Tired of being overweight? Well the wait is over. More accurately, the weight is under. Tornado has a newly designed F3 ECO model that holds 12 cubic yards of mud and more than 1700 US gallons of fresh water. This unit is over 2000 pounds lighter than our older models with the ability to carry up to 10,000 pounds more debris. As a result of weight savings your fuel consumption will be drastically less than similar builds. The boom still has a 342 degree rotation and a 26 foot reach. All of the critical components are housed in an insulated and heated aluminum van body. Because of our curved, slope floor design, operators do not hoist the tank to empty it.
Here is the information on the new design currently in production, the F-3 ECO. This unit is now our flagship machine and has essentially taken place of the F-4 units that you’re familiar with. Although it may look like our original design, from where the boom meets the body to the final filter is all new. Here are the highlights of the improvements we’ve made:
- The entire truck is much lighter and just as important, it’s well balanced with excellent weight distribution; loaded or empty. Weight restrictions differ with location, of course; but what we do know is this: The new Tornado F3-ECO has the largest payload to axle rating ratio of any full sized hydro-excavator, EVER.
- When the tank reaches whatever fill level you choose, the vacuum relief opens and water pump stops, making it extremely difficult for an operator to overload this truck, especially when working remotely.
- Airflow efficiency through the whole system is less restrictive, much more efficient (5% provable) and we’ve added a more effective CAD/CAM engineered cyclone. 5% may not sound like much on the surface, but has perceptible & tangible results.
- We’ve tested and re-tested the curved floor tanks dumping capability in a wide variety of soil conditions. We were using the prototype truck the video link below, pulling very heavy clay remotely and using 8 & 10 pm nozzles to keep the water content down and maximize the load. For 3 days straight we were able dump and rinse out the tank quicker than the other two popular competitors running working side by side.
- We’ve further perfected unloading with an update to the rear of the tank and steeper internal dump angle. The bumper has a higher clearance, and is covered with an overhanging, steep-angled mudslide that wraps into extra-wide splash-guards; keeping the truck and operator cleaner and moving the material further from the truck while dumping.