Tipper and drawbar combination brings council savings 07 January 2013

South Gloucestershire Council has taken delivery of a new Volvo FMX 6x4 rigid, with a tipper body, and a three-axle lightweight drawbar, fitted with a beavertail (from Andover Trailers) to transport a Wirtgen W100F road planer.

It's a new operation for the council, which previously hired road planing equipment from contractors.

The move to own, operate and transport its own road planer is expected to deliver savings and flexibility for the council, which will also hire the machine to other local authorities.

The Andover CDDBCL 25LT drawbar has been purpose-built to carry the Wirtgen planer, with three pairs of lashing points and an adjustable conveyer support to hold it in place.

The 10.4m-long, and 2.5m-wide, trailer has been built with Granning axles, Granning air suspension with Wabco raise/lower control, Knorr-Bremse brakes and a lightweight but hard-wearing Obeche timber floor.

Hydraulic loading ramps, 1m-wide on the off side and 0.7m-wide on the near side, manage the loading angle for the Wirtgen machine – with manually adjustable steady legs ensuring a stable platform during loading and unloading.

"We considered our options carefully before taking this operation in-house," comments Colin Shepherd, fleet operations manager at South Gloucestershire Council.

"We plan to keep these new assets in operation for at least 8—10 years, so we had to specify equipment built to last," he continues.

"We consulted with Wirtgen, and they recommended the Andover Trailers drawbar for its robust build quality and long life. We're very pleased with the finished package."

Volvo has built the truck chassis with a 9-tonne front axle and steel suspension on the rear bogie, for maximum durability. A Thompson tipper body with rollover sheeting completes the combination.

Author
John Challen

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