phil the book:
Ford also made there own trailers i belive under the fromco name and the contraption that frankydobo mentioned was a fifth wheel bed bolted on to the top of a Scammell coupling but you had to be careful when dropping a trailer .We also had a dolly made from an old S type Bedford that was used to turn a Scammell semi trailer into a drawbar.Buckleys had one also a company called Blamiers i think thats the right spelling both companys had depots on Millwall i would watch them going up at night on trunks.
I never realised Fromco was Ford Motor Company until now. Still learning about this industry you see.
Stanfield:
Hi Bewick.There dosent seem to be a lot of weight around the backend and I would imagine you would get a lot of bounce and lift with it dont know what it would be like when loaded though.Did you not have any of this configuration within your operation at all then.
John
Hiya John no we never ran any 4-in-lines (before our time!!) this was the nearest to that configuraration --a Primrose Tandem Four!!
malc step:
Hi Folks,
Lapel badge a bit worse for wear,
Cheers Malc.
Thats not a “Lapel badge” Malc its a “Medal” considering all the abuse the 4-in-line has had on the thread!!! The Howarth Lads never had any 4-in-lines did they? You wouldn’t be keeping a secret from us Malc would you? and you have got a load of HBs 4-in-line shots!!! Dennis.
Blimey this forum does wonders for memory jogging.
I`d forgotten all about 4 in line trailers.
Had one on hire for about 6 months from a trailer rental firm in Liverpool, cant remember who…
Pulled it with a Bedford TK, smashing wagon, Leyland 400 ,2 speed axle,
Not nice when you had a puncture though!
Ran it on an A licence borrowed from Croppers Garage in Liverpool…George was very kind to me when I started, happy days.
George Cropper sacked any driver who used the motorway! Who remembers him ?
He had some Guy [warrior?] boxvans.
Eventually made the TK into a tipper ! [another bad idea]
I never realised that “4-in-line” was a trade mark of the BTC company! Scammell called theirs “4Trac” what did the other trailer builders call their’s? Bewick.
I never realised that “4-in-line” was a trade mark of the BTC company! Scammell called theirs “4Trac” what did the other trailer builders call their’s? Bewick.
Stanfield:
No problem Malc(wheelnut) copy what you want mate.
This may answer the weight question earlier in the thread.The chassis down to the running gear looks a bit flimsy dont you think.
John
Hiya John that shot is of a BTC 4-in-line I’m certain and it is also fitted with Auto-lube as you can see the oil resevoir just in front of the o/side wheel.That chassis does look flimsey but it did the job all the same and if I remember the deck was boarded across and not down the length of the platform.Cheers Dennis.
hi bewick,we had 3 makes of 4 in line trailers,BTC,YORK and SCAMMELL, but they were all boarded diagonally for some reason,certainly didnt make them any more stable!..chris
trunkera1:
hi bewick,we had 3 makes of 4 in line trailers,BTC,YORK and SCAMMELL, but they were all boarded diagonally for some reason,certainly didnt make them any more stable!..chris
This is where it gets technical Chris! In your opinion which one of those 3 makes of 4-in-line were the best trailer? Cheers Bewick.
trunkera1:
hi bewick,we had 3 makes of 4 in line trailers,BTC,YORK and SCAMMELL, but they were all boarded diagonally for some reason,certainly didnt make them any more stable!..chris
This is where it gets technical Chris! In your opinion which one of those 3 makes of 4-in-line were the best trailer? Cheers Bewick.
hi bewick,didnt like any of them ,unstable and a nightmare to change a wheel,in fact if there had been H+S in them days, they would have been banned!!
but when i had a choice i always took the YORK,better brakes ,and i think better built all round,the best of a bad bunch!..chris
trunkera1:
hi bewick,we had 3 makes of 4 in line trailers,BTC,YORK and SCAMMELL, but they were all boarded diagonally for some reason,certainly didnt make them any more stable!..chris
This is where it gets technical Chris! In your opinion which one of those 3 makes of 4-in-line were the best trailer? Cheers Bewick.
hi bewick,didnt like any of them ,unstable and a nightmare to change a wheel,in fact if there had been H+S in them days, they would have been banned!!
but when i had a choice i always took the YORK,better brakes ,and i think better built all round,the best of a bad bunch!..chris
There you go the York!!! I can tell you that after the first semi-trailer we got (a Primrose) we went on to buy York 34ft tandems and 40ft ones as well, we got up to around 20 in number along with 4 or 5 Crane/F but York wouldn’t do anything about their slow leg winding gear(compared to the Crane)so we went all Crane for the next ten years until the tri-axles came along and we wanted only ROR axles! What did Cranes do ----slipped one in with their own poxy Propar axles so we changed to TASK who very kindly sat down with me and we developed our own “Bewick” spec and we eventually took over 120 ■■■■■■■■■■■ built Task chassis into the fleet! They were a great outfit to deal with until those w*****s SDC took them over!! Then we went back to a mixture of Cranes ( with ROR axles) and the Boalloy owned M&G chassis.Phew!!! but thats how it was !! Bewick.
I’m sure I saw a four in line tonight on the M27 heading East just at the junction with the M3 on that downhill bit past Rownhams services. Weird thing was it was a relatively (ie last 10 years old) new Scania 6x2 with a rear lift axle and a crane pulling it. The trailer looked to be a low loader with a four in line, but didnt look like one from the 50’s/60’s - is someone still building them? Bear in mind I flashed past him in traffic but Im fairly sure it was one.
My old man informs me that in the mid to late 60’s at various firms he worked for in Central Scotland, 4 in lines used to appear through buying out other operator’s etc and they did a job, until replaced by new tandem axle trailers.
They were always a tyre fitters nightmare and he recalled to me only recently about coming onto the A74 at Hamilton on trunk one summers night heading south and seeing daylight under the outer wheel of his mates trailer when making the turn onto the trunk road.
(I am sure they were happy day’s)
I am told that you could get 100,000 miles plus out of a set of tyres on a 4-in-line! Thats some cracking shots of the buisness end of a 4-in-line.Bewick.
