LIGHT AND LOW. . . TIPPERS BY TRUCK ENGINEERING
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DESISTANCE to shock loading, combined with light weight and a low floor height are IX provided by the all-welded aluminium tipper bodies produced by Truck Engineering Ltd., 100 Dudley Road, East Oldbury, near Birmingham, a number of which were featured at a special show of welded aluminium bodies at the company's premises earlier this week.
Typical of applications to-date, a 13 Cu. yd. body has been mounted on an AEC Marshal 22-ton-gross six-wheeled 15 ft. 10 in. wheelbase chassis with a single driving axle and has been supplied to the Tarmac Company Ltd., the increase in payload of around 25 cwt. derived from the use of aluminium giving a payload of 15 tons. The body has a length of 20 ft.
Of particular interest with regard to shock loading and the avoidance of local stress concentrations, is the use of aluminium U-shaped tipping-frame longitudinals of 10 in. by 4 in. by A in. section and of cross bearers that are "threaded through" the longitudinals without welding, which gives flexibility as well as a reduced floor height and greater strength. Produced on a press brake the one-piece sides are of in. sheet and incorporate upper and lower "bulge-type" rubbing rails in the section. The sides are fitted with a skin of 18 g. aluminium to provide an insulating air gap of about 1-1 in., while the sandwich floor comprises two outer skins of in. sheet and a packing of -,-16 in. softwood. By employing low-mounted hinge pins it has been possible to use 1 in. timber body-support strips and thus reduce the chassis-to-floor height to 11 in.
The body is elevated by an Edbro 5LNC single-ram front-of-body tipping gear, and it is emphasized by Truck Engineering that the strength of the lifting frame and the low hinge height affords sufficient stability to obviate the need for a twin-ram gear or a stabilizer.
Of general interest, two press brakes are combined operationally to produce 10 in. by 4 in. U-section longitudinals in 20 ft. lengths.