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Weight watchers
Page 10
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CM ExcLusovm By Brian Weathertey IT'S A QUESTION almost as old as time. How do you get more payload on a tipping trailer without sacrificing durability or, perhaps more importantly, stability?
Since early 2007, Fruehauf has been working on a new design of aggregate tipping semi that retains both of these industry essentials, while being light enough to offer a 31-tonne payload when hitched to a lightweight 44-tonne tractor And, at this week's Tip-Ex Show at Harrogate, the company will be unveiling the fruits of its labours.
"We were never able to get below about 5.8 tonnes with our old designs,explains Fruehauf chief engineer John Howard, adding "although others have advertised unladen weights of 5.5 tonnes or even less, this has often been achieved by keeping to the same basic Fruehauf chassis design, but using reduced section sizes. As a consequence, this can be either reduced strength, or reduced stability, or both."
Back to basics
Howard and his team have literally gone back to the drawing board to create a new design that not only delivers a greater payload on a tipping trailer, but also does it without compromising Fruehauf's values of toughness and stability.
More significantly, while a number of manufacturers look to save weight from the body, Fruehauf insists: "It's the chassis which is key to a tipper's strength, durability and stability," At Tip-Ex, operators will be able to see the all-new chassis for the first time.
A number of innovative features are already the subject of patent applications, while the overall design has been protected with a European Community Design registration application.
The key chassis-related revisions include a complete redesign of the rear torsion -stability box" (cross member), which is at the heart of Fruehauf's high level of stability a new chassis-to-body link using a unique cradle-less mounting arrangement and a redesigned steel ram top-mounting.
Fruehauf has also specced Mercedes' Airmaster axles (first glimpsed at last year's Tip-Ex) as its standard running gear on the new trailer, not least because they store the compressed air supply inside the axle beams, avoiding the need for independent — air tanks on the trailer, and, importantly, saving precious weight.
Clean lines
To maximise the weight savings, Fruehauf has revisited its body design and, although it will continue to offer the trademark flagship "bathtub" body, it has now joined by an even lighter pressed-aluminium half-pipe design. This features a high-strength, wear-resistant 8nun alloy floor front-to-rear, with an extremely strong 340mm-deep extruded top rail, and reinforced body rear end frame.
According to its maker: "It offers beautifully clean lines for improved load discharge, cleaning and aesthetics." However, more importantly for revenue-hungry tipper men, the trailer hits the scales at a rather impressive 5.2 tonnes, offering around half-a-tonne more payload than other aggregate tippers of an equivalent strength and stability (see panel above).
Meanwhile, the more familiar bathtub version, which comes complete with a full front-to-back, 8mm-thick floor and closer rib pitches to give improved support for high density loads, weighs in at only 5.4 tonnes.