according to big lorry blog
http://www.roadtransport.com/blogs/big-lorry-blog/2010/10/-in-case-youve-been.html
so does this mean that overall length is increased youll be able to run t-cab and longline scanias iveco strators and even spankys big daf with a 45ft trailer legally
i think some people have took it quite litterally that its now legal to do so
Tail swing must be a ■■■■■ on that!
merc0447:
Tail swing must be a ■■■■■ on that!
Exactly and it looks like it’s also got more front overhang too so the front corners will also be an issue a bit like the old car transporter artic trailers.It’s the usual PC zb that cut in and inside turning radius is all that matters and it’s another idea to just increase cubic capacity without upseting the rail interests too much by still not allowing decent LHV’s.But the increased rear overhang means more than just a tail sweep issue it also adds to the problems of balancing axle weights for anyone intending to use them for hauling anything heavier than bogrolls 
:lol It would be better and more efficient to use six wheeler drawbar outfits pulling existing length trailers.
VOSA seem to ‘turn a blind eye’ to it, you only have to drive down the A14 to see t-cabs hauling 45ft trailers. so why make it law if peole openly abuse it and get away with it, just like the picture 
i wonder who many times he has been pulled by VOSA because of his overall lenght, probably never.
Cruise Control:
VOSA seem to ‘turn a blind eye’ to it, you only have to drive down the A14 to see t-cabs hauling 45ft trailers. so why make it law if peole openly abuse it and get away with it, just like the picture
you can get away with it if its a skelly, but i know what you mean even though ive only been down the a14 a couple of times
gogzy:
Cruise Control:
VOSA seem to ‘turn a blind eye’ to it, you only have to drive down the A14 to see t-cabs hauling 45ft trailers. so why make it law if peole openly abuse it and get away with it, just like the pictureyou can get away with it if its a skelly, but i know what you mean even though ive only been down the a14 a couple of times
oh i know skellys are exempt because its the “load” not the trailer but the ones i have seen have been tauts/tankers/fridges.
how long is a t-cab wag and drag?
Cannot see how that will work around our roundabouts,won`t take many seconds before some twonk runs up the arse end.
Cruise Control:
VOSA seem to ‘turn a blind eye’ to it, you only have to drive down the A14 to see t-cabs hauling 45ft trailers. so why make it law if peole openly abuse it and get away with it, just like the picture
Trust me, they don’t!
Just imagine the fun and games you will have in some of the RDCs, or in the cities when making a tight turn…
If it is 1.5 metres longer then you are talking 51’ on a 7 metre pin to front trailer axle. That is ludicrous. Here our trailers are 53 feet, but the standard pin to centre-bogie is 41’ or 12 metres, which makes it 37 feet/10 metres to the front axle. Also, we have 3’ in front of the pin, not 5 or 6 like you have over there. That is fine with the tractor lengths, but on a 4.2 metre truck it will be a nightmare.
Your insurance costs would go through the roof with all the inevitable claims. I wouldn’t pull one of them, no way on earth.
bobthedog:
Just imagine the fun and games you will have in some of the RDCs, or in the cities when making a tight turn…If it is 1.5 metres longer then you are talking 51’ on a 7 metre pin to front trailer axle. That is ludicrous. Here our trailers are 53 feet, but the standard pin to centre-bogie is 41’ or 12 metres, which makes it 37 feet/10 metres to the front axle. Also, we have 3’ in front of the pin, not 5 or 6 like you have over there. That is fine with the tractor lengths, but on a 4.2 metre truck it will be a nightmare.
Your insurance costs would go through the roof with all the inevitable claims. I wouldn’t pull one of them, no way on earth.
But there is the third option of LHV drawbar outfits which would allow higher weights and more loading space but much less cut in than a yank artic outfit with a 53 footer semi and less tail sweep and no front overhang issues than that mickey mouse euro type longer semi would present here.For anyone who needs to haul indivisible loads we’ve already got STGO which allows longer semis than 53 footers (with decent axle spacing) anyway.But I think you’ve mistaken the spacing on that mickey mouse euro design.The actual distance between the trailer axles and pin seems to remain the same they’ve put all the extra distance on the front and rear overhangs behind the trailer axles and in front of the pin. I would’nt pull one either I’d prefer to leave the unit parked up at home and put a 45 footer on the back of a six wheeler rigid using a dolly and plead insanity when VOSA catch me. 
