Making light of the under 3-tomer
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Midland bodybuilder exploits weight-saving features in high-capacity aluminium bodies
• The recent development of lightweight up-and-over and jack-knife rear doors by Wilsdon and Co Ltd, Lode Lane, Solihull, Warwickshire, has been of particular value in reducing the overall weight of the company's Herculite aluminium vans designed for chassis in the 2-ton dry-weight category to provide an overall unladen weight of under 3 tons and thus enable the vehicles to be driven by drivers of under 21 years of age.
Mr G. A. Quayle, managing director of the company, reports that there is a big demand for vehicles of this type, including vans equipped with a tailboard lift, and that the operators are particularly payloadcon scio u s.
Durability and ease of repair are also of special importance for this class of vehicle, partly because the driver's main job is generally to be a good salesman. Without a tail lift the minimum unladen weight of a 780 cu ft van, based on a Leyland. Redline diesel-engined 550 PG is about 2.75 tons, the maximum plated weight of this model being about 5.5 tons. A tail lift weighs about 0.3 tons and unladen weight is reduced to below 3 tons by incorporating the posts of the lift in the rear structure in place of the tubular mild steel frame members of a standard body. All Herculite bodies incorporate a steel rear-end frame to provide strength where it is most needed. And this modification saves licwt without loss of strength.
An up-and-over door is lighter than a comparable roller shutter and it has the big maintenance advantage that wearing parts are reduced to three phosphor-bronze pivot bushes on each side of the mechanism and two nylon guide rollers. Being fully balanced the door is easy to operate and it provides shelter for the driver when loading in wet weather. A robust folding step is linked to the mechanism.
A jack-knife door offers similar advantages in that it is light, has few moving parts and is designed to give a long-wearing life, the vertical guide r011ers being fitted with self-lubricating nylon bushes. The door is counterbalanced by a spring-loaded top roller of the type employed for roller shutters. Both types of door are available in dimensions to suit any size of body. All vans are custom-built and multiple tray-carrying racks are frequently specified by the customer. In this case a considerable saving in weight is obtainable by using plastics tray runners. Pallet-carrying tracks are also a common feature of the equipment specified, notably in the case of bread vans; lightweight steel tracks are used in such applications.