Officials in Ontario, Canada, take road weight violations very seriously. Fines for overweight vehicles start at $5 per 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds), up to 2,500 kilograms (about 5,511 pounds), and go as high as $25 per 100 kilograms if the truck is 15,000 kilograms (roughly 33,069 pounds) or more overweight, according to Ontario regulations.

Those fines are a key reason why Frank Rotundo bought a Rival T10 hydroexcavation truck in 2019 when he established Torovac, the Toronto-based business he co-owns with his father-in-law, Bento Soares. Rotundo was already a fan of Rival trucks, having operated them before during his 15 years in the industry. And he likes them so much that the company now owns four T10s and plans to buy more in the future.

“I really like the way they look,” Rotundo says of the trucks, which are lighter and shorter than a typical hydrovac truck. “We do a lot of work in the city of Toronto and surrounding area, so the fact that they’re street legal when fully loaded (with a drop-axle deployed) is a big competitive advantage in terms of productivity and reducing customers’ costs. Without that capability, we’d have to make disposal runs twice instead of once and customers don’t like that. Plus they’re easier to get in and out of tight spots when we’re working downtown.” 

The T10s cost about $565,000 in Canadian currency (about $450,000 in U.S. dollars). The trucks offer longer and narrower debris tanks, which enables operators to more evenly distribute the weight of the payload per axle and avoid road weight violations. A third drop-axle also helps distribute the weight better.

Built on Western Star chassis, the trucks feature 10-cubic-yard debris tanks; 1,200-gallon water tanks; Robuschi-Gardner Denver blowers (3,850 cfm); Pratissoli (a brand owned by Interpump Group S.p.A.) water pumps (10 gpm at 3,000 psi); a hydraulic hoist for easier dumping; and a 25-foot-long boom (when fully extended) that can rotate up to 340 degrees. 

Rotundo says the trucks also perform like champs, noting he’s pulled debris with about 120 feet of remote hose without losing a lot of pressure. “These trucks get the job done,” he says.

The trucks were designed from scratch for use in urban areas, where operators most likely have to take waste off site for disposal, as opposed to doing so on site. The trucks also come with automatic transmission and safety features such as dual backup cameras and a retractable, top-of-truck safety railing.