Concrete charge height for the new Charger trucks has been lowered by more than 12 in. (30.5 cm) compared to traditional Terex Advance front discharge mixer trucks.
The Terex Advance Charger front discharge mixer truck series is the company's first true city-class truck, designed and built specifically for delivering concrete in urban areas. Starting from a fresh design slate, the new Charger truck is lighter, shorter and offers the same tight turning radius characteristics of traditional Terex Advance front discharge mixers, meeting the expectations of concrete producers delivering concrete in densely populated cities.
“Some producers have a front discharge fleet for rural and off-road deliveries and rear discharge fleet for city deliveries. We conducted extensive voice of customer interviews and found that there were some design elements of our traditional design that weren't required for and, in some cases, hindered delivering concrete in urban environments,” said Mark Aubry, director of customer engagement at Terex Advance.
“We approached the Charger truck design differently. We looked at the truck as a mobile mixer platform and designed it to optimize specific targets such as height, wheelbase and payload,” David Grabner, director of engineering of Terex Advance, added.
True City-Class Truck
The city-class Terex Advance Charger series competes with and offers a more effective solution than rear discharge mixer trucks, according to the manufacturer. It gives producers all the advantages offered by the front discharge design — driving directly into the job site, quickly discharging the load from the operator's cabin, eliminating the chute man and delivering up to one extra load of concrete per day. The series also addresses several expectations of producers to compete with rear discharge trucks for city deliveries — lower charge height, more compact wheel base, lower weight and competitive cost.
Concrete charge height for the new Charger trucks has been lowered by more than 12 in. (30.5 cm) compared to traditional Terex Advance front discharge mixer trucks.
“Often, ready mix producers would have to raise the discharge height of the ready-mix plant in order to accommodate front discharge mixers,” said Aubry. “The new Charger design eliminates this need and expense for producers.”
Total truck weight for the new Terex Advance Charger series has been reduced through component selection and design improvements. Charger trucks keep the purpose-built front discharge chassis and popular Allison automatic transmission, programmed specifically for the truck's power unit.
“However, we made some adjustments to the frame and engine selection to maximize truck payload,” said Grabner. “Throughout our new product development process, we were able to substantially lower the three-axle Charger truck weight when compared to our traditional three-axle mixer. This allows us to have a payload of up to 10 cu. yd. in a city-class front discharge mixer.”
With the new Terex Advance Charger series working predominantly in congested urban areas, these trucks boast a compact wheelbase and include a non-driven front axle design, similar to that of rear discharge units. The new axle saves truck weight to increase payload, and it offers improved truck maneuverability. The design takes full advantage of the axle's wheel cut to shorten turning radius compared to traditional Terex Advance front discharge mixer trucks and rear discharge trucks.
New Terex Advance Charger trucks feature a redesigned 10 cu. yd. (7.6 cu m) mixer drum that saves weight compared to traditional front drum designs. Drum configuration on the truck offers a one-third, two-third weight distribution — both empty and fully loaded — from the front to rear axles to offer responsive driving performance. Although the new Charger drum saves weight, it is still made with a 3/16-in. (.4-cm) thick hardened AR400 brinell steel shell to deliver the same durability and reliable performance as mixer drums found on traditional Terex Advance trucks. Additionally, the same durable drum drive with re-engineered pedestal mounting to reduce truck weight powers the new Charger drum.
Through use of innovative design and production techniques, the new Terex Advance Charger series of front discharge mixer trucks are priced competitively to comparable rear discharge mixer trucks, according to the manufacter. At the same time, these new trucks deliver all of the quality and feature advantages for producers, contractors and drivers as traditional Terex Advance trucks. This includes the Terex-exclusive Total Control System, which combines on-site truck travel and all mixer drum functions into a single joystick control for more accurate and efficient concrete load placement at the job site.
The new Terex Advance Charger series expands the company's front discharge mixer truck offering. The traditional FD and FDB series of Terex Advance front discharge mixers will still be offered to the company's ready mix producer customers.
For more information, visit www.Terex.com.
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