Us recovery lads like them on their sides.
Makes it easier to get the prop off.
lizard:
commonrail:
thank god it was`nt stobartshame it wasn’t.
Why is that then lizard ?
Tail wagged the dog?
Drag wagged the, errr…
cieranc:
Us recovery lads like them on their sides.Makes it easier to get the prop off.
lol.
I always think those things look very unstable, after all its a tractor unit, with 3 cars ( 2 on its roof ) plus a 40ft trailer with another 7/8 cars on, i remember a while ago just after CGM got their new contract, and shed a load of brand new mercs across the M25 at thurrock…anyway, why not use box trailers, with double decks,and especially if DFT allowed them extra length, would save damage from overhead trees/front overhang problems, and would certainly stop them falling from the roof.
truckyboy:
I always think those things look very unstable, after all its a tractor unit, with 3 cars ( 2 on its roof ) plus a 40ft trailer with another 7/8 cars on, i remember a while ago just after CGM got their new contract, and shed a load of brand new mercs across the M25 at thurrock…anyway, why not use box trailers, with double decks,and especially if DFT allowed them extra length, would save damage from overhead trees/front overhang problems, and would certainly stop them falling from the roof.
Covered trailers only carry about 6 cars at the most, 5 or less if bigger, not economical unless really high value stuff and not necessary if trained properly INCLUDING how to load for stability not just fitting the load on.
The problem as you’ve rightly pointed out is that its a tractor unit with a bloody great trailer, but its not a semi trailer, its a wagon and drag configuration with a small prime mover compared to the trailer length and weight, so can be unstable unless the driver has some nous, a case of the tail wagging the dog.
The vehicle in the pic is as Iangam says above a Eurolohr, the half moon fitting you see between the truck and trailer is the stabiliser bar, without that its all over the place 
er yeh!
Good drivers of all transporter bodies make sure they have some weight in the right places to ensure stabilty, especially on the prime mover and whenever possible to ensure some weight goes well forward on the trailer.
edit…by the way they never used to fall off when they were tied down the proper way (before quality control suits got involved), when underbody tied down as was the case for donkeys years the cars were clamped to the body almost became part of it, in the event of a rollover they stayed on the body and didn’t go scattering over banks and barriers up the road.
Also as the bounce was taken out, the overall height could be lowered so CoG lower and less chance of rollover.
Still when did experts in suits ever listen to blokes who did the job safely and properly for years on end?
Juddian:
Tail wagged the dog?
It looked to me like 2.7 tonnes of Range Rover was sat on the arse of the trailer.
In fairness might have had to swerve to avoid something daft a car had done and lost it.
Own Account Driver:
Juddian:
Tail wagged the dog?It looked to me like 2.7 tonnes of Range Rover was sat on the arse of the trailer.
In fairness might have had to swerve to avoid something daft a car had done and lost it.
Agreed, theres only one person who knows what happened for sure.
He’s gone over at the bottom of the steep hill after the services at Woolley Edge.
Certainly looks like the Range Rover was on the rear end of the trailer.
Let the vehicle build up too much speed going downhill, tried to slow it down and the weight on the rear end has enabled the tail to take control?
Stan
@truckyboy, A few years back Richard Lawson ordered 7 covered in car transporters, they quickly got nicknamed the bendybus due to the consitina rubber between tractor and trailer. 6 out of the 7 ended up on their side so covered stuff has issues too. As Juddian says most issues are weight distribution, sometimes you know when you load them that your in for quite a ride. I’ve often wonder what people think when I catch a rut and the weight distribution is bad and suddenly the truck gets much wider. 
Well the ratchet straps worked…NOT ! Just goes to show that all this ‘unsafe loads if not strapped’ stuff doesn’t necessarily mean much. All cars are strapped down with ratchets supposed to be capable of holding 2 tonne per strap and as some discussions on here have said regarding curtainsiders that they are supposed to prevent the load coming through the curtains in the event of a roll over. Well, there are cars everywhere in them photo’s. Just goes to show that anyone being done for a load which isn’t strapped as being unsafe must surely have a defence in court if the load hasn’t moved in transit. The only time it becomes unsafe is after it is projected from the position it was placed.
Kerbdog:
Well the ratchet straps worked…NOT ! Just goes to show that all this ‘unsafe loads if not strapped’ stuff doesn’t necessarily mean much. All cars are strapped down with ratchets supposed to be capable of holding 2 tonne per strap and as some discussions on here have said regarding curtainsiders that they are supposed to prevent the load coming through the curtains in the event of a roll over. Well, there are cars everywhere in them photo’s. Just goes to show that anyone being done for a load which isn’t strapped as being unsafe must surely have a defence in court if the load hasn’t moved in transit. The only time it becomes unsafe is after it is projected from the position it was placed.
