Sinotruk HOWO 6×4 Water Truck

What this machine is

The Sinotruk HOWO 6×4 water truck. The standard HOWO three-axle chassis, rear two driven, with a 371 hp Sinotruk engine and a 12-speed manual gearbox, under a fixed 22 m³ tank carrying 22 tonnes of water.

12.00R20 tyres, left-hand drive and convertible to right-hand drive, China II, III or V by unit. Model years 2020 to 2023, and 84 m³ on the vessel.

What it is used for

Three industries, and they buy the same truck for different reasons.

Mining. Dust suppression on haul roads. This is not housekeeping. Dust on a haul road destroys visibility, wrecks air filters across the whole fleet, and in several jurisdictions is a regulated health exposure. A mine running twenty trucks runs a water truck too, and when it stops, everything else slows down.

Municipal. Water delivery to districts the mains do not reach, standpipe filling, street washing, and supply during outages. In many cities the water truck is the water supply.

Construction. Compaction water for earthworks, dust control on a site next to housing, concrete water, and washing plant down at the end of a shift.

Why this configuration

The chassis is an ordinary HOWO 6×4, and that is the point. Engine, gearbox, axles, brakes and cab are shared with the HOWO tipper and tractor unit, so the filters and the brake parts are already on your local shelf and the mechanic in your town has worked on one. A water truck is a support machine, and a support machine that is off the road waiting for a part is worse than one with a slightly smaller tank.

Twenty-two cubic metres is the size that suits the work. On a haul road it is enough to lay a full circuit before refilling, which is what decides whether one truck can keep a road down or you need two. On municipal work it is a delivery worth making.

Three axles rather than four. A water truck reverses to standpipes, turns on sites and works on ground that is by definition wet, because it just watered it. The turning circle and the traction of a 6×4 matter more here than payload.

The load moves. Twenty-two tonnes of water is not twenty-two tonnes of sand. It surges when you brake and it leans when you turn, which is what internal baffles are for. On any used water truck, that is worth checking rather than assuming.

Condition, and what we do before it ships

Through our own workshop before it loads: inspected, put right, and photographed at each stage while the work is happening.

On a water truck the tank is what to look at, and specifically the inside of it: corrosion, the state of the baffles, and the pump and spray equipment. Ask us and we will send those photographs. Tell us what spray arrangement you need, because that is the part most often wrong on arrival and it is much easier to settle here than at your end.

Shipping it

84 m³. A tank truck is a big box, and sea freight is charged on the box rather than on what it weighs empty. It sits above the 6×4 tipper at 77 m³ and below the mixer at 90.

Loaded at our yard in Tangshan, shipped through Tianjin Port.

What to tell us

Which of the three jobs it is for, because it changes the spray equipment we recommend. Whether you need a front bar, a rear bar, side sprays or a cannon. Your destination port, the quantity and whether you need right-hand drive.