The tipper is actually intended for materials which can be poured or have a granular form. In reality however, in former times, even a load of bricks has been tipped out (picture 1). The result was, a certain percentage of breakage and the bricks had to be stacked again anyway.

Those were the times when there were more labourers than trucks and drivers. One was still a long way from having women behind the wheel. Dump-trucks, like the one shown above, had fixed side-walls and could only tip in one direction anyhow.

The forerunners of today's tipper generations all worked on the principle of back-end tippers. They had two curved gear-racks, which could be manually operated by applying the respective torque to a sprocket-wheel. The racks could not be too long, because otherwise, they would be too close to the ground when driving. Apparently there were also systems operated with air-pressure, if of course, a suitable brake was available.

So, for the enormous amount of building which was planned after the war, the dump-trucks were not really suitable, even if the sides were altered in form so that the load could be more easily discharged. One had to be able to load and unload from all sides, e.g., when the cargo could not be tipped out. At this time of course, there weren't yet any fork-lifters, which could simply place a few Euro-palettes on the loading surface.

Now, there were fold down side- and back flaps, except of course, at the front, and the aforementioned removable side-flaps. It was considered to be a particular luxury, if the flaps had their hinges at the top, which meant that they would swing outwards when tipping and that closing them again was a much lighter task.

The Meiller Pump, was probably the first of the auxiliary units to be found in construction site vehicles. Hydraulic fluid pushes the telescopic rams outwards, the biggest ones first. This has the additional advantage, that for the most difficult phase of the tipping process, namely at the beginning, the greatest force is available.

It wasn't only construction sites which were to be supplied, also smaller building projects, and trailers having two axles close to each other (picture 5), were not yet to be had. These rigs were rarely shunted in reverse, more often the trailer was coupled to the tractor-nose. This meant decoupling the towing vehicle, turning it around and re-hitching it to the front. By the way, those who can reverse a trailer around a corner, have earned my explicit admiration.

Quite often the working area is narrow, thus the three-sided tipper is what is needed. There are two bolts, which must be distributed accordingly. Under no circumstances diagonally, because then the damage could be serious, since the hydraulics could force something out of alignment. Checking the situation before operating the tipper mechanism is important.

Actually, the tipper could be seen as the first container-vehicle, then the rigidity of the dumper-box can certainly be compared with that of the container. If however, the dumper-box can be put down on the site, it would have to have additional running rails, which must also fill the respective rigidity requirements. What it comes down to, is that the more the driver's life is simplified, the heavier the vehicle becomes. 11/14