Mansfield's fleet to the Rescue

On the 18th of August 2008 at 05:47am The Mansfield Groups operational centre received a call from Greater Manchester Police department for their heavy rescue team to attend a major incident on the M60 Manchester city ring road.

The incident itself involved a 75 ton heavy lifting mobile crane which had come to rest on its side on an embankment, partially blocking the motor way. Thankfully the driver only suffered minor cuts and bruises.

The Mansfield Group’s Chairman, Darrell Mansfield, was first to attend the scene making the initial assessment as to the equipment and team he would require to perform the recovery successfully and without causing any further damage to the road surface.

Due to the sheer weight and position of the vehicle, the decision was made to use three Century 1060S rotators and a single Recoverer Trident to perform the recovery. The team would consist of Darrell Mansfield as Incident Manager, Brett Mansfield, Lee Mansfield and Anthony Weaver operating the three Century rotators, Peter Stroud operating the Recoverer Trident and Paul Earles & Michael Bowen operating a 4 axle Boniface Lowslide recovery trailer which would finally transport the casualty away from the scene. With peak travel time closing in fast, the Highways Agency Traffic Officer made the decision to delay the recovery until 11.00am.

In preparation for the motorway being closed, the Mansfield Group’s heavy rescue team rigged the casualty putting the necessary lifting chains and strops into place. The 4 recovery vehicles were also rigged with the necessary snatch blocks that would enable the lift to take place. It was agreed that the best way to lift the crane was to perform a reverse roll.

At 11:00am the Highways Agency closed the motorway. Mansfield Group’s team positioned their vehicles enabling them to lift the crane onto its wheels, winch it off the embankment and onto the hard shoulder in a single operation. With this manoeuvre performed exactly as planned, the casualty was in an ideal position for the Lowslide trailer to load and transport it back to their Manchester depot.

The motorway was re-opened at 11:55am.

  JD's Recovery Service of Cork's New CENTURY

JD's Recovery Service of Cork have just added this Renault 12t GVW Crew Cab to their expanding fleet of recovery vehicles operating out of a base in Ireland. John Dalton with his wife and daughter Keely took the truck over to the Ireland Assist show in Athlone where we were able to demonstrate the low loading angle that the Century has when combined with the air suspension of the Renault.

  Avro show 2008.

Boniface singing in the rain after Avro show wash out!

The Avro show took place at the Marriot hotel in Leicester, a completely different location from last years show in Dublin .

The three day show began on Friday the 5th of September at 10.am with a weather warning for severe flooding, however even with this gloom hanging over our heads it didn’t stop the positive team attitude.

The team comprised of seven people and 17 Boniface trucks and one hospitality bus.

Customers Pic’n mix at the show!

When you take vehicles to the Avro show you don’t expect to be changing the specifications of them at the actual show ground, this year we took  two Champion beds one on a Mitsubishi the other on a Renault Midlum, each had a different type of second car lift, we have two versions, a L arm system and a turnable spec type.

Eamon Kelly of KFG, one of Dublin ’s premier operators wanted to buy the Midlum but he wanted the lift system fitted to the Mitsubishi, knowing that the two systems are interchangeable he offered to change them on the show stand!

Two teams went to work, one team from the north west of England the other from Ireland and assisted by Josh of Hough Green Garage. Both teams worked very hard to swap these two booms over. The task was completed within an hour, interestingly the team from the Northwest were the quickest but were fortunate enough to have a trolley jack!!

After a lot of hard work and young Josh securing his future in the recovery industry, Eamon got the specification he required and drove the truck home to Ireland .

After a successful change over and everybody ready to relax after some hard work. It was time for some evening entertainment.

With the evening sponsored by Boniface them selves the evening was looking to be a great success. All attending were given free Boniface t-shirts for them wear to promote the company when ever they can.

The evening started with a casual buffet meal and music. The evening’s entertainment was an Irish fiddling group Peter and Rory and seemed to be a great hit with all who attended.

With the evening drawing to a close one group of people decided to end the evening with something to remember. Eamon Kelly of KFG and Alan Sherwood of Irish towing services decided to do the full Monty.

This was encouraged by many members of the recovery industry. As the pounds went up the more chance there was for Eamon to strip down.

So with the money well into the thousands the music started the lights went down and the show began. Slowly but surely like a true professional Eamon's clothes were off. Then the lights came on and there he was baring all to a crowd of cheering fans.

It’s not yet confirmed how much Eamon raised that night, but I am sure the organisers of the benevolent fund were very grateful to receive such a grand donation.

CP COMMERCIALS SCRAMBLED

Adrian of CP Commercials has recently sent us some examples of the type of jobs he experiences in and around Dublin . This job was a Canter full of eggs which had rolled, CP were scrambled and took their Recoverer Plus which Adrian rigged for a controlled end roll, the truck was gently maneuvered to upright and then gently poached onto the lifting bar to get fried home. One thing we noticed is that CP’s truck has gone up in value since they added the Boniface logo’s!

