According to our local paper (the paper to read to see what the W.I are upto) soon to be introduced EU legisislation is allowing trucks to be bigger.
As they seem to have beaten the transport press in breaking this news does this mean we can be heavier or longer or wider■■?
There are trials going on, certainly in the Netherlands with longer vehicles. Two british hauliers have developed double artics, Denby’s for one and I think the other was Robinsons. Our government is waiting to see the results from other countries, but have no intention of allowing them on our roads IMHO.
Its about 2 years ago that I first saw the Denby rig, which was a normal unit with an itermediate trailer that had a 5th wheel coupling on it that could then take a standard 45’ trailer. The intention was for them to be used for trunking, as they would not be very manouverable in towns or citys.
There is a picture and more info on LHV’s on the Denby site:- www.denbytransport.co.uk
Thats the usual completely biased report,
lorries thundering through villages, dozens parked everywhere, juggernauts.
Can i suggest that being your local paper you should write to the editor explaining in a polite manner our side of the story, perhaps (just perhaps) the letter will be printed on the letters page and some of the aggreived locals may then understand the problems facing this industry.
I wouldn’t hold your breath though.
This is an example why we need a positive PR exercise and get at least some of the public on our side
Saw articles on this a couple of years ago they are around 90 tonnes and are to be classed as Very Heavy Goods (VHG) units.
No doubt if they are sucessfully trialled and the boss gets one it will be another driving test to pay for…government will be rubbing their hands in glee.
Mind you going by the state of the roads in Scotland the units would never make it up here because the motorways would break up under the weight of them. 
Aw, nobody mentioned Juggernauts and foreign drivers, not to mention narrow lanes 
Actually they might have done but I didn,t read it properly 
Smart Mart:
There are trials going on, certainly in the Netherlands with longer vehicles. Two british hauliers have developed double artics, Denby’s for one and I think the other was Robinsons. Our government is waiting to see the results from other countries, but have no intention of allowing them on our roads IMHO.Its about 2 years ago that I first saw the Denby rig, which was a normal unit with an itermediate trailer that had a 5th wheel coupling on it that could then take a standard 45’ trailer. The intention was for them to be used for trunking, as they would not be very manouverable in towns or citys.
There is a picture and more info on LHV’s on the Denby site:- www.denbytransport.co.uk
did they really develop them or did they borrow from the australian model for B-Doubles.
just to note, ive said it here before, but when b-doubles first came in in australia they were intended for depot to depot, freeway use only.
now you’ll see them driving down king st in melbournes city centre, and you’ll see the poor blokes trying to jacknife them into the finger docks taking anything up to 45 mins to get it right for the less skilled / more stressed driver
now theyre bringing in triples here, Ford are already using them for depot to depot, freeway use only, but im thinking its only a matter of time before they push the boundaries, after all why would you want to put money into 2 / 3 trucks doing a trip that you can get one truck with 3 trailers to do, especially with the new super economical engines giving you not much different in fuel economy
double
triple
Can’t imagine this on the M1
but we’'ll take the weather 
I’d soil myself to ever anticipate the gantry reading ‘…Motorway closed - follow diversion via…’
Sweden have had them for years, but theyre not allowed out of the country, what amazes me is the DECA one shown in the picture, would have been better as a rigid, with a long trailer, certainly the front trailer (if you can call it that) is a lot smaller than the standard 12m.
So its not 2 trailers long and the public think its 2 x 12 m trailers.
With regard to the robinson/denby outfits, i doubt this country would alow such a length on our road networks, but we live in hope…it could work if the transport infrastructure was built differently. For example if warehouses, were built alongside every motorway, at the junction with the turn off for a particular town, these monsters could be used constructively, and fit for purpose, and need never leave a motorway, thereby leaving the town deliveries for smaller vehicles, and even having customers with their own transport to collect their own goods.
I remember when our european friends opted and indeed ran a higher weight limit than our own. Our government refused our own hauliers to increase the weight limits, yet alllowed these foreigners to run in our country.
