Carruthers acquires its trucks from stock vehicles held by Motus Commercials in Carlisle, which in turn looks to L. Townend of Holmfirth in Yorkshire to fit the chassis with their bodies and tipping gears. The completed tippers are then snapped up by tipper operators across the region.
The Harsh FE gears are said to be popular throughout the bodybuilder/truck dealer/end user supply chain. They are claimed to be found on trucks working in every business sector, from moving sand and aggregates through to site clearance and recycling.
L. Townsend director Richard Townsend said: “As a tipper bodybuilder we now fit more Harsh gears than any other make - it’s our preferred choice. Their long term performance is guaranteed, they raise no issues for operators and Harsh after sales support is fully proven too. From a bodybuilder standpoint, working with Harsh is easy - there’s rarely any issue with supply and Jason (Bramall, business development manager) looks after us very well indeed. We have a long - standing relationship with Harsh that only grows stronger through time.”
Carruthers’s new 450hp XDCs with their single skin steel ‘Governor’ bodies and combined ram and tank FE gears tare off at 12,500kgs, thereby affording a 19.5t payload. The trucks typically do multiple short haul trips per day, shifting soil and earth, so they are worked notably hard.
Carruthers’s transport manager Steve Irving said: “For us, it’s all about performance, reliability and value for money” he says, adding “Our drivers love these new DAFs too. Between them, DAF, Harsh and Townend create an ideal tipper package.”
