Focus On Conversions
THE STRAIN TAKING
Could conversions built on battery-electric vans offer a payload advantage over their diesel counterparts? Steve Banner investigates
diesel chassis with a Luton or box body and legally carry a 1.4t-load might want to consider going battery- electric. So says Anthony Clayton, sales director at Manchester-based body builder Alloy Bodies.
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A steady rise in the unladen weight of diesel chassis driven in part by the burden imposed by emission control technology means that Lutons and the boxes built on them can cope with an 1,150–1,200kg payload at the very most, he says. “That’s assuming they are
constructed using composite flooring and panels,” he adds. “Have a tail- lift fitted and your payload capacity could be down to no more than 950kg to 960kg.”
Electric chassis that would otherwise be restricted to 3.5t can operate at 4.25t, however, he points out, to compensate for the weight of the battery and without any need for drivers to pass a separate driving test. The battery need not take up the entire 750kg allowance, which means the operator can enjoy a useful payload bonus. “You can get to 1.3t or more,” Clayton says. Choose a chassis from a manufacturer that offers a choice of one, two or three batteries, such as Iveco, and specify just one, and you might be able to get up to 1.4t. Jason Farrenden, UK operations director at body builder VFS/Scattolini, the company best-known for its tippers, says: “If you’re running a 3.5t single- cab diesel chassis equipped with one of our tipper bodies you’ll probably be able to carry no more than a tonne, maybe a bit more. That compares with over 1,200kg on an electric 4.25-tonner.” The firm’s tippers tend to be fitted with bodies with floors made from high- strength steel and sides and tailboards made from light-in-weight aluminium
18 WhatVan? November 2023 Manchester-based body builder Alloy Bodies specialises in tippers and dropsides.
with the aim of offering a mixture of durability and a respectable payload. “We’re not getting many inquiries for electric tippers at present but we’re building a small number of electric 4.25t dropsides on Ford E-Transit chassis,” he says. With British plants at Eastleigh in Hampshire and Wakefield in West Yorkshire, VFS/Scattolini constructs some 9,000 bodies annually in this country. Tippers and dropsides account for 80% of the volume, with the balance including Lutons. “We build 1,200 to 1,400 Lutons a year,” Farrenden says.
Constructing some 400 bodies annually at its factory in Walthamstow, London, Tipmaster is seeing rising interest in electric tippers says managing director Matthew Terry. “They’re starting to reach 10–15% of our volume and we’re finding we can get an electric chassis quicker than a diesel.” He is supplying councils but the number many of them can order is limited, he says, because they don’t have the necessary charging infrastructure in place.
Going electric presupposes that you can live with the range limitations
battery-electric technology imposes, as well as an eye-wateringly steep front- end price.
Says Stephen Phillips, sales manager at Clay Cross, a Derbyshire-based Advanced KFS Special Vehicles outlet: “Our product range includes car transporters and traffic management vehicles that can do 200 to 300 miles daily. Going electric won’t be a practical option for the operators concerned until the charging infrastructure improves. “On the other hand we’re supplying 10 electric cage tippers to a local council that will operate within an 18-to-20 mile radius of their home base, and they should be fine. In fact, we’re getting a lot of inquiries about electric vehicles.”
Some businesses will go electric if they can and if it gives them a payload advantage. As indicated earlier, maximising payload involves the extensive use of composite panels, along with plenty of aluminium. “We’ve gone for bonded construction on a lot of our products, again in a bid to save weight,” Clayton says. While customers may be willing to pay for the materials used because of the payload advantages they bring, they
also want bodies that can be repaired easily and quickly. “Unfortunately, composites aren’t as easy to repair as GRP (fibreglass) is,” says Scott Hadley, head of sales at Aldridge, West Midland body builder J C Payne.
“If GRP gets damaged then you can fill in the hole and make it look nice,” he adds. “You don’t have to replace an entire panel.”
As well as being light in weight, strong and easy to repair, the body has to look as though it is an integral part of the vehicle. As Clayton explains, it should not be tacked on as an afterthought. That is why Alloy Bodies does all that it can to ensure that whatever it constructs blends as seamlessly as possible with the chassis and the cab, he says. It is worth bearing in mind that supposedly identical light commercial chassis can differ to a surprising extent when it comes to their unladen weight, says Hadley. “If you have a batch of 10, then there can be a difference of as much as 50kg to 60kg between the lightest and the heaviest,” he observes. J C Payne builds from 1,500–1,700 bodies annually, 60–70% of which are constructed on light commercial
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usinesses that yearn for the long-gone days when you could buy a 3.5-tonne
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