Albert Ribeiro, sales and marketing manager for Wilcox Truck Bodies Ltd., shows off the new deep drawers on a Wilcox service body, part of the New Product Showcase at the 2019 Work Truck Show.Photo: Keith Norbury
A new all-aluminum service body from Ontario-based Wilcox Truck Bodies Ltd. was designed with more storage space in mind.
The eight-foot body, featured in the New Product Spotlight at the 2019 Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, has storage in the bumper as well as deeper compartments.
“We came up with some custom pull-out drawers that basically give you a lot of storage,” sales and marketing manager Albert Ribeiro said at the show.
“What we tried to do here is utilize as much space as possible in a body that’s only eight feet long, and utilizing the space also in between the two cabinets,” he added.
A canvas cover protects items in the truck bed between the cabinet compartments.
The model on display was made for Cleveland Brothers, a Caterpillar dealer based in Pennsylvania. Welders, compressors, hose reels, and multifunction units can all be mounted on the body.
“For this size you can mount a small crane but we’d have to reinforce the crane compartments,” Ribeiro said.
Headquartered in Milton, Ont., about 35 miles west of Toronto, Wilcox recently launched a division that manufactures airport baggage carts and related equipment.
“We’re always looking for new ideas and new customers and we wanted to have something that’s away from the truck body industry,” Ribeiro said.
Not that the truck body business isn’t booming.
“Business has been crazy,” Ribeiro said, noting that the company now has about 60 employees and just started a second shift
“We can’t keep up,” he said. “And right now our biggest hardship is trying to find employees. That’s harder than making the bodies.”
