Specialist Vehicles
No task has proved too large or complex
Cheshire-based VCL is one of the world's most progressive and innovative vehicle conversion companies - a true one-stop shop for customisation. Providing customer satisfaction is its top priority and many local councils, utility companies and even military authorities turn to VCL in search of specific adaptations and quality craftsmanship.
The following represents just a small part of VCL's work.
VCL goes world-wide
Becoming a global brand has provided Vehicle Conversions Ltd (VCL) with the opportunity to carry out a large number of major modifications to both small vans and heavyweight vehicles.
In a matter of a few years our growing reputation for solving transportation problems has led to new customers in exotic places, from oil-rich Libya and war-torn Iraq to holiday destinations in European countries such as Italy.
One of our first forays into the global marketplace came when we were asked to build a hi-tech 40-tonne mobile army command post for use on the perimeters of the vast Libyan desert.
This military vehicle has the ability to take troops out on missions for several weeks at a time and carry all the on-board facilities one might expect from a land base.
The sand-coloured trucks boast sophisticated tracking equipment designed to detect intruders.
In war-ravaged Iraq, vans specially adapted by VCL were purchased by the country's electricity board. They trundle backwards and forwards along the sand-strewn streets seeking out broken street lights and signs.
Meanwhile, vehicles designed at VCL's Cheshire headquarters carry sophisticated scanners for the authorities in Kazakhstan and Poland, seeking out hidden stashes of drugs, guns and contraband in smugglers' vehicles.
In Italy, VCL's shuttle vehicles are being used to ferry sightseers and holidaymakers to the location of summer walking tours.
Closer to home in the UK, vehicles modified by VCL are being put to a host of different uses.
One company approached us to construct a huge five-metre wide digital television screen onto a trailer unit. Like a roving cinema, it is designed to show major events such as the London Marathon and rock concerts to the public. The final cost of this conversion was far less than the original plan to use an articulated lorry for the purpose.
A London council wanted us to build a vehicle to detect crime in towns near the capital. Its secret weapon is a CCTV camera capable of turning through 360 degrees. This complements fixed, street-based cameras which only have a limited view.
We have also created roadside exhibition units, mobile road safety awareness centres and complete mobile drug and alcohol test centres.
Our company was behind the concept of creating 'standing room only' vehicles used by lorry drivers on Eurotunnel trains and even designed a vehicle with a periscope-style floodlight for an amateur football club in Derbyshire.
One of our largest vehicle conversions is based on a 7.5 tonne lorry and enables suspected illegal immigrants to be held while their identities are checked along England's south coast. This mobile detention centre contains a TV displaying a message in a number of languages, CCTV and an escape proof cage.
Perhaps VCL's oddest contract was for the addition of a three-metre tall 'spy' camera on the roof of a Smart car. This was used by staff working for National Car Parks when other fixed cameras were damaged by motorists determined to avoid buying parking tickets.
