An agricultural mechanic’s mobile workshop in a Ford Transit

New Zealand. Farmers who depend on machinery for their daily work need a good agricultural mechanic to perform scheduled services and to intervene quickly in the event of a fault or breakdown. Modern agricultural machines are incredibly sophisticated and need qualified professionals to service them. To carry out work at customers’ farms, any company providing a maintenance and repair service for agricultural machinery needs a properly fitted out van to transport all the spares, tools and equipment they need for the job.

This is where Syncro System comes into the picture! Syncro System can provide the perfect van racking system for professional agricultural mechanics. The photos on this page illustrate a racking system installed in a Ford Transit by one of Syncro’s dealers in New Zealand.

The phases of designing and installing a racking system for an agricultural mechanic’s Ford Transit

To design an efficient and effective racking system for an agricultural mechanic, you need to:

1. Define, with the customer, the requirements the vehicle has to fulfil
2. Design a configuration that provides maximum functionality in a minimum of space and with a minimum of weight
3. Protect the floor and bodywork of the van before starting to install the racking as such
4. Assemble all the cabinets and modules and fix them to the walls of the van
5. Add whatever accessories were requested at the design stage or identified later

Protecting the bodywork: the essential first step

Once the ideal racking configuration was identified, the Syncro installation team began the job of fitting out this agricultural mechanic’s Ford Transit by protecting the interior with cut-to-size liners. Syncro liners are all produced at Francom’s own factory in Veneto, Italy. (Francom is the parent company of the Syncro System group.) Lining panels in different materials protect the van’s bodywork against impact, humidity and the spillage of chemical substances.

In this particular case, of the many options available in the catalogue, Syncro’s installers and the customer chose a resinated plywood floor liner with a non-slip surface and painted steel body liners.

A Ford Transit for an agricultural mechanic: part workshop, part stores

To offer effective assistance to farmers, this Ford Transit needed to satisfy three key requirements:

• Plenty of closed compartments for carrying a stock of tools, spare parts and equipment
• Work surfaces large enough and well equipped enough to carry out minor operations in the field just as back at base;
• An autonomous source of power.

So let’s see how Syncro NZ satisfied these needs.

The Transit’s left side wall: the stores

The racking on the van’s left side wall consists of two adjacent columns. At the bottom are a wheel arch cabinet with a parallelogram action door and a cabinet with hooks and lashing straps for stowing tool cases. Above these is a series of metal drawers and closed shelves. At the top, a full length tray with rear access door provides the perfect storage for long items.

The Transit’s right wall: the travelling workshop

The right side of the van has been fitted out as a work area with everything the mechanic needs to do his job efficiently and safely. The racking starts with a closed wheel arch cabinet at the bottom. Above this are three metal drawers and four trays for metal cases. Over these, a resonated plywood top with raised edges serves as a work bench. A vice on a fold-away support is also provided at the back of the cabinets, facing the van’s rear doors.

The Transit’s bulkhead: autonomy on the road

Against the bulkhead between the load compartment and the cab, the Syncro team has installed all the equipment needed to make this agricultural mechanic fully autonomous under all logistic conditions. This area has been kitted out with a generator, a compressor and a compressed air tank.