French tanker manufacturer Maisonneuve, represented in the UK by Integrated Tanker Services (ITS) of Walsall, showed three stainless steel road tanker trailers, designed to carry AdBlue, fertiliser and waste, at last week's Tank-ex.
MD Steve Hardwick said that while aluminium was lighter than stainless steel, it was not suitable for all products and would not last as long.
“Aluminium is mainly used for petroleum tankers because they need to carry the maximum weight,” he said, “but you have to be careful what you put in them so stainless steel is most popular for waste vacuum tanks.
“Operators buy Maisonneuve because the quality of construction stands out,” he added.
The 28,000-litre AdBlue tanker was built for Lincolnshire haulier P&S Simpson and is liveried in the Yara brand. It features a command steer rear axle from Dutch firm Esve to enable the vehicle to get into tight spaces when delivering bulk AdBlue to power stations, petrol filling stations and other sites such as farms.
The vacuum waste tanker was built by ITS around a barrel supplied by Maisonneuve for a West Country operator that had already bought two vehicles. It uses hydraulic power taken from the truck engine to drive its pumps, but some buyers – especially rental companies – still prefer a donkey engine on the trailer so it can be used independently of a tractor unit.
The 25,000-litre fertiliser tanker was built for P&S Simpson by Maisonneuve in France. Designed to deliver liquid fertiliser to farms, its pumps are powered by two small Honda petrol engines.
ITS carries more than 25 rigid and artic tankers in stock, but Hardwick said many trailers are so specific to the operator’s application they have to be custom-built. “There are so many permutations that we can’t carry them all in stock,” he said. “We do carry stocks of more general-purpose vehicles and milk tanks however.”
