Sorting through some old stuff I found an enamel lapel badge that I got,sometime or another,from the makers of the Hope anti-jacknife device.
Can anyone remember how it worked? I know it was fitted either to the trailer kingpin or the fifth wheel,but that’s it.
Did anyone ever have any experience of it?
What became of it?
HI All Michael Janes in Weston -super-Mare ( www. Michael Janes Commercials) has an ERF B series that was painted in Hopes colours and logo. It has an ordinary 5th wheel but mounted on the chassis above the rear springs and connected to them is something that looks like 2 load sensors. All the air lines look to be duplicated in various formations with in-line taps fitted so that various braking configurations can be set up. I was instrumental in preparing it for MOT last year and e-mailed the Hope organisation at Basingstoke (the address on the door) but did not recieve a reply. It is now painted in his old cattle wagon colours (brown wood grain) and was displayed at a rally somewhere near Truro a couple of months ago.
Gavin
I was wondering if the firm is still going,as I said,I found the badge and it reminded me that they used to have an advert virtually every week in Commercial Motor.
Hopes were a haulage company that ran mainly AEC’s in a very dark blue or black who came up with a braked fifth wheel pin which swiveled and had a wedge fixed to it which fitted into the V at the rear of the fifth wheel, I have never driven a waggon fitted with this device so I don’t know how effective it was. I do know that to jack knife was all too easy in those days and that not only Artics would do it, I was a trailer mate on Suttons before being a driver and I remember being in Suttons little TVW 4 wheeler and trailer loaded with United Glass Bottles from St. Helens, this 4 wheeler, the only one built as a 4 wheel rigid as far as I know, only had an 18 foot flat body with room for 8 pallets on the deck, where as the Trailer had a 21 foot platform which took 10 pallets on the deck, when both were loaded two high the trailer was definitly carrying more weight, anyway going down hill in the wet in the middle of London we ended up going sideways in a jack knife, most of the way down the hill, totaly out of control, we did have a trailer brake (dead mans handle ) as we had air brakes which the driver Vic Mathews was using and all of a sudden we straightened up and came to a stop, there was no damage and after changing our underpants we went on our merry way.
suttons tony is correct in his discription of the hope anti jacknife device.we had one fitted on a commer maxi load at united carriers. the big problem was if you braked whilst going around a bend or roundabout the kingpin locked up the turntable at the angle of tractor/trailer thus making it very difficult to steer. so you had to make sure you braked in a straight line the torsional stress was so great that the chassis broke in front of the rear spring hanger but at least it didnt jacknife
