Schmitz Cargobull S.KI SOLID

A semi-trailer has no engine. It has no power, no gearbox and no gross combination weight; what the S.KI SOLID’s datasheet gives instead is a permissible total, a bogie rating, an imposed load on the coupling, a coupling height, a deck and a body, but no tare.

Overview and generations

The S.KI SOLID is Schmitz Cargobull’s rear-tipping semi-trailer with a rounded steel body, which the maker sells as the all-purpose transport solution for building materials and calls “perfect for abrasive materials”; its April 2025 bauma release names sand and gravel and calls the S.KI “ideal for frequent tipping operations, even over short distances”. S.KI is a family name at Schmitz Cargobull: alongside the steel-bodied SOLID described on this page, the product range also lists the S.KI LIGHT, built with an aluminium box body; the two are not the same vehicle. Schmitz Cargobull’s IAA Transportation 2022 release announced the current generation with production scheduled to start at the end of the first quarter of 2023, and its August 2023 MATEXPO release describes an S.KI with the new generation of chassis frame, produced at its tipper plant in Gotha. Against a named reference vehicle — the S.KI SOLID 7.2 with a 1,460 mm dropside height, a 5/4 mm floor and side wall combination and an external tailgate — that IAA release puts the new generation’s weight saving at up to 280 kg: 50 kg from the chassis, 180 kg from the body and 50 kg from the frame. The frame redesign alone is credited with 45 to 110 kg depending on length and frame design in that IAA release; the maker’s August 2023 MATEXPO release repeats the same sentence almost word for word but with a different low end, 53 to 110 kg, so the two Schmitz Cargobull documents do not agree on the frame’s own figure even though neither is superseded. The September 2022 release offered the redesigned frame in Standard, Light and Heavy-Duty designs; the current product page lists EXTRA LIGHT, Standard and Heavy-duty chassis. These are the maker’s figures for its named reference vehicle, not for every build.

Schmitz Cargobull publishes four system lengths for the S.KI SOLID — 7.2, 8.2, 9.6 and 10.5 — and two datasheets, both of them for the 7.2. One is the S.KI 24 SL 7.2 SR, a three-axle rear-tipping semi-trailer with a steel round body, whose figures cover three rear walls: an internal tailgate with chute, a surface-mounted swing flap and a combination door. The other is that vehicle’s thermally insulated twin, which lists only the 1,460 and 1,660 mm body depths and, for those, repeats every weight, coupling height, overhang and clear length identically; its technical column gives 425/65 R 22.5 tyres where the bare sheet’s is 385/65 R 22.5. The weights, heights, dimensions and per-build volumes below are the first sheet’s. The product page’s media list offers a single sheet, “Data sheet S.KI SOLID 7.2”; no figure below is given for the 8.2, the 9.6 or the 10.5, or for the two-axle build the product page also lists.

Body

Clear internal length is 7,300 mm with the chute tailgate, 7,480 mm with the surface-mounted swing flap and 7,660 to 7,690 mm with the combination door, which the sheet does not list for the 1,300 mm body; on this sheet the rear wall changes the deck. Body depth comes in four steps on the 7.2 — 1,300, 1,460, 1,560 and 1,660 mm. Height from the fifth wheel to the trough floor is 285 mm, rear overhang is 2,714 mm with the chute, 2,686 mm with the swing flap and 2,745 mm with the combination door, and front overhang with the body alone is 900 mm. The rear turning clearance radius to ISO 1726 is given on two rows, “ohne E-Rad” and “mit E-Rad”: 2,300 mm without a spare wheel and 2,120 mm with one, constant across all four body depths. Maximum tipping angle is 48.2 degrees. The tyres on the sheet are 385/65 R 22.5.

The trough can also be ordered with a cover, and the datasheet gives that cover its own dimensions rather than folding it into the bare-body figures above. A rolling tarpaulin with walking platform (“Rollplane und Podest”) adds a constant 1,678 mm to the front overhang across all four body depths, where a sliding cover (“Schiebeverdeck”) instead adds 1,185 / 1,243 / 1,279 / 1,316 mm, rising with body depth. Overall height unladen and level is given three ways on the same sheet, again by body depth (1,300 / 1,460 / 1,560 / 1,660 mm): 2,765 / 2,925 / 3,025 / 3,125 mm without a cover, 3,235 / 3,395 / 3,495 / 3,595 mm with the rolling tarpaulin, and 2,795 / 2,955 / 3,055 / 3,155 mm with the sliding cover. The sheet also gives overall height tipped (“angekippt”), which runs from 7,887 mm to 8,092 mm without a cover and from 8,205 mm to 8,410 mm with either cover fitted. Overall width does not appear on this datasheet in any configuration.

