Plasma cutting
Heavier sections cut clean, without the heat distortion that hand-cutting leaves behind.
Why it matters
Most grab loaders look the part on day one
Years 3 to 5 are when the differences are revealed
On day one, most equipment looks the part and does the job. But, after running them for 3 to 5 years, that’s when the differences start to reveal themselves, both on the bodywork and the cost sheet.
The wrong spec can mean longer lead times, hire cover, unplanned maintenance, and weaker residual values when you come to sell. These result in a higher total life cost for your tipper grab which you’ll only know when you get there.
Four things decide it. Every section below is our answer to one of them.
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01
How often it stops
Every day off the road is a day of lost revenue you still pay finance on.
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02
How simply it's repaired
A bolt-on component is an afternoon. A welded one means a workshop visit.
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03
How well it resists rust
Corrosion in the body and sub-frame tanks residuals, and tells every customer who sees the truck something about you.
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04
What it's worth after
Build quality and appearance are what a buyer is judging when you come to sell it on.
Construction
How a Kel-Berg body is built
Pressed abrasion-resistant steel throughout, not a hard floor in a mild steel box.
Most grab bodies are mild steel with a hard-wearing floor. The floor lasts. The sides, headboard and tailgate can wear through, and the fix is to weld plates over the worn areas. Every one of those repairs is a truck off the road, and it burns the paint off around the weld, which then has to be set right. Ours is HARDOX 450 throughout, so the patching never starts.
Select a part to highlight it on the vehicle
Bolt-together galvanised sub-frame
Excellent anti-corrosion protection that prevents rust, and a bolt-together system that better absorbs vibrations, and makes swapping damaged components quick and straight forward.
Full-length HARDOX Body
Our bodies are full length, giving more capacity for payloads, and allows the loading of utilities conduit and piping.
Market-leading components throughout
We only fit best in class components to ensure excellent performance across the install; Palfinger cranes and Edbro twin cylinder RAMs are standard on Kel-Berg grab loaders.
In the workshop
Automatic fabrication means consistent quality
Machine cut, programmed-folded, robot welded.
A hand-built body is only ever as consistent as the person building it that week. Welds vary, folds vary, and so does what turns up on your yard. Every panel of ours is machine cut, folded on programmed press brakes and robot welded.
HD laser cutting
Every panel cut to the same tolerance, every time. No drift between one body and the next.
CNC hydraulic press brakes
Bystronic presses. Folds are programmed, not judged by eye, so your top rail matches the next one exactly.
Robot welding
Panasonic cells. Consistent penetration on every seam, on the first body of the week and the last.
Repairability
How Kel-Berg grabs are quick to repair
Welded construction turns cosmetic damage into a workshop job: a welder, a booking, days off the road, and burnt paint around the repair that starts rusting a year later.
Almost every component here is bolted instead. A damaged panel comes off with hand tools, and the replacement is a stocked part number that arrives already galvanised. The repair happens in your yard, not ours.
Each of these is a stocked bolt on component
- Sheet headboard
- Rear push bar
- Manual locking bar
- Mudwings
- Sheet brackets
- Rear light brackets
- Fixed ladders
- Body grab handles
- Shovel rack
- Side guard arms
- Auto-tailgate locks
Corrosion protection
How Kel-Berg grabs combat rust
Blasted, painted, galvanised. None of it optional.
Ask a competitor how much of their build is galvanised. On most, the answer is a few ancillary brackets, and the sub-frame is painted. Paint is only a barrier: break it, and the steel underneath starts to go somewhere you won’t see until it’s structural.
ON THE BODY
Shot blasting, to SA 2.5
Steel grit strips mill scale, rust, moisture and contaminants, and leaves a microscopic profile for the paint to key into. Most coating failures trace back to preparation, not paint, so nothing is sprayed onto bare steel.
ON THE BODY
Two-pack paint, at 80 kV
Top coat mixed with a hardener, so it cures by chemical reaction and can't later be softened or dissolved. Applied through electrostatic guns that draw the paint onto the steel. A single flat RAL colour of your choosing.