  M8 STRENGTHEN THEIR HEAVY RECOVERY CAPABILITY

Alex McManus one of the driving forces behind the successful Glasgow based recovery operators M8 has ordered two new heavy recovery vehicles to strengthen the companies ability to respond to new business they are securing in the Glasgow area, this is seen as an expansion to their business and demonstrates the success of M8 in a competitive market. The choice of equipment and chassis suitable to satisfy this companies requirements is not huge so competition between manufacturers who make recovery equipment provides purchasers some good deals, in fact this is a good time to be in the market for a heavy recovery unit.

M8 chose Boniface as there supplier, and ordered two Recoverer Tridents which will be installed onto Mercedes and Daf 6x2 chassis, both will have stainless steel deluxe bodies custom built to provide the good looking appearance that is synonymous with Boniface products and when painted and sign written will become flagships for the M8 business as they operate around their patch.

Boniface were selected by Junior, as Alex McManus is also known, not only because of the beautiful trucks they build but because they provide long low underlifts, powerful booms and winches, service on site, technical experience based on many years building recovery equipment and he knows they are nice people to deal with. The vehicles will be commissioned early in 2009 and will feature in some of the Boniface displays next year.

DUNSMORE CHOOSE BONIFACE

If Jack Dunsmore was alive today he would be extremely proud of the MAN and Interstater that was built for Myra Dunsmore to replace some of the older machinery of the fleet she continues to operate today. The specification of the outfit was detailed by Jim Relton the operations manager who needed a truck that met with the demands of a busy operation located in Larkhall just south of Glasgow , and would also attract attention to the company by changing the livery from its traditional yellow to a metallic blue.

The MAN TGA 26.440 has a 9 tonne front axle, a 25 tonne bogie and a train weight of 80 tonnes, all this data adds up to a chassis that was built for recovery operation, the equipment is the Boniface Interstater 6H, a powerful lifting machine with the low profile long reaching boom. The product has twin 30,000lb winches and outboard rear legs which are angled for even greater stability, hook back points are provided at the rear on both the back plate and the fairleads, with an extra low winch facility on the foot of the rear leg.

Boniface use only stainless steel in the construction of their custom bodies which provides a corrosion free base to a locker system that operates in one of the harsher environments in the UK, the M74 will often be gritted due to the inclement weather this area experiences in the winter, so it was high on Jim’s list of priorities that he chose this style of body.

BONIFACE SENDS ANOTHER UNIT ABROAD

With the Dollar low and the Euro high there have been good opportunities to sell the products of Miller Industries through their UK outlet, Boniface Engineering in Thetford. The UK based company well known for the design and manufacture of the INTERSTATER and RECOVERER range of heavy recovery equipment can supply, from the vast range of Miller products, equipment either mounted on US chassis, similar to the Ford F350 featured above, or equipment in kit form to be installed by others.

The equipment is supported by Boniface’s service network which extends across Europe, there are a number of Miller distributors across the continent who are available to service the products, the Ford chassis are available with an export pack which extends the chassis warranty outside of the USA . The F350 illustrated is the export specification, this includes alloy wheels and a speedometer in kilometers.

For more details of these or other Miller products call Boniface for the latest equipment availability

ORDERED IN FLORIDA IN APRIL, DELIVERED IN TELFORD IN JUNE

Michael Germaine of Baltinglass Towing in Ireland visited the European Tow Show held in Telford at the end of June to collect the Ford F450 that he had ordered at the Florida Tow Show in April, a remarkably good delivery time when you add the transportation time from the USA to the UK .

Boniface have been supplying these Fords fitted with a variety of equipment supplied by their parent company, Miller Industries, this one is fitted with the Century 312, a twin winch boom with the Express grid particularly useful for a fast recovery, Baltinglass specified a tow sling to be added as an option, this feature enables them to collect severely damaged cars that might not be easily towed on the wheel grid.

Michael Boniface devoted a long time to trying to secure this deal, as this customer, in fact most customers Michael deals with, drive a hard bargain, the rare picture of him published handing over the truck is recognition of the pleasure it was to concluding this business. 

FAREWELL TO JOHN FITZPATRICK

This is the group of recovery vehicles being assembled in line to escort the vehicle carrying John Fitzpatrick to his funeral; vehicles came from all over Ireland to take part in the procession which is testament to the respect he had within the recovery industry

Miller introduce new front stabiliser legs 

A new front stabilizer leg was demonstrated at the Florida Show in April, this is an option and available in either two or three stage extension. The three stages increase the width of the spread on the ground to 264”! The leg is angled at 3 ½ degrees specifically to cope with camber on the road.

Boniface can now offer 5 types of forward front outriggers, the standard which is unchanged, the two new lengths of under slung leg, the Sumo leg, and the XP850 leg.