i remember as as a kid in the 80s that every 3 axle unit you saw was a rear lift and how smart they looked everybody made one but the most popular were volvo and scania but i remember seeing alot of iveco turbostars as well the most recognisable were the ones owned by john scoley from driffield.and then one day a firm called kamac with there multi coloured volvos put a lift axle in front of the drive axle and as they say the rest is history.but for me the rear lift is still the best if your running euro and ya need big tanks you dont need batteries airtanks moving and vertical exausts fitting and you never get traction problems with a rear lift.but today rearlift isnt the norm and it seems has now become a special order if you want it on your truck. 
Carl:
i remember as as a kid in the 80s that every 3 axle unit you saw was a rear lift and how smart they looked everybody made one but the most popular were volvo and scania but i remember seeing alot of iveco turbostars as well the most recognisable were the ones owned by john scoley from driffield.and then one day a firm called kamac with there multi coloured volvos put a lift axle in front of the drive axle and as they say the rest is history.but for me the rear lift is still the best if your running euro and ya need big tanks you dont need batteries airtanks moving and vertical exausts fitting and you never get traction problems with a rear lift.but today rearlift isnt the norm and it seems has now become a special order if you want it on your truck.
Isn’t the problem with a rear lift that in order to have reasonable weight over the drive the lift is on an extended chassis under the trailer neck, could be a problem with long king pin trailers? Just a thought.
I take your point about lack of chassis room for tanks and such but haven’t you got the bit about vertical exhausts the wrong way round? Surely they are more likely with shortened chassis. I like verticals anyway, if you have got to pump fumes into the atmosphere, better to pump them straight up like a factory chimney than along the pavement to poison all the babies 
I remember when we used to go to Sainsbury’s at Buntingford years ago with those front, side pointing exhausted Atkis, and blowing all the milk bottles over on the high road .
Also years later when I was buying a new Foden being amazed that on the then only European representative of the ultimate bespoke company, Paccar, I couldn’t specify it with verticals. I could have got it approved by my large company as original equipment, but had no chance of clearing a massive add-on bill from Eminox 
Salut, David.
my merc 1748 was tag axle carl, and the difference it made getting on and off building sites was marvellous to behold! the twin steers were bollocked, i just raised the axle and away we went! another advantage is when you lift the axle, the wheelbase is shorter, so manouverebility is very good. the scanny 3 's were great with a tag!
i dont care for the look of the single wheel tags, but the tiwns have athe weight penalty!
The infamous Kammac F10s were not the first to use pusher axles by a long way.
Those wagons were actually the curved-roof Series 2 F10s, and possibly 1985 registered. The conversions were done by Wheelbase Engineering (later bought by Stobart) on the longest wheelbase option available for a 4x2 F10. The first flat-top F10/12s that had mid-mounted axles which would only steer up to 30mph. Above that, they were fixed and wouldn’t steer at all.
ERF went through a period of doing a factory pusher conversion that was available on B-Series and C-Series 4x2s. They did twin-steers first, then offered pushers as well. Axles were supplied by Granning. This would’ve been around mid-83.
Ribble Cement had some of their 290 Roller-powered B-Series tractors converted to 6x2s in this way, and John Murphy from Huddersfield had one for sale a couple of months ago.
swear by tag axles now even on our 80 tonners, remember we had a daf 2800 on a C plate with mid… something axle, it neither steered properly or lifted to any degree just sat there making life difficult - ■■■■ of a chassis configuration 
marky:
The infamous Kammac F10s were not the first to use pusher axles by a long way.The first flat-top F10/12s that had mid-mounted axles which would only steer up to 30mph. Above that, they were fixed and wouldn’t steer at all.
May I be super pedantic here? I think it was actually 30 km/h (18 mph), and they were quite fun if you let them roll backwards down a hill, but without engaging reverse - the second steer went all over the place.
WHB had four new F12s ready to go out on the morning of 1 May 1983, the day the weights went up to 38 tonnes. They were long wheelbase 4x2 chassis with the conversion done at Irvine. At the time, Volvo didn’t even have the badges made up, so thay came through badged up as F1217 instead of F1224.
One of them was later taken back to Irvine to have the axle completely locked for trials, and this subsequently became the production standard.
240 Gardner:
May I be super pedantic here? I think it was actually 30 km/h (18 mph), and they were quite fun if you let them roll backwards down a hill, but without engaging reverse - the second steer went all over the place.WHB had four new F12s ready to go out on the morning of 1 May 1983, the day the weights went up to 38 tonnes. They were long wheelbase 4x2 chassis with the conversion done at Irvine. At the time, Volvo didn’t even have the badges made up, so thay came through badged up as F1217 instead of F1224.
One of them was later taken back to Irvine to have the axle completely locked for trials, and this subsequently became the production standard.
Of course it was km/h, dunno what I was thinking.
