What swop-body equipment can do for you
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for safety reasons, implying a need to modify the other make of equipment when interchangeability is needed. The more recent Straight-Lift RS design, as its name implies, will interchange with Abel, Freight Bonallack, Dobson and Penman, with the same dimensional provisos.
Rollalong Ltd, Southampton Road, Ringwood, Hants.
Although primarily a producer of structures for industrial and municipal use, Rollalong offers lift-on/lift-off vehicle bodies. The name is associated primarily with the gantry system; a depot-based fixed or castor-mounted gantry lifts the body allowing the chassis to drive away, when the box can be lowered to ground level.
Low cost and low chassis weight are obvious advantages.
SCIDS Ltd, Longwell Green. Bristol.
An associate company of Freightliners Ltd, SCIDS was set up some two years ago to market intennodal road-rail distribution systems and, where required, the hardware to enable small— typically 4.6m (I5f1) long—demountable bodies tailored to Freightliner rail wagons, to be carried by road. The simplest SCIDS chassis equipment consists of two bolsters with holddown twistlocks. In such a case, all lifting of the bodies would be done at the Freightliner terminal by the main container straddle crane or a heavy fork truck.
If a lift facility is needed, SCIDs will fit the chassis with a flat-topped lifting frame, located on a parallelogram linkage. Power for lifting comes from a giant two-convolute " Li-Lo " air bag. Inflation at around 20psi, gives a 12 to 13-ton lift. Strengthened rave sections on SCIDS body design has recently increased its " parked " payload rating from 4 to 7 tons.
B. Walker and Son Ltd, Gammons Lane, Watford, Herts.
Walker's Interchange equipment is intended mainly for companies wanting to use different body configurations on the same chassis. Hand-operated corner jacks provide for lifting, and simple lugs on the body sides are used for location, secured by removable pins. The company offers boxvan, Luton, dropside and tipper bodies as well as the basic platform which is part of the bare vehicle. The largest chassis catered for is the 1.75-ton capacity Transit/CF with a 3.05m (loft) deck length.