Seen a few tranporters empty,apart from a couple of liquid boxes,palecons(whatever there called 
)on the bottom deck - just wondered whats in them?
water usually probably just being used as ballast whilst going for mot
Stobart doing trial runs to see what he can back load on them 
, oh alright its for MOT.
I’d seen one of these and wondered what it was about.
Just weight/ballast for test.
I remember on Trucks & Trailers they loaded up a trailer for test. Always seems like a lot of work to me even to save the trailer hire if you’re taking a unit to test at the same time.
Couple of ATFs I’ve been to don’t seem to charge for trailer hire.
Don’t think it’s to do with trailer hire mate, the car transporter itself won’t be heavy enough empty to test.
The transporter trailer will need ballasting to test it.
cieranc:
Don’t think it’s to do with trailer hire mate, the car transporter itself won’t be heavy enough empty to test.
The transporter trailer will need ballasting to test it.
I’ve always taken trailers empty. I think they say something like ‘strongly advise’ presentation of loaded trailers and full loading only mandatory on drive axles of vehicles. I’ve never seen the load simulator used on a trailer either. If the trailer was on discs I would think it would (or certainly ought to) pass on locks empty or loaded mostly anyway.
The load sims in our local test station can only put a few tons down, great for 7.5 tonners but not enough for units.
Maybe they’re testing the unit at the same time as the trailer, so still need the weight on it.
I agree most empty trailer will lock-out, but they can still fail for this, if they lock out too soon.
Personally I take mine in fully loaded. If you can exceed the minimum braking requirements fully loaded, then you’re going to exceed them empty. Can the same be said the other way around?
It is definitely better, from a safety point of view, but I can’t be bothered to acquire 26 IBCs, fill them with gravel and then fork them on and off. They’ll go over our brake tester every 6 weeks and they’ll often have a load on that’s going to or from somewhere so it’s unlikely they’d ever go without being brake tested laden for long.
Thing they can usually load sim on 4x2 units but not 6x2, that’s an actual VOSA test station, don’t know about an ATF though.
Two containers, 1 petrol , 1 diesel. Its the driver cashing in his “fuel bonus”
Our nearest transporter workshops keeps a few ton sandbags on site and puts IIRC one or two on the short tractor and three on the trailer, don’t need to be fully freighted.
They used to keep a small fleet of old cars for this purpose, too much room taken up when not in use, and time consuming to load.