The Scottish producer of quarry materials, Hillhouse Group, has placed an order for 10 new Volvo FMX 8x4 tippers with HARSH tipping gears and sheeting systems. The trucks are fitted with Thompsons insulated aluminium bodies, feature additional side wear plates at the rear and have steel floor liners. Unladen weight is 12,750kg and this order follows 23 new tippers with HARSH equipment that have joined the fleet over the past four years. The latest batch has HARSH’s hydraulic version of its ‘Roll n’ Go’ side to side sheeting system.
Caroline Woodburn, Hillhouse’s operations manager for transport and distribution, said: “The HARSH equipment has performed exactly as we wanted it to. The front end tipping gears have been completely reliable with the front to back sliding sheeting systems proving exceptionally versatile. Together, they have proved very easy to operate and maintain.
“We’ve chosen the side to side Roll n’ Go sheeting system for its unmatched heat retention properties when carrying tarmac, the new hydraulic actuation version is super - fast in operation, as well as being perfectly suited to work reliably in all weather conditions. The sheet provides a realistic 100% sealing capability to keep the payload hot, which is important as our trucks are now travelling longer distances than ever, whether that might be east to Edinburgh, north to Glencoe, south to Dumfries or even seawards to the Isle of Mull.”
The Volvo FMX tippers have sleeper cabs and are covered by Volvo gold repair and maintenance contracts. The new trucks will be fitted with the same tipping gear as Hillhouse’s previous 23 tippers, HFT154 front end gear. Hillhouses other tippers are fitted with front to rear ‘Slide n’ Cover’ sheeting systems which have been used for sand and aggregate jobs as the sheet retracts behind the headboard to make loading easy from either side of the vehicle. This also minimises the risk of damage to the sheet from machinery loading the vehicle.