Volume is where the maker’s documents stop agreeing with each other. The datasheet gives it per body depth and per tailgate for the 7.2: 21.3 / 24.0 / 25.8 / 27.5 m³ with the chute, 21.8 / 24.6 / 26.4 / 28.2 with the swing flap and 25.2 / 26.9 / 28.6 with the combination door. Above that, two current documents disagree about the model as a whole: the product page and the April 2025 bauma release both give 22–32 m³, while the April 2025 applications overview gives 22–35 m³, and the overview’s own 25.2–26.4 m³ for the 7.2 at 1,560 mm does not match the datasheet’s own three tailgate figures for that depth, which run 25.8 to 26.9. A third figure, 21–36 m³, is not a current model range: the 2019 brochure, which predates the current generation, gave it for the S.KI SOLID of that time, and the bauma release gives it only for the build with the hydraulic tailgate. This page quotes the datasheet’s per-build figures and names the document behind each range. Within the 7.2, it is depth and rear wall that change the volume; across the range, the April 2025 applications overview names system length, side wall height and rear door variant as the three ways a customer can influence a tipper body’s volume, and its own examples reach approx. 28 m³ both with a 7.2 at 1,660 mm and with an 8.2 at 1,460 mm, each with a fixed rear wall, and give the short, high build “lower weight”.

The same overview groups wear into two kinds — material ground off by fine-grained bulk, and dents from coarse bulk — and for coarse bulk it reads: “Choose higher wall thicknesses / round steel tipper if necessary”. The product page adds that floor and side wall thicknesses are matched to the application. The product page’s own case for the steel trough is wear resistance, durability, low maintenance and value retention.

Axles, suspension and brakes

The product page names the running gear as ROTOS with MRH — Multi-Ride-Height — air suspension, and the brief information calls the axle Schmitz Cargobull’s own. The 2019 brochure, which predates the current generation, listed disc brakes and a 430 mm brake disc on the 22.5” hub as one of two disc sizes it offered for the tipper. The current product page makes a lifting axle and a starting aid standard equipment on all three-axle S.KI tipper semi-trailers, and describes a paver brake that controls the brake pressure while a road paver pushes the combination.

The bogie is a three-axle group and not a wheel formula in the sense axle configurations explained sets out: none of these axles is driven.

Dimensions and weights

The datasheet prints its weights in two columns, zulässig and technisch — permissible and technical — and they are not the same figure. Permissible total weight is 36,000 kg against a technical 39,000 kg. Bogie load is 24,000 kg against a technical 27,000 kg. The imposed load on the fifth wheel is 12,000 kg in both columns.

The permissible total is what the loaded trailer may weigh; the bogie rating is the sheet’s figure for its three axles together, which is less than the total because the rest goes through the kingpin to the tractor; the imposed load is the share the trailer may put on the tractor’s fifth wheel. How a trailer’s figures sit beside a truck’s is set out in gross vehicle and gross combination weight.

The sheet prints one permissible column for both of its axle spacings, 1,210 and 1,310 mm, and does not say which one it belongs to. Directive 96/53/EC, which sets the maximum authorised weights in international traffic within the EU, says in Annex I, point 3.3, that the sum of the axle weights per tri-axle of a trailer or semi-trailer “must not exceed” 21 tonnes if the distance between the axles is 1.3 m or less, and 24 tonnes if it is over 1.3 m and up to 1.4 m. § 34 of the German StVZO sets the same two limits.

The permissible column adds up, and the addition is ours rather than the maker’s: 24,000 kg on the bogie plus 12,000 kg on the coupling is the 36,000 kg total, and the technical column works the same way, 27,000 plus 12,000 making 39,000. Neither sum appears in the document. The datasheet has no tare row.

The datasheet publishes a fifth-wheel height stated as “min. Empfehlung bis max. zulässig” — a minimum recommendation up to a maximum permissible — of 1,140–1,265 mm laden and 1,170–1,295 mm unladen. The height at which the trailer stands level is given separately, 1,150 mm laden and 1,180 mm unladen. In the sheet’s own wording the lower end of each band is a recommendation and only the upper end a limit. The coupling height and the 12,000 kg imposed load are two of the four figures that kingpin and fifth wheel sets out for matching a tractor to a semi-trailer.

Safety and driver-assistance systems

The 2019 brochure, which predates the current generation, listed EBS and RSP (Roll Stability Program) as standard assistance systems for the tipper; what the rules ask of a heavy trailer’s braking and stability functions is set out in trailer braking systems.

The IAA release says the folding underride guard “meets all the criteria set out in ECE-R58.03” and gives 728 mm of ground clearance when folded, which it says enables easy manoeuvring up to the road paver; the current product page says it “already meets the legal requirements according to ECE-R58.03”.

