Invasion of
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the body
swappers
With local authorities strapped for cash, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, it has become essential for them to wring the maximum productivity out of any capital equipment they acquire—and they expect their contractors to do likewise. After all, the harder they can make their assets sweat, the more competitive their charges are likely to be. and the tax payer should benefit accordingly.
In many cases that means using trucks which will take swap bodies, says Andrew Lupton, sales manager at Ripon, North Yorks-based Econ Engineering. For example, you don't need a salt spreader all the year round so it's a major benefit if it can be swapped for a tipper body which can be deployed on road maintenance work during the summer months. "Units which are dedicated to one task are going out of fashion," says Lupton. "All the old exmilitary-spec Bedford TL 4x4s which were used to clear roads in the winter are being phased out."
Econ is a leading specialist in bodies and ancillary equipment for the local-authority market; it has responded to this trend by developing its QC13 (Quick Change Body) 2000 system. This allows the operator to buy a single chassis and four demountable bodies: a gully emptier, a tipper, a salt spreader and a hot box for spreading asphalt.
Solihull, West Midlands-based Whale Tankers also offers a swap body system for councils, with salt spreaders taking their place alongside cesspool and gully emptiers.
Whale's demount equipment is pneumatic. Once the quartet of twist locks securing the body are released the two rear-axle pneumatic suspension bellows are pressurised, raising the body enough to allow the rear support legs to be put in position. The front of the body is raised by another suspension unit and the body's front legs are lowered. The suspension units can then be deflated and the truck driven away.
"The whole exercise takes about 10 minutes and the demount gear adds only 100-150kg to the weight of the truck," says marketing manager Julian Fishwick. "It also adds .£5,000 to the price, but that should be seen in the context of bodies which may cost £30,000 apiece. We've supplied 20 gully emptiers and 20 tippers to the local authority in Strathclyde for use on 20 Volvo FL6 chassis," Fishwick adds. One authority has even gone for a demountable sweeper."
Bunce (Ashbury) is a specialist manufacturer of snowploughs, snowblowers, and sweepers, based just outside Swindon, Wilts. It can supply the Epoke salt spreaders it imports from Denmark as demounts, often using Ray Smith gear. They're comparatively expensive, but have several operational advantages, according to sales director Andrew Bunce.
"For example, the metering system we use steadily empties the hopper along its entire length at the same time," he explains. "This means that the centre of gravity stays in almost the same plane relative to the axles, and so keeps all necessary weight on the steering axles. Rear tailgate spreaders usually empty from the front of the hopper first, which causes its centre of gravity to move backwards."
Hooke bodies can cost up to to 40% more than many of their rivals, but Bunce claims that the more accurate metering they offer means salt savings of up to to 25%---a saving which should be viewed over a 10year life cycle, he adds.
Another option is to invest in demountable or drop-in salt spreaders which can be mounted inside a tipper body "The council can then say to a contractor, 'we'll provide the spreader unit and the salt, and all you need to do is provide the drivers and tippers'," says Lupton.
Retaining ownership of the unit also makes it easier for them to switch work from one contractor to another, he adds. "It has its own diesel engine, and is entirely selfcontained," he points out.
The main drawback to this approach is that if the tipper has been engaged on other work all day, its body may be full of everything from concrete slabs to road signs All of this will have to be removed before the spreader can be installed, observes Whale Tanker's Julian Fishwick, while bodies which can be demounted in their entirety can simply he replaced. "That said, councils often keep their gully emptier, salt spreader, and tipper bodies at different depots, so the driver may have some running round to do," he adds. Whale's latest models have in-cab controls on a wander lead and data logging Schmidt Group subsidiary Nido
produces a range of drop-in spreaders with a capacity from 0.8m3 to 9.0m3 at its factory at
EIolten in the Netherlands. Product manager Alan Davies says that even the largest unit can be removed from a vehicle by one man in less than five minutes. Nico spreaders are designed for anything from a 3.5-tormer to a 17/18-tonner and cost from £6,000 to £25,000.
Their recommended service life is 15 years, he adds, with minimal maintenance. Schmidt has a plant in Peterborough which manufactures road sweepers.
Bunce (Ashbury) is now an agent for Romaquip drop-ins. "They are made almost entirely of stainless steel which has obvious advantages in a salty environment," says Andrew Bunce.
So has all interest in fixed salt spreader bodywork died? No, says Econ's Andrew Lupton, but fixed bodies are expected to he versatile.
Fitted with an auger with a demountable spinner, Econ's Unibodies can be deployed as salt spreaders in the winter and then converted to discharge asphalt, or to fill sandbags for flood defence work.
Salt spreading can be controlled from the cab and is metered so the vehicle can serve as a frontline trunk road gritter (see panel). Operators include Wakefield Metropolitan District Council, Thurrock Borough Council and Oxfordshire County Council.
Tony Walsh, transport manager at the City of Birmingham's civil engineering direct labour organisation, is running six Volvo FI,6 17-tanners and a Leyland Freighter 17tonner with a selection of demountable salt spreader, gully emptier, and hot-box bodies using Whale's de.mi iunt system. He also runs 26 salt spreaders with fixed bodywork, and is evaluating a couple of drop-in spreaders.
Walsh says that swap bodies allow him to make maximum year-round use of the chassis, and adds that because the city relies on long-range weather forecasts, he has plenty of time to switch from gully emptier to spreader bodywork. The only problem is that this could force him to abandon gully emptying half-way through the day because there's an urgent need for the streets to be cleared.
What's more, demounting a gully emptier isn't exactly like swapping a dry freight body on parcels work because of all the hydraulic connection that need to be undone. "It can take 20 minutes to half an hour," says Walsh.
Bernard McGreavy, workshop manager for Onyx's City of Westminster contract, is a great believer in demounts. He has 11 75and 14-tonners with a set of interchangeable tipper, tanker and salt-spreader bodies. "You don't need to grit the streets in summer but you do need to wash them, so all you have to do is switch bodies," he says. "I've been involved with local authorities for the past 20 years, and I've seen a significant swing in favour of demounts."
by Steve Banner