Light club

This Renault Range-T 460 mini-midlift is designed to maximise payload. We worked it hauling a tipper from Castle Douglas to a biomass plant in Fife

- Dougie Rankine

On bulk and tipper work, haulers have a lot to consider when specifying a truck. You could go full-on with the biggest cab and engine and accept less payload, but you could claw money back with reduced journey times and higher residuals. The other end of the spectrum is a light truck, with a smaller engine to get the payload as high as possible, which will hopefully also return better fuel consumption. Getting your truck spec’d perfectly, or sourcing the ideal used vehicle can make all the difference.

Renault reckons it’s got this Range-T spot on for tipper work; it’s light but it has also got a comfortable full-size cab and the 460hp output means it shouldn’t be sluggish either.

We picked the truck up from Renault’s dealership in Bellshill on a sunny afternoon and set about getting re-acquainted with the stereo and controls.

It’s easy enough to connect your phone to the Bluetooth, but the speedo has to change to miles-per-hour via a menu selection. This truck doesn’t have sat-nav, so it doesn’t have the big screen jutting out the top of the dash and looks tidier for it. We’ve mentioned it before, so all we’ll say this time is that the truck is a little on the complicated side until you get used to it. Once you do though, they’re excellent to drive.