Generally acknowledged as the UK’s leading builder of steel tippers, Thompsons is now aiming to carve out a similar reputation for its aluminium bodies.
UNTIL recently, many of Thompsons 8×4 and 6×4 alloy bodies have been of the Sandmaster design; essentially an aluminium version of the top selling, all-steel Loadmaster Lite. For carrying a maximum payload of sand and gravel, Sandmasters have proved ideal. Now, though, Thompsons is also building significant numbers of purpose – designed aluminium bodies to suit more varied and demanding customer requirements.
Central to this expansion are insulated bodies built to carry hot tarmac for the road surfacing industry. Traditionally, many customers have previously wanted a fairly simple ‘as light as possible’ standard spec insulated body, whereas today their focus is much more on designs that offer significantly greater operating versatility.
‘We need to build bodies that can work on tarmac at the beginning of the week, maybe then do quarry jobs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, possibly ending up carrying recyclables at the end of the week,’ says David Penman, recently appointed general manager of Thompsons Tippers Scotland. ‘In a nutshell’, he adds ‘customers want a weight optimised product, designed to handle a much wider range of payloads, whilst also being offered with a full range of detail options to suit individual specification preferences.’
