Like building a real truck, just bite-sized … such is the level of craftmanship that’s been put into this ride-on mini-Scania and, especially, its custom semi-trailer by Nationwide Stock Crates.
In 2020, Heikell Transport of Whakatane unveiled the latest addition to its fleet – a mini-Scania in company colours. The internet quickly got very excited as pictures and videos began to circulate.
Heikell’s Debbie Benner saw these Scania and Mercedes-Benz licenced ride-on mini-trucks, made by Scaled Rigs in Ireland, on Facebook and made contact to see if she could get one to New Zealand.
“We were the first to get one here. He’s sold a few out here since then,” Debbie says.
The attention to detail is impeccable.
When it arrived, it was just a bare white cab with the Scania details (lights, grille and window stickers). As it does for all HTL trucks, Diverse Graphics in Whakatane did the signwriting – based on fleet No.16, an S650 8×4 known as ‘Legend II’.
“They reckoned it took nearly as long to do the graphics for the little one as the big ones,” Debbie says.
Coastline Auto Electrical in Whakatane, another trusted HTL commercial partner, did the lighting.
But one thing was missing. HTL is a North Island livestock carrier, and the mini-Scania (HTL1, by the way) was missing a set of crates.
Kid-friendly controls
“When we introduced everyone to it, Nigel Gordon of Nationwide Stock Crates said straight away that it needed a trailer. He offered to build it – and it’s been his little pet project,” says Debbie. “It’s been a real collaborative effort!”
The Scania’s equipped for it, so why not? It features a functioning fifth wheel, and its CAD-designed stainless-steel chassis and axles, and 24V motor and chain-driven transmission, are more than up to the task.
In his spare time, Nigel designed and constructed the trailer, applying the same attention to detail and focus on quality as to any build that comes out of Nationwide’s Mount Maunganui workshop. With scale dimensions supplied by Scaled Rigs, Nigel mapped out what was needed, and the result is pretty much an exact downscaled crate.
Henry, 8, backs his rig into its bay.
“We tried to build the chassis rails the same. Although we haven’t used all the extrusions we would use in a real crate, we tried to keep the same shape but in a smaller version,” Nigel explains.
The entire 2.9m trailer unit is built from aluminium. Nigel built up a kingpin plate and a system to allow the kingpin to be easily replaced if needed. Stub axles were also designed. (Scaled Rigs supplied the wheels and pneumatic six-ply tyres to match the truck.) There are no suspension components.
The trailer’s electrical work was done onsite, and the unit was painted by subsidiary Nationwide Transport Refinishers.
Marley, the Burnese Mountain Dog, is seven-months old and two-thirds of her 45-50kg adult weight – or nearly as big as the mini rig.
“It was a matter of thinking ahead the whole time. We had to think of kids all the time – we don’t want them to cut themselves. So everything has radius corners, nothing is sharp – just as in a real crate.
“The result is what we try to do day-to-day here. We’re constantly looking at what we’re doing, trying to work out what the best scenario is, and we tried to reflect that into this little trailer,” Nigel says.
There’s even an NZS5413 stock crates compliance plate and the rego, 1HTL.
