Due to new legislation you are no longer able to purchase a new Thwaites or Mecalac dumper with a manual gearbox because of safety issues. Some people might say about time, The Dana gearbox is the same basic design as its predecessor Newage 85M and 40M gearbox which I think was invented and first produced somewhere around the time that Anne Boleyn was losing her head. Always known as a cog swapper, both the Newage and the Dana were non-synchromesh gearboxes which meant double de-clutching unless you were super slick or didn’t mind forcing it into gear with a rather large ‘clunk’. At one point Thwaites and Terex offered a dustpan and brush as an optional extra with their gearbox machines so you get off and sweep the bits of gear teeth up when you rammed it into gear!!!
Now that everything is hydrostatic the manual Dana gearbox is no-more and at some point in time I reckon Dana will dis-continue it. There must be thousands of Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB, and Barford dumpers still out there and will continue to be so for the next 10 years until they are all eventually replaced by hydrostatic and end up in the big dumper scrapyard in the sky.
If you’re worried where you are going to get your replacement gearboxes from don’t panic. As the largest supplier of Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB and Mecalac dumper parts in the UK PES have secured stock of new Dana gearboxes and make, through a very clever engineering company in the Midlands, gears and shafts to be able to rebuild your existing gearbox for a considerable time to come.
Here at PES, as we specialise in dumpers, we are always thinking ahead which means we can keep your site dumpers working on-site when other dumper parts suppliers can’t offer the complete service.
If you don’t already use us give us a try for any Thwaites, Terex/JCB, Mecalac or Barford spare parts. You never know, we might be cheaper and better than your current supplier!!!
