Scania makes short work of tall order

A bespoke Scania P 410 has been built to solve the challenge of replacing wind turbine oils out in the field.

The one-off tanker was conceived by French company Maser Engineering and is said to cut maintenance times by 400 per cent.

Two years of research and design were needed to bring about this 'Swiss Army knife' of a truck: a Scania weighing 19 tonnes unladen with three steerable axles, a 12,000-litre tank separated into three compartments (for used and new oils), and a compartment fitted with a 600-litre heating tank, a power generator and a 120-metre double hose reel.

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"With this truck, an oil change can be done four times faster," says Maser Engineering business manager, Guillaume Allaire.

"Products have absolutely no contact with air. In short, operations are made safe and the risk of pollution is limited."

Maser Engineering hopes to gain a foothold in the French market with the new truck, which is assembled according to the 'short-circuit' principle.

"All participants, from Scania to the coachbuilder, are based in Pays de la Loire, in western France," says Allaire.

"We are involved in renewables and green energy, so sustainable construction makes sense to us.

"When we approached Scania, we felt that the project elicited their interest because of the technical sophistication of the truck, and the environmental focus of our work," he says.

The process works by driving the Scania to the base of the wind turbine tower. The 120m-long hoses are then hoisted up to the nacelle. One hose is then used to shift 500 litres of old oil into the 6000-litre recovery tank.

The new oil is then heated to 60 degrees C in the heating tank to reduce its viscosity and enable it to be pumped 80 metres up using the on-board hydraulic pump.

With wind-turbine farms expanding in number and scale in many Australian states and territories, this innovative and efficient Scania maintenance truck could well find a home in this part of the world too...