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Volvo Trucks Provides Viridor With FL 260 Narrow Track Tipper

The unique requirements and demands placed on heavy-duty vehicles that have to deal with London’s most congested has resulted in Volvo providing a narrow-track 16-tonne rigid built specifically for the job. The vehicle will enter service with the expanding Viridor fleet.

Working closely with Volvo Truck dealer M C Truck and Bus and Wilcox Commercial Vehicles, Viridor Regional Vehicle and Plant Engineer for the south east Paul Riley was able to design a bespoke vehicle ideally suited to the conditions encountered in the Capital’s narrow streets and back alleys.

“This vehicle will operate within a radius of five to ten miles from our depot in Canning Town, East London collecting waste food materials from both shops and hotels. This is then taken to an anaerobic digester for treatment,” explained Viridor’s Paul Riley.

The FL 260 is fitted with the Allison six-speed fully automatic gearbox, enabling the driver to cope more easily with the stop-start traffic that’s usually associated with London’s streets, while the overall 2.3-meter width allows access to otherwise inaccessible locations.

At the back, single tires have been fitted instead of doubles to in order to reduce the width of the tipping vehicle. The transportation of food waste is subject to strict environmental conditions, so the Wilcox tipping body is fitted with a water-tight rear tailgate to eliminate leakage while in transit.

The Volvo FL narrow-track truck is one of nine such vehicles taken by Viridor, all of which will be operated from their site in East London. Other models include FL and FE rigids, fitted with an Allison automatic gearbox but equipped with mobile compacter bodywork.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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