Light lift can move 1,200kg
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by Steve Banner • Dutch truck-mounted forklift manufacturer Kooi Aap has introduced its lightest-ever machine, the pedestrian-controlled TLWI.
Weighing 700kg, the machine can lift up to 1,200kg to a height of up to 1.8m. It is designed for use with two-axle rigids with gross weights as low as 7.5 tonnes and will add 820kg (including 120kg for the support brackets) to the unladen weight.
It is a three-wheeler powered by a twin-cylinder Kubota diesel engine and uses hydrostatic transmission. "It's tiller-steered and will steer quite freely just so long as you keep rolling," says Jim Wilkie, technical consultant at Bill Bennett Engineering, Koors UK distributor. To load the forklift on to the truck the forks are placed on the ground beneath the rear of the trucks. The forks are then lowered until the forklift itself rises up into the air.
Two 100mm-square boxsection brackets attached to the rear of the vehicle are pulled out for the forklift to sit on. The forks are lifted and the truck can then be driven away. To unship the forklift, the procedure is reversed.
The lightweight will cost around 1:15,000—the price has yet to be finalised— and a demonstrator will be made available to interested operators in January.
Wilkie says it takes a day to train an experienced Class 1 truck driver to use a Piggy Back. Using such a machine counts as 'other work' on the tachograph.
Kooi Piggy Backs require servicing every six to eight weeks by a competent truck fitter, says Wilkie. There is a phone helpline to sort out any problems and Bill Bennett Engineering has four mobile service engineers to deal with more serious difficulties.