The new body design was a radical change from a box type body with stiffeners. Altus conferred with SSAB’s technical support and landed on a more optimized solution, both in terms of weight and service life.
The previous slag tipper had a floor in 25.4 mm (1”) steel and 12.7 (0.5”) mm sides. The upgraded slag body used Hardox® HiTemp with a 10 mm (0.394”) floor and 8 mm (0.315”) sides. The U-shaped body has an integrated top rail and needs no stiffeners, which also simplifies production for Altus.
Overall, the new body weighed 2.236 kg (4,930 lbs.) less than the old design, which translates to an impressive 40% weight reduction. This allows for more payload and reduced fuel consumption when the truck runs empty.