ben walker:
Hi Bewick and Harry, on Strathclyde we had 65ft Trombones and 70 footers authorised under Construction and use Regs as far as I can remember going away from your Depot it had to be Indivisable Loads ,coming home you were allowed anything.On Davis Bros when the Mercedes 1418 Normal control came on the Road it was slightly over the limit with a 40 footer on 49ft 2.6ins I think and the Ministry were always stopping us, then maybe It was because it was Davis,Harry you were were very lucky to get away with pulling anything over the Legal limit on General.
Ben.
Hi Ben, I was with Strathclyde from 1966-1970, to get round the forty foot trailer rules, each trailer carried, a single forty foot rebar.
Dave.
Bewick:
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.
Thanks for the info dennis.The ones we had at parkers were I think on the centre knave wheels so maybe that’s were the mickey mouse tag comes from
regards dave.
Eddie Heaton:
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.
I wasn’t comparing a 4-in-line to a “tandem 4” Eddie but the comparison between a “knock out axle” low loader and a four-in-line platform trailer the applications were entirely different and therefore the low loader shouldn’t be classed with the platforms IMHO.Cheers Dennis.
These are the BTC four in line trailers we had on the Thorn contract, sky high with television tubes, as you can see they used to sway a bit, well not a bit….a lot…( not my picture )
leylandlover:
Just watched a utube video of lorries leaving Kelsall steam event,One of your Atkis leaving the ground.
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Nice to see Mike’s keeping up the Bewick tradition of “Easy loads”!
Now com’on ROF you surely cannot hold it against Bewick Transport just because we hauled good ,clean, square traffic can you ? Cheers Dennis.
Not really, I suppose. Conversely, you can’t expect too much cred when you continually post photos of loads which my 16-year old grand daughter could make a decent job of!
Does anyone have any shots or spec sheets of this type of trailer that was popular in the 50/60s and ran at 24 ton GVW prior to Plating and Testing starting.I know that the market leader for these trailers was BTC of Trafford Park (I think) and also York built them but were they built by anyone else? PS I might get more response to this thread than I got for Guy Big Js with an 8LXB engine!!! Bewick.
Hi Dennis,
I remember Cartwrights of Wolverhampton ran some of those behind Dodge Kew tractor units in the early to mid sixties,hauled sand to South Wales,must have hauled coils back.
Cheers Dave.
Bewick:
Does anyone have any shots or spec sheets of this type of trailer that was popular in the 50/60s and ran at 24 ton GVW prior to Plating and Testing starting.I know that the market leader for these trailers was BTC of Trafford Park (I think) and also York built them but were they built by anyone else? PS I might get more response to this thread than I got for Guy Big Js with an 8LXB engine!!! Bewick.
I think JJ72 posted a picture recently, he may have something.
Meanwhile Len Rogers has got a lovely full frontal shot of a Knowles Transport Dodge taken at Gaydon.
Bewick:
Does anyone have any shots or spec sheets of this type of trailer that was popular in the 50/60s and ran at 24 ton GVW prior to Plating and Testing starting.I know that the market leader for these trailers was BTC of Trafford Park (I think) and also York built them but were they built by anyone else? PS I might get more response to this thread than I got for Guy Big Js with an 8LXB engine!!! Bewick.
More useless info coming back to me about 4-in-lines------ I think the axle/s were rated at 11ton and the tyres could (I’ve been told ) achieve very high mileages as there was little or no drag.I can also recall dealing with the former Sales director of BTC Jim Walmsley who had also been involved with Municipal Trailers of Bamber Bridge who we bought trailer spares off at Bewick Transport.I also remember that some 4-in-lines I looked at had Auto-lubes fitted.Bewick.
Bewick:
Does anyone have any shots or spec sheets of this type of trailer that was popular in the 50/60s and ran at 24 ton GVW prior to Plating and Testing starting.I know that the market leader for these trailers was BTC of Trafford Park (I think) and also York built them but were they built by anyone else? PS I might get more response to this thread than I got for Guy Big Js with an 8LXB engine!!! Bewick.
I think JJ72 posted a picture recently, he may have something.
Meanwhile Len Rogers has got a lovely full frontal shot of a Knowles Transport Dodge taken at Gaydon.
Nice shot Wheel Nut but I wonder which manufacturer it was ? At least it has a nice solid chassis as again from memory some of them were built on “frame work” type chassis.Cheers Bewick.
Hi Dennis,have a butchers on page 8 of Scrapbook memories,I put a pic of a D1000 with a 4 in line trailer on and it got a few replies that was interesting reading.ok
Cheers Bubbs.
bubbleman:
Hi Dennis,have a butchers on page 8 of Scrapbook memories,I put a pic of a D1000 with a 4 in line trailer on and it got a few replies that was interesting reading.ok
Cheers Bubbs.
Thanks for that Bubbs will do!!! I thought ti wouldn’t be long until some of our “well informed” members came up with some Gen!!! Cheers Dennis.
Dave the Renegade:
Hi Dennis,
I remember Cartwrights of Wolverhampton ran some of those behind Dodge Kew tractor units in the early to mid sixties,hauled sand to South Wales,must have hauled coils back.
Cheers Dave.
Now com’on Dave be more specific please!!! Sand to South Wales? were they tippers? and possibly coil back? Four-in -line coil carriers? Your going to cause a bigger riot than I did viz-a-viz Guy Big Js and 8LXB engines!!! Settle down now lads while we sort this minor hic-up out!!! Cheers Dennis.
hiya,
Useless information Dennis but worked at Killingbecks of Blackburn in the 60s they had quite a few of the things and in the days of carrying spare wheels you would be expected to change a punctured tyre if the need arose and believe me it was a nightmare with those things the inventor should have been roped on a pile of them and set alight, most drivers hated them with a vengeance.
thanks harry long retired.
Cheers Dennis.
