The benefits, says Thompsons, come from combining a full length, side-tipping body with a rear-mounted crane and grab.
The crane’s sweep covers all the area around the truck behind the cab – effectively giving the new tipper a ‘third’ side when compared with conventional tippers.
Unloading is much quicker thanks to the truck’s ability to deposit the whole load in one tip. Other tipper grab trucks can only unload from their sides with buckets, at around one tonne a bucket.
Part-load discharge is also possible, for example when the truck is moving at walking speed with road crews. Designed at Thompsons’ headquarters in Croydon and built at its Blackburn factory, the new vehicle is the result of a team effort between the manufacturer, LC Vehicle Hire, in Leeds, and T&K Gallagher, of Manchester.
The body is built up from a 5mm steel floor with single piece steel dropsides that are hydraulically opened and closed. Completing the package are the compact Harsh ‘pot ram’ tipping gear and Epsilon/Kinshofer crane equipment.
“It’s not that often that we’re able to introduce an entirely new body into the Thompsons range,” says Simon Shields, director. “We consider this truck offers a genuine step change in specialist tipper operations.”