Delivered some cabins and containers to Falkirk this week, all went well but the turbo on the old j reg bust. Not wanting to be beat I came up with this as a bit of a noval idea to get it back.
how did you stop the steering on the fl6 moving and swinging the cab end about on the road?
took the keys out and tied it up just in case
thats what i like to see driver using there head 
That was handy having a spare 26tonner in your cab
Wouldnt it drive without a turbo then? Depends how it’s ‘bust’ i guess. 
Won,t drive long if it ■■■■■ all the "bits " in ? regards derek
That was handy having a spare 26tonner in your cab
made me laugh anyway
alix776:
thats what i like to see driver using there head
Do we get paid enough to do that?.
trucking482002:
Won,t drive long if it ■■■■■ all the "bits " in ? regards derek
if the exhaust turbine has broke it’ll just blow those out.
Although if the oil seal went it would smoke like hell and run out of oil (if you didnt get pulled first)
Fair play to you for a bit of initiative Marlow, but weren’t you just a bit worried
that 4(?) straps wouldn’t be enough to stop your boom from swinging
sideways?
Could have been a bit embarrassing to look in the mirrors and spot a Volvo 4
wheeler reversing past you 
Could there possibly have been a weight distribution issue as well, the Foden
looks a bit down at the rear?
Not criticising, just wondering if these thoughts had been considered and
discarded as OK.
Looks pretty [zb] dangerous to me. The steering wheels are virtually off the ground; go over a bump and they will be. Isn’t it way over length too? Also, 4 ratchet straps aren’t going to hold 10 tonne of truck on a HIAB arm from going side ways. 
However, isn’t this the same bloke who was driving round with defective brakes for months on end? I seem to recall a thread about it where he got a load of well deserved grief over it.
I must admit when I posted this I thought that the slagging off would have come much earlier. Heres how I came to the decision that it was safe to travel.
As far as the overall length is concerned my truck (the Foden) is 11.4 meters the Volvo is 10 meters and there was about 1.5 meters between them so overall length was about 23meters, so over the permissible 18.5 meters but then so would an empty artic towed behind an conventional suspended tow truck. 
The weight distribution is concerned I see no problem. The Foden with the arm folded weighs in at 8250kgs on the front axle if the tag axle is down when its empty. The axle is uprated to 8 ton. Running empty I’m 15,500 and only legal way is with the tag up, but it wont stop. It’s for this reason I generally run empty with the arm on the back of the bed allowing me to run with the tag axle down and therefore improving the braking efficiency considerably. The Volvo would weigh about 3500 on the rear axle so I estimate the weight on the end of the arm at around 2750 and 3000kgs The D rings used were rated at 4 tons. An estimate as to the weight on the front axle of the Foden was around 6 ton. (quite possibility the only time that any 6x2 rigid with an arm in excess of 30t/mtr has run well balanced)
The straps were rated at 2.5 ton so I estimate that the way I strapped the arm (ie O/S round arm to O/S X 2 = 5ton) same to N/S in addition to this you have the gravitational force down on the bed and a 5th strap running from o/s to n/s increasing the gravitational force on the bed.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not claiming that it was 100% legal, and that I wasn’t nipping my buttocks when I passed Beatock VOSA point that was open for business. I had other options like leaving the motor there and collecting a straight bar to bring it back with on Monday when I next go Falkirk. But would it have been safer to tow the motor back on the straight bar with no power steering and no brakes than the way I approached the situation? (it would certainly be more legal but that’s why the law is an ■■■)
Incidentally I’m currently trying to push my gaffer for a replacement motor. He can’t understand why he sees 6x2 crane motors for sale @ mac trucks with 34 to 37 ton arms and I’m having all on to convince him that there all overweight on the front axle. I tipped such a motor in the yard on Friday, out of curiosity I asked him for a look at his weight plate and asked him if he’d ever weighed the front axle? His answer was no he’d never weighed it and on inspection I notices that his daf had a plate and design weight of 7500. he thought it was OK as he was running on super singles. I would estimate his front axle tare weight at >8250+kgs
Heres my design for a 6X2 chassis cab conversion costs in the region of 5k
Presumably you have a Class 1 licence?
8wheels:
Presumably you have a Class 1 licence?
Yes I’ve a class one, if you look closely in the second picture you will see my trailer loaded on the back of the FL10
This should make it easier to see what’s going on,
are the back axle’s of the towing vehicle overloaded? and should it not be a solid tow bar? are the brakes on the towed vehicle working? is there a light board on the towed trailer?..has the hi-ab got a certificate for towing? or only for lifting,
and should it not be a solid tow bar
I would have thought a HiAb was solid enough.
if your boss had said do it!! ,would you do it??.. 
would have a job, we dont have HiAbs
As oddsodz said, ( & i’m suprised nobody mentioned it sooner) my first thoughts were lights & brakes
Any trailer over 750kgs MAM must have brakes.