tcp July - Concrete Producer

FLEET FACTORS
Quick-switch
leet managers whose vehicles deliver product north of the Mason
Dixon line understand the need to
adapt to the current season’s weather.
This is even more important when
business slows. It would be a major advantage to find a way to keep making
money, despite the weather or sales.
This is the spirit that leads JeanFrancois Hotte to help his customers
F
Mixing
fits into the male piece and is locked
into place. ELP makes all of the chassis and body modifications.
The chassis is first equipped with
a hydraulic pump and the appropriate quick-change hoses that power either the loading wench
or the body equipment.
If a truck chassis is to be used as a
concrete mixer, the factory installs a
special hydraulic unit with adequate
power and oil capacity to operate a
mixer drum.
In many cases, when a fleet manager elects to equip a chassis with an
SBI100 system, he orders more than
one body attachment: a dump body,
water tank, and perhaps a flatbed
configuration.
With the SBI100, the driver makes
a body change and first unlocks the
female kit from the male kit. He then
activates a small hydraulic cylinder
that lifts one end of the male kit just
enough to encourage the female to
Dress your chassis for the season.
in the lower Gatineau Hills, just west
of Montreal. Hotte’s manufacturing
company, Équipements Lourds Papineau
(ELP), focuses on building snow removal attachments for class 8 vehicles.
In working with his customers, Hotte
noticed many of his area’s dump truck
delivery trucking contractors found it
difficult to quickly switch from summer to winter operations.
Hotte and his team developed and
fabricated the prototype for a dump
truck body system that would revolutionize the way drivers maximize the
way they use their trucks. His system,
developed in 1995, is known across
Canada as the SBI100 Interchangeable Box System.
Over time, ELP designers have
improved and refined the system to accommodate more body types and equipment applications. The design allows
great flexibility in each application.
Busy in bad weather
For ready-mixed concrete producers, flexibility is one of the system’s
best features. Producers have found
the system keeps drivers busy on rainy
days. “If it’s a rainy afternoon, drivers
A vehicle
with a dump
truck body
can be converted from a
ready-mix
truck to a
salt spreader
in only 15
minutes with
the SBI100.
ÉQUIPEMENTS LOURDS PAPINEUA
15-minute conversion
Hotte’s innovative system enables
a driver to change his vehicle from a
mixer truck to a dump truck or to add
salt-spreader body in about 15 minutes. The system consists of a “male”
frame welded to the truck chassis. The
support of the body is similarly attached to a “female” base, so when it
is positioned on the truck chassis, it
slide by gravity to the
rear of the chassis. The
female kit is attached to the hydraulic
winch that helps control the rate of
detachment.
During the detachment process,
two sets of supporting legs unfold from
their stored position on the female kit
to lock into a vertical position for storage support. So when the detachment
process is completed, the detached
body is positioned at about wheel height
from the ground.
To switch to another body, the
driver pulls up, attaches the winch
hook to the pull ring on the female
kit, and then draws the new body into
position on the male kit for locking.
FLEET FACTORS
TEREX ADVANCE MIXER INC.
can drop their mixer kit and install a
dump body to haul sand or rock,” says
Michael Lemieux, ELP’s vice president
of operations.
Other producers have installed
the quick-change system to increase
their deliveries. They’ve opted to install the system on their haul trucks
to allow them to haul aggregate in the
afternoon, and then be ready to haul
fresh concrete in the morning. The
extra capacity, especially on the first
round, helps keep later deliveries on
time. In almost all of these cases, fleet
managers only equip about 10% of
their small fleets.
Most producers opt for drum kits
of about 8 to 10 cubic yards, but one
customer recently ordered a 13-cubicyard kit. “They operate on the mine
roads in northern Quebec, so there’s no
need to stay legal,” Lemieux explains.
Most of the mixer kits have been
New Truck Line
erex Advance Mixer introduced a new line of rear-discharge mixers at World of
Concrete in February. The mixTerex Advance Mixer recently introduced a
ers are available in bridge and
new line of rear discharge mixers.
non-bridge formulas with 10-,
with units manufactured by London
10.5-, and 11-yard capacities.
Mixers. But Lemieux says their shop
The mixer originally was designed
has drawings from the other major rearby Prairie Materials, the ready-mixed
discharge mixer manufacturers, so pracproducer based in Bridgeview, Ill., and
tically any style and size can be fitted
was sold under the Epic name. Terex
for a kit.
plans to offer the mixers with custom
— RICK YELTON
options not traditionally available on
rear-discharge mixers.
To learn more about ELP and the
For more information on Terex, visit
SBI100 body system, visit www.elp.ca.
www.advancemixer.com, or telephone
The manufacturer has established a
260-497-0728.
U.S. division with a dealer network.
Telephone ELP-USA at 518-424-3083
to learn where the nearest dealer is.
T
Publication #J04G020, Copyright © 2004 Hanley Wood, LLC. All rights reserved