61-tons trimmed off delivery fleet tare
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• A weight-trimming exercise by cost-conscious Scottish Gas has resulted in the unladen weight of their appliance delivery vehicles being reduced by about 3cwt per vehicle, a total weight-saving for the 45-van fleet of 6+ tons. This was achieved, in just over three weeeks, by swopping the. fleet's conventional steel tail-lifts for the all-aluminium lightweight units recently introduced by E. M. Wilcox Ltd, Peterborough.
Installation was carried out by Wilcox's "flying squad" of fitters at the fleet's Livingston, West Lothian, depot. After the first lift had been installed and approved, the team went through the rest of the fleet in just 24 days, making sure that no van was off the road more than a single working day Installed weight of the new 1-ton capacity tail-lift is 3+ cwt, including the complete hydraulic system and the power pack — in this instance, an electric unit run from the vehicle's batteries. The 7ft. wide, 3ft deep loading platform, constructed in all-welded aluminium, is operated by a vertical twin ram lifting technique that dispenses with cables and pulleys and eliminates the danger of uncontrolled platform descent.