Ratcliff's cool deal
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RATCLIFF Tail Lifts Ltd has supplied a cleardeck tail lift to Marshall Hire, part of Marshall (Cambridge) Ltd, for its first Chereau-bodied refrigerated box truck.
With most refrigerated vehicles, says Ratcliff, it is usually possible to fit a standard overhead-hydraulic tail lift by making small modifications to the body, sometimes involving changing the rear door hinges. But with the French Chereau body, which is made of grp, this was not possible.
Even the Ratcliff Tuk-A-Way Lift, often used where a standard overhead-hydraulic lift is impractical, could not be fitted because it would have meant extending the chassis, resulting in a reduction in the available refrigeration space.
The 1.02-tonne (1 ton) Cleardeck lift, fitted to the Marshall Hire vehicle, is chassis-mounted and has telescopic columns which leave the rear of the vehicle unobstructed. An automatically levelling plate bridges the gap between the tail-lift platform and the vehicle floor.