Used grab wagons: what to check before you enquire

A used grab wagon is a chassis, a body and a crane bought as one lorry. The advert price is only useful once those three have been read separately. Most of the working grabs listed in the UK are 8×4 rigids plated at 32 tonnes, but the payload left after the crane and body are fitted is what the lorry can earn.

Trucksalot publishes approved grab wagons for sale with the seller’s photographs and specification. This note is the checklist to take to that page, and to a viewing.

The crane is the tool

Ask for the crane make, the reach, and whether it is controlled from a seat or a remote. Then ask for the date of the last thorough examination. A tidy chassis with an uncertified or tired grab is not a bargain once the lifting equipment has to be put right. A chassis MOT does not replace that examination.

Confirm there is a PTO, that the hydraulics are not weeping, and that any sheeting gear actually works. These are ordinary omissions, and they change both the price and the first month of work.

Body and payload

Steel bodies vary in capacity and floor thickness. High sides, liners and sheeting all add weight. Ask for the plated gross weight and, if the seller has one, a recent weighbridge ticket for the empty lorry. Two 32-tonne grabs with different cranes can have a very different payload.

Look at the floor and the sides for patched holes and for a ram that is scoring. The body is what carries the paying load. The cab badge is not.

How the chassis has been used

Mileage on a grab is a weak guide on its own. Stop-start site work is hard on aftertreatment, cooling and clutches or automated gearboxes. Ask where the lorry has worked and who maintained the Euro 6 system. AdBlue and DPF repairs show up quickly on this kind of work.

When you are comparing a used grab with a new build, use the same list: crane, body, payload and who will service it. A new wagon that leaves the crane and body “to be confirmed” is not yet a specification. The used lorries on the grab wagon listings at least exist, and the seller can show you the one in the photographs.