The current product page also lists optional assist systems for the S.KI SOLID. An on-board weighing system, factory-calibrated and operated from the screen or the beSmart app, is stated to determine and document the vehicle’s payload at the loading site without approaching a stationary checkweigher. A tyre pressure monitoring system with autolocation assigns its sensor to the correct tyre position and records tyre pressure and temperature, and a separate tyre re-pressurisation system checks tyre pressure and inflates a tyre automatically if needed. A brake pad wear indicator is stated to signal at an early stage when a pad needs replacement. The April 2025 bauma release names a further optional safety feature not on the product page’s own assist systems list, a tilt angle warning function, which it says “issues an acoustic and visual signal to warn the driver about unfavourable lateral tilt angles”.

Equipment and options

Chassis frame is offered in more than one weight design: the September 2022 IAA release described Standard, Light and Heavy-Duty frames, and the current product page lists EXTRA LIGHT, Standard and Heavy-duty chassis. The current product page offers hot galvanising as an option on the frame, and the maker ties a rust-through warranty to it: ten years for the galvanised frame, stated on the current product page and in the brief information. The brief information states a second, separate warranty alongside it, on every S.KI SOLID and not only the galvanised option: a chassis warranty of 500,000 km or 3 years, with wearing parts excluded.

The rear wall is also an equipment choice with its own stated use: the current brief information on the SOLID calls the surface-mounted swing flap suitable for partial unloading, and the 2019 brochure, which predates the current generation, recommended the internal tailgate with chute for guided unloading with a road paver. The trough cover is a further equipment choice, offered as either a rolling tarpaulin with walking platform or a sliding cover; its published front-overhang and overall-height figures are recorded in Body above.

