Canter 815 Tipper Does it Both Ways

In-depth

8 May

Fuso upgrades top Canter tipper model

Fuso has upgraded its Built Ready factory tipper range with a two-way tailgate and additional standard features for its popular Canter 815 model.

It has also turned up the volume and increased the space inside the load area from 2.4 cubic metres to 2.6 cubic metres.

The 815 tipper has a GVM of 7500kg but can be classified with a 4500kg rating if they are to be driven by car licence holders.

The headline change for the Canter 815 tipper upgrade is a new factory two-way tailgate that replaces the fixed top-hinged tipper rear tailgate section. Being able to fold the rear tailgate out of the way will bring big advantages in certain applications that require larger items to be unloaded.

Other upgrades for the 815 Canter tipper include a hydraulic body lock, for additional safety and stability when loading and unloading machinery, grab handles and steps, rope rails as well as that additional tray capacity.

If the 815 Wide Cab is a little big for your needs, there is the ubiquitous Canter 615 City Cab model which still has an impressive GVM of 6000kg (which can also be reduced to a car licenced 4500kg). The narrower 615 is ideal if you spend your days backing up narrow driveways to dump your load. Both trucks boast the best payloads in their class.

The tipper trays for both the 615 and 815 Canter tippers also feature fold-down sides for extra convenience.

The additional features come straight from Fuso so are fully covered by the factory warranty of 5 years or 200,000Km, whichever comes first. 30,000Km service intervals should add to their appeal.

Both the 815 and 615 Canter tippers come standard with a Limited Slip Differential and grippy lug tyres, handy for work on slippery and potentially uneven building sites. They also have the best-in-class turning circle and feature a full suite of safety technology including Advanced Emergency Braking System (AEBS), Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) and hill-hold brake feature.

To round things out, the Fuso AEBS system uses superior radar technology to enable automatic emergency braking in the event of a potential collision and can even begin braking for pedestrians.

This Wide Cab 815 Cantor had the Duonic dual-clutch, six-speed automated manual. The benefit of the dual clutch is the speed of the gear changes. In the old days of a single-clutch automated transmission you could read a book during the changes but in this it’s ‘bang, bang, bang’.

Motive power is a 3 litre, four-cylinder diesel with 110KW between 2840 and 3500rpm and 370Nm from 1350 – 2840rpm. With a couple of hundred kilos on-board, just to weigh the back down slightly, the 815 handed with aplomb.

Not being a Tradie, I had a little trouble getting excited over a hunk of aluminium, however…. This tray is going to hold around four times the volume that you’d fit into your Ranger or Hilux. With a GVM of 7.50 tons (4.5 tons for the car-licenced model) it is also going to carry a fair bit more weight. With a GCM of 11 tons (8 tons on a car licence) you can also haul around your Mega-Tradie-Tool-Chest-Trailer easily if desired.

Driving around, the truck is smooth and quiet with conversation at normal levels. Vision was good from the mirrors. In automatic the shifts are quick and smooth. I played around with changing manually, but really, why would you bother, as you’re running over the top of the torque curve and burning fuel for no good reason.

The gearbox is intuitive in that a dab on the brakes notifies the gearbox to drop back a gear or two down an incline, saving brake wear.

The Lane Departure Warning system can be switched off if it drives you nuts. Anyone who’s travelled Military Road on Sydney’s Northern beaches – where they made three lanes out of two by simply repainting the road markings, and anything bigger than an (original) Mini-Minor will cross over lanes – knows what I mean.

If you do tend to wander a little bit off the ‘beaten white-line track’, while dreaming of those exorbitant Tradie rates you’re about to charge - or you have an apprentice who doesn’t give a s**t - it doesn’t hurt to be reminded.

Price wise, you can pick up one of these for no more than your mid-priced Ranger. It depends on whether you want to look like all the other tradies or just want to get on with the job in hand – and cart the gear to the job site in one or two trips, rather than four to eight. Because it’s a truck – to state the bleeding obvious – the engine is designed to take the weight, as are the axles, body, etc.

Fuso Truck and Bus Australia Director, Alex Müller, says the latest revisions further increase the appeal of the Canter 815 tipper.

“We are happy to respond to Australian demand for a two-way tailgate for the Canter 815 and believe this addition will make it easier for our customers to get the job done,” he says. “These upgrades make the 815 an even more attractive proposition.”

So, if you want to get on with the job and do it doubly quick, get into one of these. With the time and money you could save, you’ll probably be able to put the family into a nice ‘Benz 4WD on the weekends. Check out the range at your nearest Fuso outlet.