Biglorryblog's 'Good Man in Africa' Jerry Burley writes: "We yesterday delivered our brand new fleet of Raj Royal Roadburners (otherwise known as Tata 2516's, with an as-yet unidentified Bharat Stage 11 performance pack - or something?) to a holding area, pending deployment up into the 'challenging' North in December or very early next year, rains dependent."
JB continues: "Big wow, 4 Indian-built tippers on the move, that's one major event for the archives I hear the masses moan. Indeed, but I thought you might be interested in a little bit of African inverted logic that afflicted these units prior to release on an unsuspecting public."
"Many firms who run tippers add extensions to the bodies, to increase the capacity and hence productivity/profitability. These are oft known as greedy boards north of the Limpopo, though Vic, Pete and their reformed-convict, Antipodean mates in the southern oceans, I believe, call them hungry boards (I employ one such ex-convict, the shy Mr Allard, and he assures me this is so). Trust us to do something totally different sandwiched here in between then. We must be the only company in the world that has REDUCED the carry capacity of their tippers, and we have a new name for this curious phenomenon, we call them Lipo-Tippers!"
"We put our brand new vehicles straight onto the Cambridge diet (well, we let a chap loose with a 9" angle grinder on them) to reduce the load for one simple reason - the appalling conditions these things will be working in, hauling out of steep-sided murram pits, along pot-holed - nay bomb cratered - roads, in often very wet and slippery conditions. All of which will be brutal to axles, drive line and chassis, and with the potential for errant operation, we felt a load reduction prudent to at least try to reduce the opportunity for mechanical or accident mishap!"
Mmmmm...now THIS is what BLB calls 'cutting edge...
And speaking of which, here's how to lose weight from your (tipping body)...with a before/after. This is no doubt shortly to appear in all the popular ladies mags!
And here's the shot of the new top rail welded on....Now click through here for more African explanations....
Jerry adds: "These vehicles tend to show rapid wear to clutches and propshafts too if abused. Maybe it wont have any beneficial effect but I hope we have shown due diligence to one of our major clients, who takes EHS extremely seriously."
"The body of the Tata lends itself well to this, by cutting off the top rail, tummy-tucking out the short, upper flat panel, and rewelding the top rail back in. Labour and a welding rod or two only required."
"So, a few photos attached of the process, showing from that horrible moment when a grinder and welder are let loose on a new vehicle, through to completion and hand-over of all four. We know these units are going to get bashed about and hopelessly stuck at times, so what will prove to be the most useful extra the drivers have, a heavy duty welded-up draw bar so that two vehicles can be linked together rigidly, is provided with each and you can see the first clevis hitch at the back of one unit, in the process of fabrication and fitting up. There is already a towing eye in the centre of the front bumper, though we had to enlarge the letter-box access slot. Out with the grinder again!"
"Based on an old Merc 6x4 design (it's probably an old Stuttgart pattern directly sold on to Tata-Jaguar, though the cab beauty hasn't improved with time and new ownership has it), these are as simple as they come mechanically. Cummins 6, five speed manual box, dry clutch, basic double diff back end. Just what we need. And they are a pretty fair price, being within a case of beer of USD50,000 on the road. Bits are predictably cheap and readily available and they can be fixed with a ½" combination spanner and a big lump hammer. By your grandmother."
"Armed with a yard brush and a bottle of liquid soap, the cab can be sluiced out by parking the truck in a river and allowing it to flow right through, without fusing the Kray Supercomputer under the drivers seat that controls everything from the common rail injection to the cigarette lighter, like in some unmentionable vehicles. Sure, they won't give us quite the ultimate (potential) lifespan of an Isuzu 340 or a Giga, but there is so much potential for other dramas that will curtail the lifespan of any machine here, we just couldn't justify the cost of new Jap units. And a 10 year old, "pre-loved" 340, ex-bond costs about the same as a brand new Tata.......only in Africa I guess! regatrds, Jerry.."
That's really interesting stuff, Jerry. I have been following the introduction of Chinese and Indian vehicles into Africa with interest.
Nice piece, Jerry. Full of interesting info.
Amazing value for money and despite the conditions, they will probably still be going strong in x years time.
That all sounds like pretty sensible thinking to me, Jerry. As they say, horses for courses!
One company out here (NZ) bought a couple of Tatas about 30 years ago for carrying bulk sulphuric acid, probably using similar thinking as in "the sulphuric acid will make anything rust away in no time so why not get something cheap". I was doing the same job for an opposition company at the same time, driving Fiat 684s and 697s and I must admit I used to laugh at the Tatas for a while. The dreaded tin-worm got into the Fiats just as quickly, if not more so, as it did into the Tatas, in spite of the Spaghetti trucks costing about three times the price of what we used to call "curried Mercs".
Well the "before" photos look good Jerry and I hope your drivers take care of them. Not sure that the 160 hp 5 speed Tata will be really up to the hard work that a Jap truck can do.
Amazing that you can buy a tandem tipper brand new for 50 grand US,the body and associated would cost 20 odd grand in Oz dollars.Do you have much trouble with only 5 gears?I`ve driven Macks with 5 gears,and MCI (American) buses with 4 gears,and they where all right unless it was a bit hilly,then you tended to be sort of going to quick in one gear,but not quick enough to go up one.
not bad for the price you pay.
Its Bharat Stage II (two) and not 11. Its Equivalent to Euro II standard emission norms.