deckboypeggy:
Very good information Eddie.however they were the new ones,proper scammell couplings were the ones i started with ,with a cattle box on the chassi.
these posts should be on the Newbie pages, just to show the new drivers ,this was the start of the game.
That’s very interesting Deckboypeggy, Can you remember the year when you had this Auto coupling, Regards Larry.
I reckon nowt to all this abuse been hurled at 4-in -line trailers,IMHO (although I never had much dealing with them) they were a trailer of their time and did a reasonable job in the right hands but I admit that in the wrong hands they could be blamed for the “shortcomings” of the driver in failing to treat the trailer with respect! This is a shot of the first artic I ran at Bewick Transport which was,I believe,a variation on the 4-in-line theme.It was a single wheeled 32 ft long tandem which at 26 ton GVW allowed us to carry an 18ton payload which it did often when it hauled 18ton of doubled up pallets down to Gravesend and Rochester.Admittedly the motor had probably about the best driver from our area at the wheel and he never came to grief although I would admit that other drivers,in the same circumstances, would have encountered problems without doubt ! But if you understood and treated the combination with respect these trailers did the job very well.
I wonder what the Auto coupling that DBP had would be able to carry weight wise, The auto coupling would be no where near the 5th wheel capacity, In fact IIRC a Bedford TK Coupled to one of these trailers could only carry 10/12 ton in those days before MOTs were introduced in 69/70 ■■?, Anyone know owt about this,■■, Regards Larry.
Bewick:
I reckon nowt to all this abuse been hurled at 4-in -line trailers,IMHO (although I never had much dealing with them) they were a trailer of their time and did a reasonable job in the right hands but I admit that in the wrong hands they could be blamed for the “shortcomings” of the driver in failing to treat the trailer with respect! This is a shot of the first artic I ran at Bewick Transport which was,I believe,a variation on the 4-in-line theme.It was a single wheeled 32 ft long tandem which at 26 ton GVW allowed us to carry an 18ton payload which it did often when it hauled 18ton of doubled up pallets down to Gravesend and Rochester.Admittedly the motor had probably about the best driver from our area at the wheel and he never came to grief although I would admit that other drivers,in the same circumstances, would have encountered problems without doubt ! But if you understood and treated the combination with respect these trailers did the job very well.
We had one similar to Bewick’s but with a wide-spread bogie made by Highway trailers. It was very good on weight but suffered a bit in the stability department when carrying double-stacked pallets. Ours had those “minimum leaf” springs on it, with just three leaves in each.
That Primrose trailer had multi leaf springs ROF,it was the drive axle mudguards on the unit that used to get a roasting at times when it was loaded with a double row of pallets! Cheers Dennis.
Lawrence Dunbar:
0My late Grandad drove this one, That’s him standing at the rear, Regards Larry.
How far would your Grandad be taking that load Larry ? Someone in the Crew would be busy lifting the telewag wires eh! Cheers Dennis.
Eddie Heaton:
0The problem with the 4 in line trailer was the irrefutable fact that they were inherently unstable, due to the ’ Twin axles in line oscillating transversely '. Now why on earth would anyone want the axles on their trailer to oscillate transversely on a level paved surface, or any other surface for that matter? How could that particular function be construed as being beneficial ? Granted, they were popular, with operators if not with drivers, as they were to be seen all over the place. I don’t know who conceived the concept of the design or sanctioned its use for operating at 24 tons gvw but I suspect they never had to earn their living by driving them. I’ve dragged them hundreds, possibly thousands of miles without incident, but in my view they were an accident waiting to happen. The low loader version however, although employing the same principle wasn’t subject to instability to the same degree due to the low centre of gravity. In fact, the oscillation of the axles proved quite useful at times as it facilitated loading over the side, saving the trouble of knocking the back wheels out. Eddie.
