i use an a frame most nights now,all i can say is , i dont go backwards half as often as i used too 
Some of the A frames I used to drive. Bit fiddly to reverse. They were all 6 + 8m.
Tuapeka:
22 metres here in nz, very good on winding roads. Reversing is a skill, especially on the blind!
What gearbox does that DAF CF have out of interest? I remember seeing an Australian (I think) brochure for those a year or so back and it had an eaton fuller crash box in it, is that also the case in NZ?
harry:
Some of the A frames I used to drive. Bit fiddly to reverse. They were all 6 + 8m.
Ok, now for my next question. When I used to go to Germany a lot as a child I noticed that many of their A Frames in those days seemed to be 2 axle units and 3 axle Anhängerâs as opposed to the other way round that seems more common now. I dont suppose it makes any difference on gross weight but is it better to have a heavier unit or a heavier Anhänger or doesnât it make any difference as like Carryfast as exlained above, they are both just like independant units, unlike an artic or wagon and drag type outfit.
Makes no diff. With that Scania I used to load 14t on the trailer & tow it over the mountain in the rain to the Swiss frontier with the truck empty & then have to go back & load 8t on the truck & connect again on the frontier because of the 28t gross limit in Swiss but 35t in France.
Towards the end I used to drag the trailer out of the factory,park up for a coupla hours then nip back & stick the 8t on then hitch up to the trailer at the waste ground & go over the mountain fully freighted. you could do it it between 12-1400 because that is when the police went to lunch. 
The 6+8 combo was easier to reverse. I had a fridge 7+7 with 3 ax on the truck & 2 on the trailer I didnât like it so much because of the extra weight on the steering.With a 2 ax job gross W was 16t,I think with 3 ax it was 20t?.
That Volvo at the time was grossing 38t loaded down in Spain for Swiss,that was in the 80âs when UK limit was 32t.
With 2 ax never put more than 8t on but with trailers no limit to the weight ,they only weighed about 3t empty.
In nz Daf cf can be specced with auto or 18 speed road ranger. I had 2 uk drivers over this year and they struggled with the manual box.
Tuapeka:
In nz Daf cf can be specced with auto or 18 speed road ranger. I had 2 uk drivers over this year and they struggled with the manual box.
Why does the CF seem to be more popular in NZ and OZ than the XF,a good friend of mine has just come back from OZ,he spent 18 months driving over there and said XFâs are very rare 
Have to credit you on your immaculate CF there Tuapeka but donât you think an XF super space cab would be a whole lot better 
Tuapeka:
In nz Daf cf can be specced with auto or 18 speed road ranger. I had 2 uk drivers over this year and they struggled with the manual box.
Maybe itâs a generational thing combined with not enough chance now in the euro environment to build up their non synchro box skills.While not forgetting that probably applies from the training stage these days.Although having said that it shouldnât be too much of a problem for any driver to pick up the way of driving required in a reasonable time,by adapting to it themselves,considering the general level of co ordination needed to drive even a synchro box wagon properly.Which still needs to have itâs engine and road speeds matched properly anyway,at each shift point,to get the best optimum durability from it.But it seems like dumbed down trucks are producing dumbed down drivers at least in the case of using gearboxes correctly and auto boxes will only make that situation worse not better.
I am looking for an old A frame box or curtainsider, it must be cheap or free, it doesnât need any test or good tyres. I want it to store some racetrack equipment in while still being mobile behind a farm tractor. My ultimate plan is to make a viewing platform on the roof or an office for the lap scoring team.
Waterproof would be good, as would lockable, although the value of the stuff isnât much, it would make good kindling 
Delivery to Derby or Castle Donington Area please.
You want it cheap or even free? Then you want it delivered? Hang on a minute, Iâm sure Iâve still got a gallon of paint in the shed- Iâll even paint it for you.
ROF would you have a choice of coloursâ â ?
I spent a long time towing an A frame draw bar ( Dog trailer ), at that time the benefit was that it could be driven on a class 3 and as I was on the Young drivers Scheme at the time and only 18years old it fitted well with my needs.
The draw bar out fit at the time was able to run at 60 feet and if spected properly 2 bodies at 24.5 feet each had a benefit of 9 feet over an artic at that time.
