Dieseldogsix:
The best flat trailer I ever use were the ones at Hercock Continental, they were all ‘Trailor’, built in Luneville I believe.
and i remember having to spray them trailers when they was delivered to welford road as i remember we spent saturdays and sundays for ages spraying them
On those old Bewick flats in the 70s the landing gear was not only slow, but the handles were huge great long things which soon became bent or twisted, bangung against the frame with every flippin’ turn.
The C/F in contrast not only had better, quicker gear (and easy change into the lower gear) but the handles were nice and short, and usually stayed in good condition.
In later years when I was driving myself, Geest/ADL had a fleet of Fruehauf fridges and dry vans, which all seemed to be of a good quality.
Some bright spark in the office ordered a 10 metre fridge from SDC (I have no idea why they changed, maybe a price thing) and even as it arrived at the gate when it was delivered I commented that it was too tall for some of the sites we delivered to.
Of course as I was just a driver I was completely ignored, and an agency guy took it out a few days later and smashed the fridge in at one of the sites where we delivered via an underground service road.
It went back to SDC and returned a month or two later having had the fridge repaired and lowered, and the top sliced off and bodged back on about a foot lower. It was awful.
It was returned and they got their money back. The went on to Gray-Adam trailers, which were superb.
I am of the opinion that Boden and Crane Fruehauf trailers were one and the same. Forget the German translation as Boden meaning soil. In my translation it means bottom or base. Bodenventil - Foot Valve / Bottom Valve 
Before the superior Dutch trailers became common, Van Hool, Pacton and Burg, the other leaders in my opinion were Don-Bur, York and Fromco.
I remember Primrose, Tidd, Pitt and Tasker. The heavy ones from Teesside were not worth a mention whatever they were called, Overlander or something.
One other thing. I doubt you can blame the trailer manufacturer for crap landing legs or axles as they would be specced with whatever the customer ordered!
Wheel Nut:
I am of the opinion that Boden and Crane Fruehauf trailers were one and the same. Forget the German translation as Boden meaning soil. In my translation it means bottom or base. Bodenventil - Foot Valve / Bottom ValveBefore the superior Dutch trailers became common, Van Hool, Pacton and Burg, the other leaders in my opinion were Don-Bur, York and Fromco.
I remember Primrose, Tidd, Pitt and Tasker. The heavy ones from Teesside were not worth a mention whatever they were called, Overlander or something.
One other thing. I doubt you can blame the trailer manufacturer for crap landing legs or axles as they would be specced with whatever the customer ordered!
This could have the makings of a whole new thread!!! Our first trailers at Bewick(apart from the very first one)were YORK and they had seperate winding handles (like a wheel brace but Z shaped) however,the legs were two speed but far too low geared.I even specced a set of Davies Magnet legs on our first SL 40 ft.which York promised me were higher geared,but they were no better although they were more substantial than the York legs.I found that I was beating my head on the wall trying to get Yorks to do something about their poxy landing gear!! I even offered to get sets of legs from Crane’s to fit on the new York chassis,which went down like a “lead baloon”!!! So in the end I cancelled the last two of a 6 trailer order and started buying C/Fruehauf.But I did like the York chassis it seemed to follow a lot better and had superior brakes to the C/F.I still bought a good number of secondhand Yorks in later years but never anymore new ones.I dont know what “Bender” is rabbiting on about as all our trailers were well maintained.IIRCthe winding handle on that “sole” Overlander were a bit waffy but the Cranes and the York’s were OK.He must have us mixed up with one of those “cowboy” outfits from N. Kent!!!Bewick.
This is a shot of the 40ft York SL trailer that York built with Davies Magnet landing legs.Why Davies Magnet? well York was owned by Fred Davies and D/Magnet was also a Davies family company,although I don’t know if the two were directly connected.Our first SL (diamond frame chassis) came from their Corby factory and our later LD (low deck) trailers came from the new Northallerton plant.Davies Magnet were based in Ware,Herts.Cheers Bewick.
Bewick:
trunkera1:
BTC Four-in-line!!!..
…chris
Coupled to a LAD cabbed Leyland Super Comet with “H” Gill in the drivers seat!!!
hiya,
Dennis, you’re trying to get me to “jack”( my age might have something to do with it ) the trailer is a definite no no but the LAD lad cabbed Leyland Comet i’ve had one or two of them just wonder why they did’nt put the long doored cab on a la Albion or the LAD cabbed Octopus which you’ve done a bit in BC.
thanks harry long retired.
For me, if it was a tilt it had to be a Trailor, definately the best designed boddies with the easiest to strip roof of them all. Individual longitudinal sections only ‘a gate’ wide, so if you had an overhead load to be swung in from the side (Guardian glass Lodio) you only needed to strip as little or as much as you needed.
