Loadhopper Optimus Catering Truck

Pioneered by DFSK dealer Bob Wildings Ltd., this vehicle is quickly becoming the new vehicle of choice for both new food vendors and existing operators, with its generous 40 square feet of cold and 20 square feet of hot shelving and the lowest price of any such catering vehicle available.

The Optimus™ is based upon a standard DFSK Loadhopper Single Cab Pickup. The Loadhopper Single Cab Pickup comes as standard with a three year 60,000 mile warranty, meets all UK regulations and is Euro 5 compliant so is exempt from London Low Emissions Zone charges. Optimus™ starts at only £16,250^* on the road (plus VAT), a price far below its nearest competitor!

Bob started trading and refurbishing used Catering Trucks fifteen years ago, but in 2004 fed up with all the problems with these vehicles he and his team put their heads together to come up with an answer to the issues they constantly encountered. Their solution was the Optimus™.

After building over eighty units on the Suzuki Carry, Bob and his team have now built more than forty units utilising the DFSK Loadhopper body.

The Optimus™ uses the highly specified Hubbard 360 Alpha Transport Refrigeration system. Manufactured by market leader Hubbard, the 360Alpha is designed for cooler vans the size of a Vauxhall Vivaro to operate at 0° Celsius. See the Hubbard website for more information:

As on a refrigerator van, the cooling system is roof mounted rather than located in the engine compartment as on most competitor catering trucks. It’s no coincidence that refrigerator vans are designed this way, the benefits are:

• Cold air falls down and warm air rises, so it’s better to pump the cold air in from the top and allow it to drift down.
• Thanks to the easy access, maintenance and repair is cheaper.
• The cooling capacity is greater because there is more room allowing for a larger cooling unit.
• The cooling unit extracts the heat from inside of the van and then dissipates it from the roof mounted condenser; heat dissipation is much more efficient from the roof than from the (hot) engine bay, particularly on warm days. The heat dissipation from the engine bay assumes the vehicle is constantly driven, however a catering truck typically drives very short distances and then remains immobile during the sale of goods, resulting in cooling problems on warm days.

Because the whole interior is stainless steel lined rather than plastic, the walls absorb and reflect the cold air. As a result of the superior cooling capacity the Optimus™ has two important benefits over its competitors:

• The engine can be switched off at stops, saving an est. £40-50 per week vs. a vehicle with a constantly running engine.
• No internal Perspex sliding doors are added. Such doors hide an attractive display of the goods on sale, hindering sales. Furthermore, the Perspex fogs up, gets scratched, and obstructs easy access.

The vehicles feature the Eberspacher Hot System with unique Optimus™ cold air collection system preventing overheating on hot days.

The Optimus™ carries more stock than vehicles twice the price. The load area is one large box, rather than compartmentalised. This gives the added flexibility of being able to use the vehicle for the weekly Cash ‘n Carry trip.

The Optimus™ can be used as a buffet delivery vehicle at the same time as being loaded for its day round. It will hold ten “Sunblessed” sized bread-baskets alongside the normal sandwich round.

The Optimus™ body can be remounted on a new pick-up in years to come, reducing replacement costs, and the original DFSK Loadhopper retains its residual value as a Single Cab pickup truck. This is not possible with a car derived platform cab, which is practically worthless without the body.

The exterior of the Optimus has clean white sides rather than quilted stainless steel, allowing for attractive decals.

The Optimus™ London Taxi sized turning circle of 8.8m, rather than 11m+ of competitors.

The driver seat of the Loadhopper is higher, allowing for easy entrance and exit of the vehicle.

Conventional layout of engine-gearbox-rear wheel drivetrain allows for quick and easy maintenance and repairs.

Ladder chassis and pickup floor of DFSK Loadhopper absorb torsion forces more effectively compared to a platform cab. Furthermore, the unique and proven Optimus™ Four-Frame Tagged Box design resists torsional stresses, flexing with the chassis thereby preventing chassis fatigue, a common problem on platform cab conversions.

Removable shelves offering up to 33 sq. ft of spare space, making the vehicle ideal for the ‘cash n’ carry’ run.

From only £16,995.00 + VAT *

Top shelf will hold 130 standard bags of crisps

Removable shelves offering up to 33 sq. ft of spare space, making the vehicle ideal for the ‘cash n’ carry’ run.

Warranty
12 month limited warranty on Optimus™ conversion, subject to servicing requirements

The Optimus™ hot and cold catering truck can be ordered through any DFSK dealer.