Is it legal to run with a sliding skelly in the closed 20’ position with a 20’ box on?
When I was on Carters we were only allowed to run with the trailer shrunk if it had a lifting front axle ( something to do with the legalities of wheelbase & turning circle) to be honest my trailer didn’t have one & I did occasionally run short distances between drops & collections or container yards but the handling was diabolical, negative effect on both steering & traction. To be honest for the thirty seconds or so it takes to swap the susies & slide the skelly it’s not worth the problems,imho!
When I worked out of Grangemouth I always knew it was a big no no (I don’t even remember that many sliders)
But I don’t think it’s illegal as such, just very silly as you need the length. If anyone has tried to screw or do a tight turn with the trailer short you’ll know what I mean.
It fights against the truck and actually bends the tyres so I would not reccomend it in the slighest!
I’ve been told it’s illegal but never seen any proof of it. All the years I did boxes I never did it just pure laziness.
I suppose it matters if the load sensing valve cannot work properly or the axle weights are out, apart from the warranty implications.
It does sound like laziness
i sometimes do it if i,m running between ICI and the dock, i,ll only run back with the empty on but i did see some lazy ■■■■ running back to the dock loaded with the trailer still closed right up 
it looked ridiculous and must have been a ■■■■■■■ to drive
even with an empty box on, the weight of it will lift the pin from the fifth wheel and give a negative king pin weight
next time you see one driving down the road shortened, try and get along side it and watch the front of the trailer on the king pin 
it can, and has, lead to jack knifes
i do not allow my drivers to run with it in that position, and if caught, will be in for a disciplinery
shuttlespanker:
even with an empty box on, the weight of it will lift the pin from the fifth wheel and give a negative king pin weightnext time you see one driving down the road shortened, try and get along side it and watch the front of the trailer on the king pin
it can, and has, lead to jack knifes
i do not allow my drivers to run with it in that position, and if caught, will be in for a disciplinery
You make em wear the pink pants of punishment for a week then Spankers 
Ive never done containers but are you talking about when you have a 40 ft trailer and have the box at the back rather than in the middle
billybigrig:
shuttlespanker:
even with an empty box on, the weight of it will lift the pin from the fifth wheel and give a negative king pin weightnext time you see one driving down the road shortened, try and get along side it and watch the front of the trailer on the king pin
it can, and has, lead to jack knifes
i do not allow my drivers to run with it in that position, and if caught, will be in for a disciplinery
You make em wear the pink pants of punishment for a week then Spankers
no, that’s just me at truck shows 
kr79:
Ive never done containers but are you talking about when you have a 40 ft trailer and have the box at the back rather than in the middle
no, it is when you have a sliding skelly with a 20’ container in the middle of the trailer, as per the proper running position, but have the trailer shortened, thus having the container right at the back end over the axles, and making the trailer 30’ instead of 40’
I saw a container lorry on the a13 a while back with a 20 ft box at the back and the steer axle on the unit looked like it was barely touching the ground must of been running like this
just laziness, and stupidity, after all if you are running a 3x3 outfit, how much stress are you putting on the tyres, axles and drive shaft, quite expensive really if it goes ■■■■ up.
i saw one the other day, havent seen one like that for a long time.
I did however see Redburn Transfer/Deben Transport 4X2 low ride FH motor the other day, pulling one of those ‘splitter’(?) container trailers, 2 axles on the front half, 3 on the back, it had 2x20ft boxes on it, and all 5 axles were down. Never seen that before. Would it be a driver forgot to lift the front 2 axles on the trailer, or can you run with 7 axles on the gound■■?
kindle530:
i saw one the other day, havent seen one like that for a long time.
I did however see Redburn Transfer/Deben Transport 4X2 low ride FH motor the other day, pulling one of those ‘splitter’(?) container trailers, 2 axles on the front half, 3 on the back, it had 2x20ft boxes on it, and all 5 axles were down. Never seen that before. Would it be a driver forgot to lift the front 2 axles on the trailer, or can you run with 7 axles on the gound■■?
I can’t see how, not without a lot of bloody drag.
Wheel Nut:
kindle530:
i saw one the other day, havent seen one like that for a long time.
I did however see Redburn Transfer/Deben Transport 4X2 low ride FH motor the other day, pulling one of those ‘splitter’(?) container trailers, 2 axles on the front half, 3 on the back, it had 2x20ft boxes on it, and all 5 axles were down. Never seen that before. Would it be a driver forgot to lift the front 2 axles on the trailer, or can you run with 7 axles on the gound■■?I can’t see how, not without a lot of bloody drag.
I seen a shunter in seaforth docks pulling one of those with all the axles down and the the front two axles and the very last axle steered so there was not much tyre scrub.
Thats exactly the axle configuration and trailer i meant Malc, he was’nt shunting either, he came past me on the limiter on the A14.
Hi…
I was always told never to run with the skelly shortened to the 20ft position… Loaded or empty… They said it is to do with the air line’s in the trailer chassis can be pinched thus losing breaking and air supply to trailer…
The splitter trailer thingy you were on about happens usually when the front box or the combined weight of both box’s makes the front 1 or 2 axles go down usually caused by over loading…
Use to run the dennison version of the splitter trailer and axle on the front trailer would not drop no matter how heavy the boxes were on (58 tonne) anyway… This was done in the docks to container storage yard half a mile in the docks…
You know when these trailers have been either over loaded or are overloaded… Just look at the top in the middle of the 2 containers where they meet, they are usually nearly hitting each other…
James
Saw one of Kemballs old Mercs get in a right muddle at Cantley sugar factory with one of these years ago. He’d loaded, then went down the yard to weigh closed-up. When coming off the weighbridge he decided to do a tight 180 to turn back towards the gate and ended up at 90 degrees up against the armco, wheels spinning and unable to go in any direction due to the low pin weight accompanied by the heavy tyre scrub. Never did see how they got him out of it, looked like he wanted to pull his curtains round though!
So in conclusion mostly company policy bans it (wisely it seems)
What would make it illegal would be over weight axles