They were two entirely different applications “Eddie”,although they were configured the same they were “chalk and cheese”,when 24 ton gvw was top wack weight the Four-in-line platform trailer was a development by the trailer industry to get maximum payload at 24 ton GVW when coupled to the likes of a Comet or Dodge 308 and,of course,the versatility of articulation was in it’s infancy and the days of the big rigid plarforms was coming to a close,I for one would have piled into 4-in-lines if I’d been operating during that time the same as many firms did ! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Lawrence Dunbar:
0My late Grandad drove this one, That’s him standing at the rear, Regards Larry.How far would your Grandad be taking that load Larry ? Someone in the Crew would be busy lifting the telewag wires eh! Cheers Dennis.
I don’t know where it was loaded for Dennis, But he did have two second men with him & somewhere on the trailer he kept a long pole to lift the wires up.No H/S men about in those days Eh, These oldies just got on with their job, Have a close look at the chains securing the vessel, Goolie enlargers I would say, Ha Ha, Regards Larry.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Bewick:
Lawrence Dunbar:
0My late Grandad drove this one, That’s him standing at the rear, Regards Larry.How far would your Grandad be taking that load Larry ? Someone in the Crew would be busy lifting the telewag wires eh! Cheers Dennis.
I don’t know where it was loaded for Dennis, But he did have two second men with him & somewhere on the trailer he kept a long pole to lift the wires up.No H/S men about in those days Eh, These oldies just got on with their job, Have a close look at the chains securing the vessel, Goolie enlargers I would say, Ha Ha, Regards Larry.
Aye Larry they would make your eyes “watter” alright !!!Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
I reckon nowt to all this abuse been hurled at 4-in -line trailers,IMHO (although I never had much dealing with them) they were a trailer of their time and did a reasonable job in the right hands but I admit that in the wrong hands they could be blamed for the “shortcomings” of the driver in failing to treat the trailer with respect! This is a shot of the first artic I ran at Bewick Transport which was,I believe,a variation on the 4-in-line theme.It was a single wheeled 32 ft long tandem which at 26 ton GVW allowed us to carry an 18ton payload which it did often when it hauled 18ton of doubled up pallets down to Gravesend and Rochester.Admittedly the motor had probably about the best driver from our area at the wheel and he never came to grief although I would admit that other drivers,in the same circumstances, would have encountered problems without doubt ! But if you understood and treated the combination with respect these trailers did the job very well.
Dennis.
You may be able to answer a problem for me.When I worked at parkers tpt Bolton we had a couple of the trls you show above,however the com. never called them 4 in lines they were always called mickey mouse trls?
Regarding stability yes you had to have respect,we loaded them with hard rubber battery cases out of lorival little lever on plts 2 high 14ft,could be a bit of a problem at r/bouts.
regards dave.
Hiya Dave, they were usually referred to as “tandem fours” were the ones you had at Parkers on those centre knave wheels? the main manufactures used ordinary narrow track axles which had brake drums for 8 wheel tandems and this caused braking probs with only having 4 tyres on the road.That Primrose trailer I had built used the Mastiff fron’t hub assemblies which were narrower drums and therefore steadier braking.The tandem fours were just to cater for the new gvw of 26 tons at the time (1969) so the major trailer builders just used their existing materials to cobble to-gether a single wheel trailer.Cheers Dennis.
Yes Lawrance,i am able to tell you almost to the month when i first drove the scammell coupling as a cattle open top trailer it would have been april 1965 as my 50 years [marriage] is up this september…and i was 21 in the april.
The weight would have be about 11 tons ish as we had about 20 good head of cattle in the box with a old type wooden 5 bar gate separating them.
I think LANHAMS or laythams of yarmouth had some. never give it a thought you were driving and that is what i, and we wanted to do. pulled by a leyland super comet…no eaton 2 speed.
There is a picture of a reasonable load of Hops sitting on a four-in-line on page 15 of the Henley Transport thread.
Lawrence Dunbar:
Bewick:
Lawrence Dunbar:
0My late Grandad drove this one, That’s him standing at the rear, Regards Larry.How far would your Grandad be taking that load Larry ? Someone in the Crew would be busy lifting the telewag wires eh! Cheers Dennis.
