New Aliweld Light-weight High-sider Body For W. Rolls Ltd Uses Edbro Cx14 Tipping Gear To Reduce Weight And Maximise Payload.

“Long distance bulk haulage is a specialised business and you have to have the right rig in order to maximise payload and offer competitive rates while remaining profitable,” said John Bartlett owner of W Rolls Ltd. “Lots of specialist hauliers will only deliver locally, or offer a competitive rate on short distances. But we specialise in reaching anywhere in the UK 24/7, so the trucks and the tipping equipment that we use all have to be able to operate reliably over longer distances.”

W Rolls has established a strong specialisation in moving low density materials, such as woodchip and all-weather equestrian surfaces. However, the issue with these materials is that they take up a lot of physical space. This requirement meant that when Mr Bartlett needed another 20- tonne payload long-distance tipper truck to add to his fleet, his specification was for a high sided tipper that also offered strength, light-weight and durability. Aliweld was able to satisfy all of these requirements with one of its Highsider bodies: a 7ft 3” unit with 40m3 capacity. Hand welded, and designed with a number of side ribs to give strength, the Highsider is the lightest bulk volume truck body on the market.

The added strength of the Highsider design offers the advantage that the body can also be used for more conventional materials, when not being used for low density payloads. Because of this, W Rolls has the flexibility to carry other heavy but not overly aggressive materials, such as grain, simply by filling the body to its 20t payload and leaving space on the truck. Because the Aliweld design is so light, there is no penalty from running without a full load, in terms of bulk.

Aliweld uses Edbro CX14 tipping cylinders to ensure that the light weight benefits of its truck bodies are not cancelled out by heavy tipping gear. The company was really impressed with the new CX14 when it was first trialled, and was one of the first to use the new lightweight tipping cylinder following its launch. Aliweld now uses the CX14 from preference, and recommends it to customers for its Highsider bodies. This specification was not an issue with the W. Rolls order, as John Bartlett actually specified the Edbro cylinder, agreeing with the body builder that the Edbro CX14 was the right tipping gear for his new eight-wheeler vehicle.

The Edbro cylinder is an obvious partner for Aliweld's strong and light design. It is designed to drive overall chassis weight down, thus increasing the potential payload of the vehicle to which it is fitted. This benefit has been calculated to increase operator payload and profitability by more than £8,000 over the lifetime of a chassis.

The Aliweld Highsider body and its Edbro tipping gear are mounted on a new Renault 8x4, the first Renault 460dxi Lander to be sold in the UK. Equipped with 460hp Volvo engine and running gear dual sourced from Volvo, John Bartlett reckons it offers the best of all worlds: “reliability, lightweight and a competitive price”. The entire rig cost over £80k complete with its Aliweld body, the sixth that W Rolls has purchased over the last 3- years.

With this latest vehicle, John Bartlett has now bought 15 new lorries in the space of 16 years, and has plans to add more to his fleet. He already has two Aliweld six- wheelers, but the new Renault is his first eight- wheeler, just giving that extra bit of capacity which makes the difference over longer distances, cutting journeys and making large jobs more commercially competitive.