Housebuilder opts for DIY truck body
A Scottish housebuilder has turned truck bodybuilder and created its own multifunction tipper-dropside body for a new Volvo FMX 460 8×4 tridem truck.
One of just two trucks operated by Malcolm Allan Housebuilders, the Volvo has replaced an 18-tonne truck from another manufacturer. Its unique bodywork enables it to deliver building materials to site as a dropside, and then backload with muckaway material as a heavy-duty tipper.
Malcolm Allan director Bruce Allan used his experience as a mechanical engineer to design and build the versatile body to suit his company’s needs – assembling the materials and completing the process entirely in-house.
He said of the project: “A standard tipper with fixed sides is no good for us; we need the ability to operate as a dropside too – but ask a bodybuilder for this, and the options become very limited. So instead, we set about building precisely what we needed, and we’re absolutely delighted with the result.”
Malcolm Allan Housebuilders’ solution was to construct the floor and sides of the body using Hardox 450, whilst thinner Strenx 700 structural steel was used for the crossmembers.
Unlike conventional dropsiders, this body was built with hydraulically-powered single-piece sides, enabling the driver to lower them at the touch of a button – whilst also affording the ability to load the body from both sides simultaneously.
A Cramaro Group Galoppino sliding cover for the load was integrated within the dropside body, activated electrically, with a single removable fixed wire running along the top side of both shelvings.
Allan also designed a dual action tail door, which lifts hydraulically for muck shifting discharge; yet for bigger and bulkier loads such as boulders and tree roots, manual barn doors with a wider aperture can be utilised.
A hydraulic vibration unit was also installed to shake out sticky materials, enabling the truck to fully unload on every occasion.
Painted by Gray & Adams in nearby Fraserburgh, the FMX offers a payload of 18.5 tonnes – a significant increase on the firm’s older truck – and brings new levels of versatility within a single 32-tonne chassis.
“I doubt if there is another one like it in the UK, and that’s probably the way it’ll remain – unless of course we want another for our fleet!” concluded Allan.
