Plastic choice for tippermen
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by Steve Banner • Mike Payne's latest party piece is bashing a section of plastic planking as hard as he possibly can. "And the hammer just bounces off without doing any damage," he grins.
As sales director of Kingswinford, West Midlandsbased Trent Industries, Payne is in charge of promoting the tipper bodybuilder and engineer's latest development: a lightweight tipper body incorporating hollow planks made from high-density polyethylene strengthened with GRP.
They won't rust, they're lighter than aluminium, they're recyclable, and they're colourimpregnated.
On the downside, they're dif• ficult to paint, and a shovel-full of hot tar is unlikely to do them any good. They're also vulnerable to gouging by sharp objects, but an alloy or stainless steel skin would protect them.
Trent managing director John Bayley got the idea after spotting a story in Commercial Motor about Envirodek's plastic planking. "It's ideal for stuff like mortar because although mortar tends to stick to most other materials, it just slides off the surface," he explains. "That's why we line the conventional tipper bodies we build that are going to carry mortar with poly
ethylene sheets." Those sheets are welded, so could the body also be welded, rather than held in a frame? "I suppose the day will come when we can get a strength weld into it," says Bayley, "but I suspect we'll be using mechanical fixings for some time to come."
This isn't the first time Bayley has made use of unusual materials. "I was the first bloke in the country to produce welded aluminium tipper bodies; that was at Richardsons of Oldbury," he says. "And in the late sixties/early seventies, again at Richardsons, we were making eight-wheeler tipper bodies out of glass-fibre, believe it or not."
Recyclers
Although it produces caged bodies for recyclers, and beaver. tailed flatbeds for the plant.hire sector, Trent is probably best known for its Steclite tipper bodies, which make extensive use of high-tensile steel. "On a six or eight-wheeler you're within 200-300kg of a conventional aluminium body with channels down the sides," says Bayley. "They're just over half the price, far stronger, and much more abrasion resistant."
Trent's 18 employees produce up to 250 bodies a year. The firm has also diversified into four-wheel-drive conversions since Mike Payne and his colleague Alan Evans joined Trent Industries from converter J Roberts three years ago.
The plastic body, mounted on a 4x4 LDV Convoy engineered by Trent, was on display at the recent Institute of Waste Management Show at Torbay.
Constructed independently of LDV, the 4x4 is equipped with Trent's own 1,750kg steer-drive front axle but retains LDV's braking system; Trent produces axles with capacities of up to 4.5 tonnes. A Steyr VG80 transfer box allows the driver to switch between two and fourwheel drive.
The conversion cuts the payload by 128kg, and is likely to cost L8,500-9,000.
Trent's engineers are more used to working on larger vehicles. They've built 4x4 versions of Leyland Daf's 45 and 55 Series, not to mention Leyland Comets—"We've done Comets which have ended up as glitters in the Falklands," says Payne— and they've converted Turkishbuilt BMCs which have been shipped to Third World countries such as Tanzania. They've produced 6xEs too.
engine," Payne reports.
The factory completed 44 conversions in 1997, equipped with Steyr transfer boxes. "Now we've got Convoy we're hoping to double that figure," says Payne.
Although many of the trucks work as gritters and snowploughs, one recently converted 45 Series is destined for a life as a mobile generator. "And we've done Comets which have gone to Uganda to help clear away water hyacinths which block streams and rivers," he adds.
Specification
A 17-tonner will typically cost L11,000-12,500 to convert, depending on the specification.
Trent also plans to market what Payne promises will be a "competitively priced" Italian. made hooklift, and it will be reintroducing a compactor designed for 7.5-10-tonne refuse collection vehicles.
But Bayley is particularly proud of a device called the UpN-Away-Gate, which automatically releases the rear tailgate on a tipper body prior to tipping.
Bodies are exported as well as 4x4s, despite the problems caused by the strength of sterling, The firm is currently working on four, fitted to Nee° Cargo chassis, each of which will incorporate a 10m hydraulic turntable ladder for the Pakistan Electricity Board.
An order for 30 more could now be in the pipeline, sanctions permitting.