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27th March 2003, Page 49
27th March 2003
Page 49
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Page 49, 27th March 2003 — 1 1 1 T O P OWER $
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Keywords : Truck

EETS

Slinging a tarpaulin over the top may be the most cost-effective way to cove your load but powered sheeting systems have many advantages.

powered sheeting systems on tippers or skip trucks may seem an expensive option. After all, you can just sling a cheap tarpaulin over your load.

However, sheeting systems can be operated either from the cab or at ground level, they save time and they keep you safe and dry, so they have to be worthy of consideration.

Companies like Lefarge and Hanson. for example, do all they can to keep drivers in their cabs in order to reduce the risk of accidents on their sites. In the same way, powered body sheeting systems are seen as a way of discouraging drivers from walking around or clambering over their vehicles.

In the present 'compensation climate', hauliers, construction firms and quarries are taking strong health and safety views, and are laying down strict guidelines.

However, for the hard-up owner-driver, shelling out up to 12,00o for an automatic rollover system may seem a step too far, especially when compared to the cost of a standard throw-over tarpaulin.

So what does a sheeting system offer that justifies the extra expense? Improved safety is the most important—hand-balling a tarp in bad weather is potentially dangerous—but it is also timeconsuming, taking up to ten minutes each time.

Saving that amount of time on some contracts might give you an extra load a day—or several each week—which would make the average sheeting system pay for itself within the first year.

lf cash flow is a problem, man

ufacturers like Dawbarn or Transcover offer financing packages to help truck owners pay for the sheeting system, whether it's for a new truck or for a refit job.

HAZARDOUS WORK Historically, covering loose, dusty or smelly loads on trucks, trailers. containers or even skips was a laborious and hazardous job.

The driver would have to clamber onto the vehicle and draw an old tarpaulin from the headboard over the load to the back, and then dismount and rope it down.

This method was impractical and drivers often hurt themselves. As the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) became involved, operators and manufacturers were forced to consider safer sheeting methods. One major improvement was the advent of sideways winding covers, operated either by a long handle from ground level, or simply wound across while standing on a platform behind the cab. Sonic versions rolled across using electro-mecha nical power and a variety of cables, pulleys, sprung roller bars and in-cab switches.

Even better are the latest generation of tipper-body covers, which attach to U-shaped frames that sheet the load from front to rear.

Manually, electromechanically or even electro-hydraulically powered, the canopy rolls up or unravels using controls fitted beside the body or in the cab.

To get a better appreciation of such systems we visited manufacturer Tran cover in Swanley, Kent to watc one of its roll-back covers bein mounted.

HOW IT WORKS Transcover's 90= Premitn uses underbody springs that tei sion the galvanised steel frarr arms. These are cocked dow 3eat the ends, to give full boc opening and to create enoug down force to prevent lift whe travelling with a load.

An extruded aluminium roll( bar fitted across the front is slo ted to take the end of the tan Before loading, this is rolled u by an electric motor (or ham cranked) and, as the arms hint forward, the springs tension prl gressively.

Once loaded, the motor (c crank) unrolls the sheet th; allows the springs to tilt the &an: arms rearwards, thus coverin the load.

Designed for muckaway aggregate use, the 9000 can 1: vulnerable to frontal loadin damage on demolition or heavyduty work.

To avoid this, Transcover has designed a Gold version that has its roller bar pivoting forward over the revised front bulkhead, out of harm's way.

We watched two of Thompson Transcover Systems' specialised fitters, Charlie Hartley and Shawn Tibbs, mount a standard 9000 sheeting system to one of Day Aggregates' newest Volvo Fli2 8m tippers.

Working as a team, the talented twosome can fit the Premium package within a working day, but it's by no means as easy they make it look.


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