Powerful new Merc Arocs tipper built to tackle hills with ease
Devon’s DA Commercials is already saving time and hopes also to cut its fuel bill after specifying its latest Mercedes-Benz multi-wheeler with a powerful 390 kW (530 hp) engine.
Supplied by dedicated Mercedes-Benz Trucks Dealer City West Commercials, the Arocs 3253 tipper makes the steep ascent to the top of Telegraph Hill at Haldon, near Exeter, five times a day.
DA Commercials is based in the village of Beer and provides haulage services to the construction sector. Its eight trucks deliver concrete, Tarmac, aggregates and sand throughout the South West.
Acquired with competitive funding support from Mercedes-Benz Finance, the latest addition to the fleet is working out of Stoneycombe Quarry, near Newton Abbott, and serves sites in and around Exeter. Each load represents a round trip of approximately 40 miles.
Owner-driver Dan Ayling established DA Commercials in 2013 and purchased his first construction-specification 8×4 Arocs from City West Commercials Truck Sales Executive Richard Smith the following year. The new truck is his fourth and the most potent yet, having been specified with the highest of the five outputs available from Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ 12.8-litre OM 471 in-line six-cylinder engine.
Fitted with a roof-mounted Ecco light bar and Alcoa Dura-Bright alloy wheels, the high-riding truck wears the colours of leading customer Aggregate Industries. So, too, does the Arocs 3243 truck mixer with 10.7-litre, 315 kW (428 hp) ‘straight six’ and body by McPhee, Glasgow, that DA Commercials purchased last September.
Dan Ayling explained: “The mixer makes up to six deliveries a day and the journeys are shorter – sometimes it won’t do more than 20 miles in a day but it spends a lot of time ticking over on sites.
“Whereas the tipper has to get over the top of Telegraph Hill five times a day. We’ve found that using bigger engines for this work is both quicker and more fuel-efficient, because the truck is not having to work as hard.”