100% BESPOKE HARSH HOOKLOADERS PERFECT FOR ETERNAL LAWNS
100% BESPOKE FOR THE JOB’. NEW DUO OF 18T HARSH / DAF HOOKLOADERS DELIVER A PERFECT SOLUTION FOR ETERNAL LAWNS
“When you have a very precise operating requirement, you need an equally precise vehicle solution to meet it” says Lee Grayshon, owner and managing director of Eternal Lawns Ltd, one of the north’s leading suppliers of artificial grass products. “After much consideration and discussion” he adds, “HARSH and DAF have together given us a truly bespoke vehicle specification that’s a perfect operating solution.”
Given that much of Eternal Lawns’ work is in residential and new – build housing environments, the company places particular emphasis on vehicles that are compact and easy to manoeuvre. In addition, they have to provide as much payload as possible, and all this within a wider vehicle specification that maximises operating versatility. The result? A pair of new 18t HARSH hookloaders, each mounted on a very short 3.45m wheelbase DAF LF chassis.
“For us, the hookloader has big advantages over a straight tipper” says Lee. “Number One – we can drop a body off on site thereby allowing the truck to carry on working elsewhere. Second, our staff can easily load or unload a body if it’s down on the ground, which they couldn’t do with a conventional tipper body mounted high up on a chassis. The demountable body also lets our installers empty or fill it at their own pace too, which is important as no two jobs are ever the same.”
Typically working within one hour’s driving time from their HQ in Morley, Leeds, Eternal Lawns’ transport requirements have up till now been met by a fleet of 3.5 tonnes van – derived chassis, variously fitted with crew cabs and short tipper bodies.
The payload carried by these vehicles rarely exceeds 1 tonne which, in any sort of construction application, often means many additional journeys over what a genuine HGV truck could achieve.
“In a nutshell,” says Lee, “our staff were spending a huge amount of time driving to and from sites rather than actually working at those sites. It was obvious that we had to switch that ratio around, and in doing that we also took the opportunity to devise a truck that would be exactly right for our needs. After realising the massive productivity bonus such a vehicle could offer, we plumped for our first true HGVs, the heart of which is the HARSH HH10 hookloader system. Combining high strength with a low weight of just over 1.5 tonnes, we’re also finding these HARSH units to be highly practical and easy to use.
HARSH has really helped us in this project, and we particularly like their practical, friendly, hands – on style of working.”
Ready to run with their demount bodies, fuel and driver, the new trucks tare off at just 8,700kgs, thereby allowing an easy 9 tonnes plus payload – more than enough for most of Eternal Lawns’ jobs. Built in steel to handle all types of soil, rubble and infill materials, the bodies have a custom 4.1m internal length so as to easily handle the 4m wide rolls of artificial grass being taken to customer sites.
The new trucks are popular with their drivers too. Of particular significance, the super – short wheelbase DAFs are no longer than the van chassis cabs they are replacing, making them equally manoeuvrable in restricted urban environments. And Eternal Lawns’ new trucks also come with auto gearboxes too, as well as providing much greater forward visibility and a quieter, more spacious and safer driving environment.
Lee Grayshon concludes “These trucks have been built 100% bespoke for our job, and will massively improve our productivity. In their first week on the road they’ve already started to transform the way we do things.
Yes, our two new HARSH hookloaders really are THAT good!”
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