Page 64 - Demo

Above: e combination of an 8x4 tractor unit and a mid-mounted Pal nger is common to three of the company’s crane units. Tracked machines in the background are destined for work in Antarctica
Right, both pictures: Shipbuilding and repair remains an integral part of the Stark Bros business. e company has built ve deep-sea trawlers for its Ocean Fisheries o shoot
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related customers – the likes of Independent Fisheries, Sealord and Maruha.
“Then there’s the Antarctic research vessels, like the Korean icebreaker that’s in port at the moment. Last week we devanned five containers of scientific equipment that it needs for its next trip. We don’t have a swinglift to handle the containers – it’s a specialised bit of machinery we need only for that job that the rest of the time would be parked up doing nothing (and using the crane trucks would be a definite overkill).
“We have no plans to try getting work in that market, so we contract the likes Hilton Haulage or NZ Express for those jobs.”
The principle of having gear designed primarily for the company’s core activities, with outside work a bonus, is seen to great effect in the new Volvo FM/Palfinger 92002 combination. From the beginning it had a primary performance objective – the ability to lift 3.1t at 20 metres reach, those figures relating to the trawl doors on the fishing boats that Stark Brothers repairs and maintains.
The doors are large, rectangular structures towed in the water behind a trawler to keep
the mouth of a trawl net open. The company’s previously largest crane, the PK78, is unable easily to handle them.
One unusual characteristic of the new unit is
its installation on a four-axle truck – a decision that pushed its front axle loadings so close to regulatory limits that, set up with all its kit on board, it cannot carry a passenger! The setup, by the way, was all done inhouse – using the wide range of skills of the company’s engineering staff.
The only other PK92 in the country – operated
by Auckland-based specialist crane company Tom Ryan Cartage – sits on a five-axle Hino 700, but Cameron Stark, who oversaw this project, says that wasn’t an option: “ A five-axle truck doesn’t work for us, because for a lot of our work – on jetties,
around the dry dock, on the hills of Lyttelton – manoeuvrability and being able to back into tight spaces is king.
“So we started looking around the market. Hino and Fuso were still in the frame, but the trouble with them was that they sit too high. That’s OK for linehaul, but our drivers are in and out of the cab a dozen times a day, so from a health and safety perspective I couldn’t recommend to the company that we buy one.”
Several Euro-brand models fitted the bill, the nod eventually going to the Volvo FM.
As Cameron explains, weight was critical: “When you mid-mount the crane like we wanted to do,
you tend to load up the front axles, the situation being made more tricky because we also wanted to mount a fifth-wheel to be able to tow a trailer. The axles are rated at 6500kg, but our regulations limit them to 5500kg. And the weight of the PK92 is up by around a tonne on the PK78.
“That meant the design engineers were thrown
a real curve ball – they were playing with barely 50mm on the placement of the crane. To make sure we were within limits, we got the CVIU over three times to weigh up the truck axles – the first time when we were setting it up, the second during the crane installation, and the last time when it was complete, down to the number plates and ready for the road.
“They were absolutely fantastic, and ensured that the unit would be fully legal when it went into service. With the fly jib on, the truck’s tare is right on the limit, a fraction under 26t.
“We also wanted to avoid needing an H-permit, so that we’d be free to go anywhere and not be restricted to routes or times of operation.”
On many jobs the truck will be paired with a three-axle, 12.1m semitrailer, but it’s also fitted with a Ringfeder because a semi puts a little too much weight over the drive axles and the company