New Role for Tipper lorry BJJ963H - Conversion at Chappelhall?
Photograph is courtesy of Jim Christie, Crook of Devon, a former senior mechanical engineer in the Forestry Commission.
A small tipper lorry converted into an independent loader appears to be one solution to the problem of loading lorries which did not have timber cranes fitted. At this time a large number of lorries carrying timber operated without timber cranes. The reasons being varied but often because they only worked in timber occasionally and were in the wood as ‘rehires’.
Of course cranes were expensive and also, being heavy, cut down on the payload and thus many regular timber haulage contractors worked in pairs or triples in which only one had a hydraulic crane.
It is not immediately obvious how the crane operator climbed easily up onto his machine as no ladders or other aids visible.