Twin-engined sweepers face threat from environmental legislation

In a special contribution to LAWE's Millennium 2000 Preview Issue, Roger Hoadley, the founder and Managing Director of Scarab, sets out his view on the potential impact of Government legislation on the design of road sweepers.

The industry found the solution was a second, smaller engine to power brushes and fan, which require some 50-60bhp.

Lorry engines of the early 1970s did not have that much power to spare, so by 21 years ago, when I was working for Blaw Knox, there were half a dozen makes of sweeper, all using two engines. But engine efficiency had been increasing greatly, so that even a small lorry had enough power for the sweeping services.

Alternative solution
With the launch of the Scarab Major range we tackled the problem from another direction, using a Scarab hydrostatic drive to move the vehicles at low speeds so that the truck engine rpm could be maintained for fan brushes. Between sites the hydrostatic drive is disengaged and the truck driven in the normal way.

More recently came the Scarab Maxim, which uses the normal clutch and gearbox with a mechanical PTO for the fan, but still using the single chassis engine principle.

Maintaining Scarab's technical advances is the latest hydrostatic drive machine, the Scarab Monic, with infinitely variable road speed for city work.

Initial development has been based on an Isuzu chassis cab which is only two metres wide, saving 200mm over most 7.5 tonners. The engine drives a pump which supplies sweeper services and the hydraulic motor which replaces the gearbox and clutch.

I am convinced that any investigation into the use of rebated fuel will spell the end for the twin engine sweeper. Other advantages of the single engine include one tonne greater payload, and more space in the hopper, because you have no donkey engine, cooling system or extra diesel tank.

Meeting targets
The Scarab philosophy indeed translates directly the task that Government has set manufacturers to ensure that operators have available vehicles that are:

• more fuel efficient
• less polluting
• quieter
• less resource intensive

It is an important fact that the majority of road sweepers individually have more impact on local urban air quality as their operating pattern is focused on towns and cities.

Given that air quality problems are concentrated locally the case for operating 'single' engined sweepers is very strong, particularly when the units can be used predominantly in urban areas.

Scarab has established a complete range of truck-mounted road sweepers that have low environmental impact, particularly in respect of exhaust emissions, without any compromise in their roadsweeping performance.