Looks daft with that overhang, any reason the axles are moved further back or spaced out more on the chassis?
Carryfast:
and plead insanity when VOSA catch me.
If you need a character witness let me know 
Don’t like it, sometimes reversing onto bays in tight yards - where the gap between the bays is too small to open your rear doors - you’re already a bit worried about your back end ■■■■■■■■ another trailer, imagine it with that bugger? Especially with the reduced visibility and extra width of having your doors open at the back.
newmercman:
Carryfast:
and plead insanity when VOSA catch me.If you need a character witness let me know
If the Brits ever succeed in getting the yanks to understand why it’s better to have a rear overhang on a 50 footer+ semi around the same distance as the trailer axles are from the unit you’d probably have to do that for every yank driver too. Although having said that those yanks probably could’nt understand how a six wheeler rigid coupled to a 45 foot drawbar/composite trailer would be more productive than a unit which is almost as long as the semi trailer it’s pulling .But the point I was actually making was that the lunatics have taken over the asylum over here so it’s not surprising that it would be a Brit testifying against me.
nickyboy:
Looks daft with that overhang
Yeah, looks like it’ll break off if you go over a speed bump
Carryfast:
bobthedog:
Just imagine the fun and games you will have in some of the RDCs, or in the cities when making a tight turn…If it is 1.5 metres longer then you are talking 51’ on a 7 metre pin to front trailer axle. That is ludicrous. Here our trailers are 53 feet, but the standard pin to centre-bogie is 41’ or 12 metres, which makes it 37 feet/10 metres to the front axle. Also, we have 3’ in front of the pin, not 5 or 6 like you have over there. That is fine with the tractor lengths, but on a 4.2 metre truck it will be a nightmare.
Your insurance costs would go through the roof with all the inevitable claims. I wouldn’t pull one of them, no way on earth.
But there is the third option of LHV drawbar outfits which would allow higher weights and more loading space but much less cut in than a yank artic outfit with a 53 footer semi and less tail sweep and no front overhang issues than that mickey mouse euro type longer semi would present here.For anyone who needs to haul indivisible loads we’ve already got STGO which allows longer semis than 53 footers (with decent axle spacing) anyway.But I think you’ve mistaken the spacing on that mickey mouse euro design.The actual distance between the trailer axles and pin seems to remain the same they’ve put all the extra distance on the front and rear overhangs behind the trailer axles and in front of the pin.
I didn’t mistake the spacings. IIRC, the distance between kingpin and the centre of the first trailer axle is 7 metres. General rule of thumb is that the distance between axles is about 1 metre 20cms or so. That given, the distance between the kingpin on this trailer and the centre of the rearmost axle will be roughly 8.5 metres, give or take. If the 5th wheel is 3 metres from the from of the unit, and the combination is 18 metres long, then the overhang is outlandish, don’t you think?
As for cut in on trucks here, well it isn’t that big an issue.The standard wheelbase of a tractor unit is 244’, 6.7 metres. The standard trailers are either a fixed bogie 48’ or a sliding bogie 53’. There is very little tailswing on vehicles here, They are more designed for the length and are more capable. You seem to think that trucks here are badly designed.
You also seem to be labouring under the impression that the UK is ready for LHVs, and also for ugly bloody things like this trailer. It isn’t, nowhere near. You haven’t the room, and the drivers in their cars haven’t the will to realise what the trailer is likely to do.
bobthedog:
Carryfast:
bobthedog:
Just imagine the fun and games you will have in some of the RDCs, or in the cities when making a tight turn…If it is 1.5 metres longer then you are talking 51’ on a 7 metre pin to front trailer axle. That is ludicrous. Here our trailers are 53 feet, but the standard pin to centre-bogie is 41’ or 12 metres, which makes it 37 feet/10 metres to the front axle. Also, we have 3’ in front of the pin, not 5 or 6 like you have over there. That is fine with the tractor lengths, but on a 4.2 metre truck it will be a nightmare.