ON EVERYTHING ELSE
Hot-dip galvanising
Paint is a barrier: break it and the steel underneath starts to go. Zinc is sacrificial. It's more electrochemically active than steel, so it corrodes first and keeps corroding first. That's why the sub-frame and every bolt-on part goes in the bath rather than the booth.
Galvanised on every grab loader
- Subframe
- Headboard
- Bolt-on rear push bar
- Shovel rack
- Rear light brackets
- Rear underrun bumper
- Fixed ladders
- Body handles
- Rear wings
- Side guard brackets
- Sheet rollver cover
Specification
What's on the spec sheet
This is the standard grab specification we fit to all of vehicles, but it can be customised further to suit your specific requirements.
- Material
- Pressed abrasion-resistant HARDOX 450 throughout: floor, sides, top rails and headboard
- Sides
- Fixed, pressed from 4 mm, with heavy-duty top rails folded from the same steel
- Floor
- Single 5 mm sheet, angled into the side wall to stop material sticking
- Bulkhead & Tailgate
- Top-swing tailgate; both single-skinned 4 mm pressed. Double-skin option available
- Rear Pillars
- 100 × 190 mm box section
- Locking Bar
- 25 mm four-tab heavy-duty bolt, with steel cover plate to prevent stones trapping
- Rear Wings
- N3G steel valance with drop-down, bolt-on galvanised wings and smooth flaps
- Suited to
- Muck-away, demolition, rubble and aggregate
- Construction
- Bolt-together, from low-weight high-tensile structural steel developed for load-bearing components. Flexes with the chassis under normal working duties
- Finish
- Hot-dip galvanised, full length
- Make
- Edbro TS series
- Why it's specified
- The high-tensile frame absorbs side loads imposed by the chassis during tipping, protecting the cylinders. Edbro rate the TS at 50% more torsional stiffness than comparable units
- Model
- Palfinger Epsilon M125 Classic LC82, double boom extension
- Rotator & grab
- BK057 4.5 tonne rotator with Kinshofer KM500 L bucket and lifting hooks
- Controls
- Dual stand-up controls with cable controls driver side, plus ground controls offside
- Access
- Double access catwalk and platform, finished in black
- Stabiliers
- Two fixed legs
- Safety
- Rated capacity indicator with 50 / 75 / 100% LEDs, emergency stop, load hold valves on the main cylinder, main cylinder protection guard, rubber bump strip on the outer boom
- Lighting
- Two spotlights
- Finish
- KTL primer with RAL 3002 red powder coating
- Side markers
- LED, mounted below the bottom rail
- Rear lights
- The truck manufacturer's own units, on galvanised brackets, so replacements come from your dealer rather than from us
- Tailgate
- Rear LED marker lights
- Body raised warning
- In-cab light and buzzer
- Included as standard
- Shovel rack on the front bulkhead, bolt-on rear push bar, rear under-run bumper, bolt-on sheet roller cover prepared for sheet, fixed ladders where possible (folding where not)
- Handrails
- Two powder-coated, offside near the rear axle
- Compliance
- Side guards on galvanised brackets both sides; conspicuity markings to current C&U regulations
Warranty
What we stand behind, in writing
Three years on the body is us carrying the downtime risk instead of you, and it’s the first thing a buyer asks about in year four.
3 yrs
Tipping Body
The structure itself, and the part that decides whether it's still working in year six.
3 yrs
PTO & Tipping Gear
Covered on the same term as the body, not dropped to the component maker's minimum.
2 yrs
Body Paint
Anti-corrosion, on the two-pack finish applied over a blasted and phosphated surface.
2 yrs
Crane, full cover
Plus structural cover on a sliding scale through years three, four and five.
Third-party components are subject to their own manufacturers' terms and conditions, available on request.
LOOKING FOR THE COMPLETE TRUCK?
Grab lorries, chassis and body together →
Stock, models and prices on DAF, Scania and Volvo chassis, all carrying the bodywork described on this page.
Talk to Us About a Build
Tell us what the truck has to do.
Body length, crane, sheeting, weighing: the spec follows the work. Tell us the material, the sites and the chassis, and we'll come back with a build and a price.