PUT UP AND SHI
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Sheeting is time consuming and dangerous but it has to be done if you're not going to cause a nuisance to other road users or harm the environment. The standard tarpaulin is the most common method of covering up, but there are other mechanical systems on offer. We list the main suppliers and look at what's on offer this year...
There are very good reasons why you should cover your load, particularly if you're hauling commodities like quicklime, powders, sand or dusty aggregate. Allowing it to blow around can harm other road users and generally damage the environment.
And if you're carrying pre-heated asphalt or other bituminous loads they have to be covered by insulated sheeting in order to discharge the material. Sheeting a load using a traditional tarp can take anything up to 20 minutes and it can be fraught with danger in rough weather. Accidents when climbing on, off or along loads are commonplace. In the 12 months to April 1996 the Health & Safety Executive recorded 75 sheeting mishaps, leaving one driver dead and 34 seriously injured.
To avoid becoming a statistic use a drivethrough platform or gantry—most quarries have them—or ask another driver for help. But there are a number of mechanical devices on the market which will take only a few seconds to cover your load, saving 15 minutes a trip without having to clamber up into the danger zone. Of course its something else to maintain, and the loader's bucket can cause damage, but they do save time.
Underfloor tipgear protagonist Harsh offers three time-saving top-sheet systems.
The basic Roll 'n' Go roll-over cover with front and rear flaps rolls from one side to the other via a long crank handle, supported on two or three inner hoops along the body top.
To handle difficult loads, and to save time sheeting, Harsh offers the Flip 'n' GO system. It operates via a frame that pivots under spring pressure centrally on the body sides to raise and lower the sheet along the body.
The sheet settles over awkward lumpy loads and the side flaps secure to the sides to prevent muck escaping. The whole operation is said to take around 10 seconds Perhaps the slickest of the three Harsh products is the Slide 'n' Go, which runs front to rear between raised body bow ends. The sheet retracts from the front and runs on cables linked by pulleys at each end. The tarp is then cranked from the front using a cog-and-chain arrangement, either manually or electrically.
Prices range from £950 for the Roll 'n' Go to £2,250 for the Slide 'n Go.
For a view of all three sheeting systems take a stroll around this week's RHA Tipcon exhibition where no fewer than 10 tippers will be equipped with Harsh equip.
ment. Peter Hiscock's Foden 4000 Series 8x4, for example, will have an electric Slide 'n' Go cover on its PPG aluminium body, along with Harsh underfloor gear, load cells and auto-lube systems.
US origins
Another tarp with US origins is the Pulharp, marketed by UK supplier Drum Engineering as the Drum Sheet. It's part of a range that fits in a box over the bow and simply pulls out and rolls back automatically. There's said to be a tarp for any application.
Pull Tarp has also launched the Super Slider Bow System for trailers. It runs back to front on sliding ribs and wipes
ALIA the top rail clean as the tarp extends.
This cable-operated design can be hand cranked or moved into position by electric motor.
One of the UK's largest manufacturers of mechanical sheeting systems, and indeed a pioneer of such covers, is Flexcon of Thirsk.
It has a wide enough range of products to satisfy just about any customer. Many of its covers are in service overseas, as far afield as Africa and Japan. Managing director Robin Ferguson says: "Flexcon's great strength is in helping our operators overcome real problems." The most recent addition to Flexcon's line-up is the Front-to-Back sheet which has side screens to cut out leakage. A version is available for dropside tippers. The system can be operated manually or electrically and runs in tracking in the body sides.
One of Flexcon's Roll Tarps will be on view at Tipcon on a Leyland Daf 85.330 eight-legger run by Hills Building Materials of Barnsley with a George Neville Samsonlite aggregate body.
Shouldered sheet
Flexcon's Sidewinder IN can be operated left to right or vice versa; the range also includes a shouldered sheet for flatbed vehicles and two insulated versions for covering potatoes and vegetables. One is simply air insulated; the other is specially lined to protect potatoes against frost. "The last thing the growers want is to have their crops blighted," says Ferguson, "so the latter is quite popular at the moment" Dawbarn & Sons' Evertaut sheeting factory is close to the Wishech heartland of aluminium tipper body manufacturing. The company's most recent design is the Front-toRear sheet which lifts over a heaped load and seems well suited for aggregates and muckaway work.
Dawbarn also supplies large numbers of its standard Evertaut Rollover cover to carriers of animal feed, grain and sugar beet as well as to general hauliers.
The Clearspan Rollover, which has a neat winding centre-pole arrangement, is aimed at the aggregates and tarmac tipper market but it can be adapted for general work too. With hygiene regulations focussing foodstuff manufacturers' attention on contamination-free transportation, the Clearspan system is attracting a lot of interest The sheet rolls from the centre and is left tight against the body ends and sides to keep the weather out and the load in. Prices range from £900 for the Front-to-Rear to £1 ,000 for a Clearspan.
Dawbarn reports increasing interest in its insulated sheeting, particularly from Tarmac, which has a new type of insulated body from PPG on show at Tipcon. Tarmac has been busy with thermal imaging tests to check on the vehicles heat retention properties—it plans to reveal its findings at Harrogate.
Relative newcomer
Transcover Systems is a relative newcomer where sheeting is concerned: it imports the Donovan system from the US and "anglicises" it at its Ryarsh, Kent base. Its latest 9000U bolt-on upand-over system uses round arms that are galvanised to resist rust and curved to give machine loaders extra clearance. There's extra pressure on the sheet in the rear position and the arm return springs are positioned under the floor to reduce the overall width.
With a heavy-duty switch and electric motor the 9000U costs 1,099. By June it will be joined by the 2000SR which has a scissor-lift to raise the housing nearly a metre above the load. Transcover also has two new covers for the roll-on/off waste market.
The 2000 hooklift fits on the lift arm. As the vehicle reverses to the container the sheet is pulled from its housing and over the load, allowing the driver to sheet up while the container is on the ground.
Transcover's other new device is the High-Tower, which fits on a frame between the lift hook and the cab. The cover housing raises hydraulically via a batterypowered pump and the sheet is pulled out or retracted with the container on the chassis. Neither the 2000 hooklift nor the High-Tower have side arms so they are less likely to be damaged when pulling containers on board.
The Boughton Group's best seller is its Kwikcova for roll-on containers up to 40yd3 (30.6m3). Attached to a mast behind the cab, the sheet pulls over the box on two arms whose pivots retract for travelling at the 2.5m CM] width limit.
Norba equipment manufacturer Partek Cargotek also supplies the US-made Pioneer pullover cover for containers.
Neville Transport produces the Raitex Autocover for truck and trailer bodies, or indeed any open-topped container.
The sheet runs on raised profiles at each end of the body and can be pneumatically powered using an air motor fed from the vehicle supply. The control switch can be fitted in the cab or at any point on the chassis. The cover opens within the bulkhead height which is increased by around 12in (305mm). It can also be operated manually, using a long winding handle.
Open toppers
Tipper manufacturer Rothdean of Cinderford, Glos produces its own roll.over sheets for open-toppers that wind across the top of the body "a bit like the old sardine-tin principle", says salts manager Nigel Green, Rothdean makes two versions. One is a simple cover which the driver rolls sideways over the load using a short handle while standing in the front platform.
The other system features fixed radiussed arches front and rear with a canopy that winds side-to-side from ground level. All that required is a long detachable handle which is fitted with universal joints for working at any angle The handle stows down the side of the chassis.
Rothdean will displaying several versions of its sheeting systems at Tipcon.
Ill by Bryan Jarvis