Harsh trailer meets glass recycler’s needs

York, United Kingdom-based Harsh Limited says it has sold a “unique demountable skip loader” that matches with a vehicle that doubles either as a hook loader or as a skip loader used by May Glass Recycling of Rainham, U.K.

May Glass Recycling’s base vehicle is a Volvo FM model fitted with conventional hook loader bodywork, says Harsh. Harsh built what it calls “a bespoke demountable skip loader unit that can be loaded onto the truck as if it was a standard hook loader container.”

The hydraulics to operate the skip loader can be “simply connected into the truck’s existing system,” says Harsh, in a process the firm says “takes a little over five minutes.”

“Now we have two trucks in one,” says May Glass Recycling Director Fred Sendall. “It can go and collect any type of bin or skip out there. Better still, this versatility is doubled again when pulling a trailer, so we can have any combination of skip or container right across the whole vehicle. This extra versatility and productivity actually means we can delete two older vehicles from our fleet, with their work now being done just with the new Harsh unit. It really is that good.”

 One of the specialties of carrying discarded glass in skips is that the skips themselves need to be longer than a standard builder’s skip, say the companies. That helps to ensure the product sits lower in the skip, thereby preventing any product from leaving out of the top.

May Glass Recycling’s skips have a 10-cubic-yard capacity, which in turn meant that Harsh needed to build a bespoke unit to carry them. When operating in full drawbar mode, one skip is carried on the truck, with another two on a tri-axle trailer.

“This is the first time we have taken a Harsh product,” adds Sendall. “We are hugely impressed, not just with the equipment itself but also with Harsh’s inventiveness in being able to bring forward a new operating solution. By taking a really personal approach to understanding our business, we’ve now got something quite special. It’s also great that we can effectively give a new lease of life to an existing five-year-old truck; the Harsh solution is therefore hugely cost effective.”

Speaking for Harsh, Business Development Manager for the South East Harry Hustler says, “May Glass Recycling identified a new opportunity to significantly improve its vehicle versatility and productivity, and by working closely together we’ve addressed that challenge with a particularly novel vehicle specification. This is a perfect example as to how Harsh’s commitment to understanding each and every customer’s needs can deliver an ideal operating solution.”