Multidrive
From Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki
Multidrive was founded by David J Brown to develop a concept of all wheel drive for Semi-highway trucks after this ADT building company DJB (later called Artix) which was sold to Caterpillar. He later bought the former Bedford trucks business and renamed it as AWD. The company was a division of the Brown Group. The company was based in Thirsk,[1] but is now in Andoversford, Gloucestershire.
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[edit] History
Multidrive Ltd was original formed in 1983 by its Managing Director, David J B Brown, as a division of the Brown Group of Companies - which also included BDE Ltd, Artix Ltd and DJB Ltd. When the DJB and Artix operations were sold to Caterpillar in 1996 the Multidrive operation was retained.
The Multidrive concept was first tried with a heavy duty version of Articulated lorry tractor units and a permanently fixed trailer fitted with driven boggie to give a 10x8 drive truck. The Idea was developed for an Army logistics contract in the late 1990's but was not taken up initialy.
[edit] MOD Supply Contract
The MOD latter tendered an Urgent Supply requirement contract for support vehicles and Fuel tankers to operate in Kosova. Which was won by Multidrive due to the short lead time and performance requiremts. The Experience gained when running AWD (Formerly Bedford Commercial vehicles) had paid dividends as they were experienced in suppling the Goverment with vehicles.
The firm built a fleet of trucks for the army at there facility in Thirsk, which was expanded to cope.[2]
[edit] New Developments
After a four-year research, development and testing programme the robust M8-35 tractor/trailer unit and the 35 tonne capacity Multi Load Ejector (MLE) body, capable of a 15 second safe, controllable ejection, was launched. Examples were used on a Road building contract in Scotland were the longer haul routes and the creation of the sub-base formed a suitable high speed route from the source of crushed material to the sites requiring fill and crushed road stone to form the pavement base layers.[3]
The Death of the founder David J Brown in 2004 in a road accident near his home in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, at the age of 74 had a devastating effect on the company.[4] With this loss of the driving force behind the idea the company faltered. A move to Gloucester failed to halt the decline, and in February 2006 the receivers were called in.[5]
[edit] Rebirth
The Kelland Group rescued the firm, as it fitted in with their Sprayers business and had decent user base for its spare parts operation which fitted with their other business interests. They paid about £150-180,00o for the parts operation and stock and design rights. They then found the firm had developed a developed a hybrid cross between a truck and a tractor similar to a Unimog for on-off highway applications like spreaders and sprayers. They had orders for 3 machine for Carrot haulage in Australia.[6]
Kelland had previously bought the Chaffer sprayers business in 2004, and the two operations complement each over in some areas, with the chaffer sprayer uints fitting onto the modern Mulitidrive Chassis, in place of adapted tractor skid units.
Mulitidrive sold about 20 units in the previous year and Kellands hope to double that over time.[7]
[edit] Model range
[edit] Early models
- 10X8 Bulk tippers for quarry/mine work
- Military logistics support vehicles
- 8x8 Trucks
- 8x8 Taanker fleet for Kosova
- Multidrive M8-35 - Off highway 8x8 35 ton capacity Multi load Ejector system (No tip dumping). 55mph top speed
- Multidrive M8-40 - Off highway 8x8 No tip articulated bulk (MLE) body, powered by a 450 hp Caterpillar C15 engine, driving a Allison Transmissions[8]
[edit] Current models
- Multidrive 4140 - On-off highway 4x4 chassis units, 140 hp John Deere Engines, ZF transmission.[9]
- Multidrive 6185 - On-off highway 4X4 chassis cab units, 185 hp John Deere engine, ZF transmision.[10]
- 6x6 transport tractors with demountable bodies for Australian Carrot producer.
- 6x6 Mine clearance tractor(s) for the Halo trust. (a charity that works in former war zones to clear mine fields up, so agriculture can restart and stop people being blown up).[11]
[edit] See also
- List of Truck Manufacturers
- List of Construction Plant Manufacturers
- Special Purpose Machines
- Specialist truck builders
- Special Purpose Tractors
- Artix
- AWD
[edit] References / sources
- Other related articles
- Photo above
- ↑ Construction Equipment Association report from 2001
- ↑ Sovereign Publications Advertorial feature (publication date ?)
- ↑ Earthmovers Magazine Vol.1 No.2
- ↑ Classic Machinery Network post copy of CN news article (Link un available to original)
- ↑ Farmers Weekly Receivers called in at Multidrive
- ↑ Farmers Weekly News report Kelland Rescue Mulitdrive
- ↑ Farmers Weekly nes report from 2006
- ↑ Earthmovers Magazine Vol.1 No2
- ↑ Multidrive 4140 spec
- ↑ Multidrive 6185 spec
- ↑ [http://www.halotrust.org/ Halo trust.org
[edit] External links
- Multidrive Tractors.co.uk
- Multidrive.co.uk (Domain name currently for sale)
- The Halo Trust Mine clearance charity
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