I bet the milk didn’t need shaking after travelling on that motor. Being a south London boy: I use that term loosely, I found that article interesting. It seems as though, at the time, Streatham was actually Balham. When the boundaries changed, I don’t know.
A Mercedes Benz lorry of European Tubes at the traffic lights on Ormskirk Road, A577,
at Pemberton, near Wigan, then setting off to its warehouse at Pagefield Ind Estate on
Miry Lane approx 2 miles away toward the town centre.
A DAF curtainsider of Brett Martin on the A577, Ormskirk Road at Pemberton, Wigan.
The curtainsided bodywork looks approx 28 ft long, I expect this DAF weighs about 8 tons.
The DAF was turning left at this point, and the long overhang of the bodywork just missed
clipping the Keep Left sign in the centre of the road by a whisker. 
Ray.
Tesco Mercedes Benz at the rear of the little Tesco store on Ormskirk Road A577 at Pemberton, Wigan.
The Eddie Stobart Scania was waiting for the Tesco lorry to disappear so that he could deliver.
Just 100 yards further down was this DAF of Heron Foods, delivering to its Pemberton store.
Ray.
Thanks to Ray Smyth for the photos
Oily
What a cracking outfit this is, looks like it’s on a dolly with support legs. All credit to Dave Fawcett for the photos.
Ray Smyth:
A DAF curtainsider of Brett Martin on the A577, Ormskirk Road at Pemberton, Wigan.
The curtainsided bodywork looks approx 28 ft long, I expect this DAF weighs about 8 tons.
The DAF was turning left at this point, and the long overhang of the bodywork just missed
clipping the Keep Left sign in the centre of the road by a whisker.Ray.
Yes Ray, the back swing on rear overhangs seems to be a overlooked hazard on many vehicles.
The rear overhang on some modern coaches is particularly horrifying.
A number of minor annoying scrapes and bruises inflicted by yours truly over 40 years of
PSV/HGV piloting nearly all seemed to involve that bit behind the rearmost wheels…!!
I drove this from new, The overhang was a joke,Even worse when the lamp posts stuck out about 3 ft sometimes, Plus the under run bar would catch the ground when going up not very steep ramps, Regards Larry.
Larry, The overhang on that lorry was wicked. With regard to the under run bar at the rear,
I recently put a post on the " Blood, Sweat,& Broken China ( The Removals Thread ) showing
a location in Mojacar in Almeria Province in Spain, known locally as Cardiac Hill. where many
lorries, particularly Removal vans, have got stuck trying to go up the steep hill, the under run
bar digging into the tarmac on the Playa, which often caused wheelspin, and the lorry would
find it difficult to go up or down.
Just 400 yards further north is a left turn which leads up to the top of the hill, but on a much
gentler incline.
Cheers, Ray Smyth.
Lawrence Dunbar:
I drove this from new, The overhang was a joke,Even worse when the lamp posts stuck out about 3 ft sometimes, Plus the under run bar would catch the ground when going up not very steep ramps, Regards Larry.
Reminds me of my first haulage job with an Albion 4 wheeler built on a coach chassis. The overhang was so long that when I loaded some boxes first, on the tail for a first delivery, on my way to the second, main, collection, the front wheels barely touched the ground and I had to float it in a very wide arc to get round every corner. 
Lawrence Dunbar:
I drove this from new, The overhang was a joke,Even worse when the lamp posts stuck out about 3 ft sometimes, Plus the under run bar would catch the ground when going up not very steep ramps, Regards Larry.
I wouldn’t have driven it Larry 
Foden or nothing ! 
This one was a bit of a bugger for overhang, especially in tight traffic. If you weren’t carefully you could sideswipe stuff on your blind side when making sharp turns. I did mostly European work with it, which was just as well as it had LHD. Ro
Well I was 72 then plus it was just part time, But ligit of course, Paid by bank transfer every month on the dot, Its on the road but showing lots of rust now, Regards Larry.
ERF-NGC-European:
This one was a bit of a bugger for overhang, especially in tight traffic. If you weren’t carefully you could sideswipe stuff on your blind side when making sharp turns. I did mostly European work with it, which was just as well as it had LHD. Ro
we had ex Westermann lorries, had the axle swapped from the middle to the back.
