Following extensive expansion of its premises during the past two years, Refuse Vehicle Solutions has invested in brand-new heavy-duty equipment to carry out a range of specialist vehicle repairs and inspections in-house.
With only three machines of its kind in the UK, the Hydraulic Repair Bench from Tuxco, California is a substantial piece of service equipment that enables hydraulic cylinders to be repaired faster, safer and more profitably. The machine arrived at RVS Head Office in Gloucestershire in August and has been nicknamed Rambo by staff.
Tons of hydraulic force enables pistons to be extracted from cylinders, and one engineer can service cylinders of any size, easily and without assistance.
‘We used to have to outsource this kind of work but now we can do it ourselves, which saves a huge amount of time and means we can get vehicles back on the road quicker, whether they are from our own hire fleet or our customers,’ explains Stephen Mortimer, RVS supply chain manager.
RVS has also invested in a Hydraulic Cylinder Pressure Tester from Tuxco to ensure that each cylinder is perfect before being reinstalled onto a vehicle.
‘With this piece of machinery we can guarantee there are no seal leaks and that a cylinder will work properly,’ Mr Mortimer continued.
‘There used to be a 7-10 day lead time to have this work done as there are only a few companies in the country that offer this service. Now we can do it ourselves, which means we can repair, refurbish and remanufacture vehicles much quicker without any delays. We can also offer a next day service to other vehicle operators.’
In addition to this equipment, RVS has purchased a Techmaflex hydraulic hose cutter and Swage machine to make its own hoses.
Mr Mortimer explained: ‘We can now make hydraulic hoses to fit all makes and models of refuse vehicles, and we also stock a full range of components for the ends of hoses for different types of vehicles. This has already saved us a significant amount of cost and time.’
Recently RVS brought another service in-house to further expand its ever-increasing range of support services, with the introduction of its own internal tyre department, equipped with a truck tyre machine and two wheel-balancing machines.
RVS offers the entire range of refuse vehicle services, including new or quality used vehicles for sale, vehicle remanufacturing, a substantial hire fleet, a preventative maintenance service, repairs, breakdown, parts, finance and vehicle transportation.
