Vickers-Onions were a division of Vickers that manufactured Towed scrapers and the associated Cable Control Unit (CCU) used to operate them. The Vickers-Onions scraper line ceased production in the early 1960s, when Vickers restructured and tractor scraper combinations popularity waned.
History[]
The Vickers-Onions division of Vickers Ltd was located in Scotswood, Newcastle, England, and oriinally at Bilston Stafford. Onions got into the scraper business by copying a couple of LeTourneau’s designs (This may have been under license during the war). Subsequent designs from Onions were all original and very popular in some overseas markets such as New Zealand.
Extremely rugged in construction, Many of these machines can still be found lying around on farms in re-storable condition (if the tyres are not shot). The scrapers featured a low centre of gravity and a very convenient counterbalanced drawbar, which made them easy to connect to the towing tractor. Some examples were built for the MOD with a low profile to make them airportable.
The most common models were the six cubic yard Model O6-8, 8 cubic yard Model 08-11, 12 cubic yard Model 12-16, and the 16 cubic yard model 15-21, which due to their design they can be converted easily from cable to hydraulic operation. Some examples are still at work in the UK with specialist contractors
Most of the Vickers-Onions scraper models were cable controlled but they did later add a small hydraulic version with a six cubic yard capacity which was suitable for wheeled tractors such as the 4WD County and Muir-Hill tractors. These being used on small sites such as tips, sports fields and access roads.
Model range[]
- 06-8 towed scraper
- 08-11 towed scraper
- 12-16 towed scraper
- 12-16 towed scraper
- 4-6H hydraulic scraper
See also[]
Other Makes;
- Austin-Western
- Birtley
- Bucyrus-Erie
- Caterpillar Inc.
- Conder
- Corpet-Louvet
- Garwood Industries (Continental)
- Heil
- LaPlant-Choate(Allis-Chalmers)
- LeTourneau Inc.
- Ritchier
- Rome
- Wooldridge
- various other 'local' makers
References/sources[]
- Ceforum discussion
External links[]
add any relevant links here
Template:Vickers range