Tipper truck maintenance and operation

August 9, 2011

Recently a tipper truck experienced a failure of the tipper body when discharging its load of asphalt.

This resulted in the tipper tray and load breaking free of the truck chassis and collapsing to the side of the truck narrowly missing a worker who was standing near that side of the truck.

Investigations conducted by the contractor involved found that:

  • Loose bolts and cracking in welds and support rails were evident in the
  • tipper body chassis connection that failed under tipping load conditions.
  • An estimated one tonne of cold asphalt had stuck to the floor of the truck body
  • subsequently contributing to the tip body slewing to the right side.
  • The floor of the truck body had not been cleaned prior to loading preventing the
  • hot asphalt discharging and placing extra loading at the top end
  • There had been no slip agent applied to the tipper body prior to loading.
  • The Plant Daily Check Sheet indicated the truck as roadworthy when the tyres
  • were later deemed unroadworthy

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