Tipped, but far from upset Construction is down again so
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far this year and so are truck registrations, but exhibitors at Tip-ex in Harrogate last week report the 8x4 market is relatively strong ahead of the arrival of Euro-6, so they are making hay while the sun shines Thompsons' Stonemaster Tip-ex was the f irst public outing for Thompsons' Stonemaster lightweight steel body, although some are already in service, including on MAN's TGS 32.400 demonstrator that we tested last month (CM 9 May). A 16m3 Stonemaster for an 8x4 tips the scales at 1,700kg, some 400kg lighter than Thompsons' Loadmaster Lite. "Our target was a genuine 20-tonne payload on a typical 8x4 chassis," explains director Scott Burton. The Day Aggregate Volvo FM11 at Tip-ex, with Edbro CX14 tipping gear, is reckoned to weigh 11.7 tonnes, including driver and half a tank of fuel. "We looked at how we build the body and removed as much material as possible where it did not contribute structural strength," explains Burton. "And we redesigned the top rails, the headboard and the underframe."
Material section has been reduced in some instances, with the side walls thinned from 4mm to 3mm, for example.
Burton admits ultra-light steel bodies have their limitations. "We won't sell the wrong product for the wrong job," he says. "Stonemaster is not right if you regularly work on demolition or you carry great big boulders. It's best for stone and aggregates, but will cope with the occasional muckaway load too." Burton believes more operators will consider steel instead of aluminium to reduce floor abrasion when carrying aggregates like granite chippings. He hints that we may see an insulated version of Stonemaster, extending its applications to asphalt. Muldoon Transport Systems Muldoon Transport Systems brought a pair of tri-axle bulk blower animal-feed trailers to Tip-ex, each boasting an extra safety feature as well as Muldoon's well-established positive steer system for the rear axle. The Kolbe Feeds trailer incorporates hydraulically operated stabiliser legs that can level the trailer if forced to tip in a side-sloping yard. The legs are operated independently, with a spirit level at the rear guiding the driver about the degree of side slope. Electronics prevent tipping if the angle is more than one degree, and another inter-lock prevents the trailer's park brake from disengagement if the legs are not raised. The legs are mounted on the rear axle's steering turntable so they do not restrict axle articulation. The necessary hydraulic power is already there for the axle steering, reducing the additional weight and cost of Tip-Safe stabiliser legs to 170kg and £2,500 respectively.
BOOM Pauls asked Muldoon to come up with a system that made it unnecessary for drivers to enter an animal-feeds trailer in order to operate the internal doors that divide the loadspace into two compartments. Muldoon's solution is a hydraulic ram in each of the two top rails. They slide the door fore-and-aft, with the door's position locked by air-operated pins at the top and spring-loaded catches set into the floor. The additional mechanism adds around 70kg and £2,000.
Vehicle Weighing Solutions Vehicle Weighing Solutions has a nifty new approach to on-board weighing for tippers. Its new system — as yet unnamed — does away with the usual hefty load cells under the body's tipper hinge trunnions. Instead, VWS installs strain gauges inside the hinge pin itself, one each end bonded to the wall of the pin and then potted to keep out dirt and water. This saves weight and there is a cost saving of at least 35% according to VWS. The first three prototypes have clocked up six months service in field trials with one operator and VWS is set to begin series production pending an arrangement with a bodybuilder. Trailer axles SAF-Holland has a new trailer axle designed for the tipper market, able to cope with the stresses of site work and quarries. Called Infra CD (Custom Design) the nine-tonne air-suspended axle replaces SAF's previous off-road axle. It retains the same heavy-duty axle tube, made from 11mm-thick steel rather than the 9mm-thick tube SAF uses for its standard tubes, but the steel collars where the axle tube is welded to the fabricated trailing arms have been redesigned for a stronger connection, allowing SAF to remove a stiffening plate used previously to reinforce the arms of the old off-road axle.
According to Arran Leatherland, sales and marketing manager at IMS, SAF-Holland's UK agent, the CD axle and suspension is 3kg lighter (per axle) than the previous off-road model. The CD axle is available with either drum brakes (Intradrum) or discs (Intradisc). Discs are the more likely choice, reckons Leatherland, who estimates that around 80% of new UK tipping trailers these days are specified with disc brakes rather than drums. "Tipper operators like discs because they manage the heat better than drums when working hard in hilly terrain," says Leatherland, adding that the tipping trailers are rarely stationary for long periods, so the issue of disc brake callipers seizing through lack of use rarely occurs.
Mercedes-Benz Axle Systems too has shed some weight from its disc-braked trailer axles. Rotating the position of the rotor mounting bolts by 18 degrees means the bolt holes are now off-set from the wheel studs, relieving stresses in the area. This has allowed Mercedes to remove metal from the hub, saving 5kg per axle. Tipping gear reduction in weight is likely to be negligible, but expensive, so perhaps weight-paring has run its course.
These developments put increasing pressure on substantially heavier under-body systems. Carl Hinds, MD of Harsh in the UK, says he has asked Harsh in the US to explore ways of taking out weight from its underfloor gear. Whole vehicle Sheeting systems Boweld BoweId has further developed its Mightylite double-skinned steel muckaway body, with the third generation seen on a Daf CF85.410 8x4 at Tip-ex. The changes include reducing the size of the V-runners under the floor and thinning the floor thickness from 6mm to 5.5mm, removing 200kg to take Mightylite 3's weight to 2,200kg. BoweId has redesigned the body's top rail so that it is now partially inset into the body. This allows the sheeting-system arms to sit closer to the body, within the legal overall width limit.
BoweId has also introduced new galvanised bolt-on mudwings and rear-lamp brackets, easy to replace and common with other bodies in the range. A new air-operated tailgate option, Vertilock, has seven locking points, with two partway up the sides replacing manually operated twist-locks.
BoweId is also about to take 200kg out of its already svelte steel Taperlite body, cutting its weight to just 1,500kg. Taperlite is the lightest steel body in Volvo's expanded programme of ready-bodied chassis for its new FMX construction chassis.
Volvo's original body partner Thompsons is supplying its Loadmaster Lite; hook-lifts come from Boughton Engineering; Hyva will supply the skip-loader for the new 18-tonne FL.
Abba Commercials Even though sideguards do not become compulsory under type approval rules on newly registered rigid tipper chassis until October next year, such is the awareness of cycle safety these days that we figured they would be ubiquitous at Tip-ex. Not so. "Sideguards are a north-south issue," reckoned one bodybuilder. "They may be big in London but it is rare that we fit them for anyone north of Birmingham." Abba Commercials of St Helens shows that northern folk can be cycle-conscious too, with this shield-like guard that removes the risk of handlebars or pedals becoming entangled in sideguard rails. Volvo tridem axle Volvo is so keen to promote the tridem axle configuration in the UK that it fetched this FM, with a 540hp Euro-6 13-litre engine and demountable hook-lift body, all the way from Sweden for Tip-ex. Axles two and three are driven and there is electro hydraulic steering for the rearmost axle. Volvo freely admits that it is both heavier and costlier than a conventional 8x4, so it is unlikely to replace mainstream tippers. But a turning-circle claimed to be 25% smaller gives the tridem configuration a huge advantage on animal feed deliveries where farm access is tight, so it offers persuasive productivity gains over three-axle alternatives. Scania too offers a tridem option and we notice that Mercedes has a tridem Arocs, at least in Germany. An 8x4 tridem carries around four tonnes more than a six-wheeler, but with manoeuvrability that is at least as good.