I don’t know where it was loaded for Dennis, But he did have two second men with him & somewhere on the trailer he kept a long pole to lift the wires up.No H/S men about in those days Eh, These oldies just got on with their job, Have a close look at the chains securing the vessel, Goolie enlargers I would say, Ha Ha, Regards Larry.
Larry it would have been the law at that time as when I started at Pickford,s in the 60s any load over 11feet 6 inches wide had to have a third man and I think this was changed around 1970 when the A,B,&c license was scrapped as a lot of the rules were changed around the same time.
The vessel is fastened down using railway screws as most wagons on heavy haulage used them as they were more flexible than bottle screws , they were what the railways used to couple wagons and coaches together they used to buy a load of them as well as old railway sleepers there was a firm across the road from Pickford,s Sheffield Ropers who used to deal in them as there was always big piles of old sleepers in their yard.
cheers Johnnie
Well I can remember me old Grandad dropping broken sleepers off when he was passing his house at Wideopen on the Great North Road as it was called in those days, Then at the weekend when he was home he used to cut them up into bits that would fit the old Black cast Iron fire place that he had, He allways said to me waste not want not boy, Sadley the Currie & Co name disappeared when nationalisation came into force & they were part of Pickfords whom he worked for until he was 68, He was a real haulage man, Loved it right up till he past away at the age of 72, Happy long gone days, Regards Larry.
Bewick:
Lawrence Dunbar:
Bewick:
Lawrence Dunbar:
0My late Grandad drove this one, That’s him standing at the rear, Regards Larry.How far would your Grandad be taking that load Larry ? Someone in the Crew would be busy lifting the telewag wires eh! Cheers Dennis.
I don’t know where it was loaded for Dennis, But he did have two second men with him & somewhere on the trailer he kept a long pole to lift the wires up.No H/S men about in those days Eh, These oldies just got on with their job, Have a close look at the chains securing the vessel, Goolie enlargers I would say, Ha Ha, Regards Larry.
Aye Larry they would make your eyes “watter” alright !!!Cheers Dennis.
Hiya,
Those chains and “tightener uppers” no doubt were borrowed from the same
source as I used, the railways, I always kept a few on the swan neck ideal for
fastening down anything with tracks.
thanks harry, long retired.
dafdave, it’s odd that you should mention Lorival on the 4 in line trailer thread and I’ll proceed to tell you why. In the late 60’s we used to load pitch out of LTD on Cemetery road in Weaste up to that place, usually on a Saturday morning. I often wondered what they did with the stuff. I always thought they made toilet cisterns with it, now almost 50 years down the road I discover it was battery cases. I was driving a 6LX powered Guy Invincible at the time, coupled to a 4 in line tipping trailer. The shovel driver at Weaste was an old Irish bloke. He’d had that many pitch warts taken out of his face, it resembled an aerial map of the western front. He was a good old lad, but he didn’t give a [zb] how much he loaded onto you. His only mandate was to get the yard empty. As they had no weighing facilities, it was only when you arrived at Lorival that you discovered you were grossing off at 30+ tons more often than not. Still, we never got caught and it was all part of a long learning curve. Now Dennis, let’s be fair, the trailer in your photo isn’t a 4 in line is it ? It really isn’t though is it ? In fact I’d say it was a 4 in 2 lines. It would have had 2 tubular steel axles connecting the nearside wheels of the trailer to those on the offside with a suspension system attaching the whole thing to the chassis, thereby giving it an element of lateral stability, something almost entirely lacking in the 4 in line. If anyone wonders what it’s like pulling a fully freighted, top heavy 4 in line, the only analogy I can make is this. Imagine riding a pushbike with 2 x 1 cwt bags of coal, one fastened to each side of the crossbar, and there you have it, the 4 in line trailer. Dennis, you say they were a bit before your time. I say consider yourself fortunate. Considering the type of traffic that you carried, these beasts had the potential to put a considerable dent in your exemplary track record. All the best. Eddie.
