So they dont make them anymore?
I don’t know if anyone makes a Chinese Six today, the brewers used them, often with smaller diameter wheels, to lower the loading height. The picture is of a Leyland Steer on dray work about fifty years ago.
This link is to more information about this lorry, leylandsociety.co.uk/video.htm
except that we used to refer to all twin steers+single drives as
Chinese 6s.
See your point & I agree, but I can’t ever remember twin steer units from those days, maybe they were around but bery thin on the ground (or my memory is failing again 
).
Italian job C6 coach 
I tried to buy one like that just before I got the magnum, unfortunately it was such a heap it was beyond repair. That Dewsway picture is (I think) one of several owned by Dew’s coaches near to me, I believe he has quite a collection of old coaches.
Sheeter:
I thought that AEC’s use of the Chinese Six layout in a tractor unit was the Mammoth Minor, introduced in the Sixties to get round the (then) 32 ton regulations, the one shown is a 1967 example, borrowed from hankstruckpictures.com/len_rogers6.htm
Yes, I know you pointed that out elsewhere Dave, and certainly the picture you posted there bore that out. I only say Mandators because I first saw them not long after an ICI driver told me they were getting Chinese 6 Mandators. He, and therefore me, could have been mistaken 
Salut, David.
I reckon the brewing industry was the last to use them, I remember Bass in Grimsby having loads of Bedford TK with that configuration. Leyland built a twin steer tractor unit for the petroleum industry called the Steer.
My old boss still spoke of 3600 FTG Dafs as Steers
This is the picture that Mal posted in his Leyland Zoo thread on the Old Time Lorries… forum, of the Leyland Steer,
i believe a lot of the articulated chinese sixes that came about origionally were rigid 8’s with the rear axle took off and shortened to make a tractor and take advantage of the 32 ton law. the mammoth minor and the steer were made at the factorey of course. the difference i think between a chinese six tractor, ands a rear steer tracto r is that the rear steers second steering axle is just in fron of the drive axle, the chinese 6’s second steer is just behind the front axlwe.
Mal:
i believe a lot of the articulated chinese sixes that came about
origionally were rigid 8’s with the rear axle took off and shortened to make a
tractor and take advantage of the 32 ton law.
Not sure about the tractors but you may be right about the rigids Mal, because
many of the early ones I saw were chopped off quite severely behind the drive
axle.
Made them look even queerer - Chinese, in fact .
Salut, David.
dave they used to make some right concoctions with the hot spanner i bet! the reason they turned some of the 8’s into tractors i believe, was the overall length was too short to get the wieght on, unless you had more axles. i think the same thing happened when the 38 ton caome about and twin steers were all the rage again!
The Leyland Steer was a derivative of the Beaver, in 1936-7, which meant the addition of a steering axle rather than the deletion of a rear one. The very informative book by Graham Edge, Leyland Beaver, has a lot about these lorries, here is an extract,
There is no doubt that some people took a cutting torch to their 8-wheelers, especially Showmen, who are masters of the craft of modifying and converting trucks.
Mr. Edge’s book states that the (Leyland Zoo) name Steer is of the (American) young male calf, but also conveyed perfectly the layout of the lorry.
He also writes,
…Such a twin steering six wheeler became known as a “Chinese Six” amongst lorry men. It is not known precisely how this terminology originated but one school of thought suggests that because anything non-conformist is often likened to a “Chinese way of doing things” this is how the name came about. - as David has said earlier.
the rules were no easier to understand then as now!! i dont know if im glad or sorry about that, but there you go, bloody rules!
interesting stuff sheeter, i think graham edge is a pretty good writer ive just got a book by him as it goes, about aec’s, so far im looking at pictures, but the bit i have read is interesting!
I reckon they should be brought back…ideal for timber if you ask me, it would give us more options as to how we load up.
Andyroo:
I reckon they should be brought back…ideal for timber if you ask me, it would give us more options as to how we load up.
I second that
Also ideal for crane wagons,multi-dropping, scaffolders,plant & car transporters & fat drivers (gotta watch that axle weight )
i suppose there must be reasons you don’t see em, fuel consumption and tyre wear maybe or possibly gross weights, would they be 26t or 23t gvw?
you would think it’d be virtually impossible to over load an axle with the setup.
i think what it is mostly paul is the fact that the overall length changes cancelled the advantages out of having a 6 wheel unit, and also youve got a weight penalty with a 6 wheel unit, and more steering gear to maintain and go wrong not to mention traction. there is a lot better financially running less axles if its possible, and come the advent of long trailers at 32 ton, it was. i think this is why they made a comeback in 83 or so for the weight increases to 38 ton had to be on five axles if i remember right.
I think Paul had gone back to talking about the chinese 6 rigids Mal
correct
I’ve just remembered that the last Chinese Six I saw was about 6 weeks ago, the full load of straw bales on the A-frame drawbar trailer didn’t look very stable. The lorry was an ‘E’ reg Volvo and had a deck over the cab so that the whole length of the outfit could carry the stuff, over 60 feet of it. Here it is carefully negotiating it’s way through the bends by the Tempsford Boatyard on the A1 North, just south of the Black Cat roundabout.
At one time a Chinese Six was allowed to pull a drawbar trailer whilst an 8-wheeler wasn’t allowed to, anyway, its a good load distribution layout of axles.
One other advantage is in event of a front tyre blowout, there is less chance of losing control…
rigids!..its the old alztheimers playing up lads!
what rigids?