... How come they are so quiet compared to normal lorries of comparable size? This has intrigued me for some time now but my google fu has failed me.
And to make up for the wonderful noise of recycling tubs and wheelie bins being chucked willy-nilly around the street by the bin men.
I never hear the bin men. I'm pretty sure that they're liquid ninjas, stealing the poo from our bins when we least expect it. That or they turn up mid-day when everyone is at work. As for the truck; you'll need to know which one your bin guys use. It'll probably be a modification of an existing power plant, such as the Volvo FM, with a good set of exhaust baffles.
I do know that they baffle the hell out of the vehicles for some reason. People say it's not to wake others up in the early hours, but then why don't they baffle the compactor too!?
Bin lorries tend to use much smaller engines than other lorries, you see Steady Eddie trucks, a lot of which have 11600cc engines, the local bin lorries we use only have 5000s
Ah that's disappointing thought it might be interesting tech but small engine and loads of baffling, explains why i couldn't find anything on the web about it.
The Dennis lorry in my area is most likely running a Volvo MD7 power unit. Its the 6 speed auto box that helps, the bin lorry just needs long low ratio gears, so it can creep in the street. A full blown tractor trailer needs a seriously wide gear range, so 12 and 16 speeds aren't uncommon. Also the exhaust as mentioned is heavily baffled, and the engine is deep under the cabin in a noise reducing box.
The bin lorries in our area certainly aren't quiet - especially not at 6am. Or is the noise generated by them inversely proportional to the time of day?
Because I guarantee your council was complained to that they were to noisey... Wouldn't suprise me >.<
the compactor isn't that noisy tbh, its the rear hydraulic lift and the bouncing wheelie bins that make the most annoying noise, followed by the bin men dragging them across the road rather than actually using the wheels.
im in ireland and my local bin lorry certainly isnt quiet. then again they are a private company, so people can complaing all they want and they wont have to do anything i guess so were woken up nearly every tuesday at around 6.30/7 where as my gf is from northern ireland and her house was closer to the road and never once heard them
With our bin-men the biggest noise these days is the bottles and cans crashing into the back of it when they tip the bin up, other than that they're pretty quiet.
Maybe someone in your road just pissed them off? The guys who do ours are always friendly enough - Even when I forget to put the bin out and wheel it round the corner to where they've moved on to.
It's the damn glass recycling trucks which really piss me off, and I dont mean the little ones which collect those green boxes. Its when they bring out the big guns and collect commercial glass recycling and pour hundreds of bottles in the back of their truck. /me curses city centre living
