Intelligence for All Wheel Drive - Haldex

to get a kit of parts,” says Gerd Bär. “We also got rid of the
need for welding – fi rst because welders are rare and expensive
and second because you then need to treat the joint
with new rust-proofi ng. All you have to do with our lifts is
drill some holes and screw them on.”
In addition to FreeAccess, Bär has the usual full-width
tailgate lift and a series of lifts that retract underneath the
chassis, so that they don’t interfere when trucks are driven
up to a loading bay or when they are being unloaded by a
forklift truck. Top of the line is the all-hydraulic Hydfalt, a
double-folded lift in which the retracting, folding and lifting
mechanisms are all hydraulically operated. Many of the
products with up to 1.5 tons carrying capacity use Bär’s 2=4
technology, where two cylinders (one for lifting and one for
tilting) replace the usual four, saving cost and weight.
Haldex is the sole supplier of the hydraulic system for
Bär’s products. Gerd Bär says that Haldex is one of only two
characteristics. Rolf Petermann-van den
Berg Gerd, Bär GmbH’s commercial director,
notes that Bär is market leader for lifts on
secondhand trucks in Greece, even though
until recently Bär didn’t have a dealer there.
The trucks with the lifts were being sold from
Germany.
In the UK, column lifts seem to be standard,
and operators are not inclined to fit Bär’s cantilevered
lifts to their new trucks because of
cost. But there is a good market in retrofits,
where price seems not to be such an issue.
In Poland, it is very often the vehicle dealers
who have the main say in which lifts are to be
fitted. Petermann says that causes problems,
since Bär wants to be sure of the quality of
the fitting. So the company has its own teams
do the work, to avoid the risk that a dealer
who is inexperienced will give Bär a bad name.
In the German market, there are three typi-
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cal scenarios: “The simplest situation for us is
when the vehicle body builder has a couple
of suppliers, and we’re No. 1,” says Petermann.
“Then, when a customer comes, he will be
advised to take our lift.”
But that doesn’t always happen: “Sometimes
the end user will insist on a particular
product,” Petermann says. “That occurs
mostly among the big food retailers or
the vehicle hire companies. Many of
the big companies buy their lifts
directly from us. We deliver them to
the bodywork manufacturer, but the
invoice goes to the end user.”
Increasingly now, however, vehicle
makers are cutting out the vehicle
body builders and offering complete
solutions off the shelf. “That’s changing
the market,” says Petermann.
Bär’s main partners are still the vehicle body
FreeAccess only covers one of the double doors at the
back of a transporter, and doesn’t have to be lowered
when the driver only wants to get in and out of the van.
companies that produce the quality his company needs,
and he adds, “Haldex has been around longer and has better
experience with the electrical side.” Bär has designed its
own compact unit that fi ts neatly into the main supporting
beam, so that it is protected from the elements. Haldex will
make 80 percent of the units, while Bär will make the other
20 percent from Haldex components. “We have about 80
versions of our hydraulic unit,” explains Gerd Bär, “but 20
of them make up 80 percent of our output. So we will make
the other 20 percent. That gives Haldex a good throughput,
and we can do the small jobs.”
BÄR HAS NEVER BEEN the cheapest lift manufacturer,
but Rolf Petermann says you have to see the total picture.
“Our lifts take less time to install, and they probably spend
less time in the workshop afterwards,” he says. “If you’ve
�
taken that into account, the total cost is equivalent. In
builders, however. Most of its lifts go to small
firms that are best served by local suppliers,
and that means that Bär is not dependent on
any one customer. “If a big customer drops
out, it would hurt,” says Petermann, “but it
wouldn’t break us.” �
Bär sends a specialized
team to help vehicle
dealers ensure the
quality of the lift
fittings.
1/2007 Haldex Dynamix 9