I have never driven one in my puff infact i had a nightmare i got asked to drive one woke up sweating and my heart pounding but i have a question.
I have noticed a lot of car transporters the bottom deck is empty and the top deck is full. So i assume they have just done a delivery and off to do the next delivery. But what is it like to drive this? All that weight but its all 14-15 feet off the ground- you must ■■■■■ yourself in corners.
merc0447:
I have never driven one in my puff infact i had a nightmare i got asked to drive one woke up sweating and my heart pounding but i have a question.I have noticed a lot of car transporters the bottom deck is empty and the top deck is full. So i assume they have just done a delivery and off to do the next delivery. But what is it like to drive this? All that weight but its all 14-15 feet off the ground- you must [zb] yourself in corners.
I’ve only driven 6 car rigids on salvage collection & you have to load the top deck first. First car is reversed & sits above the cab, can’t say I ever noticed any bad handling before the next ones are loaded. The next 2 sit on the moveable top deck, which can be lowered if the bottom deck isn’t loaded at the same time.
I’ve never noticed one that’s delivering where the bottom deck is empty yet the top deck is full & raised up !
Does anyone do that?
top deck raised all the way up is way to high. its just easier to leave topdeck in “running position” than to faff about adjusting it.
way to load is top deck (3cars) then lift that outta way and then load peak and 1 behind then bottom of cab deck (unless 4 on unit) the 3 on trailer then kick up and 1 under rear of trailer deck, the bring the whole lot down (and thats where the skill lies) till below 16 foot. i have worked the transporters and now back on low loaders but hold my hands up to the guys who are there cos it’s very stressful and difficult to avoid the odd scratch or two. whilst i did the job the guys were great,always having time to help each other load/unload or just advice. good bunch of fellas.
if your on multi drop and youve cleared the bottom just lower the top deck down so the roofs of the cars are level or just under the the pillars and allways try and keep at least one motor on the prime mover then no probs 
Once you dropped a few off you tend to keep the decks as low as you can, if drops have low trees then cars tend to be moved down however if you have clear height to your next drop then you just run with it. I was running at 15 ft ish today on the front with nowt underneath and was getting a lot of wheel spin in the roundabouts due to the lean, well traction control kept flicking in. have also driven with nowt on except a VW panel van over the cab at 15ft 9, again leans a bit but you just get used to adjusting your driving style to suit just as any trucker would with a different loan on.
The rounabouts aren’t too bad but if you catch a rut at 56 when your top heavy you end up listing like a ferry on the Irish Sea. They soon get your attention.
thats why when you get in any cab with a tranporter body on there’s a ridge down the middle of the seat. most transporter driver’s have strong arse muscles lol.
I find it amazing how close the decks are to each other. I see alot when fully loaded the top deck is sometimes millimeters to the roof of the brand new range rover below 