Look at the farce when they said, you can run at 44 tons, if you collecting or delivering from a rail depot…clever innit…and seeing that most of europe are geared up for 44 tons, and buying a lot more 3 axle units, when will the french wake up and allow more than their gross 40 tons. We lost a good contract in france because we were running at below capacity, another 4 tons would have given us a reasonable payload, and allowed us to keep the contract, but politics were involved, and favouritism.
why would it be better as a rigid?
that triple can take 46 cheps on the floor, imagine if each trailer were a double decker as well
They use B doubles here in Canada too, some of them have very short front load decks, but it aint always about cube, they allow you to carry more weight too, it says a lot about the European transport industry really, other countries buy a lorry/trailer for a specific task, in Europe it’s a jack of all trades 13.6m curtainsider, there are odd exceptions like the Scandinavians, the Dutch with their container combos & heavy duty 5/6axle rigids & some specialist Swiss motors but if it wasn’t down to hygiene regs banning foods from being carried on open vehicles you’d all be roping & sheeting still!
truckyboy:
Sweden have had them for years, but theyre not allowed out of the country
theyre allowed in finland, russia and latvia too
Ah pooh I’ve just passed my class one in november of last year and am now a big boy. Now working for the same company on class one…We have to get into one of our depots in carlisle which is only designed for 24 tonne rigids and we go in with 44 tonne artices…Challenging to say the least and a bit nerve racking for a novice but I manage…Too say it is tighter than a nuns nicker elastic is an understatement 
I would ■■■ me pants if I was let loose in one of those at the moment…not enough experience yet… mind you we all would if the petrol tanker driver asked if we smelt fumes…tick tick tick boom…who needs terrorists if that went up so would half of the M1!!
Think the ones being vaguely considered by us (yeh right) were called LHV’s (Longer Heavier Vehicles) and are rated at 60 tons.
A good idea, that if it ever comes to the UK will not be implemented properly. The current infrastructure already struggles to cope with 44 tonnes, and we have seen that a significant portion of our so called road tax, never goes anywhere near being invested in the road network that is in such dire need.
As someone above mentioned, you will slowly be expected to get them into more and more difficult situations, before long they will be scheduled to do shop front and farm deliveries
Naturally, the public or the customer will not be any more tolerant of them as would be required, and there will be a lot of bandwagon jumping by the media painting the evil juggernaut picture.
I heard that it was some trial of longer trailers in Germany, but it’s now cancelled.
It’s seems that it’s legal to drive in Poland with artic pulling small trailer, but apart of circus vehicles (which have other regulation) i never seen any.
I’m sure if you search on the forum for Stan Robinson or Denby you’ll see what they’ve got plans for…
As for juggernauts thundering through quiet sleepy villages. Well. It is to be expected
Simon:
Try this.
Yep, and I’ve still got photos on my Flickr page of CV07 which I took They’re still valid here too… somewhere…
LHV’s are just an ego trip for the likes of ■■■■ denby. they may be good for sweden, australia, and the usa. but they would cause so much congestion on britains roads. 60 tonnes at keale, shap, high wycombe. the motorways couldn’t take it. trucks wobble about as it is in the ruts caused by hgvs’.
would the driver of one of these get double pay■■?
i would like to have a go in one though.
limeyphil wrote:-
LHV’s are just an ego trip for the likes of ■■■■ denby. they may be good for sweden, australia, and the usa. but they would cause so much congestion on britains roads. 60 tonnes at keale, shap, high wycombe. the motorways couldn’t take it. trucks wobble about as it is in the ruts caused by hgvs’.
I would have thought that there would be less congestion as potentially there could be nearly half the current number of truck movements albeit slightly longer. One double B would take up far less room on the road than 2 artics.
60 tonnes would have no more effect on the rutting of roads as the axle weight would remain the same!
LHV’s make perfect sense for trunking from all angles, granted their lack of manouverability means they are not suited for urban work, and I’m sure ■■■■ Denby doesn’t need an ego trip, but is more looking towards reducing his costs.