Next Week
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WE LOOK at some of those invaluable pieces of equipment that help you get the load onto and off the vehicle without incurring a hernia. They are not cheap but will pay for themselves with better productivity.
• Lorry-mouted cranes have become one of the most important pieces of add-on equipment in use today and can be seen operating in timber yards, building sites and in a variety of general delivery applications. Since our entry into the EEC the different types of both electric and hydraulic vehicle cranes available in Britain have increased. Next week Bryan Jarvis takes a look at those available.
• David Wilcox has been up the North West to see an operator who is using one of the larger lorry-mounted cranes on the market. While the crane was being fitted, he made one or two other alterations to the vehicle for maximum productivity ...
• Another piece of lorry-mounted equipment is the tail-lift. Market-leader Ratcliff will testify that competition is hotting up in this business and David Wilcox describes the latest addition in the shape of the first tail-lift from Henderson, the doors people.
• In many warehouses and factories the forklift truck can lead a dog's life — overworked, double-shifted, abused and then neglected. Even if yours is 10 years' old and on its knees, all is not necessarily lost. We visit a West Midlands company that specialises in injecting new life into old fork-trucks and find out how its done.
• Of the 14 LT panel van models Volkswagen sells in the UK, no less then 10 are offered with high-roof conversions for those operators who are looking for maximum cubic capacity. Brian Weatherley has road tested one of them — the 3.36-tonne-gvw LT31 powered by the six-cylinder VW petrol engine He took it round our tough light van route and found it a good alternative to a Luton-bodied chassis cab. Read the whole test next week.
• Jack Semple reports from the Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators' annual conference and exhibition being held this weekend in Warwick. The conference will be particularly concerned with recovery lorries with hazardous loads. The latest recovery equipment will also be on show.