Boalloy Tautliner loses weight
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by Brian Weatherley • Congleton-based bodybuilder and trailer maker Boalloy will he demonstrating the weight-saving potential of its Tautliner 2000 curtainsider trailer at the IRTE Show at Telford in May.
Alongside a Tautliner 2000 curtainsider in the colours of WH Malcolm, the company will show a lightweight version of its all-steel trailer chassis produced by Boalloy group company M&G. The bolt-together Tautliner 2000 body features a Euro Continental front bulkhead, alloy roof, lightweight barn doors and four sliding-roof supports.
With a vertical side aperture the 13.6m body weighs 1,150kg. Fitted on an M&G tri-axle air-sprung chassis with a 28mm Wisatrans coated plywood floor, a "standard" Tautliner 2000 tips the scales at 6,250kg.
At Telford Boalloy will also be showing an unhodied M&G chassis with an Envirodek floor consisting of 28mra-deep 13.6m planks, made up of high-density polyurethane with GRP reinforcement. This would reduce the kerbweight of a complete Tautliner 2000 to just 6,100kg.
Sales & marketing director Jim Gibb says the Tautliner 2000 has been designed to save weight without excessive use of aluminium. The M&G chassis is fitted with a single 1,200mm bolted kingpin, 400/300mm pitch cross-members and ROR air-suspended axles with steel wheels.
The Euro Continental front bulkhead has steel corner posts which enclose the horizontal curtain tensioners.
A one-piece aluminium cantrail allows the curtain rack, sliding post track and pelmet recess to be housed in a single extrusion.
The cantrail has also been designed so that it can accept either a fixed alloy roof or Boalloy's "Cabriolet" roll-back roof.
Since the Tautliner 2000 debuted at Telford last year more than 600 have been sold to a variety of operators, including Ferrymasters and James Irlam.