Not sure what your getting at here? the cars in the picture obviously wernt appropreatly secured, as they have come off and must be one of the easiest things to securly attach to a trailer, imagine if the car that went over the bridge had been another few feet on and landed on somoene below, if it was secured to the trailer it would have still be safely up on the road.
A load may well not have moved in transit but its pure luck that between being loaded and stoped the driver had not had to break hard, swerve or been involved in a crash etc so no there is no defence for an unsecure load
AHT:
Kerbdog:
Well the ratchet straps worked…NOT ! Just goes to show that all this ‘unsafe loads if not strapped’ stuff doesn’t necessarily mean much. All cars are strapped down with ratchets supposed to be capable of holding 2 tonne per strap and as some discussions on here have said regarding curtainsiders that they are supposed to prevent the load coming through the curtains in the event of a roll over. Well, there are cars everywhere in them photo’s. Just goes to show that anyone being done for a load which isn’t strapped as being unsafe must surely have a defence in court if the load hasn’t moved in transit. The only time it becomes unsafe is after it is projected from the position it was placed.Not sure what your getting at here? the cars in the picture obviously wernt appropreatly secured, as they have come off and must be one of the easiest things to securly attach to a trailer, imagine if the car that went over the bridge had been another few feet on and landed on somoene below, if it was secured to the trailer it would have still be safely up on the road.
A load may well not have moved in transit but its pure luck that between being loaded and stoped the driver had not had to break hard, swerve or been involved in a crash etc so no there is no defence for an unsecure load
I’m quite convinced the vehicles on board were secured in the official way…that is by wheelstraps and chocks, which is the modern only approved method of tying down that most of the larger transporter companies allow.
Unfortunately the method isn’t much use IMHO, as the suspension moves en route the straps can work loose, should there be violent overturn as in this case then the vehicle starts to move, the straps then slip off the wheels and once the force is enough the odd straps left on break…goodbye load.
Not so many years ago vehicles were tied down tightly by underbody strapping, this method does not allow the load to move at all, therefore under no circumstances can the vehicle attain enough force to ■■■■■■ break the straps because the vehicle is clamped securely to the deck.
If a loaded transporter secured with correct well maintained underbody straps had turned over the cars would all have been sitting in place where they were loaded.
Unfortunately QC now demand, with few exceptions, that wheelstraps and chocks are the only way of securing the load permissable.
Blame the men in suits, very few transporter drivers wanted to change to the new method.
Out of intrest what was wrong wtih strapping the chassis, is this effectivly what you mean by underbody straps?
Not blaming the drive BTW but like you say if properly secured then they should stay on the vehicle
I really wish someone would sort systems like this out, simlar to RDCs where your not allowed to strap the load etc or not allowed to check how its been loaded, transport saftey should come as top priority
AHT:
Out of intrest what was wrong wtih strapping the chassis, is this effectivly what you mean by underbody straps?
/quote]Yes precisely.
AHT:
Out of intrest what was wrong wtih strapping the chassis, is this effectivly what you mean by underbody straps?
Not blaming the drive BTW but like you say if properly secured then they should stay on the vehicle
I really wish someone would sort systems like this out, simlar to RDCs where your not allowed to strap the load etc or not allowed to check how its been loaded, transport saftey should come as top priority
The move to wheel straps came at a time that the government insisted that car manufacturers make car the are more recylable, this means that a large amount of componants when you could strap a car are now alloy with their strength engineered in. Hence they would bend. On some cars chassis would bend around the securing point when strapped by an over exuberant driver.
Plus Europe has been on wheel straps for years and as we all know anything Brussels do is best. 
iangam:
AHT:
Plus Europe has been on wheel straps for years and as we all know anything Brussels do is best.
Funny how they ignored the fact we run round at 16’ with three decks of cars, therefore our CoG is far higher with consequential increase in rollover potential, one size has to fit all.
We rarely had these transporter rollovers till the latest designs appeared, standard tractor unit coupled as wagon and drag.
When transporters were predominately proper full size lorry and equivalent drag or proper semi trailers you had to really be doing something wrong to destabilize them, unless daft enough to leave a fully loaded upper deck with nothing on the bottom on a multi drop and then drive like an idiot, usually a rollover was the result of an impact or other accident, they didn’t go into full caravan sway mode leading where we know simply cos the driver happened to touch a cats eye or heavily painted continuous white line.
Interestingly, unless my eyes deceive me the tractor in the picture is a 4 wheeler, my experience is that these are inherently unstable on modern transporters compared to 3 axled, the most stable tractor i found was Scania with full size second steer axle.
Just looked at the photo, and it looks like a SMH fleet wagon. Their yard is on the side of the M5 south of junction 7 as you travel southbound. They used to be what was then the vehicle leasing division of White Arrow, before that went out of business.