As the largest supplier of Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB and Barford dumper spares in the UK, PES also supply and repair Powershuttle and Powershift transmissions from ITL and Dana Spicer that are found in nearly all 6 tonne and above dumpers apart from those with hydrostatic transmissions as in the Wacker Neuson.
For those of you that don’t know, ITL transmissions are made for JCB backhoe loaders as, believe it or not, ITL are owned by JCB and Dana Spicer, which are now Turner transmissions, are owned by Caterpillar.
Traditionally Benford, then Terex fitted Dana and everybody else fitted ITL until Caterpillar bought Dana and then Terex changed to ITL because of the conflict between Terex and Caterpillar as rival manufacturers. Obviously at the time Terex thought getting into bed with a JCB owned company was less of a threat that doing it with a Caterpillar one!!!!
The majority of dumpers are Powershuttle rather than Powershift, there are a few older Thwaites dumpers that had the Powershift as I believe it was an optional extra at an enhanced price. With the powershift all the gears are selected on the forward/reverse lever with a twist action that changed gear, there was no gear lever and disconnect pedal. It wasn’t automatic but the gears were controlled by solenoid hydraulically operated clutch packs, when you twisted the F/R lever to select a gear it energised a solenoid which sent pressurised oil to a clutch pack which then engaged the gear. With the Powershuttle you still have the forward/reverse lever to give you direction which, much like above, uses a solenoid operated hydraulic clutch pack, but the gears are operated by a gear lever which manually moved gears, with synchromesh, to engage which ratio you wanted. There isn’t a clutch pedal but a disconnect pedal which when pressed, drops the power to the solenoid thus disconnecting the drive and allowing you to change gear easily.
Which one was the best, ITL or Dana Spicer? I don’t think there was any difference between the two, you certainly wouldn’t know it when you were driving and mechanically one wasn’t better than the other. The Dana or Turner was shorter in length than the ITL and you could get it out a lot easier than the ITL as you normally had to take the engine out as well as it was too long to get it out via the footplate.
Dumpers are now going over to hydrostatic systems as I believe legislation has changed but there must be thousands of Dana/Turner and ITL/JCB transmissions out there still in use.
Here at PES we offer service exchange options for both types when available or we can repair your existing transmission. All Dana/Turner sand ITL/JCB transmissions are stripped, chemically cleaned and rebuilt to your budgets or requirements but more importantly are fully tested on our test rig before they are sent out. Main pressures, torque pressures and clutch pack pressures are all tested and measured and disconnect tested to ensure once you put your transmission back in your Thwaites, Terex. Terex/JCB and Barford dumper it will work and you won’t have to go to the trouble of taking it out again and sending it back for re-work.
That’s why PES are the leading supplier for dumpers spares in the UK as we offer the complete service to keep your Thwaites, Terex, Terex/JCB dumper on the road earning money. With spare parts, engines, transmissions, gearboxes and axles make PES your first port of call when you need something for your site dumper.
