News Page - J&J Conversions and the AA


Over the past 12 months J & J Conversions of Andover and the Automobile Association have been working closely together to produce a recovery vehicle to upgrade their existing fleet to reduce the AA’s carbon footprint.
They have not only looked at the carbon footprint but also looked at reducing whole life vehicle costs. Before going into full production J & J produced a one off vehicle for the AA to insure that no stone was left unturned. The objectives were to firstly reduce the carbon footprint, improve fuel economy, reduce whole life vehicle costs and the	complete vehicle must be 100% recyclable at the end of its life. The Managing Director of J & J Conversions Ltd, Richard Guy, said that :- “every aspect was looked at to achieve the ultimate aim”. The Aluminium Predator itself has been in service with the AA and with many large recovery operators throughout the industry	and has proved to be one of the most reliable products on the market with very little maintenance required. They have an excellent track record with the AA and the recovery industry and some vehicles in service have covered over a million miles, obviously this has given us an excellent footprint to start from.
			All service records of vehicles that have been in service for at least 5 years were looked at to see whether anything could be redesigned to reduce whole life vehicle costs to the end user. This was quite a difficulty challenge as the Aluminium Predator already has very low maintenance requirements, however every aspect of the product was looked at to see if any improvements could be made. We also have had many meetings with the customers to get their input to see if there is anything they would like introduced into the product not only to reduce the whole life vehicle costs, but also ease of use for the operator.

There were some excellent suggestions put forward which were incorporated into the new build. For instance the rear hydraulic control locker which is manufactured from stainless steel with slide away stainless steel door was increased in length to enable it to include a pair of slippery jims and leather work gloves, which means these two items are exactly where the driver needs them to start the recovery process as shown below.
	Another suggestion which was brought forward was to make the replaceable wear padsfully removable throughout the length of the sub frame without the need to remove the platform itself. This has now been redesigned into the New Predator. This will not only reduce servicing costs but almost totally eliminate any down time as the driver can replace them himself after several years use.	Many hours of development were spent to insure everything was covered. Shown below is the first vehicle off the production line which proved to be a massive success for all concerned. Once everything had been tested and signed off the vehicle went into service in November last year with instant excellent feedback. J & J Conversions Ltd have just received an order for 174 vehicles which is the largest single order for transporters ever placed by the AA.	The lion’s share of the order for the New Aluminium Predator will be based on Euro 5 12 tonne Renault Midlum Crew Cab and have already started to come off J & J’s production line. These vehicles will be coming off the J & J production line every week throughout 2009 and 2010. This order is just part of a five year contract between the AA and J & J Conversions.