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Ready for a flying start
Page 72
Page 73
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This week CM'S mystery shopper has been scanning the classified ads for an 8x4 tipper to help an owner-driver get started.
litv. c recently highlighted ways of finding a clean, inexpensive tipper for start-up owner-drivers (CM 3 November). Following on from that, the target for this month's Mystery Shopper is a cheap aggregates tipper with a valid MoT and some road tax left on the window.
'Cheap' in this case is anything below £10.000 (ex-VAT), which means the truck can be up to 10 years old. Most importantly, though, it must have a payload potential of above 20 tonnes.'Fhe most prominent manufacturers here for our search are ERF and Foden, who enjoyed a strong role in tipper work up to the mid-1990s.
To emphasise the point, an ERF EC:10-325 with an asphalt body grabs our attention.The advertiser gives us a price too: £6,t0 (exVAT). It was registered 1995 and has a 20.5tonne payload, but doesn't have an MoT certificate or any road tax, so we might have to spend to get it up and running. Another ERF 10-325 with an insulated body for asphalt as well as aggregates is up for grabs, and this time it has two months' MoT left but no road tax. It's an N-plated 1996 model priced at £6,250 (ex-VAT), but the vendor sounds like he's willing to budge to shift it. Payload is closer to 21 tonnes — ideal.
We're informed that the body is younger than the truck, which is unusual, but he explains that he bought it as a chassis-cab to which he added the body off a more recent 8x4 already on his fleet.
Our interest is piqued
It piques our interest.but without a closer look at it we tell him we'll call back if we want to take up the offer.A couple more ERFs crop up as we plough on, but they're younger trucks and command a greater price.
We change tack and hunt out some Fodens, discovering some tidy-looking 4000 Series 8x4 tippets up for grabs.There are several examples for sale powered by 10.4-litre Caterpillar 300hp engines and dated between 1991 and 1994.
The bodies differ, but in the main they are steel, which makes them too heavy for what we're after.The only one that might be suitable is a 1994 L-plated 4000 Series at £4,800 (ex-VAT). It can handle the right payload, hut it's devoid of MoT and road tax so we move on.
The Swedes have a long and rich history with tippers in the UK, and one of the most successful is Volvo's FL7. It's worth keeping an eye out for FL7s as versions up to 1999 were plated at 30.5 tonnes GVW, which is typical of all the manufacturers. From June 1998 the 32tonne version overlapped with its lighter stablemate before taking up the mantle.
The earliest 32-tonners are much closer to exceeding our £10,000 budget, so we're scratching around for specific vehicles. It isn't easy to find 1998 Rand S-plated FM7s with 290hp; anything later is too expensive.
The bottom end of the FM 12 market with 340hp engines isn't rewarding either. Anything from 1998 with an aggregate body is scarce, even when checking out website addresses off the Volvo ads.
Volvo's Swedish compatriots at Scania offers something a bit better with a broader range of vehicles up for grabs.
Several 113 320s on 1996 N-plates are available at between £6.500 and £8,000 (exVAT) — but with MoT and tax expired. many are billed as "ideal for export". We eventually get some joy with a P114 340, registered in 1997 on a P-plate.
Complete with MoT and tax
It's got high mileage but more importantly it has six months' MoT and the rest of November on the tax disc.The body doesn't have a cover sheet but otherwise it's all there, we're told.The seller wants £9,500 (ex-VAT), which just comes in under our limit.
Our final search centres on Daf.The 85CT is our best hope and again there are early asphalt and aggregate models with day cabs available, We concentrate on trucks registered between 1995 and 1997, but there isn't too much available within this range. We scoot through to a website address and find a couple of trucks, but nothing suitable. •
CONCLUSION
It proved harder than we'd expected to dig out an 8x4 tipper with tax and MoT which would give an instant start to a budding owner-driver.
ERF provided an opportunity, but in the end we chose the Scania P114-340, even though it was closer to our budget limit. Being a slightly younger model it should be less of a risk, but with any old truck you never truly know.
We might have to spend a few quid on a cover sheet and road fund licence, but were quite willing to accept this in exchange for the six months of MoT that's left on this vehicle.