Ade
Lawrence Dunbar:
I drove this from new, The overhang was a joke,Even worse when the lamp posts stuck out about 3 ft sometimes, Plus the under run bar would catch the ground when going up not very steep ramps, Regards Larry.
I was offered some axor’s at salvesen with that length of body and overhang, i managed to fob them off to another depot,it wasn’t just the overhang but on multi drop pallet work , i could see major problems with rear axle overweights, i could just imagine 4 pallets of 45 gallon oil drums or batteries on the arse being a definite pull. Now if they’d been 6 wheelers i’d have had them straight away
Tony
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That looks as though it has the strengthened (flitched) axles like our old breakdown Matador, they were usually searchlight carriers.
Pete.
tonyj105:
Lawrence Dunbar:
I drove this from new, The overhang was a joke,Even worse when the lamp posts stuck out about 3 ft sometimes, Plus the under run bar would catch the ground when going up not very steep ramps, Regards Larry.I was offered some axor’s at salvesen with that length of body and overhang, i managed to fob them off to another depot,it wasn’t just the overhang but on multi drop pallet work , i could see major problems with rear axle overweights, i could just imagine 4 pallets of 45 gallon oil drums or batteries on the arse being a definite pull. Now if they’d been 6 wheelers i’d have had them straight away
Tony
Isn’t it so often the case, those who don’t know, try to force their ignorance on those who do? Sadly sometimes they succeed.
When I was designing my drawbars for Toray I first went to a man in Nottingham who had been making something quite different and, having seen some centre axle drawbars, decided to go into the drawbar business. I was treated royally at his factory but when it came down to it he simply wouldn’t accept that a centre axle would be useless for my needs, multi drops. As the load diminished on the rear of the trailer more and more weight would be transferred through the single bar onto the rear of the drawing vehicle, thus overloading the back axle. But he simply wouldn’t accept it. However, a few days later he came to me, not a little shamefaced. He had been in contact with VBG in Sweden and of course they backed me right up to the hilt. Never took a moment to think about it, it was obvious. So I got my traditional trailers.
Spardo:
tonyj105:
Lawrence Dunbar:
I drove this from new, The overhang was a joke,Even worse when the lamp posts stuck out about 3 ft sometimes, Plus the under run bar would catch the ground when going up not very steep ramps, Regards Larry.I was offered some axor’s at salvesen with that length of body and overhang, i managed to fob them off to another depot,it wasn’t just the overhang but on multi drop pallet work , i could see major problems with rear axle overweights, i could just imagine 4 pallets of 45 gallon oil drums or batteries on the arse being a definite pull. Now if they’d been 6 wheelers i’d have had them straight away
TonyIsn’t it so often the case, those who don’t know, try to force their ignorance on those who do? Sadly sometimes they succeed.
When I was designing my drawbars for Toray I first went to a man in Nottingham who had been making something quite different and, having seen some centre axle drawbars, decided to go into the drawbar business. I was treated royally at his factory but when it came down to it he simply wouldn’t accept that a centre axle would be useless for my needs, multi drops. As the load diminished on the rear of the trailer more and more weight would be transferred through the single bar onto the rear of the drawing vehicle, thus overloading the back axle. But he simply wouldn’t accept it. However, a few days later he came to me, not a little shamefaced. He had been in contact with VBG in Sweden and of course they backed me right up to the hilt. Never took a moment to think about it, it was obvious. So I got my traditional trailers.
Sounds as if you were right to stick to your guns, Spardo. Those full-length centre-axle draw-bars were all very well for high-volume low weight stuff like empty cans and polystyrene; but were a problem when it came to mixed weight loads, especially if the prime mover was short and the trailer was long. The later 38-tonne outfits with tri-axle trailers were a bit more stable; but the old 32-tonne outfits with tandem-axle trailers were a bit of a norman nightmare with mixed freight unless you loaded very carefully and avoided multi-drops. Just my opinion. Ro
oiltreader:
Thanks to Ray Smyth, Lawrence Dunbar, Eddie Heaton and lurpak for the pics
OilySuttons livery revived 2016, a one off ?, credit to Richard Says for the photo.