Source notes

Which vehicle. Every figure in the overview is the S.KI 24 SL 7.2 SR datasheet’s: three axles, 7.2 system length, steel round body. The loading length is the one with the internal chute tailgate, the coupling height is the laden band from the minimum recommendation to the maximum permissible, and no figure has been verified for the two-axle build or for the 8.2, 9.6 or 10.5 system lengths. Weights. The datasheet prints two columns, “zulässig” (permissible) and “technisch” (technical), and they differ: total weight 36,000 kg permissible against 39,000 kg technical, bogie load 24,000 kg against 27,000 kg. The imposed load on the fifth wheel is 12,000 kg in both columns. The permissible column is internally consistent by this site’s own addition — 24,000 kg on the bogie plus 12,000 kg on the coupling is the 36,000 kg total — and so is the technical column, 27,000 plus 12,000 making 39,000. The sheet prints one permissible column for both of its axle spacings, 1,210 and 1,310 mm, and does not say which one it belongs to. Directive 96/53/EC, which sets the maximum authorised weights in international traffic within the EU, says in Annex I, point 3.3, that the sum of the axle weights per tri-axle of a trailer or semi-trailer “must not exceed” 21 tonnes if the distance between the axles is 1.3 m or less, and 24 tonnes if it is over 1.3 m and up to 1.4 m; § 34 of the German StVZO sets the same two limits. Coupling height. Sattelhöhe, stated as “min. Empfehlung bis max. zulässig” — a minimum recommendation up to a maximum permissible: 1,140-1,265 mm laden and 1,170-1,295 mm unladen. The height at which the semi-trailer stands level is given separately as 1,150 mm laden and 1,180 mm unladen. The field above holds the laden band. Body. Clear internal length is 7,300 mm with the chute tailgate, 7,480 mm with the surface-mounted swing flap and 7,660 mm with the combination door, the last rising to 7,675 and 7,690 mm on the deepest bodies. Four body depths are offered on the 7.2: 1,300, 1,460, 1,560 and 1,660 mm. Height from the fifth wheel to the trough floor is 285 mm. Rear overhang is 2,714 mm with the chute, 2,686 mm with the swing flap and 2,745 mm with the combination door; front overhang with the body alone is 900 mm. Turning clearance at the rear to ISO 1726 is given on two rows, “ohne E-Rad” and “mit E-Rad”: 2,300 mm without a spare wheel and 2,120 mm with one, both constant across all four body depths. Maximum tipping angle 48.2 degrees. Tyres 385/65 R 22.5. Volume, and the maker’s disagreement with itself. The datasheet gives volume per body depth and per tailgate for the 7.2: 21.3 / 24.0 / 25.8 / 27.5 m³ with the chute, 21.8 / 24.6 / 26.4 / 28.2 with the swing flap and 25.2 / 26.9 / 28.6 with the combination door. Above that, two current documents disagree about the S.KI SOLID as a model: 22-32 m³ on the product page and in the April 2025 bauma release, 22-35 m³ in the April 2025 applications overview. A third figure, 21-36 m³, is not a current model range: the April 2019 brochure gave it for the S.KI SOLID of the previous generation (page 6, “Construction bodies with volumes from 21 to 36 m3”), and the bauma release gives it only for the hydraulic-tailgate build. The applications overview and the datasheet also disagree on one row: the overview gives 25.2-26.4 m³ for the 7.2 at 1,560 mm where the datasheet’s own three tailgate figures run 25.8 to 26.9. No single range is preferred here. The overview’s own examples reach a volume of approx. 28 m³ with a 7.2 at a 1,660 mm side wall height and with an 8.2 at 1,460 mm, both with a fixed rear wall, and it gives the short, high build “lower weight”. Generation. The start year shown, 2023, is the current generation’s: the IAA Transportation 2022 release says production “is scheduled to start at the end of the 1st quarter of 2023”, and the August 2023 MATEXPO release shows an S.KI with the new generation of chassis frame, produced in Gotha, without a build date. No maker document opened here says when series production began. The S.KI SOLID name is older: the April 2019 brochure already uses it. The IAA Transportation 2022 release puts the new S.KI’s weight saving at up to 280 kg, broken down as 50 kg chassis, 180 kg body and 50 kg frame, against a named reference vehicle: the S.KI SOLID 7.2 with a dropside height of 1,460 mm, a 5/4 mm floor and side wall combination and an external tailgate. The frame redesign alone is credited with 45 to 110 kg depending on length and frame design, and the release offered the frame in Standard, Light and Heavy-Duty designs; the current product page lists EXTRA LIGHT, Standard and Heavy-duty chassis. The release says the folding underride guard “meets all the criteria set out in ECE-R58.03” and gives 728 mm of ground clearance when folded. These savings are the maker’s figures for its reference vehicle, not for every build. Running gear. ROTOS running gear with MRH (Multi-Ride-Height) air suspension, named on the current product page under Chassis & running gear. The 2019 brochure, which predates the current generation, listed EBS and RSP as standard assistance systems, disc brakes, and a 430 mm brake disc on the 22.5” hub as one of two disc sizes offered for the tipper. The current product page makes the lifting axle and starting aid standard equipment on all 3-axle S.KI tipper semi-trailers and describes a paver brake. The current product page and the 2025 bauma release both give a ten-year warranty against rust-through for the galvanised frame. The brief information (S.KI-SOLID-FLY-DE1GB-10794-1225) states a second warranty alongside it, on every S.KI SOLID and not only the galvanised option: “a chassis warranty of 500,000km or 3 years (wearing parts excluded)”. Frame weight-saving figures disagree between two current Schmitz Cargobull documents. The September 2022 IAA release credits the frame redesign alone with 45 to 110 kg depending on length and frame design; the August 2023 MATEXPO release repeats the same sentence with 53 to 110 kg instead. Neither document is superseded, so both figures are recorded rather than one preferred. Cover options. The datasheet gives the trough cover its own dimensions. A rolling tarpaulin with walking platform (“Rollplane und Podest”) adds a constant 1,678 mm to the front overhang across all four body depths; a sliding cover (“Schiebeverdeck”) instead adds 1,185 / 1,243 / 1,279 / 1,316 mm, by body depth (1,300 / 1,460 / 1,560 / 1,660 mm). Overall height unladen and level is given three ways, by the same four body depths: 2,765 / 2,925 / 3,025 / 3,125 mm without a cover (“ohne Verdeck”), 3,235 / 3,395 / 3,495 / 3,595 mm with the rolling tarpaulin, and 2,795 / 2,955 / 3,055 / 3,155 mm with the sliding cover. Overall height tipped (“angekippt”) runs 7,887 / 7,905 / 8,000 / 8,092 mm without a cover and 8,205 / 8,223 / 8,318 / 8,410 mm with either cover fitted (the sheet prints the same four figures under both the rolling-tarpaulin and sliding-cover tipped rows). Overall width does not appear on this datasheet in any configuration. Safety and driver-assistance options. The current product page’s “Assist systems” tab lists three items for the S.KI SOLID beyond EBS/RSP and the underride guard: an on-board weighing system (factory-calibrated, operated via the screen or the beSmart app, determines and documents payload at the loading site); tyre pressure systems, comprising a TPMS with autolocation (records tyre pressure and temperature) and a separate tyre re-pressurisation system (checks and automatically tops up tyre pressure); and a brake pad wear indicator (signals at an early stage when a pad needs replacement). The April 2025 bauma release separately names an optional tilt angle warning function, “which issues an acoustic and visual signal to warn the driver about unfavourable lateral tilt angles” — not on the product page’s own assist systems list.