The Classic Machinery Network

Thats interesting ,cheap but not cheerful then,wondered why nothing came up when I googled Nicols of Dysart!

In the early 70s we had a D6c dozer working on a section of the M11 near Duxford
working for Keveny contractors,they had a fleet of Belaz dump trucks,these were
being loaded by two Poclain 300s,one backhoe the other a faceshovel,trouble was
they did,nt have heated bodies and the damp chalk would stick,resulting in them
taking over half a load back each time to the diggers,and they were,nt allowed
to scrape them out for fear of damaging the alloy bodies,this was one of the main
reasons they went bust,at the time C J Prior priced it for Cat 769 with heated bodies
but were 50k adrift on the price,luckly we were cross hired in by R B Tyler of Ware
and got paid

Brochure Belaz 256 UK spec. steel bodied in service with Nicol of Dysart and a battered one with Dowsett .Big pictures if you click on.

A rather old thread now so I don't know if anyone is still interested but we ended up with 10 or 12 of these
in Devon moving overburden in the claypits , the worst weakness we found was halfshafts but other than that they were very tough trucks even though horribly overloaded and abused , we loaded with a 961 Leihberr and worked the tip with a D4 , when we finished our contract we sold the best trucks to someone
to use in a big tip ( maybe Hampshire ? ) and scrapped the rest , I still have one engine left ( 15 ltr V8 )
that I keep saying I'll put in a tractor one day !! We ended up really loving these trucks because they were
so tough.

tmc wrote:A rather old thread now so I don't know if anyone is still interested but we ended up with 10 or 12 of these
in Devon moving overburden in the claypits , the worst weakness we found was halfshafts but other than that they were very tough trucks even though horribly overloaded and abused , we loaded with a 961 Leihberr and worked the tip with a D4 , when we finished our contract we sold the best trucks to someone
to use in a big tip ( maybe Hampshire ? ) and scrapped the rest , I still have one engine left ( 15 ltr V8 )
that I keep saying I'll put in a tractor one day !! We ended up really loving these trucks because they were
so tough.

Hi Timothy

When was this roughly ??

Thanks
Steve

Hi Steve , from memory ( thats a joke ! ) I'd say late 1980's - mid 1990's , probably finishing around 1995
regards Tim.

Roadcommander I dont have any pics but lots of history I drove the Belaz trucks for H & R Mitchell who had a large fleet of them, they were based in Wemyss Bay in Scotland. I first drove them at Hunterston then up at Forth Coal Mine with the alloy bodies. I then went to the Ripley By Pass with them on hire to Dowsett. Later I drove one from Wemyss Bay to Scunthorpe British steel Plant. My final job was at Cambridge on the A45 (now the A14). The Belaz was old technology however if you looked after them and kept them greased up they were ok. On a long haul and good road they were a fast hauler only outperformed by the Maggie Deutz. (Good Old days)

TSL

TSL

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