Product Report: Terex PS6-AWS

Think of it as a very small dump truck. Yes, there are differences. The dump bed is in the front, and rotates 90 degrees right or left to enable you to dump perpendicular to the line of travel. And it has all-wheel steer so you can crab turn in and out of tight spots on the site.

But its job is to carry stuff – up to 4.2 cubic yards heaped and 13,227 pounds of payload – and where a dump truck is too big and lumbering the Terex PS6-AWS articulating site dumper is quick and nimble.

With its power shuttle, 4-speed transmission (four forward, four reverse) the PS6-AWS zips around at travel speeds up to 17 miles per hour and turns within a radius of 25 feet, three inches. A four-cylinder, 82-horsepower Perkins diesel engine drives the unit and 1600 by 20, 12-ply tires provide flotation in soft ground conditions. It measures just 7 feet wide, which helps squeeze through narrow spaces. Kubota and Yanmar engines are also available.

Terex has seven site dumpers in its lineup. The smallest, the PT 200, holds 4,409 pounds of payload, and the biggest carry about 13,230 pounds. Terex also offers a choice of power tip or power swivel four-wheel drive models and a straight tip, two-wheel drive model.

Site dumpers like this are popular in Europe where narrow streets and urban environments are more common. In the United States better access to construction sites puts fewer limits on larger equipment and trucks.

Nonetheless, for contractors who need to work in restrictive spaces, site dumpers can be a cost effective solution. Scott Hannon, owner of Triangle Maintenance in Columbus, Mississippi, bought his first, a Terex PT2000, to get sidewalk demolition material out of a confined area. “It was like buying our first skid steer,” Hannon says. “After two weeks we were trying to figure out how we ever got along without it.”

Once that job was finished, Hannon says he had some concerns as to how he’d keep the site dumper busy, but that has not been a problem. The demand for the machine from his crews has been high ever since. “It’s been a handy piece of equipment. We use it to shuttle demolition materials – rock, dirt, concrete, anything you can hold in a wheelbarrow,” he says.