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DID YOU KNOW?
Page 56
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Transporting heavy machinery between here and the Continent calls for vehicles that are quite special, but according to Shefford haulier .1 Parrish & Son, not all of the major manufacturers want the hassle of building bespoke trailers.
That was the case when director David Parrish began asking around for a triaxled trailer with a front lifter and two positive-steer rear axles with a radio-remote override for independently manoeuvring through awkward entries.
To load the machinery, it also needed a 721m Palfinger PK70002 crane mounted over the rearmost axle, and a heavy-duty, sliding tonneau to protect the goods.
While every major UK and Continental trailer builder approached declined, out of the blue came a cold-calling salesman from Belgian vehicle-engineering specialist Royen of Soumagne, and clinched the deal.
The £130,000 trailer is very much a oneoff package, with a normal front-lifting axle, Tridec turntable steering on two rear axles and all running on 245/70R 17.5in twin-tyre equipment.
The neck-mounted hydraulic system has two hydraulic rams and a block that Ms into a notch oh the fifth wheel coupling. This acts as a valve, relaying the right amount of pressurised fluid to the rear set of rams, causing the axles to move in sympathy with the unit's steer axle.
But in tight situations, the operative can use radio controls to override the rear hydraulics, steering the trailer from the rear, regardless of how the unit is being steered.
The huge Palf inger crane mounted over the back axle requires a lot of support gear, making it a heavy trailer: the Netcap sliding cover alone adds more than a tonne, reducing the payload to just 17 tonnes.
"That's more than enough for the bulky machines we shift," says Parrish. But they're too big for a rigid, so this rig must be able to go wherever a truck will go-and the only way we can do that is by using steering axles."
Special axles are the only way forward for many heavy haulage operations too and Nooteboom's latest donde] design has given its customers extra axle-load capacity and the ability to carry a greater range of excavators -up to 110 tonnes.
In Belgium, Holland and Germany the new Pendel-X system is rated at 12 tonnes per axle line, but over here it's 16.5 tonnes and the single tyres have a faster speed rating: 15 tonnes per axle at 30mph on STGO Cat 3 duty Heavy haulage operators Richard Long of Wymondham, Norfolk, and GCS Johnson of Richmond, North Yorks, are both about to make good use of their recently acquired triaxled low-loaders.
Rated at up to 16.5 tonnes per line, each set comprises short beam axles with single wheels and a turntable movement that delivers greater steer angles. While the steering cylinders are connected directly to the axle carriers, there's no need for central steering components.
The hydraulic suspension's longer travel gives better articulation and the bogie height is adjustable from 960mm to a maximum of 1,360mm. This doesn't affect the low-loader's alignment or tyre wear.
Braking power is increased because there are twice as many drums per lineand with the brake cylinders mounted high up, they're well out of harm's way.
A tri-pendel-axied version with Nooteboom's extreme shallow platform has a 370mm main deck height and extends to 19m but importantly, there's a wide, deep trough in the centre of the rear bridge. It is 550mm deep and between 500mm and 800mm wide, depending on the axle configuration and overall width.
Currently, Nooteboom offers Iwo to five pendel axle linesbut if extra capacity is needed, the low-loaders can couple to a one or two-ayie Jeep dolly, or a two or threeaxle interdolly.