Heathfield
From Tractor & Construction Plant Wiki
Heathfield was a UK brand of Dump truck that was founded in the mid 1960s and built at Newton Abbot in Devon. They were taken over by Bell of South Africa in 1998 after having several other owners and eventually closed down.
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[edit] History
The company was founded by the engineering firm of "Centrax Power Units Ltd" to utilise their spare heavy engineering capacity. Centrax built Axles and Gearboxes under licence from Rockwell and supplied them to companies such as Allis-Chalmers, Aveling-Barford, and JCB in the UK.
The machines were marketed by Heathfield Engineering Ltd.
In 1978 a 6x4 rigid was built as the H2200 with a 20 ton payload and powered by a Cummins VT555 220 hp engine and a 5-speed Allison transmission, but sales were slow and it was dropped.
In 1983 the Heathfield Engineering company was bought by the management from parent co "Centrax". New larger versions the H44 and H50 were designed.
In 1991 they were taken over by Unipower who had also acquired Haulamatic. Assembly moved to Tipton in the West Midlands. Alvis then bought Unipower for the military vehicle lines and sold Heathfield Haulamatic Ltd off to LH Group Plant Ltd of Burton on Trent.[1] LH Group plant were UK agents for Bell of South Africa. LH dropped the smaller models and concentrated on the H33 and H44. Bell then bought out LH Group' Dumper truck operations in 1998 and dropped the rigid dump truck models.
[edit] Factories
- Newton Abbot, Devon - original factory
- Ansley Common, Nunneaton Warwickshire - Service depot
- Elton, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland - Remanufacturing dept
- Tipton, West Midlands - Unipower-Haulamatic-Heathfield Ltd assembly shop.
[edit] Model range
- Heathfield DF 20 - 1966 a 7 cu yd 10ton capacity dump truck powered by a Perkins A6.354 and a 5 speed David Brown gear box to a planetary axle.
- Heathfield DF25/25E - 1968 with longer chassis and a earth moving body on the (E) variant.
- Heathfield H11 an updated version rated at 11 tons.
- About 150 DF 20, DF23/24 and H11 variants built between 1966 and 1973.
- Heathfield H19 - 1972 Fitted with Leyland engine and Eaton Fuller manual gearbox
- Heathfield H20 - 1976 Off highway Fitted with Cummins 855 or Rolls Royce with Eaton Fuller manual gearbox
- Heathfield H22 - 1990 -1997 Cummins L10 engine with ZF gearbox. A development of the H20
- Heathfield H25 - 1970-72 Off highway truck Cummins NT280 engine.
- Heathfield H28 - 1972-76 Fitted with a Cummins NT310 or Detroit Diesel 8V71 and a choice of Allison or Fuller Roadranger gear box.
- Heathfield H30 - 1976 (uprated H28)
- Heathfield H33 - 197? with a 14 litre Cummins NTA 855-C-360 and a Five speed Allison CLBT750 Automatic or a Cat 3406 375 hp engine. A total of 68 were built
- Heathfield H44 - 1995 1997 An Indian sourced Komatsu designed machine assembled in the UK
- Heathfield H55 - 1995 Never put into production
[edit] Machines still in use
Are any Heathfield machines still in use ?
[edit] UK preserved machines
If you know of any machines in preservation, or on display please add detail below.
[edit] See also
- List of Construction Plant Manufacturers
- Vintage Excavator Trust have several dump trucks by other manufacturers at Threlkeld in Cumbria for use with the excavators in the collection.
- Glossary Index
[edit] References / sources
- Classic Plant & Machinery Magazine, Vol 1 No. 8, April 2003, page 32, Article by Nick Baldwin
[edit] External links
- Heathfield Trucks.Com - Marton Dump trucks a repairer and refurbishment of all makes and parts supply.
- Marton Dump Trucks