Liverpool Warehousing Company had a rake of F12s of identical configuration. They were often to be seen up & down the A59 through Burscough, pulling wide-spread 40’ tandem skeletals belonging to ACL…
marky:
240 Gardner:
May I be super pedantic here? I think it was actually 30 km/h (18 mph), and they were quite fun if you let them roll backwards down a hill, but without engaging reverse - the second steer went all over the place.WHB had four new F12s ready to go out on the morning of 1 May 1983, the day the weights went up to 38 tonnes. They were long wheelbase 4x2 chassis with the conversion done at Irvine. At the time, Volvo didn’t even have the badges made up, so thay came through badged up as F1217 instead of F1224.
One of them was later taken back to Irvine to have the axle completely locked for trials, and this subsequently became the production standard.
Of course it was km/h, dunno what I was thinking.
Liverpool Warehousing Company had a rake of F12s of identical configuration. They were often to be seen up & down the A59 through Burscough, pulling wide-spread 40’ tandem skeletals belonging to ACL…
Ah, Liverpool Warehousing - a blast from the past! TDG, weren’t they?
Yup, LWC were indeed part of TDG.
They were latterly in a yard just off Derby Road at Sandhills - not a million miles away from Lightbody Strasse (& we know who was there, don’t we?)
Pete the Jeep could confirm this, but I’m sure the yard used to belong to George Davis - it backed onto the Southport - Hunts Cross railway line.
marky:
Yup, LWC were indeed part of TDG.They were latterly in a yard just off Derby Road at Sandhills - not a million miles away from Lightbody Strasse (& we know who was there, don’t we?)
Pete the Jeep could confirm this, but I’m sure the yard used to belong to George Davis - it backed onto the Southport - Hunts Cross railway line.
yes indeed!! I had 10 “happy” months based in Lightbody Strasse in1987/8.
I remember now, we used to load from LWC at Tyldesley too - they used to store for the erstwhile Lucozade factory at Little Hulton. I think the Tyldesley site became TDG Harris, and then possibly TDG Beck & Pollitzer as they went through the branding merry-go-round
240 Gardner:
yes indeed!! I had 10 “happy” months based in Lightbody Strasse in1987/8.I remember now, we used to load from LWC at Tyldesley too - they used to store for the erstwhile Lucozade factory at Little Hulton. I think the Tyldesley site became TDG Harris, and then possibly TDG Beck & Pollitzer as they went through the branding merry-go-round
I seem to recall that LWC became TDG Williams for a short while. I worked up on Balliol Road for over seven years (89-96) and when work started to pester me, I often had my dinner sat in the car on the dock road. I saw plenty down there, but never had a camera, so didn’t get any pictures.
I recall very well Henry Forsyth, George Davies, Backhouse Bloore, Richard Proctor, P & M Transport, J M Ellison, Tyrers, Yeoward Brothers, Walls, and plenty more. Those were the days when Harrisons AND W&J Hunter from Tarleton ran containers in & out of Seaforth as well as Blundell & Rimmer, R Barker, Windsor Haulage, Johnsons, Keith Cheetham and others from Burscough
a classic british tag axle
Used to drive this for a Swede in the early 90’s truck was as long as the trailer,
sdj
Carl:
!(http://www.padborg-express.com/Danmark/ERIK%20HOLM%20NIELSEN%20F16%201%20(10-08-)
A proper truck, very nice…excuse my ignorance chaps but what is inside the rather large box mounted on the back of the cab?
Is particular to the Danish spec?
Cheers…bullitt.
I think the problem was that as ferry trailer operators went for 13.6 and deep pins, then the axle weights are all to ■■■■.
I drove a tag axled DAF on Lion Freight and you couldn’t run it with the axle lifted as it fouled the chassis rails on a fridge trailer
My Scania 112 at WH Malcolm was sent up to Carlise from Preston to have a tag fitted.They had only just started to be fitted and mine never lifted more than a few inches and at first had no mudguards.Only my view at the time but i would have prefered if it had been left alone.
When the rear lifts were first brought out there werent many units without crumpled back wings or bent and smashed back lights held on with tape and tiewraps,they went alot further up than the tags do today,tyre scrub was bad aswell if they were only single wheels 
looked good thow 
seth 70:
When the rear lifts were first brought out there werent many units without crumpled back wings or bent and smashed back lights held on with tape and tiewraps,they went alot further up than the tags do today,tyre scrub was bad aswell if they were only single wheels
You’re right about the wreckage! The worst was in the various docks doing traction work, where everyone was picking up unfamiliar old foreign tilts with long or short pins - nightmare. The other problem was that tag-axles tended to get attached to quite long-wheel-base units and the gap between the cab and a 12-metre trailer could be said to be not very air dynamically favourable, to say the least. Here are some I drove in the mid '80s like that. Robert
You could have pitched a tent in them gaps robert ,or used the suzies to hang your washing