Custom Heavy Duty Tray
Despite the current climate and its impacts on many industries, the truck body industry is still maintaining a steady pace. In March we had the pleasure of delivering a number of custom jobs to clients in both Victoria and intestate.
One of our favourites was performing a wheelbase modification and fitting a custom heavy duty track on a Mack.
Design and Weight Distribution Calculations
The first step in this process involved consulting with the client to determine what kinds of jobs the truck body would be used for, and the size of the tray they wanted to fit. Once we had this understanding, we took time to measure out the existing truck and work out the weight distribution calculation, including under different types of load, the front and back, and the overhang.
Wheelbase Extension / Chassis Stretch
The next step involved carefully following manufacturer instructions for performing a wheelbase extension, pressing the new chassis, and making sure it was double skinned for strength and durability. This was followed by adjusting the tail shafts, meticulously checking the driveline angles, and extending all of the electronics and pneumatic lines according to manufacturer instructions. The wheelbase extension was then painted to match the existing chassis, and evaluated by our in-house engineer who issued a VASS certificate of compliance.
Flat Top Truck Tray
The final step was to install the new flat tray. In this case, we installed an 8.5 meter flat tray, with a heavy duty chequer plate floor, and tie down rails. All our trays include a heavy duty 125mm RHS sub-frame, cross bearers space 350mm apart to avoid bowing, 100mm coaming rail, and are pre-cambered to avoid sagging. The finishing touches included a red paint finish on the flat tray, a full re-spray of the cabin (from morone to white) and scroll work on both the tray and cabin to really make things pop! All of the paint work was performed by our specialist in-house pray painter, who did an amazing job.
Check out the pics here for the finished product.
