I passed class 1 a few months ago and since then I’ve done a bit of shunting and that’s about it , so I pretty much know sod all about different types of trailers!
But there’s a breakthrough, Next Thursday and Friday they’ve asked me to take out an “urban” trailer. Now from what I can gather it’s just got one less axle and it self steers! So apart from that is there anything else I need to know about them, I’m guessing they are trickier to reverse?
And a couple more questions, what is the difference between a “straight frame” and an A frame" trailer? Again more trailer types!
Also a couple of them have bars that hang from the sides of the trailer, and that clip under the body - is this to stop the roof from bowing??
Finally, there’s a blue handle on the near side rear of the trailers, is this for when you back onto a bay??
I appreciate your comments if you can be bothered to read this far!!
The urban trailers have either one or two axles and have a shorter wheel base, you’ll have to be on your game when reversing as it will bite you and chase you around if you let it. If it has a rear steering axle then you may have to lock it off if its proving difficult. The blue handle is the air valve for the trailer. Sometimes you may need to drop the air out of the trailer so lower it enough to get it on the bay. Most trailers will dump air a much slower rate compared to a rigid so you may need to babysit it if you want it at a set height.
pretty much as Radar says. The urban trailer will also have less length in front of the kingpin so there’s less front overhang when in tight (urban) areas
Those urban trailers come in a few varties. I’ve seen ones with one axle on the arse end whilst others have it in the middle of the trailer. The reason they chase you around is because there is no drag. Go watch a fully loaded tri-axle trailer reverse, notice how axles 1 and 3 drag on the ground. This slows the reaction the trailer has. Urbans don’t have this problem.
i use a single axle a double and once a single with rear steer. tbh i dont think its any harder to reverse them compared to tri axles. they cut in slightly more is all. in my experience its a case of fast hands slow speed and itll go where ever you want.
just remember the pivot point on a double is between the wheels and on the single it obvioysly pivots on the wheel.
imo urbans are easier to blind with as well.
also not all of them have a shallow pin. we have one that has a pin as deep as our 45ft trailers so make sure you have a look
the rear steer was tricky to reverse at first but if you slow down and think about how it reacts to what youre doing in the cab it got easier.
I’ve yet to drive an Urban, and I am jelous of some of the “shrunk in the wash” Artic’s you see about. I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to limit newbies to these for a few months, but as they are rare it’s probably impractical. I do a lot of urban deliveries and pull a 44ft trailer with quite a deep pin. What you have to watch for is that the front overhang can be substantial in tight turns and you have to allow for it. Came a bit of a shock to me after only having to think about my cut in when driving a Rigid in urban areas!
But at the same time it’s quite entertaining swinging it over the bonnets of cars that have stopped over the line at junctions!
Its how far back from the headboard the kingpin is set under the trailer. the deeper the pin the more the front of the trailer hangs out when you make a turn.
you also need to know how deep the pin is because you may need to slide your 5th wheel so you dont whack the headboard of the trailer through the back of your cab when coupling up
I drive both at work all the time 2 axel urban and normal double decker while the urban Is so much easier going forward I would pick a 44ft to reverse all the time the urban looks like everything is going fine 1 sec but the next sec it’s comes round on you very quickly but once u get used to it it’s fine the problem with me is I’m in the normal one a he’ll of a lot more than the urban so I reverse it like I would the normal one for the first few reverses you just have to straighten up a lot faster than u would a 44ft but it’s good fun but there so easy for getting into small spots there better for driving round small towns in saying that tho some of the places I go in the normal one is a nightmare but I don’t let it bother me any more
I used to cover my face with a scarf when I had to hook up to urbans out of embarrassment. They are a disgrace to class 1 status.
On a slightly more serious note, make sure your Anderson lead reaches the trailer if you are doing tail lift work. On the 8 or 9 metre trailers at Iceland, they sit so far back from the unit that you sometimes need a second Anderson lead. 10 metre trailers often have rear steer. As others have said, short trailers and rear steers will bite you very quickly if you get a bit cocky so take your time.
I much prefer to drive 44t stuff personally. Makes me feel more of a man…
Rear steer trailers just take getting used to,steer watch then make adjustments as you go and don’t reverse too quick,if you do it’s a case of yep going ok to “oi” come back lol.
Evil yes it’s fun sending the headboard over the top of things or stop raise the unit a bit over a bollard then back level lol.
, so I pretty much know sod all about different types of trailers!
