Odd question I know. A friend of mine runs a small company (about 20 trucks), with a mix of Artic and Draw-bar (close coupled). His warehouse has 2 loading bays, and he has about 35 trailers (mixed aritc box and draw-bar box). This yard can only hold about 8 trucks, so he stores trailers at another yard about 2 mile away accessed via public roads. He has been looking into getting a shunter sorted to allow trailers to be loaded/unloaded ready for work, rather than the drivers having to it themselves before going out. He wants to know if he was to convert one of his old 6x2 Scania tractors by fitting a VBG coupling at the rear and air/electric points (all fitted by professionals, not himself… lol), would he be allowed to tow a loaded draw-bar trailer behind a tractor unit legally and safely (as I say, all braked etc), or would it need weight putting on the 5Th wheel to make it safe?
I’ve only ever seen it done with ballast on the 5th wheel, thats not to say its illegal not to. I can’t see why it would be as long as you’re not exceeding any axle weights. As far as I know the ballast is purely for traction purposes, although i’m sure i’ll be corrected if necessary
I have seen this used in yards before (like this: flickr.com/search/?q=Artex%20shunter) but the question is, would it be road legal fully loaded without ballast, or is ballast needed. I do not see it being a big issue as most tractor trailer combo’s the trailer weights more than the tractor. However, due to the nature of a artic trailer, weight is pushing down on the drive wheels. This way it would not.
Geezah:
I have seen this used in yards before (like this: flickr.com/search/?q=Artex%20shunter) but the question is, would it be road legal fully loaded without ballast, or is ballast needed. I do not see it being a big issue as most tractor trailer combo’s the trailer weights more than the tractor. However, due to the nature of a artic trailer, weight is pushing down on the drive wheels. This way it would not.
So then as long as the drawbar trailer is loaded within its axle weight limits, there is no possible way that the towing vehicle could be overloaded as it’s only pulling rather than bearing any weight, the only issue would be traction. I can’t find any rule that says you must have ballast, so as long as your trailer is road legal, braked and showing the appropriate lights I would say you’re good to go.
There is some regulation regarding wag and drag combis along the lines of that the prime mover should weigh at least 40% of the gross weight of the combination, not sure on the figures. Also wag and drags pay a trailer tax, although which end its allocated to I’m not sure
Geezah:
I have seen this used in yards before (like this: flickr.com/search/?q=Artex%20shunter) but the question is, would it be road legal fully loaded without ballast, or is ballast needed. I do not see it being a big issue as most tractor trailer combo’s the trailer weights more than the tractor. However, due to the nature of a artic trailer, weight is pushing down on the drive wheels. This way it would not.
So then as long as the drawbar trailer is loaded within its axle weight limits, there is no possible way that the towing vehicle could be overloaded as it’s only pulling rather than bearing any weight, the only issue would be traction. I can’t find any rule that says you must have ballast, so as long as your trailer is road legal, braked and showing the appropriate lights I would say you’re good to go.
Yes, good to go untill it’s pouring with rain and all the truck does is spin the rear tyres. There’s only about 1t of weight on the back tyres on a solo unit
Geezah:
I have seen this used in yards before (like this: flickr.com/search/?q=Artex%20shunter) but the question is, would it be road legal fully loaded without ballast, or is ballast needed. I do not see it being a big issue as most tractor trailer combo’s the trailer weights more than the tractor. However, due to the nature of a artic trailer, weight is pushing down on the drive wheels. This way it would not.
So then as long as the drawbar trailer is loaded within its axle weight limits, there is no possible way that the towing vehicle could be overloaded as it’s only pulling rather than bearing any weight, the only issue would be traction. I can’t find any rule that says you must have ballast, so as long as your trailer is road legal, braked and showing the appropriate lights I would say you’re good to go.
Yes, good to go untill it’s pouring with rain and all the truck does is spin the rear tyres. There’s only about 1t of weight on the back tyres on a solo unit
I am not sure what your laws are over there, but here (Norway), your trailer can not weigh more than 1.5 times the weight of the unit pulling it…
I suspect you have a similar law?, but I really don’t know
Thanks for the replies guys. What he wants to do is save money on not having to have 2 shunter’s. Will have to look into ballast. I know Tractors (farm) sometimes have up to 2t weights on front. Strap 2 of them to a “chassis” and attach via ling pin and you are laughing (obviously, weight dependant on axle loadings). It is a interesting subject. He does want to be legal and safe though, so he is not looking to bodge.
Where about you thinking of have the ballast though, hardly safe or practical to strap something to the back of the unit everytime you wanna to pull a wag.
I dont believe we have a maximum weight limit for trailer being towed by a unit, as it was mentioned about car transporters.
Belle Trailers have teamed up with Rolfo and built a new BelleRolfo Ego transporter, the body weighs only 3.7 tonne and the trailer weighs 10.8 tonne, so couple that to a typical 6 to7 tonne unit and the tail is designed to wag the dog when empty. Granted you do have some weight on the tractor unit drive axle. This design also comes in at 6.2m for the unit and 12.5m for the trailer.
Similar to a lorry I used on night trunk in years gone by. The front box was 24’, the rear box measured 27’, the longer box would fit on the prime mover using a folding rear bumper that then covered the Ringfeder coupling. If we had to move empty equipment around to get our own tackle back for repair, we had to drive with the big box on the trailer while the front didn’t have a box on. You could use 2 x 24’ boxes but not 2 x 27’s together.
This happened to me quite often on a Saturday morning as I called into Leicester depot on the way home, the only law I remember was one of survival, if it was ■■■■■■■ down, go steady
I have also seen several wagon and drags in Germany running about like that. BASF used artic units as internal shunters but they did have a bit of ballast over the pin.
kberg:
I am not sure what your laws are over there, but here (Norway), your trailer can not weigh more than 1.5 times the weight of the unit pulling it…
I suspect you have a similar law?, but I really don’t know
I have just skimmed my 2011 David Lowe manual and as it is not mentioned. I don’t believe we have any law other than common sense. I do trust Davids judgement
