Dry box bodies
Fully configurable. Built around your needs.
Enclosed bodies for goods that don't need temperature control — parcel, courier and general distribution. GRP sandwich panels produced on our own line, on chassis from 3.5 to 26 tonnes.
Dry box or lightly insulated?
Panel | Dry box | Lightly insulated |
|---|---|---|
ATP classified | No | No |
Holds a set temperature | No | Yes, with a unit |
Rear (door or flap) | 27 mm | 38 mm |
Front wall | 24 mm | 38 mm |
Side walls | 24 mm | 38 mm |
Roof | 24 mm, or light-passing laminate | 38 mm |
Floor | Plywood deck on the crossbars | 54 mm |
Sections shown for 3.5 t bodies. Larger bodies use heavier sections.
Our dry box has a foam core in the walls and roof — 24 mm on a 3.5-tonne body. That isn't an attempt at insulation; it's a structural sandwich panel that happens to buffer, and the buffering is real. A load inside won't follow the outside temperature the way it does in a plywood box.
What it can't do is hold a temperature, and the reason is the floor. Walls and roof slow heat down; the dry box floor is a plywood deck straight onto the subframe, and the subframe sits on the chassis. Five insulated surfaces and one open one is not temperature control.
That's what a lightly insulated body changes. 38 mm in the walls and roof, and a 54 mm insulated floor closing the sixth surface — which is why the floor is the thickest section in the body. Add a refrigeration unit and it will hold a temperature.
Neither is ATP classified. If your customer has to produce a certificate, he needs FNA or FRC.
Not quite it? Needs to hold a set temperature — Insulated and refrigerated bodies. Loads from the side, or cranes in from above — Tarpaulin and platform bodies.
01
Panel
GRP sandwich panels, produced on our own line rather than bought in. Polyester-glass laminate skins bonded over a rigid foam core under pressure, so the panel carries the load instead of hanging on an internal frame. Flat inside, sealed and wipe-clean — no internal ribs for dirt to sit behind.
Sections are specified per model rather than one panel across the range — 24 mm on a 3.5-tonne body, heavier as the body grows. Because we make the panel, thickness and skin weight are set to the job, and a replacement for a body we built five years ago comes off the same line.
02
Floor structure and subframe
Aluminium profiles up to 7 tonnes GVW; steel above it. Plywood floor deck over the structure — 15 mm birch on van chassis.
The subframe material changes at 7 tonnes, and so does the configurator: exact chassis selection below, gross weight class above. Same engineering boundary, in both places.
03
Access
Rear portal with the door arrangement specified: hinged doors, roller shutter, or flap and lift platform. Side doors where the round needs them. Anodised aluminium profiles throughout. The rear panel is built heavier than the walls — 27 mm against 24 on a 3.5-tonne body — with an aluminium kickplate across the sill. The rear is where a distribution body takes its damage, and it's specified accordingly.
04
Equipment
Tail lifts, LED interior lighting, lashing rails and load restraint, internal partitions, rearview cameras.
How it's built
Weight and payload
On a dry box, the decision usually comes down to payload. Every kilogram of body is a kilogram the customer can't carry, and on a 3.5-tonne van the whole argument is measured in tens of kilos.
Two things follow. We build the panel ourselves, so thickness and skin weight are specified to the job rather than offered as one panel and hoped to fit. And the configurator returns the body weight with the price, to within 4%, so you can check payload against the chassis plate before you quote instead of after.
What you can configure
Everything that changes the quote sits in one place. On chassis from 3.5 to 7 tonnes, you select the exact model and the configurator offers only the body dimensions that the chassis permits, worked from the manufacturer's own bodybuilder guidelines; above 7 tonnes, you start from the gross weight class.
From there: internal length, width and height, floor, rear portal and door arrangement, side doors, tail lift, LED lighting, lashing rails, partitions and accessories. The specification comes back with the body weight to ±4% and a price you can quote as it stands.
