Ice cold with Wall's 'reefers'
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• A wholesale delivery frontaccess/rear-off-loading refrigerated Luton van suitable for mounting on appropriate Ford, Chrysler or BLMC chassis together with an ice-cream/mobile-sales van based on a Fiat 850T standard van with a high-roof conversion are included in the bodywork jobs recently completed by the Vehicle Engineering Services division of T. Wall and Sons (Ice Cream) Ltd of Gloucester. This company is now a self-supporting department that undertakes work for other operators as well as bodybuilding for the company.
The decision to include a front access in the specification of the wholesale delivery van was taken after a work study had shown its advantages for shop deliveries and that it improved general efficiency.
This body can be mounted on a Ford D550 chassis with a wheelbase of 134in. and 16in. wheels, a Chrysler VC5 chassis having a wheelbase of 141in. and 17in. wheels or a 13LMC TR950 of 150in. wheelbase equipped with 16in. wheels and a CX cab, the unladen weight of a Ford-based vehicle being 5 tons 5cwt.
Internal dimensions of the wholesale van comprise a length of 12ft 8in., a width of 7ft 2in. and a height of 6ft 6in., the capacity of the Luton being 38 cu ft. It carries a load of 224-16-kin. x x 111in. cans of ice-cream, which has a maximum permitted product temperature of 3deg F. The assumed maximum ambient temperatures are 80deg F for day work and 60deg F for night deliveries, the pull-down time at night being about 8hr.
Winget holdover eutectic plates are employed in conjunction with a Prestcolt Compactomatic AS 300-1/4 condensini unit, which is underslung within the chassi members, the plates and unit being suitabl3 located to provide the correct weigh distribution. Three plates are attached to light-alloy cruciform member in the roof which is part of the body structure, and twt plates are carried at the front, one at cad side of the access door. On a working titq of 10hr with 40 deliveries, the door is °pet for about 3min during each delivery.
While the vehicle is/ being used fa carrying cans on racks the body desigt caters for many other types of application These include the carriage of cartons it wheeled mobile pallets and of standard 40in x 80in. pallets at ambient r temperatures.
Aluminium sections The body is constructed entirely o aluminium sections and is insulated witl foamed polyurethane, glassfibre separato pads acting as heat beaks. The walls an floor are 51n. thick, the goof 6in.
Rear doors of equal size give full-widu and height rear access to the interior, whill the front sliding door is protected by hollow glassfibre door. The side doors givl direct access to the vestibule.
A walk-through facility is provided 133 the body of the Fiat which provides at internal standing height of 6ft and a safet glass area that extends from the doors of th serving openings to the roof. Equipped wit holdover plates the refrigeration cabinet ha a capacity of 12÷cu ft and is connected to Lec hp refrigerating unit.