RNLI drafts in Mercedes-Benz Actros to help launch its boats
The latest addition to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s specialist vehicle fleet is also its first heavy haulage tractor unit, a Mercedes-Benz Actros plated for Special Types operation at 72 tonnes gcw.
The Actros 2546 MegaSpace was delivered to the RNLI’s headquarters in Poole by local dealer Pentagon Commercials.
It works with a low-loader trailer and is used to deliver new boats weighing up to 27 tonnes apiece to lifeboat stations nationwide, or transport them to and from boatyards and other establishments for repair and maintenance. Items of heavy plant also pulled by the new rig can weigh as much as 35 tonnes.
“We were previously sub-contracting out our heavy vehicle and plant movements,” explains RNLI Transport Manager David Tidman, “so this new Mercedes-Benz will help us to increase efficiency and improve productivity.”
Another key role for the Actros entails transporting tractors to and from lifeboat stations nationwide – these tractors are used to launch and recover the RNLI’s lifeboats by towing the trailers on which they are carried, into and out of the sea.
Some launch and recovery tractors weigh only six tonnes, and the Actros can therefore transport two at a time while working within standard 44-tonne gross weight limits.
Others, though, are water-proofed and heavily plated to give them extra stability in rough seas. These marine-specification tractors weigh 20 tonnes each, so under Special Types provisions that require the load to be ‘indivisible’ only one can be carried at a time.
The high standard specification of the Actros includes the acclaimed Mercedes PowerShift 2 automated transmission, while SB Components International, of Wisbech, removed the RNLI vehicle’s standard 450-litre fuel tank and replaced it with two new ones with a combined total capacity of 810 litres.
The RNLI’s volunteer crews and lifeguards have saved more than 137,000 lives since its foundation in 1824. An independent charity, it relies on more than 40,000 volunteers, on lifeboats, at stations, on beaches and in fund-raising.
