Developing bodies
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A look at some of the latest, for chickens and telephones for example
Besco bodies for Southern BRS
A NOVEL design of distribution body is going into service with BRS Southern at its Bedfont Branch. This is the EurowalL for which Besco Bodies of Northampton has the UK manufacturing rights. The design originates from Ransoier and Jenser of Switzerland.
There are two versions being built; a 24ft long two sliding door design mounted on Volvo F6 and F7 rigids and a 28ft three sliding door semi-trailer on Crane Fruehauf chassis.
The main merit of these bodies is that they offer an interior load width of 2,440mm, thereby permitting two Europallets to be loaded side-by-side. This load width results from the Eurowall concept. The sliding doors do not run on tracks on the vehicle deck. They employ a hanging mechanism on the top rail. By use of a lever — on the vehicle's nearside, half way down the body just below floor height, the door is lowered so that it hangs freely and can be slid easily alongside the other door.
The side doors are each made of special grp panels in which a filling of polyurethane foam is sandwiched by plywood and skinned with glass fibre, reinforced (through the foam) with aluminium tubes and a wooden surround. They are 30mm thick and the construction offers insulation for the load carried. The rear of the body is enclosed by an up and over Henderson roller shutter.
Some of the rigids are equipped with demountable body equipment by McDonald Cane of Nottingham which uses hydraulics and folding legs for mounting and demounting.
The semi-trailers can be quickly converted, by the use of a dolly, for drawbar trailer operation. The overall aim of the operation is to make it as flexible as possible.