January 17, 2018

«The Horton RCV250 fan drives have worked flawlessly and have solved a major issue for our fleet», Doug Walker – Parts Manager, Hansen & Adkins Auto Transport.

Horton recently released a new case study highlighting the solution for a customer in Jacksonville, Florida with over 1,100 auto haulers.

Hansen & Adkins serves 16 major auto manufacturers via 34 hubs. It covers all 50 states, as well as Canada and prides itself on having one of the newest, state-of-the-art fleets on the road. It is industry-recognized for excellence in safety, damage elimination, performance and more. Thus, when Hansen & Adkins’ Jacksonville hub brought a fan drive problem that they were experiencing with a non-Horton fan drive to the attention of Volvo’s Fleet Service Manager, Guenter Schlottmann, it started the process of finding a quick solution.

Hansen & Adkins’ Florida fleet had suffered progressive damage to their original equipment fan drives. The damage was caused by broken fan drive belts or failed tensioners during operation. The result was expensive downtime. The original fan drive on their truck consisted of a design that routes the control harness over the fan belt which leaves it exposed and prone to damage from frayed or broken drive belts. Belt and tensioner failures can be unpredicatable, if either fail, then the truck will be out of service. Replacing a belt is not a significant repair but when it damages the control harness on a non-integrated fan drive (fan drive and hub are individual components) it requires a full replacement, which significantly adds expense and repair time.

Horton’s RCV250 is designed such that the fan drive and drive hub are one complete assembly. Accordingly, the fan drive has an internal stationary control coil which eliminates the need for an extra bearing and allows for the control wires to be routed through the center of the fan drive and out the back. This design protects the control harness from damaged drive belts and provides maximum uptime and durability. They installed the RCV250 and Horton fan blades on two different trucks; one with a D11 engine and the other, a D13. In both cases, the RCV250 served as a plug-and-play (same ECU controls) for the original fan drive.

Since the installation in August of 2016, the RCV250 fan drives have been performing perfectly. Hansen & Adkins now uses the Horton RCV250 to repair any OEM fan drives that have suffered belt damage to avoid any future, related downtime.