The Telescopics Arrive 1959 - 1972

By the time F. Taylor and Sons joined Coles it had gained more than a decade of experience in hydraulic mobile cranes. It was in two of their machines which the Steel Group saw most potential: the Series 42, with 4 wheel drive; and the Series so, a general purpose mobile. Both machines had telescopic booms, and to both a considerable amount of design attention was given.

During the early 1960s a team of young hydraulic engineers joined the Sunderland design staff. They were brought in by Bob Lester, who had joined Coles at Derby in 1935 and was now Design Director. With his lifelong involvement in diesel electric technology Lester recognised the need for new minds on the subject, minds which knew hydraulics and could learn about cranes.

Between 1960 and 1966, Lester's team worked with the staff of Taylor to develop the hydraulic concept along three parallel lines. The first, and probably easiest to develop, was from the Taylor Series 50 machine. This small general purpose crane had a one man chassis mounted cab, with a telescopic boom extending to give 3~ ft height of lift. By 1962 this concept had been refined into the Taylor Jumbo (later Coles Hydra) Speedcrane.

This line of general purpose machines had been refined over the years since their introduction into some of the most popular machines of their type in the world. The characteristics of front wheel drive/rear wheel steer, which give it excellent manoeuvrability, compact overall dimensions and automatic hoist-rope compensation, have remained fundamental to the design of Speedcranes to the present day.

The second line of development in the use of hydraulics was their application to the fast travelling truck cranes which had developed enormously in popularity during the 1950s, particularly with the crane hire operators. By now, this was Coles' major market, and the need to ensure that a hydraulic truck crane met hirers' requirements was paramount in the company's ambitions for future growth.

One problem about which both hire companies and their customers had complained was the need to provide supplementary transport to carry jib sections for even small trucks. Before the introduction of hydraulic machines, some attempt had been made to circumvent this problem with the development, during the late 1960s, of `jib carriers'. As their name applies, these machines carry their full jib potential on the superstructure decking, and were designed to be entirely one man operated. These had proved extremely popular, and when the company came to apply hydraulics to truck cranes, it was to the jib carriers that design attention was turned.

During the early 1960s, hydraulic jib carriers were developed with capacities of 7, 8 and ii tons, with Taylor's hydraulic expertise wedded to the Sunderland designed chassis and superstructure. The name Hydra, which had been a Taylor trade name, was utilised for the machines, and remains the mark for all Coles hydraulic machines.

There were clearly limitations on how far the jib carrier system could be taken, and during 1965 the Coles design team began working on a telescopic boom crane for showing at the following year's Mechanical Handling Exhibition. This machine, the Coles Hydra Truck 10 T, used the chassis of the 11 ton strut jib crane with an entirely new superstructure and boom. It had many novel features. The boom telescoping was automatically synchronised (using a system devised originally for mining machines which Taylors had built during the 1950s) and for many years this remained a feature unique to Coles telescopics. In addition it had power extended outriggers, a considerable advance on the manual type previously fitted to all cranes.

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