I passed an odd (well to me anyway) trailer on the M11 today. It was a Charles Gee one, and as I drove past the back end of the trailer, I noticced that it had a red susie tucked away under the chassis, just to the rear of the rear axle, connected via an airline type release coupling. What really caught my eye though, was the kingpin & rubbing plate sitting under the rear of the trailer, between the rear axle & the bumper. I think it was a walking floor trailer, which would probably account for the airline, but what was the kingpin for? What would you need to attach to the rear of the trailer in this way?
Loads of Stobarts though - don’t think I’ve ever seen so many on the M11 before!
this is what a walking floor trailer looks like in my experience. Often there is a box behind the rear axle that contains the isolator and on/off switch. If they are used on agri work then there are sometimes hoppers on the rear end for dropping into grills. As far as i know walking floors all run off PTO not airlines.
A few years ago some one was developing a trailer to use on road and rail, idea being drove to a railhead and all the trailers would be connected to sets of rail bogies with 2 5th wheels attached so a complete train could be made up.
The extra airlines would be connected to the bogies to provide braking.
And trailer wheels would be raised to clear the tracks.
Sounds unbelievable but it was early intermodal ideas, was a piece in one of the truck mags years ago.
A friend of mine has preserved a ERF that was used for transporting paper. Having seen pictures of it in service I commented the trailers had a rear pin. Apparently these were used to lock the trailers into place on the bay.
Could it be the airline is there for when the trailer is left alone on the bay?
Wheel Nut:
Are you sure it wasnt half of one of these with a box on?
Hiya,
Yes, sure it wasn’t one of those - I’m fairly used to combis. I wish I’d taken a photo now, but only saw the pin on the back as I was overtaking, so didn’t get chance.
Hi.
I’ll put you out of you’re misery as I work for them.Well c&h hauilers
Wich is in the same group as charles gee.The trailers are set up like that
To enable us to deliver reels of paper to the newspaper printers.We back onto
A fifth wheel plate.Connect the a red airline from there system to a connection
On our trailer.On the trailer floor is four tracks wich enables the
Docking system to push a set of skates into the complete lengh of
The trailer.Air is then pumped into the system wich raises the trailer floor.
This in turn raises the skates in the trailer and lifts the reels.They are
Then all pulled out in one go.Takes about 5mins to ofload 20 reels.The red air
Airline is there for us to be able to side load the trailer.And not damage the tracks
In the trailer floor.The airline allows us to raise the floor from the trailers own airsupply.
Hope this not to long winded explanation .
daftvader:
Hi.
I’ll put you out of you’re misery as I work for them.Well c&h hauilers
Wich is in the same group as charles gee.The trailers are set up like that
To enable us to deliver reels of paper to the newspaper printers.We back onto
A fifth wheel plate.Connect the a red airline from there system to a connection
On our trailer.On the trailer floor is four tracks wich enables the
Docking system to push a set of skates into the complete lengh of
The trailer.Air is then pumped into the system wich raises the trailer floor.
This in turn raises the skates in the trailer and lifts the reels.They are
Then all pulled out in one go.Takes about 5mins to ofload 20 reels.The red air
Airline is there for us to be able to side load the trailer.And not damage the tracks
In the trailer floor.The airline allows us to raise the floor from the trailers own airsupply.
Hope this not to long winded explanation .
Brilliant. The power of Trucknet, we need a photo of the trailer in operation now. I did think my own explanation was a bit weak as everyone knows how a skelly works.
daftvader:
Hi.
I’ll put you out of you’re misery as I work for them.Well c&h hauilers
Wich is in the same group as charles gee.The trailers are set up like that
To enable us to deliver reels of paper to the newspaper printers.We back onto
A fifth wheel plate.Connect the a red airline from there system to a connection
On our trailer.On the trailer floor is four tracks wich enables the
Docking system to push a set of skates into the complete lengh of
The trailer.Air is then pumped into the system wich raises the trailer floor.
This in turn raises the skates in the trailer and lifts the reels.They are
Then all pulled out in one go.Takes about 5mins to ofload 20 reels.The red air
Airline is there for us to be able to side load the trailer.And not damage the tracks
In the trailer floor.The airline allows us to raise the floor from the trailers own airsupply.
Hope this not to long winded explanation .
Hi daftvader,
It’s not a long-winded explanation, but what you’ve described sounds very like a ‘roller-bed’ trailer as used by many airfreight companies.
I’ve used rollerbed trailers on airfreight, so now I’m wondering why your trailer needs an extra air supply when the rollerbed trailers I’ve used don’t… ■■
If you do a google image search for ‘roller-bed’ trailer, you’ll see what I mean.
.