Against the background of a locally depressed market, an ex-Wilcox
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employee and a haulier have combined in an enterprise to build all-welded tipper bodies in extruded aluminium. Jack Semple went to County Durham to find out how Stanley Tippers is getting on after three months of operation
A NEW TIPPER body builder has been set up in County Durham. Stanley Tippers is owned by Dave Stanley, formerly with Wilcox, and Harry Lyon, who owns tipper haulier Bedele Transport and M. J. Lyon Vehicle Sates.
The North East was short of tipper bodybuilders and operators were looking outside the area to companies like Wilcox, according to Mr Stanley. "Our aim is to produce a firstclass all-welded body at a competitive price." Labour costs are lower in the area, and the cost of delivery to local operators should also be less.
The two men got together after they had started thinking along the same lines at the same time, independently. When Mr Stanley was at Wilcox, he sold Lyon between 30 and 50 bodies a year for six years. The amount and regularity of the orders led them to realise that they could set up a viable bodybuilding company locally, Mr Stanley explained.
Help in setting up the company came from the Department of Trade and Industry and from the local development corporation. The firm took a small unit on short-term lease at the Aycliffe Industrial Estate, in an Intermediate Assisted Area. There is room for expansion, if needed, within the estate.
Mr Stanley and his first employee, Neil Torr, constructed the workshop equipment and another five people have been taken on in the factory. They are young, and most of them have been learning on the job over the past two months. While skill is important, aptitude and enthusiasm were the most important characteristics Mr Stanley looked for.
Mr Stanley himself claims allround knowledge of tipper bodybuilding, which is critically important when you are starting a small company. He gained the experience during his 10 years with E. M. Wilcox of Peterborough, during which time that company grew from relative insignificance to become a leading bodybuilder.
At first, because Wilcox was small, he did a bit of everything. "There was no drawing office, no storemen. The job was always interesting." But as the company grew the job became less varied and more specific. "As the business got bigger the job got smaller."
After leaving Wilcox, Mr Stanley spent a short period setting up Craven Tasker's manufacturing plant at Lochgelly in Scotland. But it is at Wilcox that he Eli his grounding in the industr and the basis of the design his tipper bodies, although h had added some modificatior of his own.
One of the most impanel characteristics of a Wilcox bac is its aluminium alloy section which are pressed in-hous, This makes the body light without sacrificing strengtl Whereas the pressed section a constant thicknes throughout, the extruded se tions tend to be of irreguli thickness and unneccessari heavy.
Mr Stanley claims that h body "explodes the myth th. extruded bodies must b heavier than their presse counterparts". He went to A can and got the company 1 make a die which produces feextrusion of constant thicknes mimicking the main feature of Wilcox pressed body. Standai extrusions are used for th crossbearer, headboard an tailgate uprights. They are strong and light as those on pressed body, Mr Stanley says
"I think the reason noboc did it before is lack of confidence. Most people are not used to aluminium alloy." But standard extrusions are designed by design engineers, not by bodybuilders.
Using extrusions also means his tippers have integral top and bottom rails. Pressed rails are normally made up of several smaller sections welded together, making them susceptible to damage by careless loading. High bodies suffer most.
For the body frames, Mr Stanley uses a combination of alloys (HE3OTF for the framework and N8 for the sides and floor).
The correct welding techniques are important, he says. Where extrusions are joined, particularly at high stress points, tungsten inter gas welding is used and where extrusion meets plate semiautomatic metal inert gas welding is used.
In common with the current trend in bodybuilding, detailed specification is welcomed from operators. Sheet racks are a standard feature.
Stanley Tippers has been set up as its local market is in deep recession owing to the miners' strike. Whereas in most other mining areas large convoys are
providing work for at least some hauliers, this is not the case in the North East. But Mr Stanley is not unduly worried. "We don't need a lot to keep us busy." With only a small. workforce, the company is still being established.
The firm moved into its factory three months ago, although it took several weeks to get the workshop tackle installed. The first body was put on a Volvo eight-wheeler for Jackson Truck Company of Hartlepool. (Volvos are possibly the best chassis cabs for fitting tipper bodies. The chassis is good, there is a wide variety of wheelbases and body lengths and liaison between Volvo and the bodybuilders is outstanding, according to Mr Stanley).
Several bodies have already been delivered to customers in Scotland, and three are being built for coal haulier Yuill and Dodds. A few hauliers in the North East might be wary of buying a body built by a company half-owned by another tipper haulier, but this will not be a significant problem, Mr Stanley believes. While the company is building heavy rigid and trailer chassis, it will diversify into smaller bodies in future. Builders' merchants, for example, often need small bodies. "I don't want to leave all my eggs in one basket."
Mr Stanley says he is an enthusiast for the tipping side of the haulage industry. "It gets in your blood. They are all very down to earth people in the tipper side. They are all self-made men."
He believes that tipper bodybuilding should really be treated as a localised business. "You have to look after your own doorstep." But if people elsewhere want a body and the business grows steadily over the next few years, he probably would not object.
Perhaps the greatest satisfaction will come from his first sale in the Peterborough area, Wilcox's home ground.