For some reason the draw bar trailer didnât attract road tax from DVLA and the tax disc said NILL on the center field, so the whole thing was only taxed as a 4 wheeler.
When I started driving the speed limit on A class roads was 30 mph which was a bit of draw back but as no one ever took any notice it wasnât a really big problem.
Most of my deliveries were to remote Scottish farms where access was a bit of a problem, but after a few do or die moments I quickly got the hang of it.
A fully loaded 2 axle draw bar trailer in inherently unstable when in the jack knife position ie when the turn table is at 90 degrees to the body of the trailer, most of the weight is pivoting on the width of axle and there is high danger of the trailer ending up on its side.
Pig trailers (Center axle ) trailers donât have that problem, but they do have a lot of weight transfer between the trailer and towing vehicle if there is an multi drop work involved, The pig as also theoretically easier to reverse as it only has one articulation. and having it in the jack knife position doesnât make any difference to its stability. However dew to most of them having a deeply under slung towing hitch there are always problems with the hitch and tow bar grounding out in undulating conditions.
In Australia they like the A frame set up especially on metropolitan sand a gravel work, the most common is the American 6x 4 with 10 yard tipper towing a super dog ( 3 axle ) or quad dog ( 4 axle ) tipper. There is also a dog (2 axle), and the wobble dog which is a 6x4 American timber truck towing a 4 axle A frame fold up jinker. I drove one for a while and its like driving a live snake down the road, going down hill is even worse as not only does it wobble but it also pushes.
The Italians also like the 6x2 pulling an A frame using the demountable inter modules, a lot of big firms invested a lot of big money into them and were very popular in the 80âs and 90âs. They seemed to be big in cross Alpine routes Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy. Hangartener were also running them up to Britain through the Euro tunnel and had a few subbies running for Italfreight which was their British end.
On the subject of road ranger gear boxes, here in Australia there in now an amendment on your license for driving either a road ranger type of box or as they put it Euro box. If you pass your test on a Syncro box you canât drive a vehicle with a road ranger, if you pass on a road ranger you can drive anything.
JeffâŚ
Retired Old â â â â :
You want it cheap or even free? Then you want it delivered? Hang on a minute, Iâm sure Iâve still got a gallon of paint in the shed- Iâll even paint it for you.
It is called enthusiastic bartering, have you got one or not? If you have tell me how much, if not, why would you care?
We would prefer a rulley type setup as it would be probably cheaper but something like this would do as we could make it fit a tractor.
As a club we make no money, but our efforts are welcomed by the parents & youngsters who train with us.
The latest horses from the training stable are Tom Woolley 2012 Pinhard Trophy Winner and Short track Champion,
Tom Perry International Longtrack and Grasstrack Rider
Adam Roynon Speedway Rider.
All of Tuffnells drawbar trailers are of the A Frame type.
Makes them easy to shunt around and quick when doing change overs in the depots
i used to drive an A frame for christie tyler, based in blackwood. mostly involved trunking two demounts around and about the U.K, and a special up to alloa to offload italian furniture.
it is definately a skill reversing the drag under the demount, especially as they had raised bumpers at the front of the guides so you could,nt do both drag and prime demounts at the same time !! i started turning the prime around and pushing the drag in but you got mighty peesed off doing that after a short time. to be honest i loved driving them and couple of years ago i was doing sweden and they have plenty over there with the prime being a 26tonner and a 40 or 45 foot drag. If i,d been 20 years younger i would of moved out there and worked there.
Never used the bumper to shunt, ever.
JeffâŚ
These still use them
moomooland:
120All of Tuffnells drawbar trailers are of the A Frame type.
Makes them easy to shunt around and quick when doing change overs in the depots
The shunter looks tidier than the whole Tuffnells fleet
Jeff mentions never using the bumper to nose them in, believe me you would never have backed one in at our depot in Howden, each trailer had wooden boards bolted down the side to protect them, there were only inches between them. But yes, out on the road I used to persevere and even in the yard if there were a couple of empty spaces
A frame Drawbars are reminiscent from the Horse and cart days where you could turn a waggon around when pulled by a team of horses later favoured by breweries as they could turn in the tight narrow streets . so nothing to do with the actual load baring or axel weights its all down to manoeuvrability