system support behind the vehicle cabin. This installation concept enables an optimal load distribution on the vehicle chassis, while at the same time making the spreader deconstruction easy.

This mounting solution is another successful project done by our vehicle upgrade team. Like all projects for the installation of equipment on vehicles, this one was done according to the rules of the profession, recommendations of the chassis manufacturer and with the maximum safety of the vehicle operator in mind.

The official takeover of vehicles and equipment was held on the premises of the “Auto Hrvatska” company in Zadar, an authorised dealer of MAN vehicles for Croatia. The equipped vehicle was taken over by the management of the Zadar County Road company.

We wish our long-time partner of Zadar County Road company many more safe kilometres and winter seasons and look forward to future cooperation!

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