I also had a Van Hool sliding roof curtainsider, a little heavy and megga expensive brakes (in the late 90’s) on SAF axles. It also had a BIG rear overhang, easy to catch the back end when parked against the outer wall on a ferry!! this caught me out once in the truck park in St Boi at 6:30 one Monday morning when I couldn’t get out from between two trucks without the back end clipping a local truck. In the end I had to back out of the slot (in the dark) with a bit of help from a couple of local ‘early starters’.
Ross.
Bewick:
I dont know what “Bender” is rabbiting on about as all our trailers were well maintained(see pic below ‘borrowed’ from the Bewick thread.) IIRCthe winding handle on that “sole” Overlander were a bit waffy but the Cranes and the York’s were OK.He must have us mixed up with one of those “cowboy” outfits from N. Kent!!!Bewick.
Nope, the Yorks definitely had some dodgy handles, they also used to fold mid-wind. That old green trombone trailer was a pain as well. Maybe I had to use the landing legs more often than some others at that time.
I wasn’t working for any ‘North Kent’ outfits, by time they were going I’d moved on. When I worked full time for the outfit you may be referring to was stuck on a poxy D series…
we have a 45foot Fruehauf on our firm and i have to agree that its the best trailer we’ve got and the landing gear is the best to use. Plus as with all Fruehaufs when your pulling them you dont know they are there they folow brilliantly its a shame they dont make em anymore we might have to move in to tipper work so we can carry on using Fruehaufs. Problem is ours has a Lawrence David body on it not as good as Boalloy. Although we do have some SDC’s which are not bad (although these ,might be too modern for you old school lads 
)
Ste Burrow:
we have a 45foot Fruehauf on our firm and i have to agree that its the best trailer we’ve got and the landing gear is the best to use. Plus as with all Fruehaufs when your pulling them you dont know they are there they folow brilliantly its a shame they dont make em anymore we might have to move in to tipper work so we can carry on using Fruehaufs. Problem is ours has a Lawrence David body on it not as good as Boalloy. Although we do have some SDC’s which are not bad (although these ,might be too modern for you old school lads
Us old school lads Stevie remember when the build quality was far better than the later stuff you are talking about now,unfortunately for you you have never had hold of a decent trailer!!! and do me a favour South Derry Coachworks couldn’t build a decent trailer,they were crap 20 years ago and from what I see they are still a load of crap!!There was only ever one curtainsider IMO and that was the Boalloy Tautliner circa 1980 to 1995 and unless youv’e used one of them anything else is a “joke”.We ran about 170 or so Bo-alloys at Bewick Transport and each time I tried a TASK,Lawrence David,York or Fruehauf there was a near riot!!! Any of our ex drivers will confirm this! Cheers Dennis.
yeh the boalloys are good. Maybe the SDC’s are good to Mike Leyland standards . i remember when Richard Holmes had a flat rebodied with a Lawrence David curtainside and the drivers hated that. Holmes had some Tinsley flats, did you ever have any of them on Bewicks?
can anyone recommend the trailers made by cartwright Ive been looking at purchasing a new one
Ste Burrow:
yeh the boalloys are good. Maybe the SDC’s are good to Mike Leyland standards
Hiya Steve,I did buy one air suspended Tinsley ex stock(the only chassis available) from Bo-Alloys when I needed one in a hurry for publicity purposes at The East Lancashire Paper Mill it was fleet no EL 1.I had Boalloy cover up the “TINSLEY” name on the rear cross-member with our own name!!! Still didn’t stop the Tinsley salesman calling on me and thinking he was in with a “chance”!! He had “slim” and "none"and Slim had just left town!!!
Just to show that some old trailers are still being used this is a 1972 Boden which we use on a regular basis. It was owned by Croppers of Kendal as it still has their name on it and is still green. It also has a Moffet Mounty kit on the back for deliveries we do as you can see it does stretch the sussies slightly!
And here it is with the pride of the fleet (with clean wheels) with about 20 ton of roofing sheet on farm deliveries. Parked at Londonderry Lodge.
Chereau fridges…followed by Schmitz…Dennison sliders…Dennis/SDC/Montracon flats…all with (1) Mercedes axles…(2)BPW drum or disc…(3)SAF drum or disc…with Haldex or Wabco EBS system. There was a company in Northern Ireland who made chassis for Fruehauf i believe…the sold there own chassis as Slemish…a bit on the heavy side but an excellent trailer in heavy duty cycles…alas they’re gone out of business now.
Perhaps ROR had a good reputation with running gear once upon a time,but it really lost it over the last 10 years or so…both in drum and disc…and back up service…or rather the lack of it…they handed it on a plate to BPW.
Had anyone experience of Raven container trailers?..I recall seeing them at the NEC Commercial Motor Show 4 or 5 years ago and I thought they had some very innovative designs…
As Wheelnut has said Van Hool chassis , Gofa and Hobur tankers.