Dieselcowboy:
Think someone better tell all the fridge boys who run them that they are just posing?
It doesn’t make any difference whether it’s a fridge, flat or even a sliding skelly! Prividing your unit is configured properly, then at 44T you will NOT get enough weight over the steer axle of a tractor unit to need the extra few hundred kilo’s that running super singles will allow.
I will concede that a 4x2 unit may have some limited benefit in running supersingles, particularly with hanging meat or something with a similarly dodgy centre-of-gravity, but if your fifth-wheel/kingpin are set up properly you still shouldn’t need super-singles on the steer axle!
I agree with the above in theory.
However, as you have no doubt seen, I have 385’s not only on the front but also on the midlift.
As an O/D I admit there was a bit of vanity involved. I do like the look of them on a unit.
The majority of my work involves 2 jobs a day from Felixstowe dock, or in the case of one customer, 3.
S.o.p.‘s for this customer are 3 x 20’ containers laden with 27,500 kgs of natural stone (30 x crates) each. With the tare weight of the 20’ this gives 29.7 tn sat in the middle of a 20/40 slider, which = 44tn, dead weight with a terrible centre of gravity. The journey itself is 34 miles of Suffolk & Essex’s finest hills from the dock. So, in short fuel economy is not gonna be great, with or without 385’s (Obviously the return journey is empty running with the mid lift up). The benefits however are the uprated axles allowed with S/S’s, a real issue with that kind of weight in the middle of a trailer and better handling (imho).
I’ve had this discussion many times, “there’s no appreciable difference in the front axle loading, empty or loaded”.
I beg to differ when twinned up with a “lumpy” 20’ sat over the pin!
In short you are probably right and should circumstances improve and I’m able to build a fleet I doubt it’s something that I’d repeat on other trucks.
As an aside, my 480 xf has 385’s on the front and is consistently returning between 8.5 -9.5 depending on work.
Harry Monk:
Roads minister Mike Penning is planning to introduce a lorry road user charging scheme.
The Department for Transport said the scheme would create “a more level playing field with foreign trucks for the first time by making them pay to use British roads”.
I fail to see how that would help the british hauliers, as a road tax must be equal to both domestic and foreign haulier in any given country in the EU. so a british haulier would have to pay the same tax, just like the german haulier pays the maut and a swede has to buy the eurovignette. the non-UK haulier will still have the lower operational costs, but the british haulier will have the added burdain of a road tax. shooting yourself in the foot really, nothing levelling about it.
Harry Monk:
Roads minister Mike Penning is planning to introduce a lorry road user charging scheme.
The Department for Transport said the scheme would create “a more level playing field with foreign trucks for the first time by making them pay to use British roads”.
I fail to see how that would help the british hauliers, as a road tax must be equal to both domestic and foreign haulier in any given country in the EU. so a british haulier would have to pay the same tax, just like the german haulier pays the maut and a swede has to buy the eurovignette. the non-UK haulier will still have the lower operational costs, but the british haulier will have the added burdain of a road tax. shooting yourself in the foot really, nothing levelling about it.
Just another Brit government rip off levied on road transport but the Brits are’nt sensible enough to realise that the government’s past track record says everything about it’s future intentions concerning road transport policies in which it’s just more of the policy of tax trucks off the road to get more freight onto rail.
All the trucks have now bene picked up from Romney Marsh by their respective purchasers. Only two remain, a Merc and a Volvo, alledgedly to be run on by DL on local work.
Will upload some pics of the Mercs embarking on their final journey of the marsh later, three apparently are heading of to Mozambique, sunnier climes!