Your insurance costs would go through the roof with all the inevitable claims. I wouldn’t pull one of them, no way on earth.
But there is the third option of LHV drawbar outfits which would allow higher weights and more loading space but much less cut in than a yank artic outfit with a 53 footer semi and less tail sweep and no front overhang issues than that mickey mouse euro type longer semi would present here.For anyone who needs to haul indivisible loads we’ve already got STGO which allows longer semis than 53 footers (with decent axle spacing) anyway.But I think you’ve mistaken the spacing on that mickey mouse euro design.The actual distance between the trailer axles and pin seems to remain the same they’ve put all the extra distance on the front and rear overhangs behind the trailer axles and in front of the pin.
I didn’t mistake the spacings. IIRC, the distance between kingpin and the centre of the first trailer axle is 7 metres. General rule of thumb is that the distance between axles is about 1 metre 20cms or so. That given, the distance between the kingpin on this trailer and the centre of the rearmost axle will be roughly 8.5 metres, give or take. If the 5th wheel is 3 metres from the from of the unit, and the combination is 18 metres long, then the overhang is outlandish, don’t you think?
As for cut in on trucks here, well it isn’t that big an issue.The standard wheelbase of a tractor unit is 244’, 6.7 metres. The standard trailers are either a fixed bogie 48’ or a sliding bogie 53’. There is very little tailswing on vehicles here, They are more designed for the length and are more capable. You seem to think that trucks here are badly designed.You also seem to be labouring under the impression that the UK is ready for LHVs, and also for ugly bloody things like this trailer. It isn’t, nowhere near. You haven’t the room, and the drivers in their cars haven’t the will to realise what the trailer is likely to do.
Read what I said again.As newmercman would tell you there ain’t no one who’s more of a fan of good old fashioned yank engineering than me.I know they don’t have big tail sweeps on their trailers because they’re clever enough to put the trailer axles as near as possible to the back of the trailer.That also allows for less axle weight issues too.As for this euro idea (dogs dinner) of a longer trailer it says in the details that there’s no difference in axle placing between the present 45 footers or the new longer one so all the extra has obviously been put on the overhangs from the rear axle and the pin at each end.They always prefer doing that here because they’re scared of having a bit more cut in.However in Euro Land we’ve always had places where the benefits of using drawbar/truck and trailer outfits over tractor/semi outfits are recognised.Those benefits,using a six wheeler rigid coupled to a 45 foot trailer,would mean 65 tonnes gross and better axle weight balance versus around 40 tonnes,or less, and a truck with less cut in issues than a yank tractor/semi outfit and less sweep and front overhang issues than that ridiculous euro larger semi trailer idea.Everyone in Europe already lives with 45 foot semis on a daily basis and using a six wheeler rigid to pull a drawbar trailer of that length would’nt make much,if any,difference it’s just the cut in issues of a longer semi with decent axle spacing which bothers them and that’s why the idiot designers are trying to get round that issue by putting all the extra on the overhangs which really would cause problems unlike that 65 tonner drawbar outfit would.
Not really the truck design issues, rather the road designers and planners. If they were less concerned about putting silly restrictions in place then it would make little difference. I am sat here trying to imagine what that kind of overhang would be like. I imagine lots of traffic lights and lamp posts being the first casualties…
At the end of the day, if other motorists were to actually have an idea, it really would not matter what truck configurations were running because people would give them a wide berth. Because the police are more interested in nicking people for speeding rather than for patently, though less provable, bad and dangerous driving, the motorists learn nothing, not even from their own mistakes.
I am not able to see how these trailers will be safe. When the 26 pallet trailers were introduced, there was no end of trouble with sites not being big enough. This will just make the situation more dangerous.
After driving busses like the MAN low line and the Mercedes Benz Citaro’s, pretty used to a large over-hang at front and rear, but it’s different when it’s on the arse end of a trailer and especially the places we go in trucks compared to the ‘select’ routes of them type of busses.